PHILOSOPHY, MENTAL. 



or atheism. Now the contemplation of 

 our own frame and constitution appears 

 to me to have a peculiar tendency to les- 

 sen these difficulties attending natural and 

 revealed religion, arid to improve their 

 evidences, as well as to concur with them 

 in their determination of man's duty and 

 expectations." 



2. The best ground-work for the pur- 

 suit of mental science, is an accurate judg- 

 jnent, a discriminating penetrating 'intel- 

 lect, and a habit of correct and cautious 

 reasoning ; and therefore the best prepa- 

 ratory culture of mind is the study of the 

 various branches of the mathematics and 

 of natural philosophy. But habits of re- 

 flection and good sense are all which are 

 essential to the beneficial pursuit of men- 

 tal science ; and with these, it will in all 

 cases lead to results highly important to 

 individual welfare and usefulness. The 

 young, in particular, will be led, by an 

 acquaintance with the practical laws of 

 the mind, to perceive how their present 

 conduct affects their future character and 

 happiness; to perceive the importance of 

 avoiding a frivolous employment of their 

 lime, without any end beyond mere amuse- 

 ment ; to perceive the impossibility of in- 

 dulging in vicious gratifications, without 

 lessening their means of happiness, and 

 checking their progress towards excel- 

 lence. They will learn how habits are 

 formed almost imperceptibly, and when 

 long exercised, how exceedingly difficult 

 it is to eradicate them ; they will learn to 

 consider the formation of habits as requir- 

 ing, therefore, their utmost circumspec- 

 tion. They will be enabled to discern 

 what habits ot thought and feeling are 

 baneful, what useful ; what means of hap- 

 piness should be regarded as of primary 

 value, what should be regarded as secon- 

 dary only In short, there can be no he- 

 sitation in affirming, that next to the im- 

 mediate pursuits of religion, to which the 

 laws of the mind direct, a judicious ac- 

 quaintance with those laws is the most 

 important means for the right employ- 

 ment of that period of life on which tlie 

 happiness of our existence, in a great 

 measure, depends. 



3. We cannot even attempt to give our 

 readers a complete system of this import- 

 ant science ; however brief it might be 

 made, if it were as comprehensive as the 

 subject requires, it would occupy too 

 great a portion of this work : what we 

 wish to aim at is, to give such a view of 

 the leading laws of our mental frame, as 

 may direct the thoughts of the inquirer in- 

 .to a right channel, and serve as a founda- 



tion for the results of attentive reflection, 

 which reading may assist in gaining, but 

 can seldom impart. 



OF THE PRIMARY FACULTIES OF 

 THE MIND. 



4. That, whatever it be, which thinks, 

 and feels, and wills, is called mind : that 

 part of the human- being which thinks, 

 and feels, and wills, is called the human 

 mind. 



5. We observe without us and within 

 us numerous phenomena ; the object of 

 philosophy is to deduce from them certain 

 general laws, agreeable to which they are 

 produced, and then to employ those laws 

 in the explanation of other phenomena. 

 Mental philosophy pursues the same me- 

 thod which has been so successfully 

 adopted in natural philosophy ; and as in 

 physics similar phenomena are referred to 

 the operation of some one cause or power, 

 so in mental science those phenomena, 

 which have all one common feature, are 

 referred to some faculty or property of 

 the mind, by whose operation these phe- 

 nomena are supposed to be produced. 

 What those mental or physical powers 

 are, philosophy does not profess to ex- 

 plain. 



6. If we hold a luminous body before 

 the eye, it produces some change in the 

 state of that organ, and this produces in 

 the mind a feeling ; this feeling is called 

 a sensation. This name is also given to 

 all those other feelings which are produc- 

 ed in a similar way, viz. owing to a change 

 in the organs of sense, whatever be the 

 cause by which the change is produced. 

 The general fact or law is, that sensations 

 are produced by what affects the organs 

 of sense. Now to account for this fact, 

 we infer that the mind is possessed of a 

 power or capacity which we call sensation, 

 or, better to avoid ambiguity, the sensitive 

 power. This then is that power or capa- 

 city of the mind by whose operation it re- 

 ceives sensations from things which affect 

 the organs of sense. 



7. We know as a matter of fact, that 

 though sensations cease soon after the ex- 

 citing object is withdrawn, yet if they 

 have been produced sufficiently often and 

 vividly, the causes of feelings similar in 

 kind remain in the mind, and those similar 

 feelings can recur when no change is pro- 

 duced in the organs of sense. These are 

 called ideas : they are the relicts of sen- 

 sations. Such is the general law or fact. 

 The operation or act of retaining relicts of 

 sensations, may, with the strictest pro- 



