OF THE SOUL. 231 



of our sensations has its origin in the reaction from 

 outside against our own activity, and De Tracy had 27. 



® '' •' De Tracy 



significantly added that the principle of our action is the ^''^ tiie uiea 



o 'I ^ J- of activity. 



will and that the latter is our personality. " Within the 

 torrent of our sensations there is nothing but appearance, 

 there is neither a self nor a not-self ; surfaces as it were 

 without an inside or an outside ; through the conscious- 

 ness of our own willing we learn at once ourselves and 

 something other than ourselves : that there are on this 

 side and on that side of sensations an inner world and 

 an outer world : two realities opposed to each other and 

 which, in the act of concurrence, touch and penetrate 

 each other." ^ As M. Eavaisson says, it was tantamount 

 to finding again the soul itself below the passivity of 

 sensations, which since Hume seemed to explain every- 

 thing. 



By referring to this principle of activity, the point 

 was defined at which psychology would separate itself 

 as a mental science from the physical sciences that 

 threatened to absorb it.^ Both positions, that of re- 



^ Quoted by Ravaisson, ' La Phil- 

 osophie en France au XIX® Siecle,' 

 1868. p. 13, &c. 



" Sous la passivite des sensations, 

 qui, depuis Hume, semblait tout ex- 

 pliquer, retrouver I'activitt^, c'etait, 



isme et Liberalisme,' p. 55 and fol- 

 lowing). "Les philosophes ecossaia 

 croient que, si les sciences morales 

 sont moins avancees que les sciences 

 physiques, cela tient a ce qu'elles ne 

 suivent pas la methode de ces der- 



sous le materiel, retrouver I'esprit , nieres ; qu'elles la suiveut done et 



meme. Forte de cette decouverte, 

 la philosophie devait bientot se 

 degager de la physique, sous la- 

 quelle Locke, et Hume, et Condillac 

 lui meme I'avaieut comme accablee. 

 Deux hommes surtout y aiderent : 

 Maine de Biran et Ampere." 



- This point is well brought out 

 by M. Ferraz in his 'History of 



elles ne tarderont pas b, les atteindre. 

 Or, la methode des sciences phys- 

 iques consiste h observer les pheuo- 

 menes materiels et a determiner par 

 induction les lois qui les regissent, 

 sans se preoccuper ni de leurs causes 

 ni de I'essence de la matiere. Les 

 sciences morales devront done, de 

 leur cote, se borner ii observer les 



French Philosophy in the Nine- faits psychologiques et 11 en induire 

 teenth Century' (vol, iii., 'Spiritual- ' les lois, sans s'inquieter ni de leurs 



