The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
Religion
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Naddo will doubtless tell us that this poem is not built broadly on the
human heart; there is too much discussion about the difficulty of
becoming a Christian, and the subtile genius flits so quickly through
the lines that an ordinary butterfly-net does not catch it. That is well
for the genius. But we are of opinion that the human heart will always
find in this great poem the solemn and glorious things that belong to
it, and more and more so as new and clearer thought is born into the
world to read it. It is no more difficult to read than "Paradise Lost,"
while its scenery is less conventional, and the longings of a religious
heart are taken by a bold imagination into serene and starry skies.
_A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe._ By JOHN WILLIAM
DRAPER, M.D., LL.D. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Water and the science of Physiology are both good things. But water is
one thing to drink, and another to be drowned in. In like manner,
though Physiology is a large and noble science and a yet larger symbol,
furnishing analogies to the thinker quite as often as uses to the
medical doctor, nevertheless, Physiology in the form of a deluge,
overflowing, swamping, drowning almost everything else, and leaving only
Body, the sole ark, afloat,--this is a gift which we are able to receive
with a gratitude not by any means unspeakable. And such, very nearly, is
the contribution to modern thought which the author of the above work
endeavors to make. He holds Physiology to be coextensive with Man, and
would prove the fact by including History in its laws.
In truth, however, it is a pretty thin sort of Physiology to which this
extension is to be given,--resembling water in this respect also. Our
physiological philosopher seeks to prove (in 631 octavo pages) that
there are in history five perpetually recurring epochs, answering--the
reader will please consider--to the Infancy, Childhood, Youth, Maturity,
and Old Age of the individual body. So much, therefore, as one would
know concerning Physiology in its application to the individual body, in
virtue of being aware that men pass from infancy to age, thus much does
Dr. Draper propose to teach his readers concerning the said science in
its application to History. Add now that his induction rests almost
wholly on _two_ main instances, of which one is yet incomplete! Should
one, therefore, say that his logic is somewhat precipitate, and his
"science" somewhat lacking in matter, he would appear not to prefer a
wholly groundless charge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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