Philosophy of the Human Mind. 1 1 



Mind on the Principles of Common Sense, and af- 

 terwards in his Essays on the Intellechtal and Active 

 Powers of Man, gave a display, and attempted a 

 refutation of the sceptical philosophy, which no 

 one who suitably estimates the importance of the 

 subject, can peruse without profound respect for 

 the'author and the deepest interest in hisrea'scnings.^ 

 He totally rejected the ideal system, or theory of 

 perception, as taught by his predecessors, and 

 maintained, that the mind perceives not merely the 

 ideas or images of external objects, but the ex- 

 ternal objects themselves; that when these are 

 presented to our senses, they produce certain im- 

 pressions ; that these impressions are followed by 

 correspondent sensations; and these sensations by 

 a perception of the existence and qualities of the 

 objects about which the mind is employed. He 

 contended that all the steps of this process are 

 equally incomprehensible; that we can assign no 

 other reason for these facts taking place, but that 

 such is the constitution of our nature; and that 

 when sensible objects are presented to us, we be- 

 come persuaded that they exist, and that they pos- 

 sess the qualities which we witness, not by a train 

 of reasoning, by formal reflection, or by associ- 

 ation of ideas 5 but by a direct and necessary con- 

 nection between the presence of such objects and 

 our consequent perceptions. In short, the great 

 and distinguishing peculiarity of this class of meta- 

 physicians is, that they appeal from the delusive 

 principles and shocking conclusions of their op- 

 ponents, to the Common Sense of mankind, as a tri- 

 bunal paramount to all the subtleties of philosophy. 

 The same principle they apply to memory, and 

 other powers of the mind. 



It is obvious, from this view of Dr. Reid's la- 

 bours, that, although he has taken much pains to 

 overturn the old ideal system, he has not ventured 



