398 THE SENSATIONALIST PHILOSOPHY. 



physical part of it, as if hoping thus to canceal his extensive ohUga- 

 tions to this great philosopher, or rather perhaps to avoid the impu- 

 tation of any connection with a system unpopular in his country, and 

 long denounced in the scene of his public teaching. I know of no 

 ground for preferring the term suggestion, employed by Brown to 

 association, the older name ; the distinction between simple and rela- 

 tive suggestion does not appear to be founded on any essential difference 

 or to be practically useful, and the laws of suggestion were soon shown 

 to be reducible to much greater simplicity. Yet Dr. Brown appreci- 

 ated and exhibited in a peculiarly pleasing manner some great truths, 

 and displayed a power of thought joined vdth ingenuity and sagacity 

 which command admiration. He has fallen under the imputation of 

 inclination towards Sensationalism, and he is one whose aid, as far as it 

 goes, any party might be proud of. Not to dwell on writers of 

 secondary importance, we come next to James Mill, one of the 

 clearest of writers and closest of reasoners. He put aside, as not im- 

 mediately needed, all inquiry respecting the physical cause of sensations 

 and their physical relations with ideas, in which respect his judgment 

 may be called in question ; but beginning where he did, his work is a 

 noble contribution to philosophy. He fully adopts the Hartleyan 

 doctrine of association, and by simple and well chosen terminology, 

 clearness of style, vividness of illustration, and a lucid order in his 

 thoughts he has rendered the theory intelligible and interesting, whilst 

 his admirable original views respecting language, and his beautiful 

 analysis of some of the most complex ideas conveyed by it have thrown 

 a new and bright light on the whole subject. I cannot feel satisfied 

 with his account any more than vnth Hartley's, of the emotional part 

 of our nature, to explain which, something more than he admits seems 

 to be required, and I have a method of my own for endeavouring to 

 complete in this respect the theory of the mind, but Mr. Mill's work 

 seems to me, entitled to a place among the finest that have been pro- 

 duced on the philosophy of mind, and deserving of far more attention 

 than has yet been bestowed upon it. 



I need not here dwell on the abvises of sensationalism in France, or 

 on the peculiar forms which it assumed in the hands of Helvetius, 

 Condillac, Cabanis, and De Stutt de Tracey ; the last mentioned beyond 

 comparison, the best French writer of this school. I cannot but think 

 the phraseology of Condillac more objectionable than what I take to 

 be his real meaning. The Ideologie of De Stutt de Tracey, is both in- 



