
ATTENDING THE EXERCISE OF THE SENSES. 531 
But if he had rightly comprehended the argument of Hume and BERKELEY, he 
would have known, that they not only demanded a clear passage from the mind 
' to the material object, but maintained that it is absurd to assert that any such 
passage exists; because, as we have seen, they said that by our senses we have the 
knowledge only of our Sensations or Ideas, call them which we will, and nothing 
can possibly resemble a sensation, except another sensation in the same or another 
mind; to which assertion and consequent imputation of absurdity it was that Dr 
Rei opposed the fuct in the natural history of the mind, that by our senses we 
have the act of Perception excited in our minds, involving, as all admit, an intui- 
tive belief ; and which, particularly in the case of the primary qualities of matter, 
is distinctly felt by us to be separate from the sensation by which it is excited, 
and utterly incapable of comparison with it. 
But it is equally obvious, that this perception and belief, being regarded as an 
ultimate fact, or as containing in itself an ultimate fact in our mental constitution, 
like every other wltimate fact, physical or moral, involves a mystery ; and one on 
which we must accustom our minds to dwell, if we would form to ourselves any 
clear notions as to the constitution of the human mind, or its connection with the 
Divine Mind. It is only by a kind of Instinct, as expressed by D’ALEmBERT, but 
it seems better to use the term Intuition,—“prior to Reason, and superior to reason, 
—that the human mind can overleap the gulf that separates the visible world, 
from the percipient soul.” 
I have already shewn that by the admission of Dr Brown himself, in all de- 
partments of human knowledge, we meet with such ultimate facts and principles 
of intuitive belief, any farther explanation of which can be given us only by “the 
great teacher, Death;” and very little reflection is sufficient to shew that the only 
objects which we can propose to ourselves in any inquiry which lies on the con- 
fines of Matter and Mind,—in which both physical changes and mental acts are 
concerned,—are to ascertain the exact phenomena on each side of the line of de- 
marcation, the precise conditions under which they take place, and the precise 
laws by which they are determined,—the mode of union being beyond our com- 
prehension. But so restricting our objects of inquiry, we may confidently as- 
sert, that enough has been ascertained in regard to the mental operations con- 
sequent on the impressions on our senses, as well as to their physical conditions, 
to form an important body of science, and furnish conclusions of the highest 
interest. 
I think myself justified by what has been stated, in affirming that in so far as 
Dr Brown thought he had detected an essential error in the reasonings of Dr 
Rep on this subject, he had deceived himself; and that in so far as he made a 
Teal advance, in our knowledge of the manner in which the notion of the primary 
qualities of matter is formed in the human mind, he proceeded strictly in accord- 
ance with the principles of Rem and Srewarr; and therefore, that it is only 
