The Concord School of Philosophy [pp. 49-71]

THE CONCORD SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY.
forming rapid generalizations upon loose resemblances, which
cannot be carried out legitimately; and in applying them they
are ever falling into serious mistakes. Hence the common
objection taken to them that they are mystical, which may be
described as seeing everything in a mist. By gazing intently
upon certain truths they have cast a halo around them, created
by the eye that looks to them. Those who are religiously inclined among them claim to discover truth by divination, and
often mistake their own fancies for the inspiration of heaven.
~I regret much that I have not been able to obtain a full
report of the proceedings of the Concord meeting. I applied
to the Boston Traveller, which gave an account of the proceedings from day to day, but there were gaps in the numbers sent
me, and I cannot give and do not pretend to give an epitome
of the papers read.' I must satisfy myself with bringing out the
characteristics of the school.
I may begin with Dr. Jones. He is a genuine and representative member of the school. I have taken a fancy for him: he
has so much personality, he is so unlike his age, so unlike his
country. He is a native of Virginia, but is now settled in Illinois. Here he established some twenty years ago the "Plato
Club of Jacksonville." It opened with him and two or three
ladies to whom he read a dialogue of Plato. "It has had," says
a writer in The Platonist, "vicissitudes of interruption and
resurrection. Meeting originally at various residences, it at
length found a permanent home in the parlors of Mrs. J. O.
King, who has been a member from the first. A few years ago
the meetings were transferred to the rooms of the sister of Mrs.
King, Mrs. Eliza Wolcott, who is also one of the original members. Of this society Dr. Jones is the permanent lecturer. It
meets every Saturday at 10 A.M. The reader reads Plato ordinarily in the Bohn translation, the Greek original being at hand,
I When this article was nearly completed (Dec. Io) I received The Journal of
Speculative Philosophy for July, the publication of which has been evidently
delayed. It contains articles read at Concord from Aug. 2 to 5, viz.: The Kant
Centennial, by Prof. Mears; Kant and Hegel, by Dr. Harris; Kant's Transcendental Deduction of Categories, by Prof. Morris; The Results of the Kantian
Philosophy, by Julia Ward Howe; also a brief Report of Discussions at Concord,
by Mr. Sanborn.
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