unworthy of matrimony with a white man, if it could be proved that she had a sixteenth part of negro blood in her veins. Can it be wondered at, then, that these females should remain in the degraded position in which they are at present placed, so long as they have no hope of improving their condition, by the most rigid propriety of conduct, and by the highest cultivation of their minds? I think that the facts to which I allude, are a sufficient proof that the barrier is not impassable; and that however distasteful may be the idea of a marriage between individuals of different races, on account of the present relative social position of the two, it is no more than would exist in this country between the daughter of a peer, and the son of a ploughman. No one who is not prejudiced by the pride of descent, would look upon this as impassable, or would consider its fitness as depending upon anything else than the intellectual, moral, and per⚫sonal qualifications, and the relative social positions, of the two parties. It might easily be, that the son of the ploughman might be really degraded by an alliance with the daughter of a peer. And I cannot but believe that, even in one or two generations, the daughter of an American merchant might find the descendant of the despised Negro not unworthy of her attachment. I need not dwell upon this point; since it is evident, from the facts to which I have alluded, that no barrier exists, which a difference in social position would not

remove.

But how to raise the social position of the colored races, is (I admit) the difficult part of the question. It is considerably simplified, however, by the adoption of a general principle, the truth of which I conceive to be borne out by ample experience;· "If elevation in the social scale be held out to the colored races, as a reward within their power to attain, they will speedily qualify themselves for it; but so long as they are made to feel themselves an inferior race, and are debarred from social privileges, they will remain in the same depressed condition." When I visited the West Indies, about twelve years ago, the free colored population was nearly in the same position as it is in America at present. It was not viewed by the whites, however, with equal repugnance; in proof of which I may mention, that black families held seats in the body of the principal churches; and I may add, that I was accustomed to sit in the next pew to one of these, and never perceived the objectionable odor. The Government was then preparing the way for further improvements, by issuing militia commissions to respectable colored gentlemen, — a measure for which they were loudly censured by the white planters, but which soon ceased to encounter further opposition. Subsequently to the Emancipation Act, a much more friendly feeling has sprung up between the two races, especially in those islands which have been blessed with judicious Governors. This has been especially the case in Jamaica, under the excellent management of Sir Charles Metcalfe; who has left that island in advance if anything - of the other colonies, though it was previously far behind them in this respect. He caused it to be understood, very early in his administration, that he should make no distinction of color; and that respectability of position and of character would entitle the black and colored inhabitants of the island to an equal share of his notice with the white. It was soon found that a considerable number of the former were qualified by wealth, by education, and by character, to

be admitted to the Governor's balls and parties, as well as to receive Government patronage; and this number has largely increased, during the few years that have elapsed since this system was commenced.

A few more facts bearing on the same subject, and falling within my own knowledge, may add strength to the position I have taken. The University of Edinburgh has seldom been without colored students; who have shown themselves fully equal to the average of their white compeers, in intelligence and assiduity; and who have never been excluded from social intercourse on account of their hue. At the present time there is a black student in the Temple, who is keeping his law-terms, eating his dinners, and associating in the usual manner with his fellow-students; and I have not heard that he has manifested any of the fancied disqualifications which are erected as barriers between the two races in America. The friend with whom I resided in the West Indies, and who paid me a visit last year, informed me that he had left one of the most valuable of the estates under his charge, to the care of a black manager, -a man whom I well remember as a slave twelve years ago; and that he regarded him as fully equal in capacity and in trustworthiness to the white managers employed on the other estates.-I cannot agree with the writer of your article, that the colored population is the “dominant class" in the West Indies. It may be so as regards number; but this by no means in all the colonies, - Barbadoes, for instance. As regards property, there cannot be a question that the vast preponderance is on the side of the whites. And as regards social position, it may confidently be asserted that the free colored races were, at the period at which I visited the West Indies, "a small and depressed minority." That they are no longer so, is the result of the Emancipation Act, and of the efforts which have been made, with judgment and perseverance, to break down the barriers, which twenty years ago were thought in the West Indies, as now in the United States, to be impassable. I again repeat, with an earnest conviction of the truth of what I have advanced, "Hold out the reward, and it will be speedily attained."

I trust that I shall not be thought to have impertinently intruded myself and my opinions on your notice, if I request you to give these statements currency, either in the Christian Examiner, or in some other journal. I should, of course, prefer the former; but do not know whether it may be consistent with your plan to admit it. I do not ask any of my friends on your side of the Atlantic to take my assertions upon trust; but I do ask them not to satisfy themselves with vague generalities, on a subject on which it is of the utmost importance to possess clear and definite notions. I have purposely abstained from touching upon the moral questions involved in this knotty subject; because I do not feel justified in animadverting upon the opinions of those, who have better opportunities of judging upon them than I can claim; but I do entreat, that those who lead public opinion upon this subject, will not put forth such strong and sweeping assertions as that on which I have felt it my duty to comment, without examining into the evidence on which they are based, through some other medium than the mists of hereditary and national repugnance. I am, Dear Sir, with much respect,

Yours faithfully, WILLIAM B. Carpenter, M. D., F. R. S.

ART. I.-TENDENCIES OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.*

It is not our purpose to enter into any examination of the work of which we have given the title below. Although never translated or reprinted in this country, it has been made known to a portion of the American public through the pages of a contemporary journal. It is sufficient to say, that Leroux sets out with the idea of equality as lying at the foundation of our view of man; and with what he calls the communion of the human race, or the mutual solidarity of men; the manifestation of God in humanity constituting, in his opinion, the appropriate sphere of religion. In what we have to offer, we shall only follow out in our own way some of the suggestions made in the introduction to his work. "We must seek," he says, "if there be not some fixed point, in God and in us, on which we may support ourselves, for the perfecting of ourselves, humanity, and the world." In other words, we need a point above the world, in order that we may move the world. This "fixed point," (given or implied in reli

* De l'Humanité, de son principe et de son avenir. principle and its future.) By PIERRE LEROUX. 2 vols. VOL. XXXVII. -4TH S. VOL. II. NO. II.

(Humanity, its Paris. 1840.

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gious belief,) is to be apprehended, defined, and made clear by philosophy. We intend, accordingly, to speak of some of the existing tendencies of philosophical thought, which may throw light on the character and workings of our own time.

The term "philosophy of the age" is as wide in its meaning as "spirit of the age." Perhaps indeed it is best defined as the interpreter of this spirit; its office being "to explain common sense to itself" the common sense of the age, which shows itself in a thousand forms of thought and action, and makes the age what it is. The world of thought we believe to be guided and controlled by the Word of God that was from the beginning-that Providence, which makes the free spirit of man its minister, no less than the lightning and rushing wind. In the solemn march of centuries the mind seeks to trace the action of God, as his eternal plan slowly unfolds before us. What place do we hold in this vast movement? What are the character and work of our own day? And, as its interpreter, what are the tendencies of modern philosophy?

In attempting a partial answer to these inquiries, we shall consider the Philosophical Spirit, the Science, the Art, the Literature, and the forms of Action, of our age.

I. PHILOSOPHY. The disposition to abstract thought, the taste for speculation spreading everywhere, has often been said to be an eminent characteristic of our time. Certain it is, that a mighty flood of speculation is gushing out on all sides from the undercurrents of society, overflowing every subject of human life and interest. From skeptical questionings up to the highest-toned spiritual dogmatism, we are surrounded by forms of thought innumerable ; and systems of philosophy rise up on every side, claiming each to be the true exponent of the spirit of the age.

Even if from the multitude we could select some one or a few to represent the present position of the human mind, our task would be scarcely easier. For it is true of philosophical, as has been said of scientific systems, that you must come up with and pass by them before you can turn and see their face, as if they were going the same way with yourself. It is a rare faculty to be able to believe with a man long enough to understand his system, and then to judge it fairly, especially in its relation to others.

not

Besides, the systems of the present day are supposed to be, many of them, peculiarly difficult of comprehension, to speak of the varying hues they wear from time to time, and their "striding forward with awful rapidity," as Goethe said of Schiller's mind.

A glance, however superficial or imperfect, at the condition of speculation in the German, French, and English mind may help us to a right judgment. While so strong a party-feeling is at work both for and against every form, it must be peculiarly hard to avoid error. Still the attempt may be of service, especially as our present aim is simply to indicate, here and there, the elements that seem to be working together towards a common end.

The German philosophy has been compared to Gnosticism. Rather, it is Gnosticism reversed the same abstract, independent and arrogant mode of thought, manifested (in scientific phrase) at the opposite pole. The essence of Gnosticism seems to be this: - the thoughts and conceptions of the Eternal Mind are not dead and inactive, mere thought, but are essentially alive, individual, and of power to act and generate new conceptions; the Eastern fancy bodying them forth in "endless genealogies" of Emanations from the unknown depth of the Divine Fulness, and giving all a personal existence. The moderns may have their Basilides in Kant, their Bardesanes in Schelling, and the Oriental mysticism in all; but the result is, that individuality is not created, but swallowed up in the depth of the unknown.

The very earnestness, which is spoken of as the first characteristic of the German mind, leads the partisans of the various schools to carry out unflinchingly their first principles to the last result; finding there a point from which to survey the whole, rather than grasping and steadily balancing the entire circle of various and mutually modified facts of experience. So each sails stoutly on his own career over the waters of discovery and controversy, and each will have his own point to be, like Delphos, the centre and the oracle of the world. It is difficult to estimate the amount of service done, by thus showing all the results of a course of thought, and plunging so deeply towards the unknown boundaries of human knowledge. A new generation of thinkers comes forward, gathers the