Professor Stewart's History 



an his confidence in the untried capacities 

 q/' the mind; and on a conviction of the 

 possibility of invigorating and guiding, 

 by means of logical rules, those faculties 

 which, in all our researches after truth, 

 are the oigans or instruments to be em- 

 ployed. " Such rules," as he himself 

 lias observed, " do in some sort equal 

 men's wits, and leave no great advantage 

 or pre-eminence to the perfect and ex- 

 cellent motions of the spirit. To draiv 

 a straight line, or to describe a circle, by 

 aim of hand only, there mutt be a great 

 difference between an unsteady and un- 

 practised hand, and a steady and prac- 

 tised ; but to do it by rule or comiiass it 

 is much alike." 



Nor is it merely as a logician that Ba- 

 con is entitled to notice on the present 

 occasion. It would beditticult to name 

 another writer, prior to Locke, whose 

 works are enriched with so many just 

 observations on the intellectual pheno- 

 mena. Among the^e, the most valuable 

 relate to the laws of Memory and of 

 Imagination; the latter of which suhjects 

 he seems to have studied with peculiar 

 ci:re. In one short but beautiful para- 

 graph concerning Foetry (under which 

 title may be comprehended all the vari- 

 ous creations of this faculty), he has 

 exhausted every thing that pliilosophy 

 and good sense liave yet had to offer on 

 what has been since called the bean 

 ideal; a topic which has furnished occa- 

 sion to so many over-refinements among 

 the French critics, anil to so much ex- 

 travagance and mysticism in the cloud- 

 capt metaphysics of the new German 

 scIkjoI. In considering imaijination as 

 connected with the nervous system, 

 more particularly as connected with that 

 species of sympathy to which medical 

 writers have given the name of imi.tation, 

 he has suggested some very important 

 hints, which none of his successors have 

 hitherto prosecuted; and has, at the 

 same time, left an example of cautious 

 inquiry, worthy to be studied by all who 

 may attempt to investigate the laws re- 

 gulating the union between Mind and 

 Body. His illustration of the different 

 classes of prejudices incident to hum;in 

 nature is, in point of practical utility, at 

 itast equal to any thing on that head to 

 {>e found in Locke; of whom it is impos- 

 bible to torbear remarking, as a circum- 

 stance not easily explicable, that he 

 should have resumed this important dis. 

 cusbion, without once mentioning the 

 name of his great predecessor. The 

 chief improvement made by Locke, in 

 the furllier prosecution of tlie argumeut, 



of the Progress of Philosophy. 581 



is the application of Ilobbes's theory of 

 association, to explain in what manner 

 these prejudices are originally gene* 

 rated. 



In Bacon's scattered hints on topics 

 connected with the Philosophy of the 

 Mind, strictly so called, nothing is more 

 remarkable than the precise and just 

 ideas they display of the proper aim of 

 this science. He had manifestly reflected 

 much and successfully on the operations 

 of his own understanding, and had stu- 

 died »vith uncommon sagacity the inteU 

 If ctual characters of others. Of the fe- 

 flections and observations on both sub- 

 jects he has recorded many important 

 results; and has in general stated them 

 without the slightest reference to any phy- 

 siological theory concerning their causes, 

 or tu any analogical explanations founded 

 on the caprices of metaphorical lan- 

 guage. If, on some occasions, he as- 

 sumes the existence of animal spirits, as 

 the medium of communication between 

 Soul and Body, it must be remembered 

 that this was then the universal belief of 

 the learned; and that it was, at a much 

 later period, not less confidently avowed 

 by Locke. Nor ought it to be over- 

 looked (1 mention it to the credit of both 

 authors), that in such instances the fact 

 is commonly so stated as to render it 

 easy for the reader to detach it from the 

 theory. As to the scholastic questions 

 concerning the nature and essence of 

 mind, — -whether it he extended or un- 

 extended ? whether it have any relation 

 to space or to time? or whether (as was 

 contended by others) it exist in every 

 uhi, but in no place}— Bacon has uni. 

 fonnly passed them over with silent con- 

 tempt; and has probably contributed not 

 less effectually to bring them into general 

 discredit, by this indirect intimation of 

 his own opinion, than if he had descend- 

 ed to the ungrateful task of exposing 

 their absurdity. 



IIOBBES. 



" The philosopher of Malmesbury," 

 says Dr. Warburton, " was the terror of 

 the last age, as Tindall and Collins are 

 of this. The press sweat with contro- 

 versy, and every young churchman mili- 

 tant would try his arms in thundering on 

 Hobbes's steel cap." Nor was the op- 

 position to Hobbes confined to the cle- 

 rical order, or lo the controversialists of 

 his own times. The most eminent mo- 

 ralists and politicians of the eighteenth 

 century may be ranked in the number of 

 his antagonists, and, even at the present 

 moment, ••caicely does there appear a 

 new publication on Etiiics or Jurispru. 

 4 E 2 deuce, 



