384 



ON THE HYPOTHESIS 



sensation, it may well be sufficient, and be thought the principle actually ap- 

 pealed to in all others. 



The next remark that must, I think, occur to every one, is the absurdity of 

 clothing- instinct with moral and intellectual powers, with belief and judg- 

 ment : for we are, in other places, told that this instinct of common sense 

 possesses sentiment and moral sense. Now, all these import the existence 

 of a mind ; they import more, for they import mental feeling. And the con- 

 sequence is, that we must either employ the term instinct without a deter- 

 minate idea, and in opposite significations at different times, or we must allow 

 to reptiles, and ought to allow to plants, the possession of belief, judgment, 

 and mental feeling, as well as to mankind ; for the existence of instinct is 

 still clearer and more powerful in the first two than in the last. I know there 

 is no attendant upon these lectures who finds any necessity for this confu- 

 sion of ideas : and who does not apprehend perspicuously, from the definitions 

 I have ventured to lay down, and have so frequently had occasion to repeat, 

 the natural distinction between the principles here adverted to. But let a 

 man, if it be possible for him, believe that common sense and instinct are the 

 same thing, can he still farther believe that this is the faculty, call it by whi(;h 

 of the two names you please, that is to be an infallible guide in physical and 

 metaphysical, in sensible and intellectual, in moral and theological perplexi- 

 ties ; where the finest perception falls short, and the most penetrating mind 

 is overwhelmed 1 Is it this which is to teach us the mathematical affections 

 of matter ; and to direct us in our duty towards God, our neighbours, and 

 ourselves ? I again refer to Mr. Stewart's own description of the boy, bora 

 nearly blind, and wholly deaf, to which I have referred already. 



If this high and domineering power be instinct, then let us turn, with due 

 reverence, to those quarters where instinct exists in its fullest perfection ; let 

 us pay due homage to the brutal and the vegetable tribes. Let us re- 

 turn to the pretty prattle of the nursery, and learn industry from the ant, 

 and geometry from the bee, and constancy from the dove, and innocence from 

 the snow-drop, and blushing modesty from the rose. Let us hail all these, 

 not, indeed, as our equals, but as our superiors ; as more richly endowed with 

 that " inspiration of the Almighty," which is designed to correct the errors of 

 sense and intelligence, and to soar to sublimities to which these can never attain. 



But let us part with the term instinct, and confine ourselves to that of 

 COMMON SENSE. Why is this idea set up as a distinct principle from reason ? 

 as a principle often opposed to it, and always superior to it 1 Common sense 

 is plain sense : The common judgment.of mankind upon subjects of common 

 comprehension, sometimes given intuitively, and sometimes by the exercise 

 of reason, both of which, as I have already shown, are alike mental pro- 

 cesses. And Mr. Stewart has hence, as lately noticed, freely denominated it 

 in one place, though, in my mind, most incongruously with respect to his own 

 system, " the common reason of mankind." Its proper limit is the common 

 concerns of life, and w^hile it confines itself to these, it is nearly infallible ; 

 for the common constitution of our nature must, in most cases, lead us to 

 one common result. When the legislature of our own country (in which 

 this principle exists with peculiar force) appeals to the general voice of the 

 people, it appeals to their common sense. But in doing this, does it appeal 

 to their instinct, or to any other faculty than their common reason ; that dis- 

 cursive power, which, by being better exercised here than among other 

 nations, has enriched them with sounder and more general information upon 

 the subject in question ? 



Common sense, however, must be confined to common subjects. Like the 

 ostrich, it is quick and powerful on the surface, but its wings are not plumed 

 for flight, and it plays a ridiculous part whenever it attempts to soar. When 

 Copernicus, with a trembling hand, first suggested that the sun stands fixed in 

 his place, and all the heavenly bodies move round him, common sense, 

 assuming the philosopher, to which character it has no pretensions, opposed 

 him, and science fell a sacrifice to its conceit. With the same foolish vanity 

 it denied, till laughed out of its folly by circumnavigation, the existence of 



