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generally fixed his attention on examples in which the com- 

 ponent ideas are successive in the order of occurrence. He 

 observed upon a considerable class of cases which are deci- 

 sive against Mr. Stewart, being composed of very complex 

 acts, of which the separate parts are never recognized, such 

 as the class of movements called " mechanical." 



The author next entered on a detailed view of Mr. 

 Stewart's example of a person reading, and showed that the 

 same reasoning is applicable. He noticed the complica- 

 tion of trains of thought, which, according to Mr. Stewart's 

 theory,must be simultaneously proceeding; and alsoobserved, 

 that his theory could not stop short at any point of these ; 

 and that wherever he might attempt to stop, an explanation 

 should be given, which ought to supersede his whole theory. 

 He then pursued the inquiry as in the previous example, by 

 investigating the mind's progress in learning to read, and de- 

 duced similar conclusions. These he also confirmed, by 

 noticing the various errors which occur in reading and print- 

 ing; of these he showed, that they illustrate the effect of the 

 combinations or complex conceptions previously formed to 

 supply even the want of many of the component parts ; so 

 that the letter is inferred from the general form of the sylla- 

 ble, and the syllable from that of the word, rather than the 

 contrary process. From this example he concluded, that the 

 mind, by repeated acts of attention, acquires a stock of syl- 

 labic and vocal associations, of which the act of reading is a 

 combined result ; that by a further extension, written sen- 

 tences may become combined with a process of thought, and 

 that every reader possesses some range of thought thus 

 symbolized by habit ; and finally, that the general inference 

 to be drawn from this and other similar examples is, that by 

 means of habit, groups of signs, of movements, facts, thoughts, 

 sensations or phenomena, may acquire varied relations to each 

 other ; and that these being acquired, the combination alone 

 becomes the object of notice. He then pursued theapplica- 



