Christianity And Greek Philosophy

or Tli.: Relation betwcen Spontaneou and RoflVctlve Thought in Griorc; aiu tlie Positivo Teaching of Clirist and Hls ApostleS. I?y 15. F. Cocxkb, D. D., Pro fossor of Moral and Mental Phllosoph; In the Vniversity of Michigan. Nev York : Cabltoü S Laxaüax. 1870. As an honest critic - and what eritic is oí honest ? - we must confoss til at our time lias pcrfnitted us to read but the preiiici and opening chapter f tliis volame, ani that when we have gone throogh wlth t we ni:iy, pottSüy, flmi it beyoinl onrdeptb therefore. oonteat oarself, ivith glvlng the fotlowlng statement of Hs contenta and posltions from tliat ablerjoanial, the JCí. Y. Evtrüng Poal: Tlie author takes thé position " that the necessary deas and laws of the reasonand the natural instiucts of the liunian heart, origlnally Iraplauted by God, are tho niuial and general Torces of histury, and that these have been developed ander COildltJons which were llrst ordaini'd, and have been coutinually Bapervlsed by the provldence of Uocl," who is the father of cnmanity, and the entira courae of whost provldence ha been directed toward tlie one grand purpose of ' reconciling all tliings to Blmself.' " The subject of the book Is Introduced by a citatiou of tlie discoursc of the Apostle Paul on the hill of Mars at Athene, öomewhat singularly, half the book is devoted to modïin Kufopean writers rather than to the Grcek phllosophers ; and the theortes o( Comte, Hegel, Cousin, Jacobi a'.nl JI:imil ton aro considerad at length, as wtfll ns the Mystlcs, QnlettetB and Tbeosophists, who all appeal lo a special facultv dtltlnct frotn the understandlüit for the Immedlate cognition of invisible and spiritual exis toneles. Ilaving disposed ot these topics, the inain line of tlie argument Is resnmed. Wlth great candor and accurncy the book ussnres us that the anclent religión contalned a principie far deeper than that polTtheism which is apparent tothesnperflclal reader. The fables of Júpiter and Juno, of Apollo and Minerva, of Venus and Bacchus, were in reality 80 many forma for expreeslng the divine forec and power which runs all through tlie workl, disptaylng itself in evcry form. Indeed, the Qreek tra gedlans were the rellglons Instructora of the people ; the Grcek stage was, more nearly than anythlüg else, the Greefe pulpit. The charactër of the Supremo Dlvlnlty, as reprcspiitcd by Eschylus, approaches nearly to the Christian jdea of God. But " the rtligion of the Athenians wag unable to deliver tliem from the enilt of sin, ïvdeem them from its power, and make them pure and holy." " The nced of soincthing deeper and trucr was writteu on the vcry stoncs." DlTldlng the Greek philosopliers into three schools, tlie pre-Socratlc, theSocratic, uiil the Dost-Sociatic. the author nroceeds to describe the peculiar doctrines of ea h school mul teacher, to show their merlts, and when thef fat led to meet the great oeccssity for whicli Christianity luis provlded. The pre Socralie school jyaa dividerl into two seete, the Ionian, whlch wa t-ensational, mul the Italian, or iotellectual. Xhales wus the principal teacher of the fonner; and Pythagora of the latter. Tliey wrought to different concluslons; although Auaxaquas is described as haylng brldged óver the dlffcrences and acceptea the doctrines of botli, In a modlfled "orm The pre-Socratic school had their orlgln In the destre to comprehend all the facta of the miivcrse in :i single formula and consfimmate all condttlonal fcnowledge in the wants of unconditional existence Bot they fallcd. Tlie resqlt was a general skep tleism, in the mldst of whlch Sócrates arrivcd at Atlicns, and tnrped Inqulryfroni cosniOKonal aval physical subjeets to the laws and opersXlons of the interior nature of the human mlnd itself. He sought and tanght every disciple to look in hlmsclf tor that general certltude wüich would K'Mcr from the universal doobt. Bevond the world of sense he (band the world of eter nal truth, seen by the of reason alone. lic regard ed the kn o wiedde of tlie Supreme Good as the hlghest BcLence. The erudltlon whlch ho aeked was sopplied by his great disclple, Plato, who save torra miüI expression to the doctrines whlch he inunciated. The end of the Platonlc philosopliy was the elevatiou and purlflcattou of the uoul , and of his dlalectlc, the leadlng of the soul upward to tlie bnowledgfi of real belne- the Kterna! ilir.rt. He Incalcated tbai no man is trillingly evil, and ihat every man Ie endued with the power of prodnclng changea in his moral character. The soul is framed after the pattern of the juift, the true and the good, and lias :i mysterlodS :l ;: 1 in stínctlve longlng for 1 lic sood and tlie true. Life is a discipline and ■■ preparatlon for another state of belng, and deatü is the ilnal cntiance there. Arlstotie sycceed.ed Plato. He was less poetic and mystici!, and more analytical and practical! He unfolded phllosoph iis oiru.-.il aspect, deyeloplng knoWledge from what is known to what unknovvn. He look far lower vjxïws f existence than Plato, and prepared the way for t ie return of philosopliy to the form and condltlons exgtlDg prior to the age oí Sócrates. Two great schools of philosopliy succeeded - the Eplc.urean and the StoLc. Eplcurus taught that ntllity was the ehief good ; and that phllosophy should bc eultivated as mcans to the hlghest happinesa He declared the soul to be material and mortal, Buflerlng disease with the body, and lerivlng knówledge by sensatlon. The st.oic system, founded by Zeno.incnlcateci that perfect happloess was attainabje by cvery act belng peribrmed according to i harmony of the genius of eatli Individual to thewlll of the Universal (Jovernor. Henee the trtumph over cmotion, over suf 'erlng, over passion, to k'ivc the fullest i8cendency to reason, to attatn courage, moral energy, magnanimity, contrary. was to realizo the true ïnanhood, to ba godllke Rut in all this God was left without pirson ility and man without hopeof iiiiin.prtality ; and apathy eoiistituting its principal leature, it is uot reroarjablc that its great leaders relicvcrt themselTès of the barden of Ufe by suicide. These were the philosophers wliom Paul encountered at Athcas, and against them his argument was ad dressed iü bis famous Mars' (lili discoursc, whilche appcaled to the universal falth in the one God ignorantly rorshippcd, and declared a rcsurrcct'.on from amoug the dead. In the "New J3ook's" column of tho New York Ezcning Post, a recent volume, by onc of our fellow-citi.cns, is .tljus notie ed: " A treatisc on the 'American System of Government,' by Ezra C, Seaman, opens a wide field of discussion, as the critic Dty&y be of this or that party or iijclinc to the one or tlie other view of popular Institutions, may be optimist or pessimist. Mr. Seaman wrltes vlíorously and has deeided opinions, one of these being, that an electlve judiciary is a mistake, and another that women are muph better out of politics. Ilis ability has been established by former essays whlch have been highly and widely prftlBed, anci the preseut volume is likely to attract a large share of attention."