PREFACE. 



OBSERVATION and experience have convinced me of the 

 narrowing and misleading effects upon the mind of an in 

 complete conception of what is meant by the term &quot;Nature.&quot; 

 It is too generally taken as denoting the assemblage of 

 phenomena external to and apart from the human mind, 

 which, none the less is one of the most important objects 

 which presents itself to our perception. Hence arises a 

 necessary imperfection. But a worse evil follows. &quot; Nature,&quot; 

 taken in this limited sense, is often made use of to explain 

 that which has been tacitly excluded from it. Thus it is 

 that the facts and processes of Eeason are apt to be first 

 io-nored in order that they may be afterwards treated as if 

 the mere phenomena of irrational nature were sufficient to 

 explain them. 



Impressed with this conviction it has been my endeavour 

 to point out in the following chapters (in however imperfect 

 and fragmentary a manner) what I deem the most important 

 lessons to be derived from &quot; Nature,&quot; in the broad sense of 

 that word as a great whole of which the mind of man forms 

 part. For us indeed the facts of mind form the inevitable 

 starting-point from which we must set out in order to study, 



