USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 39
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in the solution of high problems of philosophy from that day to the present.
Professor Frisbie's examination of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Senti- ments, first published in 1819, is a master-piece of philosophical analy-
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sis, pointing out the defects and shortcomings of the author with equal insight and discrimination, and incidentally exposing the superficial and un-
1 [This cut follows Stuart's likeness of Dr. the exception of this defect, it is a splendid Kirkland (b. 1770, d. 1840) owned by his nephew, portrait and an admirable likeness." It was probably painted in 1810, when Kirkland was forty years old, and was just become President of Harvard College. - ED.] the Rev. Samuel Kirkland Lothrop, D.D., who kindly permitted it to be engraved, and says : " It is painted on wood, badly prepared. With VOL. IV .- 38.
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tenable conclusions of Paley, who until that time had been an important eth- ical authority with American students. The point which Professor Frisbie insisted on most urgently in his lectures on moral philosphy was the in- dependent character of the idea of Right. This was an emphatic depart- ure from the empirical theory of the sensuous philosophy, - the philosophy founded on the experience of the senses, as the antithesis of the intuitions of the soul, and which will be designated respectively in this chapter, and without any invidious intent, as the Sensuous and the Intuitive systems, - in which the followers of Locke and Paley had found a placid repose, and which had been made the cardinal principle of ethics in some of the most prom- inent seats of learning in this country. The spirit of Professor Frisbie's teachings is tersely expressed in a sentence from his inaugural discourse : " There will always be a Hobbes, a Rousseau, and a Godwin; let us then have also our Cudworths, our Butlers, and our Stewarts." The term Right, according to his theory, denotes an action which an intelligent moral agent is morally obliged to perform. Absolute right is a perception of the under- standing- or, as we should say, the reason - discerning a real and inhe- rent quality in actions. The idea of right is essentially distinct from that of utility, of the greatest happiness, of obedience to the divine will, or of a course of conduct determined by the assurance of reward or punishment. It is a simple idea; it can be described only by synonymous words ; it pos- sesses an identity of its own by its very essence, independent of any tend- ency or consequence. It is that which impresses the belief that an action should be performed, which we approve in the actions of others, and reflect upon with satisfaction in our own ; which is perceived in a manner precisely similar to the perception of other ideas. The general tendency of right actions, Professor Frisbie affirms, is indeed to produce good or happiness ; but the perception of right is distinct from the perception of happiness. There is another principle of action by which good is to be distributed besides a regard to the greatest good; and this principle is rectitude, or, in the widest sense, justice. Hence those actions are right which, on the whole, are of a nature to produce good or prevent harm, under the control of the principle of rectitude; but the idea of rectitude or absolute right is simple and intuitive, not the fruit of sensuous experience, of traditional teaching, of external authority, or of a rapacious selfhood. The ethical theory thus enunciated by Professor Frisbie forms the silver thread that runs through the most conspicuous philosophical suggestions - we can scarcely call them systems - which have found powerful representatives among the thinkers of Boston. It was the dawn of the intuitive philos- ophy, in its application to ethics, which has since cast a healing splen- dor over modern thought, and illustrated the place of Boston in the development of philosophy.
The name of Professor Levi Hedge, who succeeded to the chair of Moral Philosophy after the death of Professor Frisbie, although he had previously taught for a series of years in a kindred department of the college, recalls
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the memory of a modest, capable, and faithful worker in the sphere of philosophy, whose example was a lesson in the pursuit of truth, in exact- ness of expression, in felicity of illustration, and in thoroughness of exposi- tion. He was an adherent of the Scottish philosophy, as represented by Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown; and, as an expounder of their protest against the principles of Locke and of Paley, may be regarded as the fellow- laborer of Frisbie in anticipating the developments of the intuitive philos- ophy. His clearness of mind, his native good sense, his sound learning, and his austere integrity, gave him a wide influence among the clerisy of Massachusetts ; and he will always hold an eminent place among the pioneers of philosophic thought in the capital of the State.
Contemporary with Professor Frisbie, and united with him by the most intimate ties of friendship and sympathy, was Andrews Norton, who, though trained in a different philosophical school, the principles of which he always cher- Andhews Norton ished with singular tenacity, holds a dis- tinguished place among the intellectual influences which have helped to stamp the society of Boston with an impress of liberal inquiry and origi- nal thought in the sphere of letters, philosophy, and art. Mr. Norton may be said to have formed a connecting link between the past and the future in American literary cultivation. He appeared at the moment when the scholastic attainments since the period of the Revolution were about to ripen into a more generous development. In early life he was far in advance of most of his contemporaries in sound and exact learn- ing, and in what was then deemed an excessive freedom of speculation. He was connected with Harvard, first as tutor, then as librarian, and afterward as Professor of Sacred Literature. In each of these offices his influence was marked and salutary. His thorough scholarship served to give form and substance to the literary enthusiasm which at that time prevailed in Cambridge. His refined and exquisite taste cast an air of purity and elegance around the spirit of the place. His habits were as severe as those of a mediaval monk. His love of literature was a passion. The predominant qualities of his mind were clearness of perception, rigidity of judgment, accuracy of expression, and a chaste imagination. His peculiar sphere was that of theology and criticism, but no department of elegant letters was foreign to his tastes. Every scholar in Cambridge received an inspiring impulse from his example. The lucidity of his intellect, the depth of his erudition, and the choice felicities of his language presented a new standard of excellence, and gave a higher tone to the literary character of Boston. But the personal traits of Mr. Norton exerted a still more power- ful influence. His hatred of pretension was equalled only by his devotion to truth. He spurned with a beautiful disdain whatever he deemed to be false, or shallow, or insincere. He demanded the stamp of genuineness, reality, harmony of proportion and perspective on everything which chal- lenged his approval. His sympathies were not easily won, nor was he
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lavish in the expression of even favorable judgments. He was free, perhaps, from what may be called moral suspicion, but he certainly often evinced an excess of intellectual caution. · A man of stainless purity of purpose, of high integrity of life, with a profound sense of religion, and severe simplic- ity of manners, his example was a perpetual rebuke to the conceitedness of learning, the vanity of youthful scholarship, and the habit of " vain and shallow thought." His influence is deeply stamped on the literature of Harvard; the intellectual atmosphere has not yet lost the fragrance of his presence; and if he solved no deep problems of philosophy, if his insight was restricted within a comparatively narrow compass, and he failed to appreciate justly the philosophic tendencies of the age, yet the course of speculative thought in Boston, it is believed, is largely indebted to the in- fluence of his character and example for whatever tincture of sound learning it may exhibit, for its thoroughness of inquiry, its accuracy of research, and its comparative freedom from extreme and erratic conclusions.
The tendency of Mr. Norton's mind in regard to themes of philosophi- cal inquiry was in a sceptical direction. Adopting the cardinal principles of Locke and Hume in regard to the origin of knowledge and the founda- tions of belief, he pursued them with strict logical sequence to their natural conclusions. In his view there could be but two sources of ideas, - ex- perience and testimony, - which in the final analysis were resolved into one. We have the teachings of experience in regard to the facts of the material universe; and concerning the realm of spiritualities, we are dependent on the authority of divine revelation. The human mind has no inherent faculty of perception in the sphere of facts which transcend the cognizance of the senses. We cannot rely upon the intuitions of reason as the ground of faith in the suggestions of the soul. The veracity of the human spirit as the condition of truth formed no part of his scheme of philosophy. There is no absolute certainty, Mr. Norton affirms, beyond the limit of momentary consciousness, - a certainty that vanishes at once into the region of meta- physical doubt. The doctrine of an intuitive faculty for discovering the truths of religion is utterly untenable; we are not conscious of possessing any such faculty, and there can be no other proof of its existence. Intu- ition can inform us of nothing but what exists in our own minds, including the relations of our own ideas; it is therefore a mere absurdity to maintain that we have an intuitive knowledge of the truths of religion. I am not aware that Mr. Norton reduced these principles to the form of a connected system, or that he would not have shrunk from the ultimate consequences which they involved. He held them, I think, as incidental to certain theories of dogmatic theology, of which he was the strenuous champion, rather than as a formal, coherent, and uniting body of philosophical truth; but that their spirit pervaded his writings, especially in the latter years of his life, and that they were interwoven with the whole fabric of his mental convic- tions, will not, I believe, be called in question by those who are the most intimately acquainted with the character of his mind and the tendency of
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his opinions. The influence of Mr. Norton in philosophy, however, was provocative rather than creative; he led to doubt with regard to the ancient foundations rather than to sympathy with his peculiar ideas ; he prepared the way for vigorous combat, and not for docile acceptance; and, like the influence of Hume on the virile mind of Kant, which "aroused him from his dogmatic slumbers," and sent him forth in quest of new achievements in the pursuit of truth, he inspired not a few of the earnest-minded young men of the day with a passionate zeal for the conquest of the holy Graal, - the discovery of the golden chalice which was brimming with pure wine for the life of the soul.
geo- Ripley.
MR. RIPLEY was prevented from completing this chapter by his death. In accordance with his plan, of which he left a sketch, we shall continue the subject principally with an account of some of the persons and writers who may be considered as the exponents or organs of the various phases of thought, and whose works had a special influence in developing or directing its tendencies. The period beginning in 1830, or a little earlier, may be noted as one of especial activity and fertility in this respect as well as in many others. Among the salient points and conspicuous influences which marked this period we may signalize the early days of the Liberator and of Garrison, like " a voice crying in the wilderness; " the preaching and writings of Dr. Channing; the lectures and writings of Mr. Emerson ; Dr. Hedge's articles in the Christian Examiner on German Philosophy, Coleridge, and other topics, and his Dudleian Lecture; Theodore Parker at West Roxbury, and later in Boston; Carlyle's various writings; the writings of Dr. O. A. Brownson; the conversations at the house of Dr. Channing, in which Mr. Jonathan Phillips, Dr. Follen, George Ripley, and others took part; the controversy between Professor Norton and Mr. Ripley; and the inception of the Brook Farm enterprise, and the steps taken for its actual realization in 1841.
The period thus indicated was one of great excitement of thought on moral and intellectual questions, especially with the young and the genera- tion just coming upon the stage. Before the impulse given to the revival of thought which Mr. Ripley, in a general way, places about the time of the accession of Dr. Kirkland to the presidency of Harvard College, there had been little taste for abstract speculation, and the Sensuous System of Locke (to adopt, for convenience, the term used by Mr. Ripley) was generally accepted as authority on questions of this kind. A step away from this was taken' when the famous Essay on the Understanding was disused as a text-book at Harvard, and the rational, but not very profound,
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metaphysics of the Scotch school adopted in its place. The Natural The- ology, Evidences of Christianity, and Moral Philosophy of Paley were text- books in the college, and were accepted, and perhaps generally acquiesced in, as authority in the fields of morals and theology. In this condition of thought the fervent eloquence of Channing, the inspiring words of Emerson and Carlyle, the stirring appeals of Parker and other reformers to high and abstract principles, came like a fresh and invigorating breeze into a dull and sluggish atmosphere.
Of the influences of which we have spoken, Dr. Channing's preaching and writings are among the earliest in point of time. His connection with our theological and Antislavery history has been treated by other hands.1 He belonged quite decidedly and avowedly to what we may call, in ac- cordance with the distinctive terms before indicated, the Intuitive School. This philosophy derives our knowledge from the intuitions of the soul, and is in opposition to that recognizing the senses and experience as its only ultimate source. We are informed by an intimate friend of Channing, who was very familiar with his thought, that he repudiated Locke's philosophy while in college, and accepted, on moral and metaphysical questions, the statements of Price in his Dissertations on Matter and Spirit, and of Hutch- eson's moral philosophy. He recognized also a harmony between his own thought and that of the German systems of philosophy as reported by Madame de Staël. He acknowledged his obligation to the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and to the philosophy of the latter he con- sidered himself specially and greatly indebted. He also read with pleasure Cousin's Philosophy and the writings of Carlyle, particularly his Sartor Resartus. These tastes will indicate, to those acquainted with the currents of thought at that period, his position with regard to the two parties, which we may designate as the Old and the New, - or, as the latter was called in the language of the time, the Transcendental School. This attitude of his, especially after his part in the Antislavery movement, and in advocating the broadest toleration and freedom in some unpopular cases, - like that of Abner Kneeland, who was indicted for blasphemy, - grieved some of his friends, and offended and disaffected others among the conservatives, who had been wont to listen with delight to his preaching, and who had reverenced the saintliness of his character. In the controversy between Professor Norton and Mr. Ripley we think his sympathy was with the latter, though the former had long been his personal friend.
Although Dr. Channing did not have occasion to advocate distinctly any special system of philosophy, yet the spirit of the school most in harmony with his own thought and pervading his preaching and writing, whose influence was so widely felt, must have had its effect on the prevailing thought of the day. Notwithstanding his philosophic tendencies were deci- dedly in the direction we have indicated, he must not be regarded as sympa-
1 [See Dr. Peabody's and Dr. Clarke's chapters in Vol. III. - ED.]
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PHILOSOPHIC THOUGHT IN BOSTON.
thizing fully with all the forms and phases of the Transcendental 1 move- ment; but his chief interest in philosophy we may suppose was in its rela-
Wiliam & Channing 2
tion to religion and morals; and this philosophy, in his view, formed the only true foundation for these.
1 As we shall have frequent occasion to use the terms Transcendental, etc., we wish to say that this will not be in any very exact or strictly accurate sense, but in a rather vague and popu- lar one, as convenient for our purpose to de- note certain general tendencies of thought and opinion.
2 [The literature regarding Channing is very extensive, and has recently received many new accessions on account of the centennial of his birth, April 7, 1880, - notably Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody's Reminiscences of Channing, the most
important of the later contributions, which have included Dr. C. A. Bartol's Essay in his Prin- ciples and Portraits. See also the latter's article "Transcendentalism " in his Radical Problems, and Charles T. Brooks's William Ellery Chan- ning, a Centennial Memory. The Unitarian Review, April, 1880, contained papers on him by Dr. J. H. Morison, George L. Chaney, and others. A volume, with an account of the Cen- tennial Celebration in Brooklyn, was issued at Boston in 1880. Professor G. P. Fisher, of Yale, printed an estimate of him in the International
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The fermentation of thought and feeling developed by the Transcen- dental movement, especially among the young, has, we think, nothing sim- ilar at the present day, and is something very interesting to recall : perhaps devotion to art and practical philanthropy have taken its place. Foremost among the influences that stimulated and sustained this state of feeling were the writings and the public addresses, lectures, etc. of Mr. Emerson. At first he was known to a small but admiring circle as a most interesting preacher, remarkable for independence and originality of thought as well as charm of style and manner; and by many, especially of the congregation of which he was pastor, and by those who knew him more familiarly, he was valued also for higher and more intimate qualities. But he had not much attracted the notice of the general public until his opinion and action in relation to the observance of the communion service caused a good deal of feeling in the body of Christians with which he was associated. As he could not, with his views, continue to administer the rite, his connection Rucmenfor with the society of which he was the minister was dissolved. After his return from a visit to Europe he gave a number of lectures; and several of them relating to his tour abroad were of a descriptive char- 'acter. These were afterward fol- lowed by several courses in 1835 and successive years; and, besides, he delivered public addresses on different occasions. The subjects of these discourses were some of a literary, but mostly of a philosophical and ethi- cal, character.1
In 1836 appeared a little volume called Nature, which, like his other early works, excited the enthusiastic admiration of some, and provoked the adverse criticism or ridicule of others. The earlier courses of the lectures are pleasantly associated, in the recollections of some, with the hall of the Old Masonic Temple in which they were given; and they constituted an era in the social and literary history of Boston, as well as in the life and culture of many individuals. They were looked for from year to year as one of the special pleasures of the winter season. Thus the influence of his writ- ings, but more particularly of his lectures, was deeply and widely felt. To his hearers they seemed to open a new world, -new charms in literature, in Nature, and in thought; new and deeper delights and significance in living,
Review, July, 1879, included also in his Discus- sions. Thomas Hughes's Paper on " Dr. Chan- ning the Abolitionist " is in Macmillan's Maga- zine, May, 1880. He is one of the subjects of James Freeman Clarke's Memorials. Of the earlier books, William H. Channing's Memoir and Correspondence of W. E. Channing, Boston, 1854, 3 vols., is the authoritative life ; and it may be supplemented by the Correspondence of W. E. Channing and Lucy Aiken, 1826-1842, edited by Anna Letitia le Breton, Boston, 1874. The
French know him through Remusat's Channing, sa vie et ses œuvres, based on W. H. Channing's Life of him; Renan's Studies of Religious His- tory ; Lavollée's Channing, sa vie et sa doctrine, 1876; and Laboulaye's estimate, which originally appeared in the Journal des Débats, 1852, and is now prefixed to the French translation of Channing's Works .- ED.]
1 Here are some of them: "Philosophy of History," "Conduct of Life," "Representative Men," " Human Life," "Human Culture," etc.
PHILOSOPHIC THOUGHT IN BOSTON. 305
-giving an interpretation of their own minds, souls, and being, so different from the dogmatic formulas and conventional statements common in that sterility of thought in which " the hungry sheep look up, and are not fed." To what were these effects due? What was the secret of this influence? We may say, perhaps, that it was the assertion of the high powers, dignity, and integrity of the soul, its absolute independence and right to interpret for itself the meaning of life, untrammelled by tradition and conventions; the assertion of the soul with its ideas and instincts as the oracle within, the source to us of knowledge and thought in its intimate connection with the source of all life and truth; of the right and duty of all to look at truth and the facts of the universe face to face, thus calling to self-reliance and cheerful hope; teaching and inspiring by his own deep conviction the real- ity of truth and good; opening glimpses of the eternal beauty, and impart- ing the joy of high thoughts and lofty purpose. These, with the incidental charm of the beauty, piquancy, and condensed expressiveness of his style ; the refined simplicity of his manner; the calm earnestness and sincerity pervading his words, - combined with the remarkable ethical character, the power of touching the springs of highest moral emotion and of lifting his hearers into a loftier sphere, " an ampler ether, a diviner air," - were some of the attractions which drew year after year, with increasing interest, multi- tudes of young and old, conservatives and radicals, the highly cultivated and those in whom a quick sensibility to what is high and pure supplied the place of culture. In hearing him, a serene and cheerful faith and hope seemed to them to flow over the world and over human life like a brighter atmosphere. And this it was which the young could feel and understand ; so that when, if we may be allowed to repeat once more a jest which has been told over and over again to weariness, a man of distinction for learning and ability declared that he could not understand Mr. Emerson but his daughters could, he spoke more truly than he knew.
The term excitement, applied to the feelings of his hearers, seems hardly the proper one. It was rather sometimes like the enlivening effect of the morning breeze, sometimes like the transporting and at the same time tranquilizing effect of high and solemn music, dissolving the hard rigors of life, and infusing sweetness and hope.
The feelings, however, excited by Mr. Emerson's position and words were not all admiration, but some of a quite opposite character. It is amusing and instructive (when we consider the position he now holds, and how almost universally he is the object of such loving and reverent regard, distinguished and admired in the literature and thought of both hemi- spheres) to recall the way in which he was once regarded and spoken of by a large number of those considered to be the dispensers of correct opinion and taste, and equally so to read the current criticism of his earlier productions.1
. 1 The following remarks from an article in of distinguished reputation and position, may the Christian Examiner, May 1841, by a scholar be taken as a specimen of the way in which VOL. IV. - 39.
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Many who disliked the general tone of what he said contented themselves with ridicule, for which some peculiarities of his style seemed to offer oppor- tunity ; others laughed at what they deemed his fanciful and unsound notions, and at the craze of the young people concerning him. Among these, some who knew and estecmed him personally smiled good-naturedly at what seemed novelties or oddities, and at the infatuation of their children; but others took it more seriously. Wisc and good men who had labored with earnestness and fidelity in the belief of certain opinions and religious doc- trines, the foundations of which seemed assailed or threatened by the free- dom with which Mr. Emerson spoke, were pained and offended, especially by his address before the students of the Cambridge Theological School, in July, 1838, in which he spoke of beliefs devoutly cherished by many, not irreverently indeed, but with a freedom which was to them a grief and an offence. Some of his hcarers of the conservative class, attracted by the charm of his lectures, tolerated as they might the freedom with which he touched on the exciting and controverted questions of the day in consid- eration of their enjoyment in listening to him, though at times disturbed or offended when he came too near matters connected with fierce debate and controversy.1
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