Philosophy of the Human Mind. 33 



of all the interests of evangelical truth and prac- 

 tical piety. 



The controversy respecting the immateriality of 

 the soul between Dr. Clarke and Mr. Collins, 

 and many years afterwards between Dr. Price and 

 Dr. Priestley, forms a very important part of 

 the metaphysical history of the period in which 

 they lived; and probably furnishes some of the 

 most luminous views of this interesting controversy 

 that were ever presented to the world. Some of 

 the immaterialists of this age, such as Dr. Clarke, 

 Dr. Price, and others, maintained, that the mind 

 has one property, viz. extension, in common with 

 matter, and, consequently, that it occupies space, 

 and has a proper locality, or, as the schoolmen ex- 

 press it, ubiety ; while others, such as Dr. Watts, 

 perhaps more consistently and philosophically sup- 

 posed, that mind has no common property with 

 matter; that it is inextended, does not occupy 

 space, and has no proper locality. 17 



The celebrated dispute between the Nominalists 

 and Realists, which perplexed the schoolmen for 

 so many ages/ and which all their acuteness was 

 not able to terminate, was carried on with great 

 warmth, under different names, and with some 



c See Correspondence between Price and Priestley; and aho/Ekmcnts of 

 the Philosophy of Mind, by T. BEL3HAM. 



d The Realists followed the doctrine of Aristotle with respect to uni- 

 versal ideas. They taught that previous to, and independent on matter, 

 there were no universal ideas or essentes ; but that the ideas or exemplars, 

 which the Platonists supposed to have existed in the Divine mind, and to* 

 have been the models of all created beings, had been eternally impressed 

 upon matter, and were coeval with, and inherent in, their objects. On the 

 other hand, the Nominalists, who embraced the doctrine of Zeno and the 

 Stoics, insisted, in opposition both to the Aristotelians and Platonists, that 

 these pretended universals had neither fortn nor essence, and were no more 

 than mere terms, or nominal representations of their particular objects. 

 The doctrine of Aristotle chiefly prevailed until the eleventh century, 

 when Rose eli nus embraced the Stoical system, and founded the sect of 

 the Nominalists, whose opinions were propagated with great success by 

 Abelard. These two sects frequently disputed and divided into inferior 

 parties among themselves. 



VOL. II. F 



