and every discovery, with respect to the mind, will amply repay the toil of the inquirer. Neither the errors nor the truths, relating to the mind, are confined to the mind itself. The mind is the universal organum of all sciences, the instrument by which all discoveries must be made; and, therefore, whatever relates to it, is unrivalled in its importance, and unlimited in its application. As far as speculation is concerned, the greatest of errors and the most mischievous, was the ideal theory, which undermined the base of all knowledge; and the greatest of discoveries, because the parent of genuine philosophy, was that which forms the foundation of Bacon's induction-his estimate of the human mind.

THE

PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND.

PART II.

INVESTIGATION BY INDUCTION.

In the following pages we have chiefly animadverted on writers whose talents we admire, and to whose opinions we generally assent. Where we disagree with any writer, a few remarks may be sufficient to detect the fallacy of his principles. On the other hand, where an author approximates to the truth, our very admiration of him leads us to point out what we conceive to be his few remaining blemishes. On this ground the opinions of many esteemed to be erroneous, or at least defective, are passed over with the less notice; and passages of Reid and Stuart, on account of their very excellence, are the more care

fully scrutinized.

In the following pages, novelty has been less sought after, than that central point of view, which reconciles conflicting opinions; and changes those who deem themselves mutually opposed, into fellow-labourers, co-operating, though unconsciously, in the establishment of the same ultimate principles.

INVESTIGATION BY INDUCTION.

153

SECTION FIRST.

PERCEPTION.

THE Philosophy of the Mind, in its utmost perfection, would consist in the history of all its thoughts as they rose, first simple, then with the various combinations into which they enter; and, lastly, in the enumeration of the ultimate laws which regulate all their changes. But, it is necessary to repeat, that of all subjects, we are least acquainted with our own minds. Our thoughts naturally flow outwards, and diffuse themselves over the external world. The elements of thought can never be said to exist uncombined; but, like the elements of matter, have so strong a tendency to unite, that it has not yet been in the power of man to exhibit them in a separate form.

The true science of mind is but in its infancy, nor is there any hope of its rapid advancement. It is with the combinations, and not with the elements of

thought, that we have to do in the ordinary business of life; and it is owing chiefly, if not altogether, to dangerous or conflicting theories respecting the mind, that we have ever recourse to the painful effort of turning the attention inwards, in order, amidst the darkness that gathers round the secret springs of existence, to discern the objects which are there invisible, till the eye is gradually accustomed to the surrounding dimness. The internal world is a labyrinth in which we can only proceed slowly, by the thread of inductive investigation; the thoughts soon become confused by the intricacy of the way; and one inquirer must succeed another, each bringing a fresh eye, and availing himself of the slight progress of his predecessors, before the mind of man shall become known to itself; and the recesses of that mysterious existence be discovered to us, which is ever present, and yet ever shaded from the view.

The origin of our knowledge, like every other subject respecting the mind, has been a fruitful source of endless disputes. Notwithstanding the number of sects, the theorists of the mind may be classed under two great subdivisions, according as their theories were chiefly drawn from the opposite world of matter or of spirit. The first considered our ideas to be only the slender images of things received into the mind through the inlet of the senses; the other conceived that the soul of man possessed within itself,