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REVIEWS AND NOTICES

Du Transcendardalisme considire essentiellemerd dans sa definition et
ses origines frangaises. Par William Girard. University of
California Publications in Modern Philology, Vol. IV, No. 3
(October 18, 1916), pp. 351-498.

The subject of this monograph is so difficult of treatment that, if our
knowledge is even slightly increased thereby, we should be grateful. How
shall we derive from book sources an intuitional philosophy? And how
define a movement that called itself indefinable ? The subject is enormous
as well as difficult. Mr. Girard apologizes for attempting so much, and
probably most readers will feel that a survey of American thought down to
1840, together with argumentative summaries and comparisons of the
transcendental thinking of England, Germany, and France, could hardly
be given with much thoroughness in a hundred and fifty rather verbose
pages.

The main thesis of the study concerns the derivation of the movement.
Mr. Gkard in his most conciliatory moments holds that the transcendental-
ists "ont retrouv4 chez les grands id^aUstes allemands un 4tat d'4me qui
6tait plus ou moins le leur, ce qui expUque I'int^rSt qu'ils portSrent k leur
philosophie, tandis qu'ils ont emprunt^ aux spiritualistes frangais, en parti-
cuher, des formes qui se trouvferent exprimer de la fagon la plus satisfaisante,
des iddes et des conceptions qu'ils devaient beaucoup plus k ce qu'ils etaient
eux-m6mes qu'^ ce qu'avaient 6t4 les ^crivains qu'ils lurent, appr^ciSrent et
comprirent" (p. 357). In the heat of argument he seems at times to be
defending a thesis much like Brownson's hasty statement: "Germany
reaches us only through France" (p. 474). Consistently he aims to show
that the influence of Germany on the movement has been much overesti-
mated, while that of France has been neglected. His success is partial.

The method of the argument is open to severe criticism. Having given
a historical survey of earher American thought, Mr. Girard, after reaching
1825, drops the historical method and considers his facts in a topical arrange-
ment that is not illuminating. No logical separation of the philosophical
and the religious thinking of the group can be made. Mr. Girard's methods
enable him, furthermore, to mistreat individuals easily. Not knowing
what to make of Emerson, he obliterates him from the discussion.^ He
neglects Hedge's Germanism most unwarrantably.^ He stresses Ripley's

> See pp. 383, note, 395, and 482, note.

» Cf. p. 397 with G. W. Cooke, Introduction to the Dial, II, 72-73.
317] 125

126 Reviews and Notices

choice of French material for the early volumes of his Specimens of Foreign
Literature, but neglects entirely Ripley's controversy with Andrews Norton
and the Letters on the Latest Form of Infidelity resulting from it. These
little known letters are highly important in the history of transcendentalism,
and they show an indisputable and strong German influence on Ripley's
thinking. Casual journalistic utterances Mr. Girard sometimes takes with
naive seriousness, and seeming proofs are not always carefully weighed. In
part proof of the proposition, "Que la philosophie des idealistes aUemands
n'ait exerce, directement, aucune influence notable sur la pens6e religeuse
liberate de la Nouvelle- Angle terre," the following statements are made
(p. 403) : "G. Ripley nous declare k son tour qu'il n'a rien lu de Kant et qu'il
doit ce qu'il salt des doctrines de ce philosophe k I'un de ses interpretes anglais
(Dial, II, 91). Margaret Fuller avoue ne rien comprendre k ce qu'elle lit
de Fichte, quoiqu'elle ^tudie ce dernier d'aprds un traits destin6 a en simpli-
fier la doctrine, et se declare, en outre, incapable de comprendre, dans son
ensemble, le systfeme de Jacobi." The Dial article here ascribed to Ripley
is assigned by Cooke to J. A. Saxton;' on what ground does Mr. Girard
assign it to Ripley? Frequent favorable references to Kant scattered
through Ripley's work, together with the fact that he was an excellent
scholar in German theology and possessed a good German library containing
"much of Kant,"^ would certainly tend to establish an acquaintance on his
part with Kant. With regard to Miss Fuller the fact that she said she could
not understand Fichte is far from proving that she was uninfluenced by him.
A comic moment is reported' when Mme de Stael upon meeting Fichte said:
"Now, Mons. Fichti, could you be so kind as to give me, in fifteen minutes
or so, a sort of idea or apergu of your system, so that I may know clearly
what you mean by your ich, your moi, for I am entirely in the dark about
it." Although Mr. Girard seems to think that such statements as Miss
Fuller's and Parker's (that Kant is most difficult reading; see p. 442) are
evidence for lack of German influence on transcendentaUsm, they demon-
strate, on the contrary, earnest American attempts to fathom German
thought. If Americans had professed a clear understanding of German
idealism, then indeed we should have reason to beheve that they studied it
second hand.

Mr. Girard is at his best when collecting evidence of American fondness
for French philosophers. It is here that he gives us his most important
results. And yet the present reviewer would interpret this evidence in a
manner different from Mr. Girard's. The more aggressive transcendental-
ists — Hedge, Ripley, Parker, Follen, and perhaps Brownson — were, with
the probable exception of the last-named, first stimulated by German
thinking. They desired to popularize their highly unpopular transcendental-
ism, but could not do so by use of German sources because of the horror

' Introduction to the Dial, II, 115.

2 Of. Girard, p. 402, with Frothingliam, Ripley, p. 46.
» Life of George Ticknor (1876), I, 497-98.

318

Reviews and Notices 127

most of the clergy felt for all German theology^ and, more especially, because
of obvious rhetorical difficulties. Hence they turned to the admirable
French simplifications of the Germans and commended them habitually
for those unskilled in German or in philosophy. The influence of Mme de
Stael in attracting Americans to a further study of German thought is
undoubted; but it is certain that before the Critique of Pure Reason was
translated in 1838 several New Englanders and some transcendentalists
had studied the work in the original. Mr. Girard is then justified in assum-
ing an immediate French origin for the thinking of some minor transcenden-
taUsts, but not in trying to emphasize such an origin for the thought of the
leaders of the movement, other than possibly W. E. Channing and Brown-
son. Since Brownson is praised so much — and very likely deservedly — by
Mr. Girard, it is worth while to quote Hedge's statement concerning the
members of the famous Transcendental Club: "Orestes Brownson met with
us once or twice, but became unbearable, and was not afterward invited."^
Channing had as early as 1816 sent inquiries to Ticknor concerning German
metaphysics,' and later was further influenced by FoUen to admire the
Germans, whom he could not read.

The reviewer's notion that the French writers with whom we are con-
cerned were valued usually as potential popularizers fits in perfectly with
passages of praise of them quoted by Mr. Girard.^ Especially is it clear
that the writer quoted on p. 454 regards Degerando as best suited to the
tired (New England!) business man in his family hours. Other passages
might have been quoted to show regard for French writing and its populariz-
ing power. S. Osgood, reviewing Ripley's Specimens in the Christian
Examiner (XXVIII, 138), says: "The French, indeed, are masters of the
intellectual mint; they understand how to give thought such shape that it
will pass current. Commend us to the Germans for skill, ardor, and patience
in digging out the precious metal from its depths, and to the English for
readiness and talent to use it in actual business; but it must first pass through
the French mint and take the form and beauty that fit it for practical
purposes." This seems to present the usual view and to explain perhaps
why Ripley's early Specimens were from French rather than German philos-
ophers.

Mr. Girard is usually least happy in his anti-German efforts. He does
succeed in showing that it is easy to overemphasize — and, for that matter,
to underemphasize — direct influence from Kant and the greater German
idealists. But it remains true that the movement is stamped "made in
Germany." Mr. Girard seems to come close to a really important emphasis
— and a rather new one — when he thinks the diffusion of German idealism
in America due to such men as Herder, Schleiermacher, and De Wette

■ See Rev. Daniel Dana in the American Quarterly Register, XI (August, 1838), 59;
also Howe, Life of Bancroft, I, 55, 65, etc.

2 Cooke, Introduction to the Dial, II, 73.

» Life of George Ticknor (1876), I, 96. < Pp. 443, 454, 474, 477.

319

128 Reviews and Notices

(p. 400). Portions of the works of all three of these were translated by New
Englanders and were used in transcendental arguments. Ripley's account
of the last two in his Letters on the Latest Forms of Infidelity is notably enthu-
siastic, and he published articles on all three men in the Christian Examiner.
George Bancroft when in Berlin had been very intimate with Schleiermacher,
whose abilities he greatly admired, while FoUen and De Wette had worked
in close association on the faculty of the University of Basle. But the
greater Germans must have had influence as well — ^if not so much direct
influence. FoUen's outspoken praise of Kant in his "Inaugural" (1831),
Hedge's important commendation of him in the Christian Examiner (XIV
[March, 1833], 119-127), as well as Parker's opinion that Kant was "one
of the profoundest thinkers in the world, though one of the worst writers,
even of Germany"' — all are conclusive as to the direct influence of Kant
on some transcendentalists. It may have been difiicult, as Clarke is quoted
as saying (p. 398, note), to buy German books in Boston. No one has ever
thought that German metaphysicians or theologians had a large public in
New England, but it is certain that Hedge, Francis, Ripley, Parker, and
a few others^ would have all the books that need be presupposed. The
predilection of Boston and Cambridge for things German was well enough
known by 1825 so that Lafayette could call the region "la portion des Etats
Unis oft la Ut^rature allemande est le plus en honneur."'

We must go back to the method of dealing carefully with the transcen-
dentalists one by one. Then we shall find that their ideas came from many
diverse places. W. E. Channing and Emerson derive perhaps from the
least usual sources. Bancroft, FoUen, Francis, Hedge, and Ripley were so
steeped in German that it is useless to deny their Teutonic origins. Brown-
son is the loudest of the Gallophile group; while Margaret Fuller, though a
faithful student of German literature, may well stand as representative of a
class who were inspired and taught mainly by Americans. It is unnecessary
to assume, with Mr. Girard, that only thinkers who held religious views
entirely acceptable to transcendentalists influenced them; William Penn
and even Jonathan Edwards^ were among those whose thinking was found
to contain germs of intuitionalism.

Mr. Girard, while taking an unwarrantably extreme position as to
German influence on the transcendentalism of New England, has thrown
definite light on the interesting part French influence played in the move-
ment. For those who believe the movement essentially obscurantist it
will be possible to give the Germans their due weight of influence without
violating any present patriotic sensibilities.

George Sherburn

University op CracAGO

» Weiss, Life of Parker, II, 454.

' See Appendix to Professor H. O. Goddard, Studies in New England Transcenden-
talism.

« E. L. FoUen, Life of Charles Fallen, p. 92.

• See Howe, Life of George Bancroft, 1, 223, and Weiss, Life of Parker, I, 112 ,141.

320