AN EXPOSITION AND CRITICISM. 305 



as there is no authority beyond consciousness by which its trustworth- 

 iness can be tested, no reason can be adduced, unless it be in the 

 deliverances themselves of consciousness, to prove that they are un- 

 truthful, and consequently it would imply an utterly groundless 

 presupposition to start with the assumption, that they are false, that 

 we have been made so as inevitably to accept an illusion for a reality, 

 that the Maker of us is a deceiver. The deliverances of consciousness 

 therefore must be presumed true till they have been shown to be false; 

 and false they can be shown to be only when they have been proved 

 to be contradictory (I. pp. 399-400 ; Discussions, pp. 86-87 ; Reid^s 

 Works, pp. 745-7). 



Does it not then seem that the deliverances of consciousness must 

 be contradictory, since the most contradictory systems of philosophy 

 equally profess to be founded upon them ? By no means ; for the 

 antagonism of philosophical systems arises not from the falsity or 

 vacillation of comsciousness, but from philosophers resorting to it to 

 obtain confirmation of their preconceived opinions rather than to form 

 opinions yet unconceived, just as the variety of theological systems 

 has been occasioned by theologians resorting to the Bible to discover 

 not what they shall believe, but what they believe already (I. 266-7 ; 

 Reid's Wo7'ks, pp. 746-7). Since therefore the errors of philosophers 

 have arisen from the want of any recognised principle in investigating 

 consciousness, we must assume the hitherto unattempted task of dis- 

 covering the rules by which we ought to be guided in such investiga- 

 tion. These are the three following : 



1. That we admit nothing which is not either an original d|itum of 

 consciousness or the legitimate consequence of such a datum ; 



2. That we embrace all the original data of consciousness and all 

 their legitimate consequences ; 



3. That we exhibit each of these in its individual integrity, neither 

 distorted nor mutilated, and in its relative place, whether of preemin- 

 ence or subordination. 



These maxims I would name severally the Laws of Parcimony, 

 Integrity, and Harmony (I. pp. 267-9 ; Reid's Works, p. 747). 



§ 4. — Classification, of the Phenomena of Consciousness. 



Proceeding then to investigate the phenomena of consciousness in 



accordance with these laws, we find that they are all capable of being 



analysed into three classes : 1. The phenomena of Knowledge or 



Cognition ; 2. the Feelings or the phenomena of pleasure and pain ; 



