
wae 

ATTENDING THE EXERCISE OF THE SENSES. 515 
in regard to the mental part of the process concerned in the exercise of the 
senses,—probably admitting of much more subtle analysis, and more learned 
discussion than I can presume to offer,—but already sufficiently certain and pre- 
cise, to constitute an important part of the science of Physiology ; and remarkably 
in accordance with all that has since been ascertained, as to the physical part of 
that process. 
As I was myself honoured in early life with the friendship both of Mr Srewarr 
and Dr Brown, and as I know well how much the former of these illustrious men 
was pained by finding that the latter, when succeeding him in the Chair of Moral 
Philosophy, had (as he afterwards expressed it) “given countenance to some 
doctrines, which, to more cautious and profound thinkers, appear to have a prac- 
tical tendency quite at variance with his known principles and opinions ;” (Ele- 
ments of the Philosophy of the Mind, p. 502)—although I believe that the natural 
partiality of Mr Srewarr to the studies to which he had devoted his life, had 
led him to exaggerate, in some degree, their practical importance,—still I feel 
much gratified at bemg able, as I think, in some measure to reconcile the appa- 
rently conflicting statements in their writings, and point out the misapprehensions 
—almost entirely on the part of Dr BRown—to which they may be traced. 
It will be generally admitted, that the first object of Rerp and Stewart was 
to ascertain, by strict induction, the existence, and establish the authority, of 
certain Principles of Common Sense, as they were termed by Rem; Primary Ele- 
ments of Human Reason, or Fundamental Laws of Human Belief, as they were 
termed by Stewart; Principles of Intuitive Belief, or Truths learned by Intuition, 
—perhaps the best name for them,—as they were since termed by Brown; which 
must be regarded as witimate facts in the constitution of the human Mind, equally 
essential to all reasoning, to all scientific inquiry, to the acquisition of all practical 
knowledge, and to the daily business of life. 
Now the existence of such principles of Belief, and their authority, as ultimate 
facts in our mental constitution, are fully admitted by all the authors I have quoted; 
by no one are they more clearly and emphatically announced than by Dr Brown. 
“Principles of intuitive belief,’ he says, ‘‘are essential to Philosophy in all its 
forms, as they are physically essential, indeed, to the very preservation of our 
animal existence.” “The belief of owr identity is not the result of any series of 
propositions ; but arises immediately, in certain circumstances, from a Principle 
of thought, as essential to the very nature of the Mind, as its powers of Perception 
or Memory, or as the power of Reasoning itself; on the essential validity of which, 
and consequently on the intuitive belief of some jirst truth on which it is founded, 
every objection to the force of these very truths themselves must ultimately rest. 
To object is to argue; and to argue is to assert the validity of argument, and 
therefore of the primary evidence, from which the evidence of each succeeding 
proposition of the argument flows. ‘To object to the authority of such primary 
