CiiAP. XII.] Philosophy of the Tinman Mind. 205 



During the last age several (.letached parts of 

 the pliilosophy of iiiiiul have been illustrated in a 

 manner greatly superior to the attempts at expla- 

 nation made in former periods. Perhaps there is 

 no subject to which this remark more forcibly ap- 

 plies than to the great question of Liberty and Ac- 

 cessity, which, through so many successive ages, 

 has served to puzzle the acutcst metaphysicians. 

 Never, probably, was any point more largely, ably, 

 and profoundly discussed. The writings of Leib- 

 nitz, Collins, Hume, Hartley, Priestley, and 

 Belsham, on the side of moral 7Kcessity ; and of 

 Clarke, Butler, Reid, Beattie, de Luc, (ircgory, 

 and Horsley, in favour o^ liberty, are well known, 

 and form very important materials in the metaphy- 

 sical history of the age. I^ut the greatest work 

 which the century produced on this subject, and 

 certainly among the ablest ever written on any 

 department of philosophy, is that by the celebrat- 

 ed American divine, Mr. Jonathan Edwards, for 

 some time president of the college of New Jersey. 

 This o;entleman wrote on the side of moral 7ieccs' 

 sity, or against the self-determining power of the 

 will ; and investigated the subject with a degree 

 of originality, acuteness, depth, ])recisi()n, and 

 force of argument, which the accurate reader can- 

 not contemplate but with astonishment. It will 

 not be said that he has brought to au issue a 

 controversy which will probably last as lung as 

 men exist on earth ; but that he has thrown much 

 new light on the subject will be questioned by 



m the ^/^//t/ division of the work, in which it is proposed to take .1 

 view of the moral principles and estabhsliments of tlie ei-hiecutJi 

 century, a more particular coii^idcratioii of it wiJJ be aUcinptcd, 



