Contemporary Literature [pp. 541-573]

14CONTEiIPORIARY I,ITERlzATURE.
many acute suggestions, and much parade of a new method for metaphysics, we cannot see as yet any definite results. But the second volume may
disclose the discover,.
Nelson & Phillips publ)lish Tile Philosoplih of Herbet Spen cer', being an
examination of the first principles of his system by B. P. BoWNE, A. B.,
wxhich consists of the sub-tance of several articles which first appeared in
the Oeyw Englaqtde?r, and commanded an attention rarely awarded to the
philosophical disquisitions or criticisms of so young a writer. He has made
a volume valuable in itself, as an effective exposure of tule fallacies of this
great expounder and defender of modern materialism. Not only so: it gives
promise of great eminence and usefulness in future contributions to philosophy.
The Victoria Institute, or Philosoph.ici.1 Society of Great Britain, publishes in its proceedings (May 18, 1874) an able paper by Professor G. S.
Mlorris, of Miichigan University, on the Fitinal Cause, or Principle of Cognitiot i,n Nz —ttre. It is exceedingly well put. His article in the April number of the _New Ea.7!tdcr, on Trendelenbarg,, is the most thorough accoumt of thle serviees and system of thie Berlini philosopher which has yet
appea.redl in English.
HIISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
?/~L:Iibc broices contcereid zl; A erica. Charles Sumner is the noblest
figure in our latest p litical history. He was one of those remarkable persons,
favorites of all the gods, in whom concentre almost all human felicities. Handsome, healthy, stainless, gifted, learned, appreciated at home and abroad, he
entered public life without effort of his own, just in season to forward a grand
revolution in our history. Though that change was sure to come without
him, his moral make-up was such that he would have died in the struggle to
secure it, if it had been fated not to be. It seems as if nature produced him con temporaucously with the necessity for his exertion —a Titan from her depths
formed for this very end. The force with which he moved (always with
'big, manly vcoice,") the faith he ever had in his cause, the reiteration
of his strokes till he attained his end, seemed like Napoleonic fate. His
grand indifference to every selfish aim; his devotion to public duty; his
tenderness toward every form of unjust suffering in addition to all his other
fitness, made him an ideal statesman. The time will come when the race for
whom he lived will pay to him and to Lincoln such veneration as our race
has given to \Washington.
The fact that the book before us was the last efifort of his mind would alone
secure it some attention. But it is remarkable in itself. It is the anthology
of hopes and expectations indulged these two hundred years, interpreting and
forecasting God's purposes respecting America. Of course, in such a book,
Mr. Sumner could nAt hel) noticing Seneca's remarkable prediction, brooded
ov-er so much by Columbusi or the w,)rds of Petrarch, or of Pulci, written
long before the discovery of A-e rica; certain as it is that these were only
vague dreais. without real,lticination. But the real interest of this book,
1874 _
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