Another nephew of Dr. Channing, William Ellery Channing,--a man of
original force of mind and character, a bold adventurer in literature
and life, of independent ideas, principles and deeds, an abolitionist,
a friend of Garrison and Parker, reformer and philosopher, author of
many volumes--wrote poetry and prose for the "Dial" and, in 1873, a life
of Henry Thoreau.
In the list of the Transcendentalists Cyrus Augustus Bartol must not be
forgotten, a soaring mind enamored of thoughts on divine things,
inextricably caught in the toils of speculation. Acute and brilliant,
but wayward; with a quick eye for analogies, fanciful and eccentric, of
clear intuitions, glimpses, perceptions astonishingly luminous; but
without fixed allegiance to system, and therefore difficult to classify
under any school. In the Unitarian controversy, which was a tryer of
spirits, it was not always plain to observers in which camp he belonged;
not that his fundamental principle was unsteady, but because his curious
and critical mind was detained by considerations that others did not
see; and his absolute sincerity gave expression to the moods of feeling
as they passed over him. Some words in Parker's farewell letter to him
seem to imply that at critical junctures they had been on opposite
sides, but the difference could scarcely have touched fundamental
truths. No man was further from the school of Locke, Paley or Bentham
than C. A. Bartol. His Transcendentalism had a cast of its own; it was
not made after any pattern; it took its color from an original genius
illuminated by various reading of books, and by deep meditation in the
privacy of the closet, and the companionship of nature of which he is a
child-like worshipper. No wealth of human sympathy prevents his being a
solitary. His song is lyrical; his prophecy drops like a voice from the
clouds. In the agitations of his time he has had small share; organized
and associated effort did not attract him. To many he represents the
model Transcendentalist, for he seems a man who lives above the
clouds,--not always _above_ them, either.
His faith in the soul has never known eclipse. It waxes strong by its
wrestling, and becomes jubilant in proportion as nature and life try to
stare it out of countenance. Ballast is wings to him.
"Transcendentalism relies on those ideas in the mind which are laws
in the life. Pantheism is said to sink man and nature in God;
Materialism to sink God and man in nature, and Transcendentalism to
sink God and nature in man. But the Transcendentalist at least is
belied and put in jail by the definition which is so neat at the
expense of truth. He made consciousness, not sense, the ground of
truth; and in the present devotion to physical science, and turn of
philosophy to build the universe on foundations of matter, we need
to vindicate and reassert his promise. Is the soul reared on the
primitive rock? or is no rock primitive, but the deposit of
spirit--therefore in its lowest form alive, and ever rising into
organism to reach the top of the eternal circle again, as in the
well one bucket goes down empty and the other rises full? The
mistake is to make the everlasting things subjects of argument
instead of sight."
"Our soul is older than our organism. It precedes its clothing. It
is the cause, not the consequence, of its material elements; else,
as materialists understand, it does not exist."
"What is it that accepts misery from the Most High, defends the
Providence that inflicts its woes, espouses its chastiser's cause,
purges itself in the pit of its misery of all contempt of His
commands, and makes its agonies the beams and rafters of the
triumph it builds? It is an immortal principle. It is an
indestructible essence. It is part and parcel of the Divinity it
adores. It can no more die than he can. It needs no more insurance
of life than its author does. Prove its title? It is proof itself
of all things else. It is substantive, and everything adjective
beside. It is the kingdom all things will be added to."
This was published in 1872, and proves that one Transcendentalist has
kept his faith.
James Freeman Clarke as little deserves to be ranked among the Minor
Prophets as any, for he was one of the earliest Transcendentalists, a
contemporary and intimate ally of Parker, a co-worker with Channing, a
close friend and correspondent of Miss Fuller, a sympathizer with Alcott
in his attempts to spiritualize education, a frequent contributor to the
"Dial," the intellectual fellow of the brilliant minds that made the
epoch what it was. But his interest was not confined to the school, nor
did the technicalities or details of the transcendental movement
embarrass him; his catholic mind took in opinions of all shades, and men
of all communions. His place is among theologians and divines rather
than among philosophers. But, though churchly tastes led him away from
the company of thinkers where he intellectually belonged, and an
unfailing common sense saved him from the extravagances into which some
of them fell, a Transcendentalist he was, and an uncompromising one. The
intuitive philosophy was his guide. It gave him his assurance of
spiritual truths; it interpreted for him the gospels and Jesus; it
inspired his endeavors to reconcile beliefs, to promote unity among the
discordant sects, to enlighten and redeem mankind. His mission has been
that of a spiritual peace-maker. But while doing this, he has worked
faithfully at particular causes; was an avowed and earnest abolitionist
in the anti-slavery days; was ever a disbeliever in war, an enemy of
vindictive and violent legislation, a hearty friend and laborer in the
field of woman's election to the full privileges of culture and
citizenship; a man in whom faith, hope and charity abounded and abound;
a man of intellectual convictions which made a groundwork for his life.
Mr. Clarke is a conspicuous example of the way in which the intuitive
philosophy leavened the whole mind. It associated him closely both with
radicals and conservatives; with the former, because his principle
involved faith in progress; with the latter, because it implied respect
for the progress of past times which institutions preserved. His
conservatism attested the fidelity of his radicalism, and both avouched
the loyalty of his idealism. The conservative aspect of
Transcendentalism which was exhibited in the case of Mr. Channing, who
never left the Christian Church, was yet more strikingly illustrated by
Mr. Clarke. All his books, but particularly the "Ten Great Religions,"
show the power of the transcendental idea to render justice to all forms
of faith, and give positive interpretations to doctrines obscure and
revolting. It detects the truth in things erroneous, the good in things
evil.
A more remarkable instance of this tendency is Samuel Johnson's volume
on the religions of India. None save a Transcendentalist could have
succeeded in extracting so much deep spiritual meaning from the symbols
and practices of those ancient faiths. The intuitive idea takes its
position at the centre, and at once all blazes with glory.
"Man is divinely prescient of his infinity of mind as soon as he
begins to meditate and respire."
"That a profound theistic instinct, the intuition of a divine and
living whole, is involved in the primitive mental processes we are
here studying, I hold to be beyond all question."
"From the first stages of its growth onwards, the spirit weaves its
own environment; nature is forever the reflex of its life, and what
but an unquenchable aspiration to truth could have made it choose
Light as its first and dearest symbol, reaching out a child's hand
to touch and clasp it, with the joyous cry, 'Tis mine, mine to
create, mine to adore!'"
"Man could not forget that pregnant dawn of revelation, the
discovery of his own power to rekindle the life of the universe."
"Man is here dimly aware of the truth that he makes and remakes his
own conception of the divine; that the revealing of duty must come
in the natural activity of his human powers."
"As far back as we can trace the life of man, we find the river of
prayer and praise flowing as naturally as it is flowing now; we
cannot find its beginning, because we cannot find the beginning of
the soul."
These passages give the key to Mr. Johnson's explanation of the oriental
religions, and to his little monograph on "The Worship of Jesus," and to
the printed lectures, addresses, essays, sermons, in which subjects of
religion, philosophy, political and social reform have been profoundly
treated.
Mr. Johnson came forward when the excitement of transcendentalism was
passing by; the "Dial" no longer marked the intellectual hours; the
Unitarian controversy had spent its violence. It was in part owing to
this, but more to the spiritual character of his genius, that his
Transcendentalism was free from polemic and dogmatic elements; but it
was none the less positive and definite for that--if anything, it was
more so. In the divinity school he was an ardent disciple of the
intuitive philosophy. On leaving Cambridge he became an independent
minister of the most pronounced views, but of most reverent spirit; a
"fideist" or faith man, he loved to call himself; his aim and effort was
to awaken the spiritual nature, to interpret the spiritual philosophy,
and to apply the spiritual laws to all personal, domestic and social
concerns. Like all the Transcendentalists, he was a reformer, and an
enthusiastic one; interested in liberty and progress, but primarily in
intellectual emancipation and the increase of rational ideas. The
alteration of the lot was incidental to the regeneration of the person.
So absolute is his faith in the soul that he renders poetic justice to
its manifestations, seeing indications of its presence where others see
none, and glorifying where others are inclined to pity. The ideal side
is never turned away from him. He discerned the angel in the native
African, the saint in the slave, the devotee in the idolater. During the
civil war, his faith in the triumph of justice and the establishment of
a pure republic, converted every defeat into a victory; as in the vision
of Ezekiel, the Son of Man was ever visible riding on the monstrous
beasts. If at any time his sympathy has seemed withdrawn from any class
of social reformers, it has been because the phase of reform they
presented held forth no promise of intellectual or moral benefit.
Mr. Johnson illustrates the individualism of the Transcendentalist.
While Mr. Channing trusted in social combinations, and Mr. Clarke put
his faith in organized religion, he had a clear eye to the integrity of
the separate soul. He attended no conventions, joined no societies,
worked with no associations, had confidence in no parties, sects,
schemes, or combinations, but nursed his solitary thought, delivered his
personal message, bore his private witness, and there rested.
Were Mr. Johnson more known, were his thoughts less interior, his genius
less retiring, his method less private, his form of statement less close
and severe, he would be one of the acknowledged and conspicuous leaders
of the ideal philosophy in the United States, as he is one of the most
discerning, penetrating, sinewy, and heroic minds of his generation.
A contemporary and intimate friend of Johnson, a Transcendentalist
equally positive, but of more mystical type, is Samuel Longfellow. The
two are interestingly contrasted, and by contrast, blended. Between them
they collected and published a book of hymns--"Hymns of the Spirit"--to
which both contributed original pieces, remarkably rich in sentiment,
and of singular poetical merit. Johnson's were the more intellectual,
Longfellow's the more tender; Johnson's the more aspiring, Longfellow's
the more devout; Johnson's the more heroic and passionate, Longfellow's
the more mystical and reflective. Like his friend, Longfellow is quiet
and retiring--not so scholarly, not so learned, but meditative. His
sermons are lyrics; his writings are serene contemplations, not white
and cold, but glowing with interior and suppressed radiance. A recluse
and solitary he is, too, though sunny and cheerful; a thinker, but not a
dry one; of intellectual sympathies, warm and generous; of feeble
intellectual antipathies, being rather unconscious of systems that are
foreign to him than hostile to them. He enjoys his own intellectual
world so much, it is so large, rich, beautiful, and satisfying, that he
is content to stay in it, to wander up and down in it, and hold
intercourse with its inhabitants; yet he understands his own system
well, is master of its ideas, and abundantly competent to defend them,
as his essays published in the "Radical" during its short existence,
testify. He has published little; ill health has prevented his taking a
forward place among reformers and teachers; but where he has ministered,
his influence has been deep and pure. Not few are the men and women who
ascribe to him their best impulses, and owe him a debt of lasting
gratitude for the moral faith and intellectual enthusiasm he awakened in
them.
Another remarkable man, of the same school, but of still different
temper--a man who would have been greatly distinguished but for the
disabilities of sickness--is David A. Wasson. Though contemporary, he
came forward later; but when he came, it was with a power that gave
promise of the finest things. As his latent faith in the intuitive
philosophy acquired strength, he broke away from the Orthodoxy in which
he had been reared, with an impulse that carried him beyond the lines of
every organized body in Christendom, and bore him into the regions of an
intellectual faith, where he found satisfaction. He has been a diligent
writer, chiefly on Ethical and Philosophical themes, on the border land
of theology. His published pamphlets and sermons on religious questions,
even the best of them, give scarcely more than an indication of his
extraordinary powers. He is a poet too, of fine quality; not a singer of
sentimental songs, nor a spinner of elegant fancies, but a discerner of
the spirit of beauty. "All's Well," "Ideals," "The Plover," "At Sea,"
are worthy of a place in the best collections.
It has been the appointed task of Mr. Wasson to be on the alert against
assaults on the intuitive philosophy from the side of material science.
Like Transcendentalists generally, he has accepted the principles of his
philosophy on the testimony of consciousness and as self-evidencing; but
more than most, he has regarded them as essential to the maintenance of
truths of the spiritual order; and as a believer in those truths, he has
been holily jealous of the influence of men like Herbert Spencer, Mill,
Bain, and the latest school of experimental psychologists. His doctrine,
in its own essence, and as related to the objective or material system,
is closely stated in the essay on the "Nature of Religion," contained
in the volume, entitled "Freedom and Fellowship in Religion," recently
published by the Free Religious Association. It is not easily quotable,
but must be read through and attentively. Whoever will take pains to do
that, may understand, not merely what Mr. Wasson's position is, but what
fine analysis the intuitive philosophy can bring to its defence. A
volume of Mr. Wasson's prose essays and poems would be a valuable
contribution to the literature of Transcendentalism; for he is, on the
whole, the most capable critic on its side. Unfortunately for the
breadth of his fame and the reach of his power, he writes for thinkers,
and the multitude will never follow in his train.
The names of the disciples and prophets of Transcendentalism multiply as
they are told off. There is T. W. Higginson, the man of letters--whom
every body knows--a born Transcendentalist, and an enthusiastic one,
from the depth of his moral nature, the quickness of his poetic
sensibility, his love of the higher culture. His sympathies early led
him to the schools of the ideal philosophy. He edited the works of
Epictetus; speaks glowingly on the "Sympathy of Religions;" is
interested in the pacification of the sects and churches on the basis of
spiritual fellowship in truths of universal import; lectures
appreciatingly on Mohammed and Buddha; holds Spencer in light esteem by
the side of Emerson. In the controversial period--which was not ended
when he left the Divinity School--he was entirely committed to the party
of progress. Hennell's "Christian Theism" lay on his table at Divinity
Hall. He was an ally of Parker; an abolitionist; the colonel of a black
regiment in the civil war; and from the first has been a champion of
woman's claim to fulness of culture and the largest political rights. A
clear and powerful mind, that in controversy would make its mark, if
controversy were to its taste, as it is not.
Earlier mention should have been made of John Weiss, who wrote
philosophical articles thirty years ago, that won encomiums from the
most competent judges--a student at Heidelberg, a scholar of Kant, and
an admirer of his system. He too has a paper on "Religion and Science,"
in the volume of "Freedom and Fellowship," which will convince the most
skeptical that the days of Transcendentalism are not numbered; a man of
insight; poetical, according to Emerson's definition; supremely
intellectual, capable of treading, with steady step, the hair lines of
thought; a poet too, as verses in the "Radical" bear witness. The
Philosophical and AEsthetic Letters and Essays of Schiller were presented
to the American public by his hand. He wrote the preface to the American
edition of Smith's Memoir of Fichte. The "Boston Quarterly," the
"Massachusetts Quarterly," the "Christian Examiner," the "Radical," were
illuminated by his brilliant thoughts on subjects of religious
philosophy. The volume entitled "American Religion," published in 1871,
shows the power of the spiritual philosophy to extract noble meanings
from the circumstances of the New World. Weiss treads the border-land
between religion and science, recognizing the claims of both, and
bringing to their adjustment as fine intellectual scales as any of his
contemporaries. His method is peculiar to himself; his is not the
exulting mood of Emerson, or the defiant mood of Wasson; it is purely
poetic, imaginative. The doctrine of the divine immanence is glorious in
his eyes; the faith in personal immortality is taken into the inner
citadel of metaphysics, where Parker seldom penetrated.
These men, Weiss and Wasson and Higginson, nursed in the transcendental
school, thoroughly imbued with its principles, committed to them, wedded
to them by the conflicts they waged in their defence when they were
assailed by literalists, dogmatists, and formalists, look out now upon
the advancing ranks of the new materialism as the holders of a royal
fortress looked out on a host of insurgents; as the king and queen of
France looked out on the revolution from the palace at Versailles: the
onset of the new era they instinctively dread, feeling that dignity,
princeliness, and spiritual worth are at stake. They will fight
admirably to the last; but should they be defeated, it is yet possible
that the revolution may bring compensations to humanity, which will make
good the overthrow of their "diademed towers."
In these sketches of transcendental leaders--as in this study of the
transcendental movement,--few have been included but those whom the
intuitive philosophy drew away from their former church connections and
gathered into a party by themselves--a party of protestants against
literalism and formalism. The transcendental philosophy in its main
ideas, was held by eminent orthodox divines who accepted it as entirely
in accordance with the Christian scheme, and used it in fact as an
efficient support for the doctrines of the church. The most eminent
divines of New England did this, and were considered entirely orthodox
in doing it, their Christian faith gaining warmth and color from the
intuitive system. As has already been said, the Trinitarian scheme has
close affinities with Platonism. But none of these men called themselves
or were called Transcendentalists. The Transcendentalist substituted the
principles of his Philosophy and the inferences therefrom for the creed
of the church, and became a separatist. With him the soul superseded the
church; the revelations of the soul took the place of bible, creed and
priesthood. The men that have been named all did this, with the
exception of James Freeman Clarke, who adhered to the ministry and the
church. But his intimacy with the transcendental leaders, and his
cooperation with them in some of their most important works, to say
nothing of the unique position his transcendental ideas compelled him to
assume, as well in ecclesiastical matters as in social reform, entitle
him to mention. Convers Francis--parish minister at Watertown from 1819
till 1842, and Parkman, professor of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral
Care at Cambridge from 1842 till 1863--though never conspicuous either
as preacher or minister, and never recognized as a representative
apostle, was influential as a believer in the spiritual philosophy,
among young men. To him Theodore Parker acknowledged his debt; to him
successive classes of divinity students owed the stimulus and direction
that carried them into the transcendental ranks; Johnson, Longfellow,
Higginson were his pupils at Cambridge, and carried thence ideas which
he had shaped if not originated. In many things conservative,
disagreeing on some points with Emerson, whom he revered and loved as a
man, regretting much that seemed sarcastic, arrogant, derisive in
Parker's "Discourse of Religion," he gave his full assent to the
principles of the intuitive philosophy, and used them as the pillars of
Christianity. Had he been as electric and penetrating as he was truthful
and obedient, high-minded and sincere, hearty and simple, he would have
been a force as well as an influence. In 1836 he foresaw the rupture
between "the Old or English school belonging to the sensual and empiric
philosophy,--and the New or German school, belonging to the spiritual
philosophy," and gave all his sympathy to the latter as having the most
of truth. He was the senior member of the "Transcendental Club,"
composed of the liberal thinkers who met to discuss literary and
spiritual subjects on the ground of reason and the soul's intuitive
perceptions. With deep interest he followed the course of speculative
and practical reform to the close of his life. Some, of whom he was not
one, engaged in the discussions for a little while, attended the
meetings, and set forth bold opinions, but retired within their close
fellowships as soon as plans for propagandism or schemes of organization
were proposed. Their sympathies were literary and within the recognized
limits of literature; but they had either too little courage of
conviction, or too little conviction, to depart from accustomed ways or
break with existing associations. The number of professed
transcendentalists in the restricted sense, was never large, and, after
the first excitement, did not greatly increase. There was but one
generation of them. The genuine transcendentalists became so in their
youth, ripened into full conviction in middle life, and, as a rule,
continued so to old age. The desertions from the faith were not many.
Half a dozen perhaps became catholics; as many became episcopalians; but
by far the greater part maintained their principles and remained serene
dissenters, "in the world, but not of it."