418 A dditional Notes. 



visual objects after they became blind ? The noble descrip- 

 tions with which their poems abound are alone sufficient to re- 

 fute Dr. Darwin. He is contradicted by the experience of 

 every day. 



5. Finally, this theory is unnecessarily complex, and offends 

 against the best rules of philosophic simplicity. Irritation is 

 an exertion of the sensorial power, or of the spirit of anima- 

 tion, exciting the fibres to coi^traction. By this contraction 

 no end appears to be gained. It is not the fibre which is senti- 

 ent, but the sensorial power resident in the fibre. The con- 

 traction can, therefore, be of use only by communicating a 

 certain effect to the sensorial power. But the sensorial power, 

 according to this theory, was itself affected, previously to the 

 contraction, and was itself the proximate cause of the contrac- 

 tion. Of what use, then, is this combination of effects ? It 

 may, indeed, render errour more complicated and perplexing; 

 but it cannot assist us in the developement of truth. 



Such are some of the numerous defects and errours of this 

 celebrated system of intellectual physiology. The author falls 

 into the grand mistake adopted by all the materialists, viz., a be- 

 lief that we are acquainted with the nature of causation. In the 

 physical world we see events connected with each other, with 

 respect to time and place j but we know not the relation which 

 they sustain. At most, a series of facts is all that we can deter- 

 mine. The links which bind them together, and the nature of 

 the respective processes by which they succeed to each — in 

 a word, the nature of causation we can never understand. 

 We are equally unable to understand the nature of causa- 

 tion in the intellectual world. Dr. Darwin, like a number of 

 ingenious and learned men before him, has attempted to explore 

 this impenetrable region. But in the attempt, instead of en- 

 lightening us by the exhibition of factJ, he amuses by present- 

 ing phantasms of his own creation. To these he ascribes such 

 powers as he thinks suit his purpose ; and having drawn out in 

 detail a statement of the actions and variations of these fictitious 

 beings, he wc^nld persuade us that the phenomena of mind are 

 explained. But let none mistake words for idea*, or creatures 



