THE first thing we have to say respecting what
are called new views here in New England, at the
present time, is, that they are not new, but the very
oldest of thoughts cast into the mould of these new
times. The light is always identical in its compo-
sition, but it falls on a great variety of objects, and
by so falling is first revealed to us, not in its own
form, for it is formless, but in theirs; in like man-
ner, thought only appears in the objects it classi-
fies. What is popularly called Transcendentalism
among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in
1842. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided
into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first
class founding on experience, the second on con-
sciousness; the first class beginning to think from
the data of the senses, the second class perceive
that the senses are not final, and say, The senses
give us representations of things, but what are the
things themselves, they cannot tell. The materi-
alist insists on facts, on history, on the force of
circumstances and the animal wants of man; the

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