290 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL 



who collects and dissects and describes species, bear tLa 

 same relation to the researches of the comparative anato 

 mist tracing out the laws of organization, which Mr. Bain s 

 labours bear to the labours of the abstract psychologist, 

 we should be going somewhat too far ; for Mr. Bain s work 

 is not wholly descriptive. Still, however, such an analogy 

 conveys the best general conception of what he has done ; 

 and serves most clearly to indicate its needfulness. For 

 as, before there can be made anything like true generaliza 

 tions respecting the classification of organisms and the laws 

 of organization, there must be an extensive accumulation 

 of the facts presented in numerous organic bodies ; so, 

 without a tolerably-complete delineation of mental phenom 

 ena of all orders, there can scarcely arise any adequate the 

 ory of the mind. Until recently, mental science has been 

 pursued much as physical science was pursued by the an 

 cients : not by drawing conclusions from observations and 

 experiments, but by drawing them from arbitrary a priori 

 assumptions. This course, long since abandoned in the one 

 case with immense advantage, is gradually being abandoned 

 in the other ; and the treatment of Psychology as a division 

 of natural history, shows that the abandonment will soon be 

 complete. 



Estimated as a means to higher results, Mr. Bain s work 

 is of great value. Of its kind it is the most scientific in 

 conception, the most catholic in spirit, and the most com 

 plete in execution. Besides delineating the various classes 

 of mental phenomena as seen under that stronger light 

 thrown on them by modern science, it includes in the pic 

 ture much which previous writers had omitted partly 

 from prejudice, partly from ignorance. We refer more 

 especially to the participation of bodily organs in mental 

 changes ; and the addition to the primary mental changes, 

 of those many secondary ones which the actions of the 

 bodily organs generate. Mr. Bain has, AVC believe, been 



