170 



HABIT AND INTELLIGENCK. 



[chap. 



tized, 

 including 

 those of 

 language, 

 art, and 

 society. 



The laws 

 of these 

 subjects 

 depend on 

 the laws 

 of mind, 

 but the 

 converse is 

 not true. 



In lan- 

 guage are 

 an in- 

 telligent 

 and an 

 habitual 

 element. 



but the most important, or at least those which have been 

 most nearly reduced to systematic form, are the science of 

 language ; the science of the fine arts, or sesthetics ; and 

 the science of society, or politics. 



The subjects of these three sciences — that is to say, 

 language, art, and human society — are all products of the 

 mind of man ; and, consequently, their elementary laws 

 must depend on the laws of mind, while the laws of mind 

 do not in any degree depend on them. So that these 

 sciences depend on psychology in somewhat the same way 

 that biology depends on chemistry, or dynamics on mathe- 

 matics. The manner in which the principles of language, 

 art, and society depend on the laws of mind can be best 

 shown by taking those three sciences separately. 



First, as to language. In all mental action whatever, 

 as I have endeavoured to show in the last chapter, there 

 is an habitu.al element and an intelligent element, which, 

 though they may be separated in thought, are always 

 combined in fact. Language, being a product of mental 

 activity, may be expected to show manifest traces of these 

 two factors ; and such is the case. It would be superfluous 

 to argue for the obvious truth that all language involves 

 an habitual principle : we learn to use language by habit, 

 and by habit alone. But it is also obvious that all 

 language, at least when it is used as the means of the 

 most elementary reasoning, involves a logical principle : 

 and if the conclusions of the preceding chapter are true, the 

 logical principles that all thought involves belong to intel- 

 ligence, and not to habit. But without going back on 

 that metaphysical question, it is obvious that the power of 

 learning words by memory, and the power of combining 

 them into sentences that have a meaning, are two totally 

 distinct powers ; and even those who do not agree with 

 me as to the absolute and fundamental difference between 

 Habit and Intelligence, will agree that the distinction 

 between the two in the use of language is real, and of 

 great importance. "We may briefly say — though, perhaps, 

 not with perfect logical accuracy — that memory supplies 

 the words, and intelligence combines them. A person 



