PHILOS'OPHY, literally, the love of wisdom. But in modern acceptation, philosophy is a general term denoting an explanation of the reasons of things ; or an investigation of the causes of all phe nomena both of mind and of matter. When applied to any particular depart ment of knowledge. it denotes the collec tion of general laws or principles under which all the subordinate phenomena or facts relating to that subject, are coin pre hended. Thus, t hat branch of philosophy which treats of God, he., is called the ology; that which treats of nature is called physics, or natural philosophy ; that which treats of man is called logic and ethics, or moral philosophy ; that which treats of the mind is called intel lectual or mental philosophy, or meta physics. The term philosophy is often used apparently with no great precision, though it is not difficult to deduce from the use of this term the general meaning or notion which is attached to it. We speak of the philosophy of the human mind as being of all philosophies that to which the name philosophy is particularly appropriated ; and when the term philos ophy is used absolutely. this seems to be the philosophy that is spoken of. Other philosophies are referred to their several objects by qualifying terms : thus we speak of natural philosophy, meaning thereby the philosophy of nature, or of material objects. We also speak of the philosophy of positive law, understanding thereby the philosophy of those binding rules, properly called laws. The terms philosophy of history, philosophy of man ufactures, and other such terms are also used. All objects then which can occupy the mind may have something in common, called their philosophy ; which philos ophy is nothing else than the general expression for that effort of the mind whereby it strives, pursnant to its laws, to reduce its knowledge to the form of ul timate truths or principles, and to deter mine the immutable relations which exist between things as it conceives them. The philosophy which comprises within itself all philosophies is that which labors to determine the laws or ultimate prin ciples in obedience to which the mind itself operates. Thus, every kind of knowledge, the objects of which are things external, has its philosophy or principles, which, when discovered and systematized, form the science of the things to which they severally belong. But we must as sume that the mind also has its laws and powers which may be discovered by ob servation, as we discover by observation the laws or principles which govern the relations of things external to the mind, or conceived as external. Accordingly the human mind, by the necessity im printed on it, seeks to discover the ulti mate foundation of all that it knows or conceives ; to discover what itself is, and what is its relation to all things, and so it strives to form a system out of all such altimate laws or principles. Such a sys tem may be called a philosophy in the proper and absolute sense of the term, and the attempt to form such a system is to philosophize. . Systems of philosophy have existed in all nations. The objects of philosophy are to ascertain facts or truth, and the causes of things or their phenomena ; to enlarge our views of God and his works, and to render our knowledge of both practically useful and subservient to human happiness.—Pytha gorean philosophy, the system taught by Pythagoras, who flourished 500 years be fore the Christian era. He described the Deity as one incorruptible, invisible being; and differed from seine of the ancients, as Epicurus, in conceiving a cornection be tween God and man ; that is, in teaching the doctrine of a superintending provi dence. Ile asserted the immortality of the soul ; but in a sense essentially peeuliar, and which appears to have been adopted by Plato, as it is in part at this day by the Ilindoos. In the cosmogony of Pythago ras, spirit, however diffused through all animals, WM part of the Divinity himself, separated only by the gross forms of mat ter, and ready, whenever disengaged, to unite itself with the kindred essence of God ; but God was only purity ; and the mind recoiled from the idea of uniting with him a portion of spirit soiled with the cor ruption of a sinful life. The soul, there fore, once tainted, could never return to the Deity whence it emanated, till it had again recovered its innocence. After hav ing unlimited a human body by which crimes had been committed, it was denied the great object of its desire, a union with its God, and forced to enter into other bodies. till at length it tilled a righteous one. To this theory was added another, by means of which punishments, propor tioned to its offences, were awarded : ac cording to this, the soul of a negro-driver would pass into the body of an infant ne gro ; and that which in one existence plied the whip, in the other would receive the lash : the soul of the wicked would occupy the body of some animal exposed to suffering; and that of a being of few foibles undergo a sentence proportionably mild.—Such is the doctrine of the me tempsychosis or transmigration of souls, a leading feature in the Pythagorean Socratic philosophy, or the doctrines of Socrates, who flourished at Athens about 400 years B.c., and died a martyr in the cause of natural religion against paganism. He is said to have opened the career of moral philosophy in Greece, where he preceded Plato, from the writings of which latter the philoso phy of Socrates is chiefly known, for he wrote nothing himself. While other phi losophers boasted of their knowledge, he laid the greatest stress upon his igno rance, asserting that he knew nothing but this, that he knew nothing. Socrates led men from the contemplation of uni versal nature to that of themselves ; branch of philosophy which was inculcat ed in that famous inscription, Know thy self! The Socratic method of argument was that of leading an antagonist to ac knowledge a. proposition himself, by dint of repeated questions, in preference to that of laying it down authoritatively.— Pla to n ic philosophy, a system of theology and morals, delivered by Plato about 350 years B.C. Plato, it is said, labored to re establish natural religion by opposing pa ganism. The existence of the one God was zealously inculcated by him ; and also the immortality of the the res urrection of the dead, the everlasting reward of righteousness, and punishment of sin. Tt was Plato, too, who taught that the world was created by the Logos or TVord ; and that through knowledge of the word men live happily on earth and obtain eternal felicity hereafter. From him, also, came the doctrine of grace, and the inducements to monastic life; for he pressed upon his disciples that the world is filled with corruption ; that it is the duty of the righteous to fly from it and to seek a union with God, who alone is life and health ; that in the world the soul is continually surrounded with enemies: and that, in the unceasing combat through which it has to struggle, it can conquer only with the assistance of God or of his holy angels. "A happy
immortality," said Plato, "is a great prize set before us, and a great object of hope, which should engage is to labor in the acquirement of wisdom and virtue nil the time of our life." In tnorals, he taught that there is nothing solid and substantial but piety, which is the source of all virtues and the gift of God ; that the love of our neighbor, which proceeds from the love of God as its principle, produces that sacred union which makes fatuities and nations happy; that self love produces that discord and division which reigns among mankind. and is the chief cause of our sins: that it is better to suffer wrong than to do it; that it is wrong to hurt an enemy or to revenge an injury received; that it is better to die than to sin; and that into ought continually to learn to die, and yet to en dure life with all patience and submis sion to the will of God.—The Aristotelian philosophy, which succeeded the Platonic, is characterized by a systematic striving to embrace all the objects of philosophy by cool and patient rellection.—The Epi curian philosophy, or the system of Epi corns, an Athenian. This teacher laid down, as the basis of his doctrine, that the supreme good consists in pleasure ; a proposition that soon suffered a two fold abuse. On the one hand, by mis construction, it was regarded as a bare faced inculcation of sensuality; on the other, adopted by the luxurious, the in dolent, and the licentious, as a cloak and authority for their conduct ; and hence it has happened that the name Epicurean is now used in an absolute sense to desig nate one minutely and luxuriously at tentive to his food. Epicurus is reported to have written three hundred hooks, but of these none are extant ; and the partic ulars of lie philosophy, which have come down to posterity, aro chiefly found in the writings of Lucretius, ['loge nes, cram, and Cicero. if is system, for which he is said to have been almost wholly indebted to Democrit us consisted of three parts: canonical, physical, and °florin!. Soundness awl simplicity of sense, assist ed with some natural reflections, ,onsti tuted all the method of Epicurus. his search after truth proceeded only by the senses, to the evidence of which he gave so great a certainty that he them as the tirst natural light of itrinkind. It is in the meanings allowed to the words pleasure and pain that every thing which is important in the morals and doubtful in the history of the Epicu rean system is contained. According to Gassendus, the pleasure of Epicurus con sisted in the highest tranquillity of min I united with the most perfect health of body ; blessings enjoyed only through the habits of rectitude, benevolence, and tem perance ; but Cicero, Horace, Plutarch, and several of the fathers of the Christian church represent the system in it very dif ferent point of view. • The disagreement, however, is easily it' we believe one side to spe.ik what Epicurus taught, and t he other of what 'limy of his Lllow• ets, and still more of those who took sl.el ter under his name. were accustomed to the foregoing we must add • the Slat: philosophy, or the doctrines of Zeno the stoic, whose morality was of a ma pi:11111/1MM and unyielding kind, form ed to resist temptation to evil, and to render wen callous to adversity : thus they tu,tiutained, among other things, that a man might he happy in the midst of the severest tortures ;—t he Cynic phi losophy, the followers of whi311 'Greeted a great contempt of riches and of all scien ces except morality ;—a-nd the ,lqceptical philosophy, under Pyrrho, who affected to doubt everything.—In glancing at the history of philosophy, the student has abundant opportunities of observing its gradual ilevelupment as a science, and tracing the progress and aberrations of the human themselves Subjects most important and instructive. Departing from, or only partially retaining, the con flicting dogmas of the Greek awl Roman philosophers, we find the scholastics of the middle ages engaged in it struggle for the attainment of intellectual excellence, under the influence of principles derived front the Christian faith and doctrine ; yet the progress of philosophic truths wan for a long timo feeble, irregular, and vacillat ing. During the 15th century, there arcs° a freer and more independent spirit of inquiry, penetrating deeper into ultimate causes ; till at length, the cool and search ing energy of Bacon enabled him to pro duce his .Norung Organum, owl to give a more substantial basis to the efforts of the intellect., by making observation and ex perience the predominant character of philosophy. Sonic there were, however, who disputed his laws, and hence new theories occasionally obtained a tempora ry distinction; but his doctrines, in a great measure, ultimately prevailed ; and, at no distant period, the calm reasoning of Locke introduced into the study of the human mind the method of investigation which his great predecessor had pointed out. The subject, however, presents so wide and tempting a field for observation, that we dare not venture on it, lest, by unduly extending one article, we may be compelled to curtail others which equally demand our attention ; and enough, per haps, has been already said to direct the inquiring mind towards a study which; as it were, embraces all nature in its mighty grasp.
PlIWNIX, in fabulous history, a won derful bird which the ancients describe as of the size of an eagle ; its head finely crested with a beautiful plumage, its neck covered with feathers of ri gold color ; its tail white, and its hotly purple. By some authors this bird is said to come from Arabia to Egypt every five hundred years, at the death of his parent bringing the body with him, embalmed in myrrh, to the temple of the sun, where he buries it. According to others, when lie finds himself near his end, he prepares a nest of myrrh and precious herbs, in which he burns himself; but from his ashes he re vives in the freshness of youth. The several eras when the phcenix has been seen are fixed by tradition. The first, we are told, was in the reign of Sesostris; the second in that of Amasis; and in the pe riod when Ptolemy, the third of the Ma cedonian race, was seated on the throne of Egypt, another phrunix directed its flight towards Heliopolis. From late my thological researches, it is conjectured that the phcenix is a symbol of a period of 300 years, of which the conclusion was celebrated by a solemn sacrifice, in which the figure of a bird was burnt.