81 
a conclusion. If the proposition is that some men have the power of over- 
leaping intermediate data, and can see into wonderful conclusions of arith- 
metic, geometry, or anything else without the essential data which would 
warrant them in coming to such a conclusion, I do not think such a propo- 
sitibn will bear examination at all. There are principles which are self- 
evident to all highly and truly cultivated people, and no doubt some people 
see more rapidly the connection which exists between different truths than 
others do. How they do it is a mystery which we cannot solve. But 
when we speak of intuitive discernment, it simply means that certain minds 
have a more rapid power of passing from one thing to another, and of com- 
bining ideas, than others have, and I feel so strongly on this point— the dis- 
tinction drawn by Mr. Row between the intuitional and the inferential 
processes, which themselves mainly consist of unconscious inferences intui- 
tively drawn, — that I should be very glad if Mr. Row would be able by some 
supplement to his paper to correct what I consider a great flaw in an ex- 
ceedingly able essay. And now I have only to repeat that I should not have 
occupied so much of your time if it had not been for the fact that I have 
very carefully examined and analyzed the essay on which this paper is 
written. (Cheers.) 
Mr. Reddie. — As it is now late, and Mr. Row ought to have some time to 
reply, I shall not occupy your attention for long. I must join in offering 
my tribute to the able paper before us, but cannot help saying that it 
is not quite clear in some parts, and perhaps this has arisen from the author’s 
over-conscientiousness in following Dr. Newman’s lead too closely, indeed 
so completely, that the paper seems to "want a focus, which, however, I am 
glad to find that the remarks both of Mr. Titcomb and of Dr. Rigg have 
given to it. It seems to me that a great part of the misunderstanding 
and difference of opinion between Dr. Newman and Mr. Row arises from 
their employing words in different senses, instead of using definitions on 
which they are agreed. Even Dr. Rigg has used Words in a sense in which 
Dr. Newman scarcely employs them. We have the word “ assent,” which 
ordinarily means to agree to a thing.* And I thought that Mr. Titcomb 
while giving us an instance on the opposite side, was really demonstrating 
Dr. Newman’s view. He said he gave his complete “assent” to the pro- 
position that the world was round, but he was not quite sure that it was an 
oblate spheroid, and therefore he only gave a qualified assent to the propo- 
sition. Now, from the arguments he used in proof of both propositions, it 
struck me that he did give his complete assent to both of them. 
Mr. Titcomb. — What I meant was that there was a difference of degree in 
the assent. 
Mr. Reddie. — Mr. Titcomb either accepts the proposition or he does not, 
— he must necessarily do the one or the other, — and I think that in this 
matter of assent, Dr. Newman is quite right in saying that an assent must 
* Dr. Newman gives an entirely new meaning to the Wordi 
VOL. Vi. a 
