6 DISCOURSE ON THE STUDY 



the perception of any phenomenon without or within 

 him, to infer the existence of something prior which 

 stands to it in the relation of a cause, without which 

 it would not be, and that this knowledge of causes 

 and their consequences is what, in almost every in- 

 stance, determines his choice and will, in cases where 

 he is nevertheless conscious of perfect freedom to 

 act or not to act. He finds, too, that it is in his 

 power to acquire more or less knowledge of causes 

 and effects according to the degree of attention he 

 bestows upon them, which attention is again in great 

 measure a voluntary act ; and often when his choice 

 has been decided on imperfect knowledge or insuffi- 

 cient attention, he finds reason to correct his judg- 

 ment, though perhaps too late to influence his deci- 

 sion by after consideration. A world within him is 

 thus opened to his intellectual view, abounding with 

 phenomena and relations, and of the highest imme- 

 diate interest. But while he cannot help perceiving 

 that the insight he is enabled to obtain into this internal 

 sphere of thought and feeling is in reality the source 

 of all his power, the very fountain of his predominance 

 over external nature, he yet feels himself capable of 

 entering only very imperfectly into these recesses of 

 his own bosom, and analysing the operations of his 

 mind, in this as in all other things, in short, " a being 

 darkly wise;'' seeing that all the longest life and most 

 vigorous intellect can give him power to discover by 

 his own research, or time to know by availing him- 

 self of that of others, serves only to place him on 

 the very frontier of knowledge, and afford a distant 

 glimpse of boundless realms beyond, where no human 

 thought has penetrated, but which yet he is sure 



