IN THE REALM OF MIND. 313 



of the Will are so near us, and so ever present with 

 us, that they shut out our view of the forces which 

 lie behind. Yet there are some facts common in the 

 experience of all men which may help us to a con- 

 ception of the truth. One of these is the fact of 

 Mind growing with the growth of years — a fact 

 determined by the recollection of childhood, of 

 youth, and of maturity. By comparing ourselves 

 with ourselves at former periods of life — by the 

 memory of feelings, and of opinions, and of methods 

 of thought which we have outgrown and left be- 

 hind us, we can detect the action of forces which 

 have told upon our minds — traces, in short, of the 

 laws to which they have been subject. Some of 

 these laws have been nothing more than laws of 

 physical growth — the conceptions of the Mind 

 undergoing a development consequent on the 

 growth of our material Organism. 



Another fact bearing on the same question, but 

 which is more easily observed in others than in 

 ourselves, is the frequent determination of mental 

 qualities by hereditary transmission. The famous 

 question, as to the Origin of our Ideas, and how 

 far they are due respectively to Experience, to 



