t02 Philosophijof the Human Mind, [Chap. XIL 



as the friends and advocates of this system, pro-* 

 fessor Reinhold, of Kiel; professor Sch in id, of Jena; 

 professor Born, of Leipsic; professorJakob, of Halle; 

 professor Beck, of Rastock ; and Messrs. Will, Rei- 

 marus, Mellin, and Adelung, hold a conspicuous 

 place. On the contrary, among its opponents m'c 

 find the names of professor Plattner, of Leipsic; pror 

 fessor Tiedemann, of Alarpurg ; professor Flatt, of 

 Tiibingen; professor Selle, of Berlin ; professor Maas, 

 of Ilalle ; and of Messrs. Feder, Eberhard, Herder, 

 and others. The controversy to which the Orilical 

 Philosophy has given rise, as it has produced a 

 multitude of voluminous publications, so it will 

 long be ranked among the most curious and in- 

 terestinq; of the a2:e. 



In the latter half of the century under consider- 

 ation, a new doctrine concerning the human 

 mind was announced, which is entitled to some no- 

 tice in this place. This doctrine, it is believed, 

 >vas first adopted and advanced by M. Helvetius, 

 a celebrated French writer*. He was followed by 



* Claude Adrian Helvetiiis was born in Paris, in the year 1/15. 

 In the year 1/58 he produced his first work, entitled, C Esprit, 

 ■which, on account of its atheistical principles, was condemned by 

 the parliament of Paris. The odium which he incurred hereby 

 induced him to visit England in I7t»4, and thence he went to 

 Prussia, where he was very favourably received by the king. 

 On his return to France he led a retired life in the country, and 

 died in J /"/I' His treatise on Man, formed on the same princi- 

 ples with his first work, was published a short time before his 

 death. He wrote a poem, in six cantoes, entitled Lc Bunhcur, 

 which was published in 1772. Helvetius may be regarded as one 

 of the tarliest and most conspicuous of the advocates for that sy- 

 stem of watenalism, and of athddical nicrus, usually called. the 

 new philusophif. 



