OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 731 



process of ' vibration ' was assumed as the elementary 

 motion in brain and nerves, this hypothetical physiology 

 did not exclude the reference to a psychical association 

 of mental processes. All philosophy of mind in this 

 country, including that of James and J. S. Mill, may 

 be termed introspective ; the term " mental chemistry " 

 was indeed used, but the elements in this chemistry 

 were not material things but ideas. The assistance of 

 biology proper, i.e., of the physiology of the senses and 

 the brain, came to be imported from the Continent into 

 English psychology, notably by Bain and Maudsley, and 

 has, since their time, been further developed through 

 Spencer and Lewes, and to some extent also under the 

 foreign influence of Wundt. In opposition to the latter, 

 however, Bain himself raised his voice in one of his latest 

 deliverances.'^ 



Now it is one of the principal features of recent 87. 



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philosophy in this country that it has re-established again *^e ™t™- 



t- r J J o spective 



in its supreme place the introspective method. This was °>®'^^°'^- 

 very marked in Prof. James "Ward's first article on 

 " Psychology" (1886) mentioned in an earlier chapter.^ 

 In this new departure the traditional bent of the British 

 mind has again asserted itself. A continuity is estab- 

 lished with the introspective line of thought which 

 started with Locke and was carried on through Berkeley, 

 Hume, and the Scottish School, down to J. S. Mill. But 

 in distinction from them the new departure urged the 

 necessity of looking at mental life as a whole, of break- 

 ing with the atomising processes of the " faculty " and 

 " association "-psychology, of studying the continuum of 



^ See supra, vol. ii. p. 527. ^ lb., vol. iii. p. 277. 



