92 



METAPHYSICS. 



Atetnphy. enlargement of our faculties ; or between the progress 

 '"* of our minds, and that of vegetable nature; and there- 

 "* fore the one can be employed to illustrate the other 

 without the smallest confusion, or the lea.-t danger of 

 confounding their identity. \Ve talk of cultivating the 

 mind, or of cultivating a field, without the smallest dan- 

 ger of mistake ; and we are as little apt to suppose the 

 mind material from this modi' of speaking, as we would 

 be to mistake the respective culture of each ; or to ima- 

 gine that the manure employed to fertilize the fields 

 could be applied to the improvementof the human mind. 

 We can admit, then, without the smallest fear for the 

 consequences, that even the words which express spiri- 

 tual ideas have a material origin : they are merely the 

 description of certain visible effects, by which the soul 

 manifests its operations ; and, when we talk of a storm, 

 or a conflict in the soul, we are merely borrowing what 

 we conceive to be an analogous representation to make 

 known the troubled state of our feelings. 



\Ve may here observe, that though Helvetius adopts 

 the same doctrine with Diderot, as to the origin of our 

 knowledge ; yet he is not a professed materialist. He 

 says his doctrine is equally reconcilcable with both 

 plans ; and he very absurdly alleges, that the exist- 

 ence of the soul as a thinking substance distinct from 

 matter, is a doctrine which could only be established 

 by the authority of the church. This is a very suspi- 

 cious way of talking ; it was very generally adopted by 

 Hume and all the sceptics who had not sufficient cou- 

 rage to avow their disbelief of Christianity, but who 

 brought it forward on all occasions, as patronizing du- 

 bious opinions, and a establishing certain doctrines 

 which they affect to spare because they are sheltered by 

 its authority. Thus Hume, in the conclusion of his 

 Essay on Miracles, after having attempted to demon- 

 strate that a miracle was impossible, and therefore could 

 not be believed on any principle of reason, affects to say 

 that it was made quite easy by Revelation, and that there 

 could be no difficulty in believing, when we were thus 

 positively commanded to do so. Helvetius was not 

 distinguished for orthodoxy ; but what he says respect- 

 ing the soul seems rather to be in opposition to Descar- 

 tes's pretended demonstration of its existence, than to 

 have arisen from any sceptical doubt on the subject. 

 Though he perceived that the subject was, in its na- 

 ture, not susceptible of demonstration, yet he foolishly 

 imagined that it was necessary to have some authority 

 for believing it, not perceiving that ultimatefacts, which 

 admit of no proof, can be strengthened by no authori- 

 ty, but must rest on the evidence of our consciousness 

 or of our senses, according as they belong to mind or 

 to matter. DC P Esprit, Chap. Prem. 



But it was not merely among the continental philo- 

 sophers that Locke's doctrines were perverted from their 

 original purpose, and made subservient to a scheme of 

 materialism. The opposite system, indeed, obtained 

 much more eclat in this country, and the abettors of ma- 

 Harlley terialism have scarcely acquired a name. Hartley, by his 

 physiological theory of vibrations, seemed to give some 

 countenance to it, though he himself protests, and we 

 believe with perfect sincerity, against any intention of 

 deducing such a conclusion from his hvpothesFs. This 

 we can easily believe, when we find Malebranche, whose 

 general doctrine certainly approached much nearer to 

 the sentiments of the spiritualists than to those of the 

 materialists, holding exactly the same opinions with 

 Hartley as to the immediate cause of sensation. La $c- 

 condc chose, says he, qiti sc tr-in-c dans chacunc des sen- 

 sations, cst I'ebranli-iueiil, ilcsjilirrs de nos no/x, que s,e 

 communique jusqu'au ccrvcau. There could not possibly 



be a clearer anticipation of the Hartleian hypothesis ; Met?phy- 

 and it must also be evident that this hypothesis is en- |cs- 

 tirely unsupported by proof. Hartley says that it is a ^^"Y"""^ 

 sufficient proof of the truth of his hypothesis, that it ac- 

 counts for all the phenomena of sensation and percep- 

 tion : for, when the key answers to the cipher, he says, 

 we may be sure that we have found the true one. There 

 is a f.illacy in this illustration. When we meet with 

 an unintelligible cipher, and at last discover the means 

 of explaining it, we may be sure that we have found the 

 right principle ; it can have no meaning or signification 

 on any other. In the same manner, when we find a 

 piece of mechanism designed for motion, a watch, for 

 instance, standing still, or moving irregularly from the 

 want of some particular wheels, and when we discover 

 at last the wheels which exactly answer the purpose, we 

 ;.re sure they are the right ones. 



But these illustrations are totally inapplicable, either 

 to the phenomena of mind or to the laws of nature ; for 

 here the machine is not standing still, it is in constant 

 and regular motion : and the question is, not to disco- 

 ver the wheel which is wanting, but the one which 

 principally regulates the movements. Here any wheel 

 in the series may be taken, according to the views and 

 knowledge of individuals ; and it will account for the 

 motions of all which depend upon it. But if we inquire 

 what put our first material wheel in motion, we shall 

 find that it either depends on another, or that it derives 

 its motion from a spring, or a weight, or from water, or 

 wind, or steam, &c. Any of these will answer the pur- 

 pose. In the same manner, the physical phenomena of 

 the universe are equally explicable on the principle of 

 Malebranche, who held that every effect was produced 

 by the immediate interposition of Deity ; or of Leibnitz, 

 who maintained that there was a pre-established har- 

 mony between cause and effect, in consequence of which 

 they acted together, without influencing eacli other ; or 

 of Spinosa, and the Materialists, who hold that matter 

 is eternal, and possesses in itself the principles of mo- 

 tion ; or of Berkeley, who contends that there is no mat- 

 ter, but all that we perceive is a vision of the mind. 

 Each of these philosophers had a key which he thought 

 was the right one Hartley's cipher has neither use nor 

 meaning without the keif. The phenomena of mind, 

 and of the visible universe, are equally interesting, al- 

 though the real key should never be discovered. 



Hartley's system has been adopted by Priestley and Priestley . 

 Darwin, who have founded on it a system of materialism. an<1 Dar - 

 Their views, in establishing this conclusion, were, no Wln- 

 doubt, very different Darwin was regardless of conse- 

 quences, in following out a philosophical theory, and was 

 not withheld by any religious scruples from dismissing 

 mind from the universe; whilst Priestley was led to 

 imagine that it would'materially strengthen his peculiar 

 views of Christianity to suppose the soul material, and 

 naturally perishable along with the body. In the Uni- 

 tarian scheme which Priestley so warmly espoused, the 

 death of Christ seems to present an insurmountable ob- 

 stacle ; and orthodox Christians ask why it should have 

 taken place, attended by so many circumstances of pain 

 and ignominy, if no object of great importance was to 

 be accomplished by it ? Priestley's answer is, that this 

 event took place, that by our Saviour's resurrection, 

 the hopes of our naturally perishable souls might be re- 

 vived, and we might thus be authorized to aspire after 

 immortality. To give currency to this conceit, this pre- 

 cipitate and dogmatic rcasoner chose to give up all the 

 natural arguments for the soul's immortality, and to re- 

 present it as a material substance, and by necessary con- 

 sequence, as he imagined, perishable in its nature. By 



