Examination of the Principles of the Scoto - Oxonian Philosophy. By Timologas.
(Chapman and Hall.)—This pamphlet seems to have been published about two years ago, as a criticism on the Bampton Lectures of Mr. Mansel and the philosophical doctrine of Sir William Hamilton, which those celebrated lectures adopted and applied to theology. Timologus, whose real name is Bolton, asserts that Hamilton and Mansel teach that the Absolute, the Unconditioned, and the Infinite are necessarily beyond the sphere of consciousness, and yet necessarily to be believed. This, Mr. Bolton contends, is a contradiction in terms, for belief is only "a mode of consciousness." Two defenders of Hamilton and Mansel sprang up—a writer in the Saturday Review, and Mr. T. Collyns Simon ; and Mr. Bolton replied to them. Accordingly, with his original pamphlet we have here a " Reply to a Critique in the Saturday Review," and a "Postscript to the Reply to the Saturday Review ;" also a "Letter to T. Collyns Simon, Esq.," and " Remarks on a Letter of Mr. Simon," and " Additional Remarks," and an "Appendix," to say nothing of copious notes. As the article of the Saturday Review and the letters of Mr. Simon are not given, it is, of course, impossible for the reader fairly to enter into the points at issue, so that it would have been better if Mr. Bolton had either digested the matter of these controversial utterances into a connected treatise, or else have allowed them to go the way of all other ephemeral publications.
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