LIFE of Dr HUTTON. 83 



rate with thofe more generally received ; and the fame may be 

 faid as to the exigence of God, and the immortality of the foul. 

 The view which it prefents of the latter doctrine, deferves parti- 

 cularly to be remarked. Death is not regarded here as the dif- 

 folution of a connexion between mind, and that fyftem of ma- 

 terial organs, by means of which it communicated with the ex- 

 ternal world, but merely as an effect of the mind's ceafing to 

 perceive a particular order or clafs of things ; it is therefore 

 only the termination of a certain mode of thought; and the 

 extinction, not of any mental power, but of a train of con- 

 ceptions, which, in confequence of external impulfe, had exifted 

 in the mind. Thus, as nothing elfential to intellectual power 

 periihes, we are to confider death only as a paffage from one 

 condition of thought to another ; and hence this fyftem appear- 

 ed, to the author of it, to afford a ftronger argument than any 

 other, for the exiftence of the mind after death. 



Indeed, Dr Hutton has taken great pains to deduce from 

 his fyftem, in a regular manner, the leading doctrines of mora- 

 lity and natural religion, having dedicated the third volume of 

 his book almoft wholly to that object. It is worthy of remark, 

 that while he is thus employed, his ftyle affumes a better tone, 

 and a much greater degree of perfpicuity, than it ufually pofleffes. 

 Many inftances might be pointed out, where the warmth of his 

 benevolent and moral feelings burfts through the clouds that fo 

 often veil from us the cleareft ideas of his underftanding. One, 

 in particular, deferves notice, in which he treats of the import- 

 ance of the female character to fociety, in a ftate of high civili- 

 zation *. A felicity of expreflion, and a flow of natural elo- 

 quence, infpired by fo interefting a fubject, make us regret that 

 his pen did not more frequently do juftice to his thoughts. 



The metaphyfical theory, of which the outline, (though very 

 imperfectly), has now been traced, cannot fail to recall the opi- 

 nions 



* Invejiigation of the Principles of Knowledge, Vol. Ill, p. 588. &c. 



