Additional Notes. 455 



M There are at least ten distinct intellectual powers. NoC 

 one of these can be accounted for by one or more of the 

 others. There are, 1. The powers which we have by means 

 of our five senses. 2. Attention. 3. Memory. 4. Abstrac- 

 tion. 5. Judging. 6. Reasoning. 1. Taste. 8. Powers of 

 moral perception. 9. Consciousness. 10. Conception. Each 

 of these is distinct, and a distinct source of ideas. The active 

 powers, moreover, arc numerous; and the mind, so consti- 

 tuted, is capable of a vast variety of thoughts, differing in 

 kind and degree. Do vibrations afford an equal variety? No: 

 it is not possible that there should be any more than two kinds 

 of vibrations in a uniform elastic medium. 1. They may be 

 quick or slow. 2. They maybe strong or weak. These 

 kinds admit of various degrees; and this is all the variety of 

 which the laws of matter (however finely organized the ma- 

 chine) will admit. Now, he must certainly be ignorant of 

 his own mental operations, or of the laws of motion in mat- 

 ter, who can be persuaded of an exact correspondence of the 

 one to the other. Certainly credulity never appeared more 

 conspicuous in the devotees of Popish superstition than it 

 does in the advocates and believers of the material system ! 



" Shall vibrations in an elastic medium be supposed to ac- 

 count for all the original powers, intellectual and active? Put 

 all these out of the question except; one class, viz. the powers 

 we have by our external senses, and even then there is a ma- 

 nifest disparity. Had we no sensations but those of hearing , 

 this theory would not be so contemptible. There is a cor- 

 respondence between vibrations and sound. These sensations 

 will themselves appropriate all the varieties of vibrations; and 

 even then it will be necessary to conceive of some sentient 

 being, capable of those sensations, distinct from all the vi- 

 brations which produce them. 



" Hearing, however, is but one of our senses; and its sen- 

 sations are the most simple: they differ only in degree. By 

 each of the other four we have a variety of sensations which 

 differ specifically as well as in degree. Who can name the 

 varieties of colour which we perceive by the eye? Tastes and 

 smells are innumerable. They differ specifically, and each 

 is capable of all degrees of strength and weakness. But how 

 shah we find in vibrations a variety corresponding to the im- 

 mense variety of sensations which we have from sight, hear- 

 ing, taste, smell, and touch? And how shall they account 

 for all the ideas which we have from all the other sources 

 and powers of thought, upon mechanical principles? Com- 



