THE SENSATIONALIST PHILOSOPHY. 



order, and might well claim to rank with the immortal discoverer oi 

 the law of gravitation, among the benefactors of science and of man- 

 kind ; nor do I despair of a more enlightened age which shall have 

 freed itself from the tramels of false systems now triumphant and 

 fashionable, bestowing the honour which is due. 



But the modern Sensationalist attempting to start in the manner I 

 have indicated from Mr. Locke's fundamental principles, is probably 

 told at once by his opponent that Locke was utterly mistaken in his 

 rejection of innate ideas. It may be true, it is said, that the mind 

 has no consciousness until the first sensation, but it has a constitution 

 which determines the manner in which that sensation shall afPect it, 

 which gives to it a certain form and accompaniments. Our conscious- 

 ness we are told is not of the sensation alone, but of that and something 

 more derived from the mind itself and belonging to it — in overlooking 

 which we should neglect the origin of our most essential ideas and 

 most certain judgments. 



Now it is quite certain that we have a specific constitution received 

 from our Creator, which it is the object of mental science to under- 

 stand ; and if, beginning with sensations as the first states, and duly 

 considering the law according to which ideas arise from them, and re- 

 cur or combine together, we arrive at any states not to be thus 

 accounted for, we must of course suppose some other origin for them : 

 but we deny the existence of any such states and we ask for examples 

 that we may consider them. We are probably referred to indentity, 

 space, and time. "VVe reply that we have already considered what is 

 conveyed by these terms, and find them to imply complex gradually 

 acquired notions whose history and analysis we can trace with entire 

 satisfaction to ourselves, and we maintain that any instances proposed 

 would be found in the same category, we feel therefore fully authori- 

 sed in the course we have pursued. 



Another great objection popularly urged against us is, that Sensa- 

 tionalism involves materialism, scepticism, and even atheism. In 

 reply, I beg leave to ask, what philosophical opinions have in modern 

 times been found most fruitful in atheistical tendencies, or most 

 manifestly opposed to the influences of religion ? Without any doubt 

 the answer must be, the Grerman transcendental philosophy, which 

 however is no more than idealism consistently worked out. 



All doctrines may be pushed to extravagance or perverted to the 

 sanction of what the more sober part of society deems serious error. 



