18 Universal. Terms. 
in the results above quoted. The same fact is also evident from the 
high temperatare of many of these springs when they reach the surface. 
M. Magnus has prefaced his paper with an account of a very inge- — 
nious maximum thermometer, with which it is highly desirable ; that 
frequent observations should be made in favorable circumstances, 
where borings to great depths are effected. dicks 
Arr. IV.—Universal Terms—Disputes concerning them and their 
Causes; by Emma Wiuuarp. 
A curious and knotty question in metaphysics is still stadiadh 
whicli has been in discussion .more than two thousand years. Among — 
its disputants were numbered the master spirits of the ancient world, 
Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno. ‘The-controversy slumbered during the — 
flask ag but revived with the first dawn of light which broke their _ 
not only mustered the philosophical talents of. Roseel- 
linus, Pour helaed and William Occum, but the regal power of the — 
sovereigns of France and Germany ; and blood was shed and aceu- — 
sations bandied of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. 
We are astonished that a simple question of fact concerning the 
philosophy of the human mind should have been thus keenly dispu- 
ted in former days; and still more so, when we find, thaé® notwith- — 
standing all the light of modern philosophy, itis this very.point which 
is more warmly contested than any other, by the first metaphysicians 
of our own times, Stewart and Brown. What-then is this wonder- 
ful question? ‘Simply this. What is the object of our thoughts 
when we employ general terms? Is it ideas or words? Isa por- 
tion of the mental imagery called up by their use, or do we employ 
ourselves merely with significant sounds? 
The most celebrated pneumatologist of our times, Dugald Stewart, 
maintains the doctrine of Roscellinus and Abelard, said to-have been 3 
ae eS —— of 4 : 
derived from Zeno, that, in the use of general terms, 
“our ae ise is not ideas, but words or names. Hesse this sect ‘ise 
Nominalists. A doctrine opposite to this was held by Plato, 
ristotle, and their followers, down to the time of the improvement 
in the theory of perception, attributed by Mr. Stewart to Dr. Reid. 
These philosophers supposed that the mental images derived from — E 
external perception, (keeping in view the sense of sight,) were re- 
ceived into the mind, as the furniture into a house, and were there real a 
existences, called ideas ;—existing in the mind, but separate from ity - 
i Shalt F 
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