CHAP. XXII.] CONSTITUTION OF THE INTELLECT. 421 



fixed laws whose authority does not consist in power, its con- 

 stitution with reference to an ideal standard and a final purpose. 

 It has been thought, indeed, that scientific pursuits foster a dis- 

 position either to overlook the specific differences between the 

 moral and the material world, or to regard the former as in no pro- 

 per sense a subject for exact knowledge. Doubtless all exclusive 

 pursuits tend to produce partial views, and it may be, that a mind 

 long and deeply immersed in the contemplation of scenes over 

 which the dominion of a physical necessity is unquestioned and su- 

 preme, may admit with difficulty the possibility of another order of 

 things. But it is because of the exdusiveness of this devotion to a 

 particular sphere of knowledge, that the prejudice in question 

 takes possession, if at all, of the mind. The application of 

 scientific methods to the study of the intellectual phenomena, 

 conducted in an impartial spirit of inquiry, and without over- 

 looking those elements of error and disturbance which must be 

 accepted as facts, though they cannot be regarded as laws, in 

 the constitution of our nature, seems to furnish the materials of 

 a juster analogy. 



10. If it be asked to what practical end such inquiries as the 

 above point, it may be replied, that there exist various objects, 

 in relation to which the courses of men's actions are mainly de- 

 termined by their speculative views of human nature. Educa- 

 tion, considered in its largest sense, is one of those objects. The 

 ultimate ground of all inquiry into its nature and its methods 

 must be laid in some previous theory of what man is, what are 

 the ends for which his several faculties were designed, what 

 are the motives which have power to influence them to sustained 

 action, and to elicit their most perfect and most stable results. 

 It may be doubted, whether these questions have ever been 

 considered fully, and at the same time impartially, in the rela- 

 tions here suggested. The highest cultivation of taste by the 

 study of the pure models of antiquity, the largest acquaintance 

 with the facts and theories of modern physical science, viewed 

 from this larger aspect of our nature, can only appear as parts of 

 a perfect intellectual discipline. Looking from the same point 

 of view upon the means to be employed, we might be led to in- 

 quire, whether that all but exclusive appeal which is made in 



