Philosophy of the Human Mind, 3 



truths which are self-evident and such as require 

 demonstration, has been introduced, and is still 

 gaining ground. And although the sceptical ten- 

 dency of the age has retarded the progress of this 

 department of philosophy in these various respects, 

 yet we have reason to rejoice that so much progress, 

 through defiles of error, has been made as to render 

 the last age one of the most distinguished periods 

 in the annals of the human mind. 



It is, however, a curious fact, that while a much 

 more simple and intelligible philosophy of mindhas, 

 in the course of the last age, taken the place of 

 former perplexed and abstruse systems, yet the study 

 of metaphysics, through the whole of that age, has 

 been almost uniformly declining in popularity. 

 That taste for light and superficial reading which 

 so remarkably characterizes modern times, cannot 

 endure the accurate, the profound, and the patient 

 thinking, so indispensably necessary for pursuing 

 investigations into the laws, powers, and progress 

 of our intellectual faculties. Hence the word 

 metaphysics is seldom pronounced but with con- 

 tempt, as signifying something useless, unintelli- 

 gible, or absurd. But the profundity and diffi- 

 culty of the subject do not form the only reason 

 of that general neglect, and want of popularity 

 attending studies of this kind, at a period when 

 they might be expected to command more esteem 

 and attention. The dreams, and mystical non- 

 sense of the schoolmen, which scarcely began to 

 be rejected till the time of Descartes, and which 

 were not generally thrown aside till after the la- 

 bours of Mr. Locke, led a large number, even of 

 the literary and ingenious, to decry pursuits of this 

 nature, and to imbibe strong prejudices against 

 them. These prejudices have descended through 

 successive generations, and are yet far from having 

 lost their iniluence. But if wz/^/ be our better part $ 



