VII. 

 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL, 



AFTER the controversy between the Nej^tunists and 

 the Yulcanists had been long carried on without defi- 

 nite results, there came a reaction against all speculative 

 geology. Reasoning without adequate data having led to 

 nothing, inquirers went into the opposite extreme, and con- 

 fining themselves wholly to collecting data, relinquished 

 reasoning. The Geological Society of London was formed 

 with the express object of accumulating evidence ; for many 

 years hypotheses were forbidden at its meetings ; and only 

 of late have attempts to organize the mass of observations 

 into consistent theory been tolerated. 



This reaction and subsequent re-reaction, well illustrate 

 the recent history of English thought in general. The 

 time was when our countrymen speculated, certainly to as 

 great an extent as any other people, on all those high ques- 

 tions which present themselves to the human intellect; 

 and, indeed, a glance at the systems of philosophy that are 

 or have been current on the Continent, sufiices to show how 

 much other nations owe to the discoveries of our ances- 

 tors. For a generation or two, however, these more ab- 

 stract subjects have fiillen into neglect ; and, among those 

 who plume themselves on being " practical," even into con- 



