FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 301 



over our instinctive propensities is feeble and circumscribed. 

 In the intellectual process, there is interposed between the 

 impression (whether external or internal) and the action, 

 a certain degree of deliberation or reflection, after which 

 our free agency exercises its controul. In the case of our 

 instinctive powers, action follows the impression almost 

 instantaneously ; so that there is no time to deliberate, no 

 opportunity to choose. This is the natural condition of 

 our instinctive powers. But, by the force of habit, the in- 

 fluence of example, and the regulations of civilized life, we 

 acquire the power of interposing between the impression 

 and the action, a greater or less degree of deliberation, in 

 consequence of which we have an opportunity of exercising 

 restraint, and of regulating or preventing the action, which 

 the impression, without such controul, would have produced. 

 Frequently, however, the original tendency of the impres- 

 sion triumphs, or gives such a bias to our decision, that it 

 appears rather a necessary result of the original impression, 

 than a choice founded on deliberation. Still, however, there 

 is something confined and unnatural in such interference 

 of the reasoning powers with our instincts ; so that we are 

 ever in danger of breaking through the rules which they 

 impose, whether in regard to our appetites, desires, or af- 

 fections. An appeal to experience, for the justness of this 

 remark, will not here be made in vain ! Its truth is like- 

 wise established by the conduct of those who, while they 

 prescribe excellent rules for the regulation of life, paint, in 

 the most vivid colours, the dignity of virtue, and the mean- 

 ness of vice, continue enslaved by their passions, sensual, 

 avaricious, and implacable. The former part of their con- 

 duct is an intellectual process, in the performance of which, 

 they meet with no resistance ; in action, they have to con- 

 tend " with the law in their members waring against the 

 law of their mind."" 



