Additional Notes. 447 



of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow in 1763. 

 His Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of 

 Common Sense, was published in 1764; his Essays on the. 

 Intellectual Powers of Man, in 1785 ; and his Essays on the 

 Active Powers, in 1738. He died October 7, 1796, in the 

 87th year of his age. Few men, since the days of Locke, 

 have discovered talents more eminently fitted to explore the 

 regions of mind than this philosopher. 



Dr. Retd\s Philosophy, p. 11. 



Besides the doctrine of perception, stated in the above*. 

 mentioned page, Dr. Reid's system is distinguished by a 

 view of the powers of the mind, or of the sources of our 

 ideas, which differs considerably from the systems of his pre- 

 decessors. Instead of dividing the intellectual powers into 

 simple apprehension, judgment and reasoning, as the greater 

 number of metaphysical writers have done since the days of 

 Aristotle, he considers this division as far from embracing 

 all the phenomena of mind. He does not, indeed, attempt 

 a complete enumeration of all the powers of the human un- 

 derstanding; but supposes that there are at least nine ; viz. 



1. The powers we have by means of our external senses. 



2. Memory. 3. Conception. 4. The powers of resolving 

 and analysing complex objects, and compounding those which 

 are more simple. 5. Judging. 6. Reasoning. 7. Taste. 

 8. Moral perception. 9. Consciousness. — Each of these he 

 supposes to be an original and distinct power, not resolvable 

 into any one or more of the rest. 



This may be pronounced an important step in the progress 

 of metaphysical science. Incalculable injury has been done 

 to various branches of philosophy by injudicious attempts to 

 reduce numerous facts and principles to one or two classes, 

 when they do not admit of such plausible simplification, and 

 when they can be considered with advantage only in detail. 

 The progress of medical science has been retarded by too close 

 an adherence to systems of nosological arrangement. Che- 

 mical philosophy may also be said to have been disserved by 

 premature attempts to form a regular classification of its phe- 

 nomena. Metaphysicians have fallen into a similar mistake. 

 One writer on the "human mind tells us that all its operations 

 may be explained by referring them to sensation and reflection. 

 Another would derive all our ideas from sensation only ; while 



