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Knowledge of Mind requires knowledge of Science. I o r 



unable to directly observe or analyse our mental 

 actions, especially those of a very abstruse or com- 

 plex kind. Much of the knowledge of the operations 

 of our mind, we are therefore obliged to obtain by 

 indirect means ; by analogies, and inferences from 

 the phenomena of nature, &c., and in this way our 

 knowledge of mental action largely depends upon our 

 acquaintance with physical and chemical science, and 

 can only advance as it advances. To clearly under- 

 stand one subject we are often obliged to study 

 several others. Ignorance of science in general, and 

 of cerebral physiology in particular, is the chief 

 obstacle to our acquiring a more accurate knowledge 

 of mind. 



Next to consistency, the great principle of causa- 

 tion constitutes the most essential part of all natural 

 truth, and to deny the operation of this principle in 

 particular cases of mental action, simply because we, 

 with our very finite powers, cannot in the extremely 

 imperfect state of our knowledge ; yet fully explain 

 some of the most difficult, complex, transient, and 

 ever-changing phenomena of will and consciousness, 

 is contrary to the most weighty evidence. "The 

 Will " is a conscious mental effort to effect an object, 

 the idea of which is already in the mind, and being a 

 mental " effort " it absorbs the mind and thereby 

 incapacitates it at the moment from observing its own 

 action. 



If any phenomenon (such as mental action) is essen- 

 tially dependent upon another, it must be connected 



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