Every article is good, and most of
them profound; no such collection of striking varieties of philosophic
thought has been made public for a long time as this. The Journal
is edited by William T. Harris, LL.D., Superintendent of the Public
Schools of St. Louis."
F. B. SANBORN,
_in "Springfield Republican," March, 1869._]
England, too, has at last found a metaphysician that Coleridge would
have accepted and prized. And the more that he follows himself in
introducing philosophy from Germany into Britain. James Hutchison
Stirling's fervor and strength in advocating Hegel's ideas command the
highest respect. Having had Schelling's expositor in Coleridge, we now
have Hegel's in Stirling; and, in a spirit of catholicity shown to
foreign thought unexpected in an Englishman, promising not a little in
the way of qualifying favorably the metaphysics of Britain. Nothing
profound nor absolute can be expected from minds of the type of Mill,
Herbert Spencer, and the rest,--if not hostile, at least indifferent
to and incapable of idealism; naturalists rather than metaphysicians.
It will be a most hopeful indication if Stirling's book, the "Secret of
Hegel," find students among his countrymen. Cavilling there will be,
of course, misapprehension, much nonsense uttered concerning Hegel's
Prime Postulates. But what was thought out fairly in Germany, must find
its way and prompt comprehension in England; if not there, then here
in New England, out of whose heart a fresh philosophy should spring
forth, to which the German Hegel shall give impulse and furtherance.
The work has already begun, with Harris's publishing the thoughts of
the world's thinkers, himself familiar with the best of all thinking.
I look for a more flowing, inspiring type of thought, Teutonic as
Greek, of a mystic coloring transcending Boehme, Swedenborg, and freed
from the biblicisms of the schools of our time. Hegel's secret is that
of pure thought akin with that of Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, the
ancient masters in philosophy. The One is One out of whose womb the Not
One is born to perish perpetually at its birth. Whoso pronounces PERSON
apprehensively, speaks the secret of all things, and holds the key to
all mysteries in nature and spirit.
For further encouragement, moreover, we are promised a translation
of the complete works of Plotinus, by a learned contributor to the
"Journal," who has qualifications for that service unsurpassed,
perhaps, by any on this side of the Atlantic.
He writes from St. Louis:--
"I have tried my hand on Plotinus, and find it easy to render the text
into modern philosophical phraseology. Until lately I have been unable
to procure a good critical edition of the Greek philosopher. And now,
if my energies are spared, a translation of his entire works is not
very far in the future."[9]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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