18 Universal Terms. 



in the results above quoted. The same fact is also evident from the 

 high temperature 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, vvilh which it is highly desirable that 

 frequent observations should be made in favorable circumstftnces, 

 where borings to great depths are eftected. J. 



Art. IV. — Universal Tei-ms — Disputes cowcerning them and their 

 Causes; by Emma Willard. 



A CURIOUS and knotty question in metaphysics is still pending, 

 which has been in discussion more than two thousand years. Among 

 its disputants were numberedthe master spirits of the ancient world, 

 Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno. The controversy slumbered during the 

 dark ages, but revived with the first dawn of light which broke their 

 gloom ; and not only mustered the philosophical talents of Roscel- 

 linus, Peter Abelard and William Occum, but the regal power of the 

 sovereigns of France and Germany ; and blood was shed and accu- 

 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, that notwith- 

 standing all the light of modern philosophy, it is 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 ? Is a por- 

 tion of the mental imagery called up by their use, or do we employ 

 ourselves merely with significant sounds? 



The most celebrated pneuraatologist of our times, Dugald Stewart, 

 maintains the doctrine of Rosceliinus and Abelard, said to have been 

 derived from Ze'iio, that, in the use of general terms, the object of 

 our thoughts is not ideas, but words or names. Hence this sect is 

 called Nominalists. A doctrine opposite to this was held by Plato, 

 Aristotle, 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 

 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 

 existences, called ideas j — existing in the mind, but separate from if, 



