The most remarkable feature in them is their occasional references to Indian society; and, perhaps, at this moment they may obtain on this account more notice than would otherwise have fallen to their share.

Lectures on the Ecclesiastical System of the Independents. By S. T. PORTER. Glasgow: Maclehose, 1856.

THESE lectures were delivered in Manchester in the month of April, 1854, and it may seem strange that we should take notice of them at so late a period as the present; but the fact is that they have but recently fallen in our way, and we have been struck with their clearness and impartiality. Those who wish to understand what Independency or Congregationalism really is, cannot have a better guide than Mr. Porter. Of course, we do not agree with him in many of his conclusions; but even when most differing from him we feel bound to admit that his arguments are worthy of attentive consideration.

SUMMARY OF FOREIGN LITERATURE.

THERE is always in the contemporary literature of France a certain spirit of opposition, imparting to it a peculiar character, and stamping even those productions which would, at first sight, seem to be beyond the influence of the moment, or the contagion of the hustings. For instance, what have metaphysics to do, the reader will say, with imperialism or republicanism? what connection is there between Descartes and Napoleon? Yet even on the ground of innate ideas we find the representatives of the different political parties fighting their quarrels, and authors so manage that they make realism and nominalism themselves amenable to the jurisdiction of the Prefect de Police. This is what has, in a very great measure, secured such an amount of popularity to the productions of M. Jules Simon.* We do not wish, by any means, to insinuate that the volume on La Liberté de Conscience has no intrinsic merit, and that it derives from transient circumstances the reputation it has obtained. But, on the other hand, it is equally certain that the recrudescence of Jesuitism has given to it all the merit of à-propos, and M. Simon is

*La Liberté de Conscience. Par Jules Simon. Paris: Hachette.

unquestionably, as the French say, l'homme du moment, the writer called forth by the circumstances of the times. His new book comprises four lectures delivered before the Ghent Literary Society, and is illustrated by a variety of official documents which add much to its value. The learned author takes the greatest care to separate what so many publicists, for obvious motives, have always aimed at confounding, viz., the power of the State and the authority of the Church. Religious intolerance, harsh as the combination of words may sound, is a necessary thing; because a Church is a community governed by a certain code of laws, the observance of which is compulsory upon all the members of that community; the State, on the other hand, has no right to interfere with the organization of an association, to whose decrees it refuses obedience, and whose authority it does not acknowledge.

Reduced as France is just now to a silence which the strict jealousy of Imperial despotism enforces, by all the means of a well-appointed police administration, Belgium has become the battle-field on which ultramontanism and liberalism are contending for supremacy. After M. Jules Simon, another eloquent lecturer, M. Barni, has been lately drawing around him crowds of enthusiastic hearers; and those who had already studied and appreciated his beautiful French translation of Kant's metaphysical works, will soon, we hope, enjoy the privilege of seeing in print his discourses on the influence of philosophy, and on the scepticism of the nineteenth century.

*

But whilst the questions connected with pure metaphysics are thus canvassed, and their application to the present state of the public mind in Europe pointed out, the historians of philosophy apply themselves with renewed energy to the investigation of the past, and every day we hear of fresh discoveries which bring out into a new light systems which we had thought were judged, analyzed and settled for ever. About ten years ago, how animated a controversy arose about Pascal, and what shoals of books to maintain or deny his position as a sceptic! It seemed as if the deciphering of the original MSS. was to overthrow all our preconceived ideas respecting the great author of the "Provincial Letters," and to make us acquainted with a Pascal such as neither Condorcet nor Bossut had ever suspected. After much anxious expectation we found that the question was very nearly where we left it, and

* Eléments Métaphysiques de la Doctrine du droit, de Kant, traduit en Français. Par Jules Barni. Paris: Durand.

although we could for the first time rejoice in the possession of the Pascal unexpurgated by too scrupulous editors, the moral character of the man was (thank God!) still the same.

Now, Count Foucher de Careil has just undertaken for another great philosopher what M. Cousin did in 1844 for Louis de Montalte, and we must say that the author of the Monadology and of pre-established harmony appears to be, from the interesting fragments just published, much more of a Platonist and much less of a Cartesian than we were inclined to think. M. Foucher de Careil has already edited two large volumes of hitherto unknown Leibnitziana Fragmenta discovered by him in continental libraries; a third one is announced, in course of preparation, and those three octavos, combined with another curious work, published some years since by M. Albert de Broglie, will enable us at last to pass a true judgment on the life and doctrine of that German philosopher, who during the seventeenth century, occupied the position which Descartes enjoyed in France. M. de Careil's introduction and notes are extremely valuable; they are characterized by a thorough acquaintance with the subject, and although the learned editor is inclined, we believe, somewhat to exaggerate the Platonism of Leibnitz, we acknowledge that we were never so much struck as we are now by the affinity which certainly exists between certain dialogues of the Greek philosopher and the theories contained in the Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain.

M. Foucher de Careil has raised a monument to the memory of a great thinker: M. Ernest Naville is likewise meditating an instauratio magna, and he has taken as the subject of his researches the philosopher, who, together with M. Royer Collard, may be called the earliest originator of French eclecticism.† M. Cousin used to say of M. Maine de Biran, "c'est notre maitre à tous ;" yet, except those who had enjoyed the privilege of hearing the lectures or the conversation of that gentleman, very few could appreciate how far M. Cousin's judgment was correct. M. de Biran had left behind him very few printed treatises, but it was known that his MSS. were considerable, and an edition of his complete works was in course of preparation when the events of 1848 came to disturb the mind from the contemplation of metaphysical and religious

*Nouvelles Lettres et Opuscules inedits de Leibnitz. Publiés par M. le Comte Foucher de Careil. Paris: Durand.

† Maine de Biran, sa vie, etc. Par Ernest Naville. Paris: Cherbliez.

truth, and lead them to the agitation of the forum and the horrors of civil war. M. de Biran's MSS. remained in the possession of M. Ernest Naville of Geneva. Now, after the lapse of ten years, the editor has ventured to throw out as it were a feeler in the shape of a small volume containing a biography of the philosopher, together with a selection of detached thoughts from his unpublished papers. Should the experiment prove successful, and a cordial response be made to this sort of appeal, we may hope to see very soon a valuable edition of the scientific writings of M. de Biran. Among the philosophers of the Restoration period we must say that we have met with none who so thoroughly comes up to our ideal of what a Christian metaphysician ought to be. He was a religious man, and his religion never had the character of a substitute or make-shift adopted by a man to supply the place of a system of philosophy which he has found to be insufficient. It was the consequence, the full development of his metaphysical views, and the crowning point of a healthy and sound knowledge of the truth.

*

The association of moral philosophy with religion reminds us of another work recently published and which is creating some sensation in the literary world. M. Matter, already known for his excellent contributions to theological literature, particularly for his histories of Alexandrian metaphysics and of Gnosticism, has just written under the title Philosophie de la Religion, two volumes which are destined to occupy a permanently prominent place in French protestant literature. It is a complete system of divinity drawn up in a form which, although scientific, is perfectly free from any affectation of abstruseness, and it is eminently calculated to serve as a textbook for theological students. M. Matter is a striking example of a fact which we wish we saw more frequently realised, the union of deep and bona fide learning, with that simple piety which is learnt at the foot of the cross. We heartily congratulate the students of the Protestant Academy, at Strasburg, in having for one of their teachers a man so thoroughly qualified to prepare them for their future ministerial career

M. Ernest Renan is in one respect a complete contrast to M. Matter. His erudition is as extensive as that of the historian of Gnosticism, and his style is as attractive; but unfortunately a deep vein of scepticism underlies all his

* Philosophie de la Religion. Par M. Matter, ancien inspecteur de l' Université. Paris Grassart.

writings, and his views of religious truths are so unsound that we feel bound to caution our readers very distinctly against the volume which we now notice incidentally. The Essais d'Histoire Religieuse comprise a series of fragments originally published in the Revue des Deux Mondes and the Journal des Débats; they display much power, and a degree of enthusiasm betrays the young man in a student, whom the extent of his reading would make some mistake for a grey-headed savant; but he is an unbeliever, or rather he views with indifference every form of positive religion, and the essay on Channing more especially contains views which it is impossible for anybody to mistake.* We regret that M. Ernest Renan's talent and erudition should be spent upon the unprofitable and dangerous task of disseminating religious paradoxes, and we cannot but hope that at some future period he may be led to acknowledge how fatal has been to the doctrines of his own country, the so-called philosophy which aims at reducing religion to the level of a low and useless deism.

Our friends will see that the intellectual activity of our French neighbours is still undiminished; we find a further proof of this fact in perusing the remarkable monthly bulletins of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.† The first eight numbers of the current year have now reached us, and contain a mass of reports, speeches, and other documents, which are only the forerunners of new publications on philosophy and the history of literature. We see, for instance, from an address of M. de Rémusat that the academy has awarded lately a prize to a very profound essay on the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas; and M. Eugéne Poitou, already known by an eloquent éloge of the great memoir writer Saint Simon, has also obtained a prize for a disquisition in which he examines the influence of contemporary literature on society and on public morals in France. Such a subject well treated will be the best denunciation of the abominable novels and plays rendered fashionable by Messrs. Eugené Sué and Alexander Dumas, fils, and in which so much talent is employed in advocating the rehabitation of courtezans.

From the numerous papers read lately before the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, we must select M. Damiron's

Essais d' Histoire Religieuse. Par Ernest Renan, Membre de l' Institut. Paris: Michel Levy.

Séances et travaux de l'Acad. des Sciences Morales et Politiques. 4 Vols. Paran. Paris: Durand.