He vacillates in his account of hypotheticals and disjunctives.His final opinion is given (Vol.II., 370-378-- " Hypotheticals (conjunctive and disjunctive), April 30, 1849")."These syllogisms appear to be only modifications or corruptions of certain immediate inferences, for they have only two terms, and obtain a third proposition only by placing the general rule of inference (stating, of course, the possible alternatives), disguised, it is true, as the major premises.
He had divided logic into pure and modified, and he treats of the latter in Vol.".He doubts whether there can be a modified logic; and is ever striving to impart to what he says under that head a rigidly technical form.The remarks which he throws out are often characterized by much intellectual ability, and some of them are of great value.
But most of the topics discussed do not admit of so formal a treatment as he would give them.His account of the Baconian induction is a failure.The truth is, he never appreciated or understood the method pursued in the physical sciences.
The appendix contains a miscellaneous but very valuable set of papers on logical subjects.I doubt much whether Hamilton's system of logic will ever as a whole be adopted by our colleges.We have, however, two admirable text-books founded on it-.Thomson's "Outline of the Laws of Thought"and Bowen's "Logic." It will be acknowledged by all, that the discussions he has raised have done more to clear up unsettled points in {454} formal logic than any work published since the days of Kant.These discussions will be looked at by writers on logic in all coming ages.
In parting with this great man, now gone from our world, it is most satisfactory to notice what was the professed aim of all his philosophy,-- it was to point out the limits to human thought, and thereby to teach man the lesson of intellectual humility.It is instructive to find that this has been the aim of not a few of the most profound philosophers with which our world has been honored.The truth is, it is always the smallest minds which are most apt to be swollen with the wind engendered by their own vanity.
The intellects which have gone out with greatest power to the farthest limits are those which feel most keenly the barriers by which man's capacity is bounded.The minds that have set out on the widest excursions, and which have taken the boldest flights, are those which know best that there is a wider region beyond, which is altogether inaccessible to man.It was the peculiarly wise man of the Hebrews who said, " No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." The Greek sage by emphasis declared that if he excelled others it was only in this, that he knew that he knew nothing.It was the avowed object of the sagacious Locke to teach man the length of his tether,--which, we may remark, those feel most who attempt to get away from it.Reid labored to restrain the pride of philosophy, and to bring men back to a common sense in respect of which the peasant and philosopher are alike.It was the design of Kant's great work to show how little the speculative reason can accomplish.And now we have Sir William Hamilton showing within what narrow limits the thought of man is restrained; and the metaphysician, <par excellence>, of Oxford has, in the Bampton lectures, employed this philosophy to lay a restraint on the rational theology of Britain, and the speculative theology which is coming like a fog from the German Ocean.It is pleas ant to think that Sir William Hamilton ever professed to bow with reverence before the revelations of the Bible, and takes delight in stating it to be the result of all his investigations, " that no difficulty emerges in theology which had not previously emerged in philosophy." In one of the letters which the author {455} of this article has had from him he proceeds on the great Bible doctrines of grace;and from all I know of him personally, I am prepared to believe in the account which I have heard from what I reckon competent authority, that the prayer which came from him at his dying hour was, " God be merciful to me, a sinner." It is most instructive to perceive the publican and the philosopher thus made to stand on the same level before the all-righteous judge.
LVIII.-- THE METAPHYSICS OF THE FUTURE.
W/HAT are we to make in these times of metaphysics? It is quite clear that this kind of investigation has lost, Isuspect for ever, the position once allowed it, when it stood at the head of all secular knowledge, and claimed to be equal, or all but equal, in rank to theology itself."Time was," says Kant, "when she was the queen of all the sciences; and if we take the will for the deed, she certainly deserves, so far as regards the high importance of her object-matter, this title of honor.Now it is the fashion to heap contempt and scorn upon her; and the matron mourns forlorn and forsaken like Hecuba." Some seem inclined to treat her very much as they treat those <de jure>
sovereigns wandering over Europe whom no country will take as <de facto> sovereigns, -- that is, they give her all outward honor, but no authority; others are prepared to set aside her claims very summarily.The multitudes who set value on nothing but what can be counted in money never allow themselves to speak of metaphysics except with a sneer.The ever-increasing number of persons who read, but who are indisposed to think, complain that philosophy is not so interesting as the new novel, or the pictorial history, which is quite as exciting and quite as untrue as the novel.
The physicist, who has kept a register of the heat of the atmosphere at nine o'clock in the morning, for the last five years, and the naturalist, who has discovered a plant or insect, distinguished from all hitherto known species by an additional spot, cannot conceal their contempt for a department of inquiry which deals with objects which can neither be seen nor handled, neither weighed nor measured.
{456}