Chap. XII.] Philosophy of the Human Mind. 167 



example of writing on such abstract subjects with 

 simplicity and perspicuity ; and tliere is, pcrliaps, 

 no work, in any language, ** better adapted to 

 teach men to think with precision, and to inspire 

 them with that candour and love of truth which 

 are the genuine spirit of philosophy." 



Though des Cartes had done much, before the 

 time of Mr. Locke *, to correct the errours which 

 abounded in the ancient systems of metaphysics ; 

 and though some of the leading opinions of that 

 great French philosopher were adopted by the il- 

 histrious Briton, yet the latter was, in many re- 

 spects, an original, and a reformer in science. His 

 investigations concerning the origin and formation 

 of ideas, concerning the use and abuse of terms, 

 and concerning the extent and limits of our intel- 

 lectual powers, are well known by those conver- 

 sant with the philosophy of mind to display many 

 new doctrines, and to place their author among 

 the most profound thinkers. Mr. Locke differed 

 from des Cartes with respect to the origin of our 

 ideas. The latter thought some of them are in- 

 nate ; the former maintained that there are no in- 



* Dcs Cartes was the first metaphysician who drew a plain and 

 intelligible line of distinction between the intdkctuul and ma* 

 it rial world, or between spirit and bodt/. Tke importance and 

 utility of this disHnction are obvious. He was the tirst who 

 showed that the analogical mode of reasoning, concerning the 

 powers of the mind, from the properties of body, is totally erro- 

 neous ; and that accurate reflection on the operations of our o^^•n 

 mind is the only way to gain a just knowledge of them, it was 

 his philosophy which brought ihe phantasma, the samblt sptcics, the 

 substantial forms, &c. of the old systems into disgrace, and intro- 

 duced a more simple, perspicuous, and rational metiiod of inves- 

 tigating metaphysical truth. 



