Cudworth, and other English Platonists.-Cudworth, as Mr. Stewart remarks, asserted that "some ideas of the mind proceed not from outward sensible objects, but arise from the inward activity of the mind itself;" that "even simple corporeal things, passively perceived by sense, are known and understood only by the active power of the mind;" and that there must be Nonuara, or intelligible ideas, which can be traced to the understanding alone-a series of propositions which correspond very much with what has been called Kant's discovery, "that the intuitive faculty of man is a compound of very dissimilar ingredients-of the sensitive faculty and the understanding.”— But of the doctrines of some of his successors, especially of Fichte, it seems impossible to make sense. This person's speculations on the philosophical import of the pronoun I are altogether marvellous. This prolific pronoun creates existence, and it creates science. "Even my own existence, he tells me," says Mr. Stewart," commences only with the reflex act by which I think of the pure and primitive Ego. On the identity of the intelligent Ego and the existing Ego (which Fichte expresses by the formula Ego-Ego) all science ultimately rests!" It may be possible, after some little reflection, to get a glimpse of the author's meaning in these apparent hallucinations; but this glimpse will only serve to discover the utter futility of the whole process of cogitation.

The metaphysical philosophy of Scotland during the last century, with an account of which this part of Mr. Stewart's dissertation closes, we must reserve for another occasion, because there are very distressing doubts abroad in the world whether this philosophy be really worth any thing whatever, and whether our ingenious and speculative countrymen have, during the period referred to, done much more than bring a bad name upon us for our encouragement of futile and barren speculationsdoubts by far too interesting to be either renounced or confirmed without the ceremony of a deliberate examination.

We have now gone over the greater part of what has already been published of Mr. Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation, and have given, we trust, an intelligible summary of the most valuable portion of its contents. There may be persons who shall think that we have wasted too much time in abridging the history of vain disputes and baseless theories-and who, considering the philosophy of mind to be at best but a romance, without the interest which invention and imagination cast over this species of writing in its happier forms, can but ill endure its actual contentions, and turn with disgust from the memory of its past controversies. But let them beware of slighting what they

may not be able to understand; let them pause in wonder and awe, while they survey the illustrious roll of philosophers, selected from every people and tongue of the civilized world, and learn to reverence the mighty mass of intelligence which Mr. Stewart has legitimately associated with his favourite pursuits; let them consider that the speculations which absorbed such minds, in whom, universally, the highest intellectual, and, generally, the severest moral dignity of our nature, was exemplified, cannot be alien to human interests; and if they should imagine that the failure even of these great men to reach the ultimate secrets of the science proves more for its futility than can be disproved by their passionate attachment to it, they would do well also to remember that although much has been left in darkness, much has also been brought to light; that the philosophical spirit which the present age boasts as its own, and which is the spirit of universal inquiry, and of the free collision of opinion, was as surely born of the modern philosophy of mind as the scholastic jargon was of the corruptions of Aristole: And it is farther most important to remind these shallow contemners of this branch of philosophy, that the difficulties of the science afford not even a plausible argument against its utility

-that it is not where the mind obtains its easiest and stablest footing, that its highest energy is evoked,-the plain inevitable track of absolute certainty leading it on in a progress which partakes of the dulness and in a measure also of the degradation of mere mechanism,-but on the brink of the intellectual abyss where confidence, and caution, and reason, and imagination, and assurance, and suspense, and wonder, mingle their various hues, and urge from its retirement every power that belongs to the spirit of man-in the abstruse questions suggested by the scrutiny of its own moral nature, and the fond conjectures indulged as to its own final destination-conjectures which revelation indeed has condescended sufficiently to resolve so far as regards man's happiness, without, however, shutting the gates upon his proud and quenchless curiosity-without minutely anticipating or in any way forbidding what in the largest, and, as we conceive, the noblest sense of the word, may be denominated,the Philosophy of Mind.

Cudworth, and other English Platonists.-Cudworth, as Mr. Stewart remarks, asserted that "some ideas of the mind proceed not from outward sensible objects, but arise from the inward activity of the mind itself;" that "even simple corporeal things, passively perceived by sense, are known and understood only by the active power of the mind ;" and that there must be Nonuara, or intelligible ideas, which can be traced to the understanding alone-a series of propositions which correspond very much with what has been called Kant's discovery, "that the intuitive faculty of man is a compound of very dissimilar ingredients-of the sensitive faculty and the understanding.". But of the doctrines of some of his successors, especially of Fichte, it seems impossible to make sense. This person's speculations on the philosophical import of the pronoun I are altogether marvellous. This prolific pronoun creates existence, and it creates science. "Even my own existence, he tells me," says Mr. Stewart," commences only with the reflex act by which I think of the pure and primitive Ego. On the identity of the intelligent Ego and the existing Ego (which Fichte expresses by the formula Ego-Ego) all science ultimately rests!" It may be possible, after some little reflection, to get a glimpse of the author's meaning in these apparent hallucinations; but this glimpse will only serve to discover the utter futility of the whole process of cogitation.

The metaphysical philosophy of Scotland during the last century, with an account of which this part of Mr. Stewart's dissertation closes, we must reserve for another occasion, because there are very distressing doubts abroad in the world whether this philosophy be really worth any thing whatever, and whether our ingenious and speculative countrymen have, during the period referred to, done much more than bring a bad name upon us for our encouragement of futile and barren speculationsdoubts by far too interesting to be either renounced or confirmed without the ceremony of a deliberate examination.

We have now gone over the greater part of what has already been published of Mr. Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation, and have given, we trust, an intelligible summary of the most valuable portion of its contents. There may be persons who shall think that we have wasted too much time in abridging the history of vain disputes and baseless theories-and who, considering the philosophy of mind to be at best but a romance, without the interest which invention and imagination cast over this species of writing in its happier forms, can but ill endure its actual contentions, and turn with disgust from the memory of its past controversies.

But let them beware of slighting what they

may not be able to understand; let them pause in wonder and awe, while they survey the illustrious roll of philosophers, selected from every people and tongue of the civilized world, and learn to reverence the mighty mass of intelligence which Mr. Stewart has legitimately associated with his favourite pursuits; let them consider that the speculations which absorbed such minds, in whom, universally, the highest intellectual, and, generally, the severest moral dignity of our nature, was exemplified, cannot be alien to human interests; and if they should imagine that the failure even of these great men to reach the ultimate secrets of the science proves more for its futility than can be disproved by their passionate attachment to it, they would do well also to remember that although much has been left in darkness, much has also been brought to light; that the philosophical spirit which the present age boasts as its own, and which is the spirit of universal inquiry, and of the free collision of opinion, was as surely born of the modern philosophy of mind as the scholastic jargon was of the corruptions of Aristole: And it is farther most important to remind these shallow contemners of this branch of philosophy, that the difficulties of the science afford not even a plausible argument against its utility -that it is not where the mind obtains its easiest and stablest footing, that its highest energy is evoked,-the plain inevitable track of absolute certainty leading it on in a progress which partakes of the dulness and in a measure also of the degradation of mere mechanism,—but on the brink of the intellectual abyss where confidence, and caution, and reason, and imagination, and assurance, and suspense, and wonder, mingle their various hues, and urge from its retirement every power that belongs to the spirit of man-in the abstruse questions suggested by the scrutiny of its own moral nature, and the fond conjectures indulged as to its own final destination-conjectures which revelation indeed has condescended sufficiently to resolve so far as regards man's happiness, without, however, shutting the gates upon his proud and quenchless curiosity-without minutely anticipating or in any way forbidding what in the largest, and, as we conceive, the noblest sense of the word, may be denominated,the Philosophy of Mind.

ART. XVIII.-Specimens of the Russian Poets; translated by JOHN BOWRING, F. L. S. With Preliminary Remarks and Biographical Notices. Second Edition. London: Hunter. 1821. Pp. 275. 12mo.

THIS interesting little volume had passed to a second edition before it reached us; and we have hesitated whether, even now, we should not pass it over in silence. The truth is, that however small the degree of knowledge possessed by him may happen to be, it is unusual for the critic at any time to admit the want of it. Now, as on setting out, we should have freely to acknowledge an equal ignorance of the poets from whose writings these selections are made, and of the language from which they have been translated, it was a question with us, whether, as we should be unable fairly to estimate its merit, we ought to record the book in our Journal. So far as the reader is concerned, however, the possession of such knowledge would have proved not very beneficial, as it might have led us upon topics which to them possessed few attractions; and though, being thus constrained to overlook a primary and an essential quality in a translator, the retaining, with spirit and elegance, a faithful resemblance of the original, we are of necessity left to speak of these specimens of Russian poetry chiefly as they solicit attention in the form of English compositions, we think we may safely sacrifice a little of our own consequence, in order to do justice to very conspicuous desert.

The translator, Mr. Bowring, prefaces his Anthology from the Russian poets with an introduction, which contains a great deal of curious information, with much modesty, while it affords the surest proofs of discernment and good taste. From this we mean to make a liberal use, as we should feel at some loss in what other quarter to seek for the same details. The Russian language, he says,

"The mother tongue of nearly forty millions of human beings, and which, in the course of thirteen centuries, has undergone no radical change, is indeed entitled to some attention. All Russian grammarians claim for it an antiquity at least equal to that of the city of Novogorod. The oldest written documents that exist are two treaties with the Greek emperors, made by Oleg, A.D. 912, and Igor, A.D. 943. Christianity, introduced into Russia at the beginning of the eleventh century by Vladimir the Great, brought with it many words of Greek origin. The Tartars added considerably to the vocabulary during the two centuries of their domination. The intercourse which Peter the Great established with foreign nations, increased it still more ; and of late years a great number of words have been amalgamated with it from the French, German, and English. It is now one of the richest, if not the richest, of all the European languages, and contains a multitude of words