86 PSYCHOLOGY. 



organs of sense may receive impressions, and the mind remain insen- 

 sible to them, from "inactivity or pre-engagement. Hence the import- 

 ance of Mention, to insure correct perceptions. The eye and the 

 ear, or the senses of seeing and hearing, are the sources of nearly all 

 those ideas which are connected with the Fine Arts; and from 

 which the Intellectual sentiments are chiefly derived. Hence, they 

 are the senses chiefly concerned in the cultivation of taste ; though 

 subordinate to the intellectual powers. Wonderful is the adaptation 

 of our senses to the world in which we live. Were the whole body 

 as sensible to light as the eye, or to sound as the ear, we should be 

 in continual torture ; and were the eye and ear less sensible to these 

 agents, the)'- would no longer serve their purpose, to put the mind in 

 communication with the external world. This admirable harmony of 

 our being, is one among many proofs of the existence and benevo- 

 lence of the Deity. 



4. The Reflective Powers, of which we, are lastly to treat, are 

 the highest class of intellectual powers; by the action of which, all 

 the others are, or should be regulated. They are developed later 

 than most of the preceding powers ; on which they are primarily 

 dependent for ideas and motives. Ideas being once acquired by 

 Perception, may be recalled by Memory, prompted by their previous 

 relations ; and may be variously modified or combined by the Ima- 

 gination or Fancy. Memory, and Imagination, have been termed 

 reflex perception ; and though not reasoning powers, they are men- 

 tal exercises auxiliary to them, as furnishing the materials on which 

 these are employed. That cognisance which the mind takes of its 

 own operations may be called internal perception, or reflection ; and 

 this likewise, furnishes materials for reasoning. Habit, or the forma- 

 tion of habits, we regard as depending on Memory, and the Will, 

 influenced by the Association of ideas. The writers on Phrenology, 

 rank Language with the perceptive powers ; but it seems to us to 

 belong rather to the reflective powers, and is be intimately connected 

 with the Association of ideas ; which we regard as the basis of all 

 reasoning. 



The process of reasoning, including Conception, Comparison, and 

 Inference or Causality, has already been alluded to, under the 

 branch of Logic. By Conception, we recall ideas, not necessarily 

 as matters of feeling or fact, but simply as objects of thought: by 

 the faculty of Individuality, we consider several ideas belonging to 

 a complex object, as a whole, or generalize them : and by Abstrac- 

 tion, we consider the simple or component ideas separately, or ana- 

 lyze them. By Comparison, we examine two ideas in connection, 

 and form a Judgment ; and by Inference or Causality, we combine two 

 or more judgments or propositions, to deduce a Conclusion ; or we 

 seek a cause of some effect, or an effect of some cause. Analogy, 

 and Induction, or rather analogical and inductive reasoning, which 

 we have referred to, under Logic, may, we think, be considered as 

 distinct processes, if not distinct mental powers. 



In describing the mental powers, we must carefully guard against 

 the idea that these powers collectively constitute the mind ; as an 

 assemblage of Senators may compose a Senate. They are to be 



