XXXIX.] MENTAL INTELLIGENCE. 165 



The power of perceiving the peculiar relations expressed 

 by the words / and me can only, I think, be ascribed to IntelH- 

 an unconscious exercise of that intelligence which is not a needed for 

 result of habit ; and, though unconscious, it leads to the this, 

 subsequent development of that consciousness of self 

 whereof those pronouns are the symbol.^ 



I have now completed the part of this work which 

 treats of the laws of life and mind. ]\Iy purpose has not 

 been to write in any way a complete treatise, but only to 

 trace the laws of Habit, and their relation to Intelligence ; 

 and to show the primary and irresolvable nature of the 

 latter. 



NOTE A. 

 bain's theory of belief. 



On the subject of our belief in the constancy of the order of 

 nature, Professor Bain says : " The foremost rank among the 

 intuitive tendencies involved in behef is to be assigned to the 

 natural trust that we have in the continuance of the present state o/Qnotation 

 things, or the disposition to go on as we have once begun. This ^°^ Bain, 

 is a sort of law of perseverance in the human mind, like the 

 first law of motion in mechanics. Our first experiences are 

 to us decisive ; and we go on under them to all lengths, being 

 arrested only by some failure or contradiction." ^ The italics are 

 Professor Bain's. 



This is very like an admission that the belief in the constancy 

 of the order of nature is an ultimate fact, not to be resolved into 

 any law of habitual association. His theory of belief, however, jjig theory- 

 is that belief is a result of habitual association, with the addition of belief 

 of an active element. Now, I think it is true, and an important 

 truth, that belief, and every other intelligent function of the 

 mind, involves the exercise of its active powers, and is not to be 



1 Tills is clearly and forcilily stated, though from a point of view some- 

 what different from mine, in Professor Terrier's Introduction to the 

 Philosophy of Consciousness. 



2 The Emotions and the Will, 2d edit. p. 537. 



