312 BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL. 



suits of detailed analysis aided by development. Whether 

 we trace mental progression through the grades of the ani- 

 mal kingdom, through the grades of mankind, or through 

 the stages of individual growth ; it is obvious that the ad 

 vance, alike in cognitions and feelings, is, and must be, 

 from the presentative to the more and more remotely rep- 

 resentative. It is undeniable that intelligence ascends 

 from those simple perceptions in which consciousness is 

 occupied in localizing and classifying sensations, to percep- 

 tions more and more compound, to simple reasoning, to 

 reasoning more and more complex and abstract — more 

 and more remote from sensation. And in the evolution of 

 feelings, there is a parallel series of steps. Simple sensa- 

 tions ; sensations combined together ; sensations combined 

 with represented sensations ; rej^resented sensations organ- 

 ized into groups, in which their separate characters are 

 very much merged ; representations of these representa- 

 tive groups, in which the original components have be- 

 come still more vague. In both cases, the progress 

 has necessarily been from the simple and concrete to 

 the complex and abstract : and as with the cognitions, 

 so Tvith the feelings, this must be the basis of classifi- 

 cation. 



The space here occupied with criticisms on Mr. Bain's 

 work, we might have filled with exposition and eulogy, had 

 we thought this the more important. Though we have 

 freely pointed out what we conceive to be its defects, let it 

 not be inferred that we question its great merits. We re- 

 peat that, as a natural history of the mind, we believe it to 

 be the best yet produced. It is a most valuable collection 

 of carefully-elaborated materials. Perhaps we cannot bet- 

 ter express our sense of its worth, than by saying that, to 

 those who hereafter give to this branch of Pi^ychology a 

 thoroughly scientific organization, Mr. Bain's book will be 

 indispensable. 



