V. America. 438. A faint echo of German philosophy has even reached the distant shores of Brazil; and the Anglo-Saxon race in the United States of North America has become perfectly familiar with European thoughts. Among the most distinguished of the American writers and thinkers, we must enumerate R. W. Emerson,2 a writer distinguished for his genius, cultivated mind, and elegant diction. He can hardly be ranked as a systematic philosopher, but belongs more correctly to the class of philoso'phical essayists, such as Montaigne. His metaphysical views, as expressed in his Essay on the Over soul, seem strongly coloured with idealistic Pantheism. Among the American writers who have most contributed to diffuse German philosophy and theology in the United States, one of the first is Theodore Parker, who is a Rationalist in theology, and a man of immense reading, thoroughly versed in all the German philosophical and theological systems since the time of Kant. America has produced several other men eminent for their intellectual endowments, many of whom have adopted, either in toto or in part, the Socialistic philosophy of Fourier and other French writers. The most distinguished ornaments of this Socialistic school in America, are Albert Brisbane, W. E. Channing, Henry James and George Ripley. An able expositor of the German Transcendental school has recently appeared in the person of Mr. Stallo.5 Thus the New World has proved its legitimate relationship with the intellectual progress of the Old; and the modern thinkers across the "great waters" appear to be in no degree unworthy of their sires. The Critical Philosophy is taught in the College of St. Paul's in Brazil. See ZSCHOKKE'S Wöchentliche Unterhaltung's Blätter, Aarau, 1824, pt. III. 2 Essays, two series. Nature, an Essay. Man Thinking: an Oration. Representative Men. 12mo. Bohn, 1849, &c. The Dial (periodical) contains many papers of Emerson, Parker, &c. 3 THEODORE PARKER, Discourse on Religion. 4 Social Destiny, by ALBERT BRISBANE. STALLO'S General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature, New York, 1841. Conclusion. 439. It is natural that the various and contradictory attempts which have lately been hazarded by the philosophic mind should cast some doubt on philosophy itself, and lead men to despair of ever finding the solution of the problem of Reason, which consists in finding a certain system of knowledge founded on principles. And this suspicion seems to be confirmed by the fact, that the Critical method followed by Kant, which endeavoured to fix the measure and limit of knowledge with the view of overthrowing the scepticism of the Sensationalists, so far from checking the daring flight of speculation, has only furnished it with new materials, and given it a more lively and imposing character. Nevertheless these various endeavours should lead us to hope that Reason will at length arrive at the knowledge of itself; that it will determine the sphere assigned to it, and continue to unfold more and more the true philosophic method; and that it will learn from the past how to avoid the shoals on which so many adventurous thinkers have been stranded. A time will probably come when the different modes of philosophizing, which now only seem to be aberrations, will be recognized as the necessary conditions of the true cultivation of Reason and Wisdom. THE END. Thales born, ac. to Apollodorus. Solon born. Thales born, ac. to Meiners. Anaximander born. Pythagoras born, ac. to Larcher. Solon published his laws. Pherecydes born about 608 146 43,1 598 156 45,3 597 157 45,4 49 561 193 55,1 Thales died. Anaximander died. Thales died, ac. to some. Pherecydes died. Xenophanes settled at Elea. Pythagoras died. Parmenides flourished, ac. to Heraclitus and 500 254 70,1 Anaxagoras and Philolaus born. 494 260 71,3 Leucippus flourished. Anaximenes died. Democritus born. 496 258 71,1 Ocellus Lucanus flourished. Battle of Marathon. Parmenides came from Elea to Athens with Zeno. Democritus born, ac. to Apollodorus. Empedocles flourished, ac. to some. Parmenides flourished. Anaxagoras repaired to Athens. Melissus. Gorgias wrote his treatise Περὶ Φύσεως. Plato born, ac. to Corsini. Plato born, ac. to Dodwell. Pericles died. Gorgias sent ambassador to Athens. Diagoras fl. Democritus died, ac. to Eusebius. Close of the Peloponnesian war. Socrates died; his disciples retired to Megara. Plato's first voyage to Syracuse. Aristotle born. Pyrrho born. Plato's second voyage to Syracuse. Alexander born. Plato died; Speusippus succeeded him. Diogenes and Crates (the Cynics) Pyrrho and Anax- Speusippus died. Xenocrates began to teach. Aristotle opened his school at the Lycæum. Alexander the Great died. Ptolemy, the son of Aristotle died; Theophrastus succeeded him. Demetrius Phalereus, and Dicæarchus of Messana flourished. |