An American Philosophy.

Dr. McCosh, in the last number of the Princeton Review, has an article on "What an American Philosophy Should be," and in the course of the article makes the following statement: "It follows that if there is to be an American philosophy, it must be realistic. I suspect they will never produce an idealistic philosophy like that of Pleto in ancient times, or speculative systems like these of Spinoza, Leibnity, and Hegel in modern times. The circumstance that Emerson is an American may seem to contradict this, but then Emerson, while he opens glimpses of truth, is not a philosopher; his thoughts are like strung fearls, without system and without connection. On the other hand, the Americans believe that there are things to be known, to be prized and secured, and will never look approvingly on an agnesticism which declares that knowledge is unattainable. The American philosophy will therefore be a realism, opposed to idalism on the one hand, and to agnasticism on the other."

Much as national characteristics enter into the philosophic thought of a country, yet it seems to be a new idea, and one must say a remarkable one, to thus absolutely lay down the philosophy which should be the guide of an American. Simply because a man is an American he should take up one line of thought in preference to another seems to indicate an amount of narrowness that is extraordinary. Philosophy aims at the truth, and it is the truth that the philosophic student wants. He does not want the philosophy that may best suite the nature of his country. Dr. McCosh cites the rule of Kaut in Germany, Des Cartes in France, Reid in Scotland, etc., as examples of this nationalistic tendency of philosophy. A German philosophy thus should be one that shows the deep thought and idealism of the country; an English philosophy should be matter of fact; a French philosophy light and fantastic, and so through the whole category. The absurdity of any such doctrine then becomes evident. The philosophy that all should seek is the philosophy that applies to all. An American philosophy should only be American, in so far as being American it can still be fit for all other nations. To most thinkers philosophy is identical with religion, and the religion which Americans should have is the true religion, not the one that least applies to them, so it is with a philosophy. We must not become realists, if we are to become so at all, because it seems to be the natural philosophy for Americans; but because we consider realism to be the truth. We must not discard idealism because it is not consistent with American ideas, but because we believe its principles to be unfounded. A philosophy founded to coincide with customs and traits of character, rests on the most flimsy of structures, and cannot survive the lives of its progmitors.

At the close of the article Dr. McCosh draws a comparison between the American philosophy desired and the power of our agricultural products to feed the nations of Europe, saying that soon those countries will come to us for a philosophy as they now do for our produce. This is a "consummation devoutly to be wished," but which we can never expect, for the mercantile spirit that is so powerful in America to-day is not the one on which a philosophy that is destined to permeate all the peoples of the earth can be built. America has yet to appreciate the fact that it has much to learn, and is, therefore, at the very foot of the ladder, and with no prospect of rising until it feels that its wonderful growth in wealth and power, although unexampled, is still not the only requisite to perfection.