LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS AND LOGIC ON KARTH, THERE IS NOTHING GREAT BUT MAN; IN MAN, THERE IS NOTHING GREAT BUT MIND. LECTURES METAPHYSICS AND LOGIC BY SIR WILLIAM vHAMILTON, BART,, PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH; Advocate. A.M. (Oxon.) 4c. ; Corresponding Member of the Institute of France; Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ; and of the Latin Society of Jena, 4c. EDITED BY THE REV. H. L. MANSEL, B.D., LL.D., DRAW or n FAIL'S; AND JOHN VEITCH, M.A., rnurnxuK or LOGIC AKD SKKTOKIC IN THE UKIVBMITY or (.I.AMXIW. IN FOUK VOLUMES. VOL. I. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. MDCCCLXX. LECTURES METAPHYSICS SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART. EDITED BY THE REV. H. L. MANSEL, B.D., LL.D., AND JOHN VEITCH, M.A., VOL. I. FIFTH EDITION. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. MDCCCLXX. P KEF ACE. THE following Lectures on Metaphysics constitute the first portion of the Biennial Course which the lamented Author was in the habit of delivering during the period of his occupation of the Chair of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. In giving these Lectures to the world, it is due, both to the Author and to his readers, to acknowledge that they do not appear in that state of completeness which might have been expected, had they been prepared for publication by the Author himself. As Lectures on Metaphysics, whether that term be taken in its wider or its stricter sense, they are confessedly imperfect. The Author himself, adopting the Kantian division of the mental faculties into those of Knowledge, Feeling, and Conation, considers the Philosophy of Mind as com- prehending, in relation to each of these, the three great subdivisions of Psychology, or the Science of the Phseno- mena of Mind ; Nomology, or the Science of its Laws ; and Ontology, or the Science of Results and Inferences." a See below, Lecture vii., p. 121 et seq. Vlll PREFACE. The term Metaphysics, in its strictest sense, is synony- mous with the last of these subdivisions; while, in its widest sense, it may be regarded as including the first also, the second being, in practice at least, if not in scientific accuracy, usually distributed among other de- partments of Philosophy. The following Lectures cannot be considered as embracing the whole province of Meta- physics in either of the above senses. Among the Phse- nomena of Mind, the Cognitive Faculties are discussed fully and satisfactorily ; those of Feeling are treated with less detail ; those of Conation receive scarcely any special consideration ; while the questions of Ontology, or Metaphysics proper, are touched upon only incidentally. The omission of any special discussion of this last branch may perhaps be justified by its abstruse character, and unsuitableness for a course of elementary instruction ; but it is especially to be regretted, both on account of the general neglect of this branch of study by the entire school of Scottish philosophers, and also on account of the eminent qualifications which the Author possessed for supplying this acknowledged deficiency. A treatise on Ontology from the pen of Sir William Hamilton, embody- ing the final results of the Philosophy of the Conditioned, would have been a boon to the philosophical world such as probably no writer now living is capable of conferring. The circumstances under which these Lectures were written must also be taken into account in estimating their character, both as a specimen of the Author's powers, and as a contribution to philosophical literature. PREFACE. IX Sir William Hamilton was elected to the Chair of Logic and Metaphysics in July 1836. In the interval between his appointment and the commencement of the College Session (November of the same year), the Author was assiduously occupied in making preparation for dis- charging the duties of his office. The principal part of those duties consisted, according to the practice of the University, in the delivery of a Course of Lectures on the subjects assigned to the chair. On his appointment to the Professorship, Sir William Hamilton experienced considerable difficulty in deciding on the character of the course of Lectures on Philosophy, which, while doing justice to the subject, would at the same time meet the wants of his auditors, who were ordinarily com- posed of comparatively young students in the second year of their university curriculum. The Author of the articles on Cousin's Philosophy" on Perception,? and on Logic, y had already given ample proof of those specula- tive accomplishments, and that profound philosophical learning, which, in Britain at least, were conjoined in an e(]ual degree by no other man of his time. But those very qualities which placed him in the front rank of speculative thinkers, joined to his love of precision and system, and his lofty ideal of philosophical composition, served but to make him the more keenly alive to the re- quirements of his subject, and to the difficulties that lay in the way of combining elementary instruction in Philo- sophy with the adequate discussion of its topics. Hence, a Kdinburi/h Remnr, 1829. /3 Ibnl., 1830. 7 /Mil., 18M. X PREFACE. although even at this period his methodised stores of learning were ample and pertinent, the opening of the College Session found him still reading and reflecting, and unsatisfied with even the small portion of matter which he had been able to commit to writing. His first Course of Lectures (Metaphysical) thus fell to be writ- ten during the currency of the Session (1836-7). The Author was in the habit of delivering three Lectures each week ; and each Lecture was usually written on the day, or, more properly, on the evening and night, pre- ceding its delivery. The Course of Metaphysics, as it is now given to the world, is the result of this nightly toil, unremittingly sustained for a period of five months. These Lectures were thus designed solely for a tempo- rary purpose, the use of the Author's own classes ; they were, moreover, always regarded by the Author himself as defective as a complete Course of Metaphysics ; and they were never revised by him with any view to publication, and this chiefly for the reason that he in- tended to make use of various portions of them which had not been incorporated in his other writings, in the promised Supplementary Dissertations to Reid's Works, a design which his failing health did not permit him to complete. The Lectures on Logic were not composed until the following Session (1837-8). This Course was also, in great part, written during the currency of the Session. These circumstances will account for the repetition, in some places, of portions of the Author's previously PREFACE. XI published writings, and for the numerous and extensive quotations from other writers which are interspersed throughout the present Course. Most of these have been ascertained by references furnished by the Author himself, either in the manuscript of the present Lec- tures, or in his Commonplace-Book. These quotations, while they detract in some degree from the originality of the work, can, however, hardly be considered as lessening its value. Many of the authors quoted are but little known in this country ; and the extracts from their writings will, to the majority of readers, have all the novelty of original remarks. They also exhibit, in a remarkable degree, the Author's singular power of appreciating and making use of every available hint scattered through those obscurer regions of thought through which his extensive reading conducted him. No part of Sir William Hamilton's writings more completely verifies the remark of his American critic, Mr Tyler : " There seems to be not even a random thought of any value, which has been dropped along any, even obscure, path of mental activity, in any age or country, that his diligence has not recovered, his sagacity appreciated, and his judgment husbanded in the stores of his know- ledge."' Very frequently, indeed, the thought which the Author selects and makes his own, acquires its value and significance in the very process of selection ; and the contribution is more enriched than the adopter ; a Princeton Review, October 1855. on the Progress of Philosophy in the This article has since been republished Past and in the Future. Philadelphia, with the Author's name, in his Essay 1858. Xll PREFACE. for what, in another, is but a passing reflection, seen in a faint light, isolated and fruitless, often rises, in the hands of Sir William Hamilton, to the rank of a great, permanent, and luminous principle, receives its appropri- ate place in the order of truths to which it belongs, and proves, in many instances, a centre of radiation over a wide expanse of the field of human knowledge. The present volumes may also appear to some dis- advantage on account of the length of time which has elapsed between their composition and their publica- tion. Other writings, particularly the Dissertations appended to Reid's Works," and part of the new matter in the Discussions, though earlier in point of publication, contain later and more mature phases of the Author's thought, on some of the questions discussed in the following pages. Much that would have been new to English readers twenty years ago, has, subsequently, in a great measure by the instrumentality of the Author himself, become well known ; and the familiar exposi- tions designed for the oral instruction of beginners in philosophy, have been eclipsed by those profounder re- flections which have been published for the deliberate study of the philosophical world at large. But, when all these deductions have been made, the work before us will still remain a noble monument of the Author's philosophical genius and learning. In many respects, indeed, it is qualified to become more popular o The footnotes to Reid were for temporaneously with the present Lee- the most part written nearly con- tares. PREFACE. Xlll than any of his other publications. The very necessity which the Author was under, of adapting his observa- tions, in some degree, to the needs and attainments of his hearers, has also fitted them for the instruction and gratification of a wide circle of general readers, who would have less relish for the severer style in which some of his later thoughts are conveyed. The pre- sent Lectures, if in depth and exactness of thought they are, for the most part, not equal to the Disserta- tions on Reid, or to some portions of the Discussions, possess attractions of their own, which will probably recommend them to a more numerous class of admirers ; while they retain, in no small degree, the ample learning and philosophical acumen which are identified with the Author's previous reputation. Apart, however, from considerations of their intrinsic value, these Lectures possess a high academical and historical interest. For twenty years, from 1836 to 1856, the Courses of Logic and Metaphysics were the means through which Sir William Hamilton sought to discipline and imbue with his philosophical opinions, the numerous youth who gathered from Scotland and other countries to his class-room ; and while, by these prelec- tions, the Author supplemented, developed, and moulded the National Philosophy, leaving thereon the inefface- able impress of his genius and learning, he, at the same time and by the same means, exercised over the intellects and feelings of his pupils an influence which, for depth, intensity, and elevation, was certainly never surpassed by XIV PREFACE. that of any philosophical instructor. Among his pupils there are not a few who, having lived for a season under the constraining power of his intellect, and been led to reflect on those great questions regarding the character, origin, and bounds of human knowledge, which his teach- ings stirred and quickened, bear the memory of their beloved and revered Instructor inseparably blended with what is highest in their present intellectual life, as well as in their practical aims and aspirations. The Editors, in offering these Lectures to the public, are, therefore, encouraged to express their belief, that they will not be found unworthy of the illustrious name which they bear. In the discharge of their own duties as annotators, the Editors have thought it due to the fame of the Author, to leave his opinions to be judged entirely by their own merits, without the accompaniment of criticisms, concurrent or dissentient. For the same reason, they have abstained from noticing such criticisms as have appeared on those portions of the work which have already been published in other forms. Their own annotations are, for the most part, confined to occasional explanations and verifications of the numerous refer- ences and allusions scattered through the text. The notes fall, as will be observed, into three classes : I. Original ; notes printed from the manuscript of the present Lectures. These appear without any distinctive mark. Mere Jottings or Memoranda by the Author made on the manuscript, are generally marked as such. PREFACE. XV To these are also added a few Oral Interpolations of the Author, made in the course of reading the Lectures, which have been recovered from the note-books of students. II. Supplied ; notes extracted or compiled by the Editors from the Author's Commonplace - Book and fragmentary papers. These are enclosed in square brackets, and are without signature. III. Editorial; notes added by the Editors. These always bear the signature " ED." When added as sup- plementary to the original or supplied notes, they are generally enclosed in square brackets, besides having the usual signature. The Editors have been at pains to trace and examine the notes of the first and second classes with much care ; and have succeeded in discovering the authorities re- ferred to, with very few and insignificant exceptions. The Editors trust that the Original and Supplied Notes may prove of service to students of Philosophy, as indications of sources of philosophical opinions, which, in many cases, are but little, if at all, known in this country. The Appendix embraces a few papers, chiefly frag- mentary, which appeared to the Editors to be deserving of publication. Several of these are fragments of dis- cussions which the Author had written with a view to the Memoir of Mr Dugald Stewart, on the editorship of whose works he was engaged at the period of his XVI PREFACE. death. They thus possess the melancholy interest which attaches to the latest of his compositions. To these philosophical fragments have been added a few papers on physiological subjects. These consist of an extract from the Author's Lectures on Phrenology, and com- munications made by him to various medical publica- tions. Apart from the value of their results, these physiological investigations serve to exhibit, in a de- partment of inquiry foreign to the class of subjects with which the mind of the Author was ordinarily occupied, that habit of careful, accurate, and unsparing research, by which Sir William Hamilton was so emi- nently characterised. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. LECTUEE I. PAGE PHILOSOPHY ITS ABSOLUTE UTILITY. (A) SUBJECTIVE, 1 LECTURE IL PHILOSOPHY ITS ABSOLUTE UTILITY. (B) OBJECTIVE, . . , . . . . 19 LECTURE III. PHILOSOPHY ITS NATURE AND COMPREHENSION, . . 43 LECTURE IV. PHILOSOPHY ITS CAUSES, 65 LECTURE V. PHILOSOPHY THE DISPOSITIONS WITH WHICH IT OUGHT TO .BE STUDIED, . ., 81 LECTURE VI. PHILOSOPHY ITS METHOD, . . . . . .96 VOL. I. b XV111 CONTENTS. LECTUEE VII. PAGE PHILOSOPHY ITS DIVISIONS, 110 LECTUEE VIII. PSYCHOLOGY ITS DEFINITION EXPLICATION OF TERMS, . 129 LECTUEE IX. EXPLICATION OF TEEMS RELATIVITY OF HUMAN KNOW- LEDGE, 153 LECTUEE X. EXPLICATION OF TERMS, 168 LECTUEE XI. OUTLINE OF DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL PHENOMENA CON- SCIOUSNESS ITS SPECIAL CONDITIONS, . . . 182 LECTUEE XII. CONSCIOUSNESS ITS SPECIAL CONDITIONS RELATION TO COGNITIVE FACULTIES IN GENERAL, . . . .206 LECTUEE XIII. CONSCIOUSNESS ITS SPECIAL CONDITIONS RELATION TO COGNITIVE FACULTIES IN GENERAL, . . . . 222 LECTUEE XIV. CONSCIOUSNESS ATTENTION IN GENERAL, . . .246 CONTENTS. XIX LECTUEE XV. PAGE CONSCIOUSNESS ITS EVIDENCE AND AUTHOKITY, . . 264 LECTUEE XVI. CONSCIOUSNESS VIOLATIONS OF ITS AUTHORITY, . . 285 LECTUEE XVII. CONSCIOUSNESS GENERAL PHENOMENA ARE WE ALWAYS CONSCIOUSLY ACTIVE ? 310 LECTUEE XVIII. CONSCIOUSNESS GENERAL PHENOMENA IS THE MIND EVER UNCONSCIOUSLY MODIFIED ? 338 LECTUEE XIX. CONSCIOUSNESS GENERAL PHENOMENA DIFFICULTIES AND FACILITIES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY, . . . 364 APPENDIX. I. (A) ACADEMICAL HONOURS, 385 (B) THE SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY FRAGMENTS. (a) PORTION OF INTRODUCTORY LECTURE (1836), . . 392 (b) M. JOUFFROY'S CRITICISM OF THE SCOTTISH SCHOOL, . 399 (c) GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCOTTISH SCHOOL, . 400 (d) KANT AND REID, 401 (e) KANT'S DOCTRINE OF SPACE AND TIME, . . .402 II. PHYSIOLOGICAL. (a) PHRENOLOGY, 404 (b) EXPERIMENTS ON THE WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN, . . 413 (c) REMARKS ON DR MORTON'S TABLES, .... 421 (d) ON THE FRONTAL SINUS, ...... 424 LECTUBES ON METAPHYSICS, LECTUEE I. PHILOSOPHY ITS ABSOLUTE UTILITY. (A) SUBJECTIVE. GENTLEMEN In the commencement of a course of LECT. instruction in any department of knowledge, it is usual, before entering on the regular consideration of H S bene the subject, to premise a general survey of the more ures. p e< important advantages which it affords ; and this with the view of animating the student to a higher assi- duity, by holding up to him, in prospect, some at least of those benefits and pleasures which he may promise to himself in reward of his exertions. And, if such a preparation be found expedient for The exhibi- other branches of study, it is, I think, peculiarly requi- why P ecu- ' site in Philosophy, Philosophy Proper, the Science site/ ' of Mind. For, in the first place, the most important advantages to be derived from the cultivation of philosophy, are not, in themselves, direct, palpable, obtrusive : they are, therefore, of their own nature, peculiarly liable to be overlooked or disparaged by the world at large ; because to estimate them at their proper value requires in the judge more than a vulgar complement of information and intelligence. But, in VOL. I. A 2 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. the second place, the many are not simply by nega- - tive incompetence disqualified for an opinion ; they are, moreover, by positive error, at once rendered in- capable of judging right ; and yet, by positive error, encouraged to a decision. For there are at present afloat, and in very general acceptation, certain super- ficial misconceptions in regard to the end and objects of education, which render the popular opinion of the comparative importance of its different branches, not merely false, but precisely the reverse of truth ; the studies which, in reality, are of the highest value as a mean of intellectual development, being those which, on the vulgar standard of utility, are at the very bottom of the scale ; while those which, in the nomen- clature of the multitude, are emphatically, distinc- tively denominated the Useful, are precisely those which, in relation to the great ends of liberal educa- tion, possess the least, and least general, utility. utility of a In considering the utility of a branch of knowledge, knowledge, it behoves us, in the first place, to estimate its value as -Svb- viewed simply in itself; and, in the second, its value as viewed in relation to other branches. Considered in itself, a science is valuable in proportion as its cultivation is immediately conducive to the mental improvement of the cultivator. This may be called its Absolute utility. In relation to others, a science is valuable in proportion as its study is necessary for the prosecution of other branches of knowledge. This may be called its Relative utility. In this latter point of view, that is, as relatively useful, I cannot at present enter upon the value of Philosophy, I cannot attempt to show how it supplies either the materials or the rules to all the sciences ; and how, in particular, its study is of importance to the Lawyer, the Physi- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. cian, and, above all, to the Theologian. All this I LECT. must for the present pass by. In the former point of view, that is, considered Absolute absolutely, or in itself, the philosophy of mind com- two kinds J .,. . r ,f . ~ Subjective prises two several utilities, according as it, 1 , (Julti- and object- vates the mind or knowing subject, by calling its faculties into exercise ; and, 2, Furnishes the mind with a certain complement of truths or objects of knowledge. The former of these constitutes its Sub- jective, the latter its Objective utility. These utilities are not the same, nor do they even stand to each other in any necessary proportion. As the special consideration of both is more than I can compass in the present Lecture, I am constrained to limit myself to one alone ; and as the subjective utility is that which has usually been overlooked, though not assuredly of the two the less important, while at the same time its exposition affords in part the rationale of the method of instruction which I have adopted, I shall at present only attempt an illustration of the advantages afforded by the Philosophy of Mind, re- garded as the study which, of all others, best cultivates the mind or subject of knowledge, by supplying to its higher faculties the occasions of their most vigorous, and therefore their most improving, exercise. There are few, I believe, disposed to question the Practical , . T . . utility of speculative dignity ot mental science ; but its practi- Philosophy. cal utility is not unfrequently denied. To what, it is asked, is the science of mind conducive ? What are its uses "? I am not one of those who think that the importance of a study is sufficiently established when its dignity is admitted ; for, holding that knowledge is for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of knowledge, 4 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. it is necessary, in order to vindicate its value, that every science should be able to show what are the advantages which it promises to confer upon its stu- dent. I, therefore, profess myself a utilitarian ; and it is only on the special ground of its utility that I would claim for the philosophy of mind, what I regard as its The Useful peculiar and pre-eminent importance. But what is a utilitarian 1 Simply one who prefers the Useful to the Useless and who does not ? But what is the useful ? That which is prized, not on its own account, but as conducive to the acquisition of something else, the useful is, in short, only another word for a mean towards an end ; for every mean is useful, and what- ever is useful is a mean. Now the value of a mean is always in proportion to the value of its end ; and the useful being a mean, it follows that, of two utilities, the one which conduces to the more valuable end will be itself the more valuable utility. So far there is no difference of opinion. All agree that the useful is a mean towards an end ; and that, cceteris paribus, a mean towards a higher end consti- tutes a higher utility than a mean towards a lower. The only dispute that has arisen, or can possibly arise, in regard to the utility of means (supposing always their relative efficiency), is founded on the various views that may be entertained in regard to the exist- ence and comparative importance of ends. TWO errors Now the various opinions which prevail concerning iar estiniate the comparative utility of human sciences and studies of the com- , , , . tt have all arisen irom two errors. The first of these consists in viewing man, not as a With the following observations in his article on the study of mathe- may be compared the author's re- matics, Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixii. marks on the distinction between a p. 409, reprinted in his Discussions, liberal and a professional education p. 263. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 5 an end unto himself, but merely as a mean organised LECT. for the sake of something out of himself ; and, under ! this partial view of human destination, those branches of knowledge obtain exclusively the name of useful, which tend to qualify a human being to act the lowly part of a dexterous instrument. The second, and the more dangerous of these errors, consists in regarding the cultivation of our faculties as subordinate to the acquisition of knowledge, instead of regarding the possession of knowledge as subor- dinate to the cultivation of our faculties ; and, in con- sequence of this error, those sciences which afford a greater number of more certain facts, have been deemed superior in utility to those which bestow a higher cul- tivation on the higher faculties of the mind. As to the first of these errors, the fallacy is so pal- Man an pable, that we may well wonder at its prevalence. It himself, is manifest, indeed, that man, in so far as he is a mean for the glory of God, must be an end unto himself, for it is only in the accomplishment of his own per- fection, that, as a creature, he can manifest the glory of his Creator. Though therefore man, by relation to God, be but a mean, for that very reason, in relation to all else, is he an end. Wherefore, now speaking of him exclusively in his natural capacity and temporal relations, I say it is manifest that man is by nature necessarily an end to himself, that his perfection and happiness constitute the goal of his activity, to which he tends, and ought to tend, when not diverted from this, his general and native des- tination, by peculiar and accidental circumstances. But it is equally evident, that, under the condition of society, individual men are, for the most part, to a greater or less degree, actually so diverted. To 6 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. live, the individual must have the means of living ; and these means, (unless he already possess them), he must procure, he must purchase. But purchase with what "? With his services, i.e. he must reduce himself to an instrument, an instrument of utility to others, and the services of this instrument he must barter for those means of subsistence of which he is in want. In other words, he must exercise some trade, calling, or profession. Thus, in the actualities of social life, each man, instead of being solely an end to himself, instead of being able to make everything subordinate to that full and harmonious development of his individual faculties, in which his full perfection and his true happiness consist, is, in general, compelled to degrade himself into the mean or instrument towards the accomplishment of some end, external to himself, and for the benefit of others. Liberal and Now the perfection of man as an end, and the per- professional /./> ^ education. lection oi man as a mean or instrument, are not only not the same, they are, in reality, generally opposed. And as these two perfections are different, so the train- ing requisite for their acquisition is not identical, and has, accordingly, been distinguished by different names. The one is styled Liberal, the other Professional edu- cation, the branches of knowledge cultivated for these purposes being called respectively liberal and pro- fessional, or liberal and lucrative sciences. By the Germans, the latter are usually distinguished as the Brodwissenschaften, which we may translate, The Bread and Butter sciences* A few of the professions, indeed, as requiring a higher development of the higher facul- o Schelling, Vorlesungen uber die p. 67. ED. MetJiode des Academischen Studium, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 7 ties, and involving, therefore, a greater or less amount LECT. of liberal education, have obtained the name of liberal professions. We must, however, recollect that this is only an accidental and a very partial exception. But though the full and harmonious development of our faculties be the high and natural destination of all, while the cultivation of any professional dexterity is only a contingency, though a contingency incumbent upon most, it has, however, happened that the para- mount and universal end of man, of man absolutely, has been often ignorantly lost sight of, and the term useful appropriated exclusively to those acquirements which have a value only to man considered in his relative, lower, and accidental character of an instru- ment. But, because some have thus been led to appropriate the name of useful to those studies and objects of knowledge, which are conducive to the Misappii- . f - i . mi i> n i i cation of the interior end, it assuredly does not iollow that those term useful. conducive to the higher have not a far preferable title to the name thus curiously denied to them. Even admitting, therefore, that the study of mind is of no immediate advantage in preparing the student for many of the subordinate parts in the mechan- ism of society, its utility cannot, on that account, be called in question, unless it be asserted that man " liveth by bread alone," and has no higher destina- tion than that of the calling by which he earns his subsistence. The second error to which I have adverted, reverses Knowledge the relative subordination of knowledge and of intel- lectuai cui- lectual cultivation. In refutation of this, I shall attempt briefly to show, firstly, that knowledge and intellectual cultivation are not identical ; secondly, that knowledge is itself principally valuable as a 8 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. mean of intellectual cultivation ; and, lastly, that - intellectual cultivation is more directly and effectually accomplished by the study of mind than by any other of our rational pursuits. But to prevent misapprehension, I may premise what I mean by knowledge, and what by intellectual cultivation. By knowledge is understood the mere possession of truths ; by intellectual cultivation, or intellectual development, the power acquired through exercise by the higher faculties, of a more varied, vigorous, and protracted activity. Not identi- In the first place, then, it will be requisite, I con- ceive, to say but little to show that knowledge and intellectual development are not only not the same, but stand in no necessary proportion to each other. This is manifest if we consider the very different con- ditions under which these two qualities are acquired. The one condition under which all powers, and con- sequently the intellectual faculties, are developed, is exercise. The more intense and continuous the exer- cise, the more vigorously developed will be the power. But a certain quantity of knowledge, in other words, a certain amount of possessed truths, does not suppose, as its condition, a corresponding sum of intellectual exercise. One truth requires much, an- other truth requires little, effort in acquisition ; and, while the original discovery of a truth evolves perhaps a maximum of the highest quality of energy, the sub- sequent learning of that truth elicits probably but a minimum of the very lowest. is truth or But, as it is evident that the possession of truths, and the development of the mind in which they are deposited, are not identical, I proceed, in the second place, to show that, considered as ends, and in relation LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 9 to each other, the knowledge of truths is not supreme, LECT. but subordinate to the cultivation of the knowing ^ mind. The question Is Truth, or is the Mental Exer- cise in the pursuit of truth, the superior end "? this is perhaps the most curious theoretical, and certainly the most important practical, problem in the whole compass of philosophy. For, according to the solution at which we arrive, must we accord the higher or the lower rank to certain great departments of study ; and, what is of more importance, the character of its solution, as it determines the aim, regulates from first to last the method, which an enlightened science of education must adopt. But, however curious and important, this question Popular 8 o- 1 f> T i 11 1 tit ion of this has never, in so iar as 1 am aware, been regularly question, discussed. Nay, what is still more remarkable, the erroneous alternative has been very generally assumed as true. The consequence of this has been, that sciences of far inferior, have been elevated above sciences of far superior, utility ; while education has been systematically distorted, though truth and nature have occasionally burst the shackles which a perverse theory had imposed. The reason of this is sufficiently obvious. At first sight, it seems even absurd to doubt that truth is more valuable than its pursuit ; for is this not to say that the end is less important than the mean I and on this super- ficial view is the prevalent misapprehension founded. A slight consideration will, however, expose the fallacy. Knowledge is either practical or speculative. In Practical 11 IT* i i knowledge; practical knowledge it is evident that truth is not its end. the ultimate end ; for, in that case, knowledge is, ex hypothesi, for the sake of application. The knowledge 10 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. of a moral, of a political, of a religious truth, is of - value only as it affords the preliminary or condition of its exercise. The end of In speculative knowledge, on the other hand, there knowledge, may indeed, at first sight, seem greater difficulty ; but further reflection will prove that speculative truth is only pursued, and is only held of value, for the sake of intellectual activity. " Sordet cognita veritas " is a shrewd aphorism of Seneca. A truth, once known, falls into comparative insignificance. It is now prized, less on its own account than as opening up new ways to new activity, new suspense, new hopes, new discoveries, new self-gratulation. Every votary of science is wilfully ignorant of a thousand established facts, of a thousand which he might make his own more easily than he could attempt the discovery of even one. But it is not knowledge, it is not truth, that he principally seeks ; he seeks the exercise of his faculties and feelings ; and, as in following after the one he exerts a greater amount of pleasurable energy than in taking formal possession of the thousand, he disdains the certainty of the many, and prefers the chances of the one. Accordingly, the sciences always studied with keenest interest are those in a state of progress and uncertainty : absolute certainty and absolute completion would be the para- lysis of any study ; and the last worst calamity that could befall man, as he is at present constituted, would be that full and final possession of speculative truth, which he now vainly anticipates as the consum- mation of his intellectual happiness. " Queesivit ccelo lucem, ingemuitque reperta." a a Virgil, JEn., iv. 692. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 11 But what is true of science is true, indeed, of all LECT. i. human activity. "In life," as the great Pascal observes, - " we always believe that we are seeking repose, while, in reality, all that we ever seek is agitation." ' When Pyrrhus proposed to subdue a part of the world, and then to enjoy rest among his friends, he believed that what he sought was possession, not pursuit ; and Alexander assuredly did not foresee that the conquest of one world would only leave him to weep for another world to conquer. It is ever the contest that pleases us, and not the victory. Thus it is in play ; thus it is in hunting ; thus it is in the search of truth ;P thus it is in life. The past does not interest, the present does not satisfy, the future alone is the object which engages us. " [Nullo votorum fine beati] Victuros agimus semper, nee vivimus unquam." y " Man never is, but always to be blest." 8 The question, I said, has never been regularly dis- HOW re- . solved by cussed, probably because it lay in too narrow aphiioso- i i'ii i pliers. compass; but no philosopher appears to have ever seriously proposed it to himself, who did not resolve it in contradiction to the ordinary opinion. A con- tradiction of this opinion is even involved in the very term Philosophy ; and the man who first declared that he was not a (ro^o?, or possessor, but a vovTai, Sor)s Kal Beoipovffiv 7ca OfcapriTiK^if '^aaiv. ED. irXeoi>fia$ Onparai- ol Sf iteV" Mazure, Court de Qusest. ii., "An acquisitio scientiae Philosophic, torn. i. p. 20.] sit nobis per doctrinam ? " for his Sine Duplik, 1 ; Schriften, edit. view of the end and means of educa- Lachmann, x. p. 49. ED. tion. ED. 7 [" Die Wahrheit ist in Gott, uns a ["Malebranche disait avec une bleibt das Forschen."] ing6nieue exagdration, ' Si je tenais 8 Leben, drittes Heft, 257. See la v6ritd captive dans ma main, j'ouv- Scheidler's Pxychologie, p. 45. ED. rirais la main afin de poursuivre en- Compare Discussions, p. 40. 14 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. But I do not at present found the importance on the paramount dignity of the pursuit. It is as the best gymnastic of the mind, as a mean, principally, and almost exclusively, conducive to the highest education of our noblest powers, that I would vindicate to these speculations the necessity which has too fre- quently been denied them. By no other intellectual application is the mind thus reflected on itself, and its faculties aroused to such independent, vigorous, un- wonted, and continued energy; by none, therefore, are its best capacities so variously and intensely evolved. " By turning," says Burke, " the soul in- ward on itself, its forces are concentred, and are fitted for greater and stronger flights of science ; and in this pursuit, whether we take or whether we lose our game, the chase is certainly of service." a Application These principles being established, I have only going prin" now to offer a few observations in regard to their conduct of e application, that is, in regard to the mode in which I philosophy, conceive that this class ought to be conducted. From what has already been said, my views on this subject may be easily anticipated. Holding that the para- mount end of liberal study is the development of the student's mind, and that knowledge is principally useful as a mean of determining the faculties to that exercise, through which this development is accom- plished, it follows that I must regard the main duty of a Professor to consist not simply in communicating information, but in doing this in such a manner, and with such an accompaniment of subsidiary means, that the information he conveys may be the occasion of awakening his pupils to a vigorous and varied exertion of their faculties. Self-activity is the indis- a On the Sublime and Beautiful, Preface, p. 8. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 15 pensable condition of improvement ; and education is LECT. education, that is, accomplishes its purpose, only by - affording objects and supplying incitements to this spontaneous exertion. Strictly speaking, every one must educate himself. But as the end of education is thus something more Universi- 11 r i i i i ties; their than the mere communication 01 knowledge, the com- main end. munication of knowledge ought not to be all that academical education should attempt. Before printing was invented, Universities were of primary importance as organs of publication, and as centres of literary con- fluence : but since that invention, their utility as media of communication is superseded ; consequently, to jus- tify the continuance of their existence and privileges, they must accomplish something that cannot be ac- complished by books. But it is a remarkable circum- stance that, before the invention of printing, univer- sities viewed the activity of the pupil as the great mean of cultivation, and the communication of know- ledge as only of subordinate importance ; whereas, since that invention, universities, in general, have gradually allowed to fall into disuse the powerful means which they possess of rousing the pupil to ex- ertion, and have been too often content to act as mere oral instruments of information, forgetful, it would almost seem, that Fust and Coster ever lived. It is acknowledged, indeed, that this is neither the prin- cipal nor the proper purpose of a university. Every writer on academical education from every corner of Europe proclaims the abuse, and, in this and other universities, much has been done by individual effort to correct it." But though the common duty of all academical a Compare Discussions, p. 772. ED. 16 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. instructors be the cultivation of the student, through _^ the awakened exercise of his faculties, this is more The true end especially incumbent on those to whom is intrusted education, the department of liberal education ; for, in this department, the pupil is trained, not to any mere professional knowledge, but to the command and employment of his faculties in general. But, more- The condi- over, the same obligation is specially imposed upon a tra!t?on1n professor of intellectual philosophy, by the peculiar phy. na t ure of his subject, and the conditions under which alone it can be taught. The phsenomena of the ex- ternal world are so palpable and so easily described, that the experience of one observer suffices to render the facts he has witnessed intelligible and probable to all. The phaenomena of the internal world, on the contrary, are not capable of being thus described : all that the prior observer can do, is to enable others to repeat his experience. In the science of mind, we can neither understand nor be convinced of anything at second hand. Here testimony can impose no be- lief ; and instruction is only instruction as it enables us to teach ourselves. A fact of consciousness, how- ever accurately observed, however clearly described, and however great may be our confidence in the observer, is for us as zero, until we have observed and recognised it ourselves. Till that be done, we cannot realise its possibility, far less admit its truth. Thus it is that, in the philosophy of mind, instruction can do little more than point out the position in which the pupil ought to place himself, in order to verify, by his own experience, the facts which his instructor proposes to him as true. The instructor, therefore, proclaims, ov '71 i f T i i the pupil s WILL to the performance. i3ut how is this to his pupils. be effected ? Only by rendering the effort more plea- surable than its omission. But every effort is at first difficult, consequently irksome. The ultimate benefit it promises is dim and remote, while the pupil is often of an age at which present pleasure is more persuasive than future good. The pain of the exertion must, therefore, be overcome by associating with it a still higher pleasure. This can only be effected by enlist- ing some passion in the cause of improvement. We must awaken emulation, and allow its gratification only through a course of vigorous exertion. Some rigorists, I am aware, would proscribe, on moral and religious grounds, the employment of the passions in education ; VOL. T. B 18 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. but such a view is at once false and dangerous. The affections are the work of God ; they are not radically evil ; they are given us for useful purposes, and are, therefore, not superfluous. It is their abuse that is alone reprehensible. In truth, however, there is no alterna- tive. In youth, passion is preponderant. There is then a redundant amount of energy which must be ex- pended ; and this, if it find not an outlet through one affection, is sure to find it through another. The aim of education is thus to employ for good those impulses which would otherwise be turned to evil. The pas- sions are never neutral ; they are either the best allies, or the worst opponents, of improvement. "Man's nature," says Bacon, "runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other." Without the stimulus of emulation, what can education accomplish ? The love of abstract know- ledge, and the habit of application, are still unformed, and if emulation intervene not, the course by which these are acquired is, from a strenuous and cheerful energy, reduced to an inanimate and dreary effort ; and this too at an age when pleasure is all-powerful, and im- pulse predominant over reason. The result is manifest. These views have determined my plan of practical instruction. Regarding the communication of know- ledge, as a high, but not the highest, aim of academical instruction, I shall not content myself with the de- livery of Lectures. By all the means in my power I shall endeavour to rouse you, Gentlemen, to the free and vigorous exercise of your faculties ; and shall deem my task accomplished, not by teaching Logic and Philo- sophy, but by teaching to reason and philosophise.' 3 a Essay xxxviii. "Of Nature in /3 For Fragment containing the Au- Men," Works, ed. Montagu, vol. i. thor's views on the subject of Academ- p. 133. ED. ical Honours, see Appendix I. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 19 LECTURE IL PHILOSOPHY ITS ABSOLUTE UTILITY. (B) OBJECTIVE. IN the perverse estimate which is often made of the LECT. ends and objects of education, it is impossible that the - Science of Mind, Philosophy Proper, the Queen of fas V tudy. Sciences, as it was denominated of old, should not be degraded in common opinion from its pre-eminence, as the highest branch of general education; and, there- fore, before attempting to point out to you what con- stitutes the value of Philosophy, it becomes necessary to clear the way by establishing a correct notion of what the value of a study is. Some things are valuable, finally, or for themselves, Ends and these are ends ; other things are valuable, not on their own account, but as conducive towards certain ulterior ends, these are means. The value of ends is absolute, the value of means is relative. Absolute value is properly called a good, relative value is pro- perly called a utility.? Of goods, or absolute ends, a It is to be observed, that the the Course. This circumstance ac. Lectures here printed as First and counts for the repetition of the prin- Second, were not uniformly delivered cipal doctrines of Lecture I. in the by the Author in that order. The opening of Lecture II. ED. one or other was, however, usually /3 [Cf. Aristotle, Elk. Nic., lib. L given as the Introductory Lecture of c. 7, 1.] 20 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. there are for man but two, perfection and happiness. - By perfection is meant the full and harmonious devel- opment of all our faculties, corporeal and mental, in- tellectual and moral ; by happiness, the complement of all the pleasures of which we are susceptible. Human per- Now, I may state, though I cannot at present at- fection and n T i ii happiness tempt to prove, and 1 am afraid many will not even coincide. .. - - /, . -. understand the statement, that human perfection and human happiness coincide, and thus constitute, in reality, but a single end. For as, on the one hand, the perfection or full development of a power is in pro- portion to its capacity of free, vigorous, and continued action, so, on the other, all pleasure is the concomitant of activity ; its degree being in proportion as that ac- tivity is spontaneously intense, its prolongation in pro- portion as that activity is spontaneously continued ; whereas, pain arises either from a faculty being re- strained in its spontaneous tendency to action, or from being urged to a degree, or to a continuance, of energy beyond the limit to which it of itself freely tends. To promote our perfection is thus to promote our happiness ; for to cultivate fully and harmoniously our various faculties, is simply to enable them by ex- ercise to energise longer and stronger without painful effort ; that is, to afford us a larger amount of a higher quality of enjoyment. Criterion of Perfection (comprising happiness) being thus the one a stady. end of our existence, in so far as man is considered either as an end unto himself, or as a mean to the glory of his Creator; it is evident that, absolutely speaking, that is, without reference to special circum- stances and relations, studies and sciences must, in common with all other pursuits, be judged useful as they contribute, and only as they contribute, to the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 21 perfection of our humanity, that is, to our perfection LECT. simply as men. It is manifest that in this relation - alone can anything distinctively, emphatically, and without qualification, be denominated useful ; for as our perfection as men is the paramount and universal end proposed to the species, whatever we may style useful in any other relation, ought, as conducive only to a subordinate and special end, to be so called, not simply, but with qualifying limitation. Propriety has, however, in this case been reversed in common usage. For the term Useful has been exclusively bestowed, in ordinary language, on those branches of instruction which, without reference to his general cultivation as a man or a gentleman, qualify an individual to earn his livelihood by a special knowledge or dexterity in some lucrative calling or profession ; and it is easy to see how, after the word had been thus appropriated to what, following the Germans, we may call the Bread and Butter sciences, those which more proximately and obtrusively contribute to the intellectual and moral dignity of man, should, as not having been styled the useful, come, in popular opinion, to be regarded as the useless branches of instruction. As it is proper to have different names for different General and things, we may call the higher utility, or that conducive utility, to the perfection of a man viewed as an end in him- self, by the name of Absolute or General ; the inferior utility, or that conducive to the skill of an individual viewed as an instrument for some end out of himself, by the name of Special or Particular. Now, it is evident, that in estimating the utility of any branch of education, we ought to measure it both by the one kind of utility and by the other ; but it is also evident that a neglect of the former standard will 22 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. lead us further wrong in appreciating the value of - any branch of common or general instruction, than a neglect of the latter. It has been the tendency of different ages, of dif- ferent countries, of different ranks and conditions of society, to measure the utility of studies rather by one of these standards than by both. Thus it was the bias of antiquity, when the moral and intellectual cultiva- tion of the citizen was viewed as the great end of all political institutions, to appreciate all knowledge prin- cipally by the higher standard ; on the contrary, it is unfortunately the bias of our modern civilisation, since the accumulation, (and not to the distribution), of riches in a country, has become the grand problem of the statesman, to appreciate it rather by the lower. In considering, therefore, the utility of philosophy, we have, first, to determine its Absolute, and, in the second place, its Special utility I sayits special utility, for, though not itself one of the professional studies, it is mediately more or less conducive to them all. In the present Lecture I must, of course, limit my- self to one branch of this division ; and even a part of the first or Absolute utility will more than occupy our hour. Philosophy: Limiting myself, therefore, to the utility of philoso- utiiity. phy as estimated by the higher standard alone, it is further to be observed that, on this standard, a science or study is useful in two different ways, and, as these are not identical, this pursuit being more useful in the one way, that pursuit more useful in the other, these in reality constitute two several standards of utility, by which each branch of knowledge ought to be separately measured. The cultivation, the intellectual perfection, of a man, tlve> LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 23 may be estimated by the amount of two different ele- LECT. ments; it may be estimated by the mere sum of truths _ which he has learned, or it may be estimated by the utility"!* a greater development of his faculties, as determined by their greater exercise in the pursuit and contemplation of truth. For, though this may appear a paradox, these elements are not merely not convertible, but are, in fact, very loosely connected with each other ; and as an individual may possess an ample magazine of knowledge, and still be little better than an intellec- tual barbarian, so the utility of one science may be principally seen in affording a greater number of higher and more indisputable truths, the utility of another in determining the faculties to a higher energy, and consequently to a higher cultivation. The former of these utilities we may call the Objective, as it regards the object-matter about which our cognitive faculties are occupied ; the other the Subjective, inasmuch as it regards our cognitive faculties themselves as the sub- ject in which knowledge is inherent. I shall not at present enter on the discussion which of these utilities is the higher. In the opening Lecture of last year, I endeavoured to show that all knowledge is only for the sake of energy, and that even merely speculative truth is valuable only as it determines a greater quantity of higher power into activity. In Philosophy. that lecture, I also endeavoured to show that, on the tive utility. standard of subjective utility, philosophy is of all our studies the most useful ; inasmuch as more than any other it exercises, and consequently develops, to a higher degree and in a more varied manner, our no- blest faculties. At present, on the contrary, I shall confine myself to certain views of the importance of philosophy, estimated by the standard of its Objective 24 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. utility. The discussion, I am aware, will be found - somewhat disproportioned to the age and average capacity of my hearers ; but, on this occasion, and before this audience, I hope to be excused if I venture for once on matters which, to be adequately understood, require development and illustration from the matured intelligence of those to whom they are presented. The human Considered in itself, a knowledge of the human mind, mind the , , ... , . . , . noblest ob- whether we regard its speculative or its practical impor- tation." tance, is confessedly of all studies the highest and the most interesting. " On earth," says an ancient philoso- pher, " there is nothing great but man ; in man, there is nothing great but mind." ( No other study fills and satisfies the soul like the study of itself. No other science presents an object to be compared in dignity, in absolute or in relative value, to that which human con- sciousness furnishes to its own contemplation. What is of all things the best ? asked Chilon of the Oracle. " To know thyself," was the response. This is, in fact, the only science in which all are always interested, for, while each individual may have his favourite occupa- tion, it still remains true of the species that " The proper study of mankind is man." sir Thomas " Now for my life," says Sir Thomas Browne, " it is quoted 6 a miracle of thirty years, which to relate were not a history, but a piece of poetry, and would sound to common ears like a fable. " For the world, I count it not an inn, but an hos- pital; and a place not to live but to die in. The a [Phavorinus, quoted by Joannes /3 Pope, Essay on Man, ii. 2. ED. Picus Mirandnlanus, In Astrologiam, [Cf. Charron, De la Sage-sse, liv. i. lib. iii. p. 351, Basil, ed.] For notice chap. i. " Le vray estude de I'homme of Phavorinus, see Vossius, De Hist, est I'homme."] Grcec., lib. ii. c. 10. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 25 world that I regard is myself; it is the microcosm of LECT. my own frame that I cast mine eye on : for the other, I use it but like my globe, and turn it round some- times for my recreation. Men that look upon my out- side, perusing only my condition and fortunes, do err in my altitude ; for I am above Atlas his shoulders. The earth is a point not only in respect of the heavens above us, but of that heavenly and celestial part within us. That mass of flesh that circumscribes me, limits not my mind. That surface that tells the heavens it hath an end, cannot persuade me I have any. I take my circle to be above three hundred and sixty. Though the number of the ark do measure my body, it compre- hendeth not my mind. Whilst I study to find how I am a microcosm, or little world, I find myself something more than the great. There is surely a piece of divinity in us : something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun. Nature tells me, I am the image of God, as well as Scripture. He that un- derstands not thus much hath not his introduction or first lesson, and is yet to begin the alphabet of man."' But, though mind, considered in itself, be the noblest Relation of i f i i'ii i Psychology object oi speculation which the created universe pre- to Theology, sents to the curiosity of man, it is under a certain re- lation that I would now attempt to illustrate its util- ity; for mind rises to its highest dignity when viewed as the object through which, and through which alone, our unassisted reason can ascend to the knowledge of a God. The Deity is not an object of immediate con- templation ; as existing and in himself, he is beyond our reach ; we can know him only mediately through his works, and are only warranted in assuming his ex- istence as a certain kind of cause necessary to account a Browne's Reliyio Medici, part ii. 11. Discustnons, p. 311. ED. 26 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. for a certain state of things, of whose reality our facul- ties are supposed to inform us. The affirmation of a of Deity an God being thus a regressive inference, from the exist- fro m e aspe- ence of a special class of effects to the existence of a ofeffects. special character of cause, it is evident, that the whole argument hinges on the fact, Does a state of things really exist such as is only possible through the agency of a Divine Cause ? For if it can be shown that such a state of things does not really exist, then, our inference to the kind of cause requisite to account for it, is ne- cessarily null. These af- This being understood, I now proceed to show you ciusiveiy by that the class of phenomena which requires that kind mena of of cause we denominate a Deity, is exclusively given in the phenomena of mind, that the phenomena of matter, taken by themselves, (you will observe the qualification, taken by themselves), so far from war- ranting any inference to the existence of a God, would, on the contrary, ground even an argument to his negation, that the study of the external world taken with, and in subordination to, that of the internal, not only loses its atheistic tendency, but, under such subservience, may be rendered conducive to the great conclusion, from which, if left to itself, it would dis- suade us. We must first of all then consider what kind of cause it is which constitutes a Deity, and what kind of effects they are which allow us to infer that a Deity must be. The notion The notion of a God is not contained in the notion what. of a mere First Cause ; for in the admission of a first cause, Atheist and Theist are at one. Neither is this notion completed by adding to a first cause the attri- bute of Omnipotence, for the atheist who holds mat- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 27 ter or necessity to be the original principle of all that LECT. is, does not convert his blind force into a God, by merely affirming it to be all-powerful. It is not until the two great attributes of Intelligence and Virtue (and be it observed that virtue involves Liberty) I say, it is not until the two attributes of intelligence and virtue or holiness, are brought in, that the belief in a primary and omnipotent cause becomes the belief in a veritable Divinity. But these latter attributes are not more essential to the divine nature than are the former. For as original and infinite power does not of itself constitute a God, neither is a God consti- tuted by intelligence and virtue, unless intelligence and goodness be themselves conjoined with this ori- ginal and infinite power. For even a creator, intelli- gent and good and powerful, would be no God, were he dependent for his intelligence and goodness and power on any higher principle. On this supposition, the perfections of the creator are viewed as limited and derived. He is himself, therefore, only a depen- dency, only a creature ; and if a God there be, he must be sought for in that higher principle, from which this subordinate principle derives its attributes. Now is this highest principle, (ex hypoihesi all-power- ful), also intelligent and moral, then it is itself alone the veritable Deity ; on the other hand is it, though the author of intelligence and goodness in another, itself unintelligent, then is a blind Fate constituted the- first and universal cause, and atheism is asserted. The peculiar attributes which distinguish a Deity Conditions from the original omnipotence or blind fate of the of the j.x atheist, being thus those of intelligence and holiness GoT* of will, and the assertion of theism being only the assertion that the universe is created by intelligence 28 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. and governed not only by physical but by moral laws, ! we have next to consider how we are warranted in these two affirmations, 1, That intelligence stands first in the absolute order of existence, in other words, that final preceded efficient causes ; and, 2, That the universe is governed by moral laws. i. is in- The proof of these two propositions is the proof of firsuHhe a God ; and it establishes its foundation exclusively iitence? on the phenomena of mind. I shall endeavour, Gen- universe 6 tlemen, to show you this, in regard to both these femoral propositions ; but, before considering how far the phse- nomena of mind and of matter do and do not allow us to infer the one position or the other, I must solicit your attention to the characteristic contrasts which these two classes of phenomena in themselves exhibit. Contrasts of In the compass of our experience, we distinguish the phaeno- ., _ if c i i men* of two series oi tacts, the tacts oi the external or mate- mind, rial world, and the facts of the internal world or world of intelligence. These concomitant series of phseno- mena are not like streams which merely run parallel to each other ; they do not, like the Alpheus and Are- thusa, flow on side by side without a commingling of their waters. They cross, they combine, they are interlaced; but notwithstanding their intimate con- nection, their mutual action and reaction, we are able to discriminate them without difficulty, because they are marked out by characteristic differences. The phaenomena of the material world are subjected to immutable laws, are produced and reproduced in the same invariable succession, and manifest only the blind force of a mechanical necessity. The phaenomena of man are, in part, subjected to the laws of the external universe. As dependent LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 29 upon a bodily organisation, as actuated by sensual LECT. propensities and animal wants, lie belongs to matter, and in this respect he is the slave of necessity. But what man holds of matter does not make up his per- sonality. They are his, not he ; man is not an or- ganism, he is an intelligence served by organs." For in man there are tendencies, there is a law, which continually urge him to prove that he is more power- ful than the nature by which he is surrounded and penetrated. He is conscious to himself of faculties not comprised in the chain of physical necessity, his intelligence reveals prescriptive principles of action, absolute and universal, in the Law of Duty, and a liberty capable of carrying that law into effect, in opposition to the solicitations, the impulsions of his material nature. From the coexistence of these op- posing forces in man there results a ceaseless struggle between physical necessity and moral liberty ; in the language of Kevelation, between the Flesh and the Spirit ; and this struggle constitutes at once the dis- tinctive character of humanity, and the essential con- dition of human development and virtue. In the facts of intelligence, we thus become aware of an order of existence diametrically in contrast to that displayed to us in the facts of the material uni- verse. There is made known to us an order of things, in which intelligence, by recognising the unconditional law of duty and an absolute obligation to fulfil it, recognises its own possession of a liberty incompatible with a dependence upon fate, and of a power capable of resisting and conquering the counteraction of our animal nature. a [" Mens cujusque, is est quis- Scipionia, c. 8 after Plato.] Cf. que; non ea figura, qua digito de- Plato, Ale. Prim., p. 130, and infra, monstraripotest." Cicero, Somnium p. 164. ED. 30 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Now, it is only as man is a free intelligence, a moral power, that he is created after the image of God, and MM of &M. it is only as a spark of divinity glows as the life of a kwof our life in us, that we can rationally believe in an In- conditions telligcnt Creator and Moral Governor of the universe. ogy ' For, let us suppose, that in man intelligence is the product of organisation, that our consciousness of moral liberty is itself only an illusion, in short, that acts of volition are results of the same iron necessity which determines the phsenomena of matter ; on this supposition, I say, the foundations of all religion, natural and revealed, are subverted." The truth of this will be best seen by applying the supposition of the two positions of theism previously stated viz. that the notion of God necessarily sup- poses, 1, That in the absolute order of existence intelligence should be first, that is, not itself the pro- duct of an unintelligent antecedent; and, 2, That the universe should be governed not only by physical but by moral laws. First condi- Now, in regard to the former, how can we attempt proof ot e to prove that the universe is the creation of a free drawn y from original intelligence, against the counter-position of 8yc gy ' the atheist, that liberty is an illusion, and intelligence, or the adaptation of means to ends, only the product Analogy be- of a blind fate ? As we know nothing of the absolute experience order of existence in itself, we can only attempt to sohte order infer its character from that of the particular order of existence. , i 1 1 i f ^ within the sphere 01 our experience, and as we can affirm naught of intelligence and its conditions, except what we may discover from the observation of our own minds, it is evident that we can only analogically carry out into the order of the universe, the relation a See Discussions, p. 623. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 31 in which we find intelligence to stand in the order of LECT. the human constitution. If in man, intelligence be a free power, in so far as its liberty extends, intelligence must be independent of necessity and matter ; and a power independent of matter necessarily implies the existence of an immaterial subject, that is, a spirit. If then the original independence of intelligence on matter in the human constitution, in other words, if the spirituality of mind in man be supposed a datum of observation, in this datum is also given both the condition and the proof of a God. For we have only to infer, what analogy entitles us to do, that intelligence holds the same relative supremacy in the universe which it holds in us, and the first positive condition of a Deity is established, in the establishment of the absolute priority of a free creative intelligence. On p sy choiogi- the other hand, let us suppose the result of our study riliis of man to be, that intelligence is only a product of 188 matter, only a reflex of organisation, such a doctrine would not only afford no basis on which to rest any argument for a God, but, on the contrary, would posi- tively warrant the atheist in denying his existence. For if, as the materialist maintains, the only intelli- gence of which we have any experience be a conse- quent of matter, on this hypothesis, he not only cannot assume this order to be reversed in the rela- tions of an intelligence beyond his observation, but, if he argue logically, he must positively conclude, that, as in man, so in the universe, the phenomena of in- telligence or design are only in their last analysis the products of a brute necessity. Psychological mate- rialism, if carried out fully and fairly to its conclu- sions, thus inevitably results in theological atheism ; as it has been well expressed by Dr Henry More, 32 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Nullus in microcosmo spiritus, nullus in macrocosmo ' Deus* I do not of course mean to assert that all materialists deny, or actually disbelieve, a God. For, in very many cases, this would be at once an un- merited compliment to their reasoning, and an un- merited reproach to their faith. Second con- Such is the manifest dependence of our theology on prMfVf e our psychology in reference to the first condition of a drawn ^ifrom Deity, the absolute priority of a free intelligence. Psychology, -o . ,-, T i ,. But this is perhaps even more conspicuous in relation to the second, that the universe is governed not merely by physical but by moral laws, for God is only God in- asmuch as he is the Moral Governor of a Moral World. Our interest also in its establishment is incompar- ably greater, for while a proof that the universe is the work of an omnipotent intelligence, gratifies only our speculative curiosity, a proof that there is a holy legislator by whom goodness and felicity will be ulti- mately brought into accordance, is necessary to satisfy both our intellect and our heart. A God is, indeed, to us only of practical interest, inasmuch as he is the condition of our immortality. Now, it is self-evident, in the first place, that if there be no moral world, there can be no moral gover- nor of such a world ; and, in the second, that we have, and can have, no ground on which to believe in the reality of a moral world, except in so far as we our- selves are moral agents. This being undeniable, it is further evident, that, should we ever be convinced that we are not moral agents, we should likewise be convinced that there exists no moral order in the uni- verse, and no supreme intelligence by which that moral order is established, sustained, and regulated* o Cf. Antidotus adversv* Atheis- vol. ii. p. 143, Londini, 1679) ; and the mum, lib. iii. c. 16, (Opera Omnia, Author's Discussions, p. 788. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 33 Theology is thus again wholly dependent on Psycho- LECT. ii. logy ; for, with the proof of the moral nature of man, stands or falls the proof of the existence of a Deity. But in what does the character of man as a moral wherein H IT 1 1 1 ^ e mora ' agent consist ( Man is a moral agent only as he is agency of accountable for his actions, in other words, as he is sists. the object of praise or blame ; and this he is, only inasmuch as he has prescribed to him a rule of duty, and as he is able to act, or not to act, in conformity with its precepts. The possibility of morality thus depends on the possibility of liberty ; for if man be not a free agent, he is not the author of his actions, and has, therefore, no responsibility, no moral per- sonality at all. Now the study of Philosophy, or mental science, Philosophy i -t r, operates in operates in three ways to establish that assurance of three ways, c inestabhsh- human liberty, which is necessary for a rational belief ing assur- i iiTi- ance ^ in our own moral nature, in a moral world, and in a human lib- moral ruler of that world. In the first place, an attentive consideration of the phsenomena of mind is requisite in order to a lumi- nous and distinct apprehension of liberty as a fact or datum of intelligence. For though, without philoso- phy, a natural conviction of free agency lives and works in the recesses of every human mind, it requires a process of philosophical thought to bring this con- viction to clear consciousness and scientific certainty. In the second place, a profound philosophy is neces- sary to obviate the difficulties which meet us when we attempt to explain the possibility of this fact, and to prove that the datum of liberty is not a mere illusion. For though an unconquerable feeling com- pels us to recognise ourselves as accountable, and therefore free, agents, still, when we attempt to VOL. i. c 34 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. realise in thought how the fact of our liberty can be, we soon find that this altogether transcends our understanding, and that every effort to bring the fact of liberty within the compass of our concep- tions, only results in the substitution in its place of some more or less disguised form of necessity. For, if I may be allowed to use expressions which many of you cannot be supposed at present to under- stand, we are only able to conceive a thing, inas- much as we conceive it under conditions ; while the possibility of a free act supposes it to be an act which is not conditioned or determined. The tendency of a superficial philosophy is, therefore, to deny the fact of liberty, on the principle that what cannot be con- ceived is impossible. A deeper and more comprehen- sive study of the facts of mind, overturns this -con- clusion, and disproves its foundation. It shows that, so far from the principle being true, that what is inconceivable is impossible, on the contrary, all that is conceivable is a mean between two contradictory extremes, both of which are inconceivable, but of which, as mutually repugnant, the one or the other must be true. Thus philosophy, in demonstrating that the limits of thought are not to be assumed as the limits of possibility, while it admits the weakness of our discursive intellect, re-establishes the authority of consciousness, and vindicates the veracity of our primitive convictions. It proves to us, from the very laws of mind, that while we can never understand how any original datum of intelligence is possible, we have no reason from this inability to doubt that it is true. A learned ignorance is thus the end of philosophy, as it is the beginning of theology." a See Discussions, p. 634. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 35 In the third place, the study of mind is necessary LECT. to counterbalance and correct the influence of the study of matter; and this utility of Metaphysics rises in proportion to the progress of the natural sciences, and to the greater attention which they engross. An exclusive devotion to physical pursuits, exerts Twofold an evil influence in two ways. In the first place, it exclusive diverts from all notice of the phsenomena of moral JuSy!* liberty, which are revealed to us in the recesses of the human mind alone ; and it disqualifies from appre- ciating the import of these phaenomena, even if pre- sented, by leaving uncultivated the finer power of psychological reflection, in the exclusive exercise of the faculties employed in the easier and more amus- ing observation of the external world. In the second place, by exhibiting merely the phaenomena of matter and extension, it habituates us only to the contempla- tion of an order in which everything is determined by the laws of a blind or mechanical necessity. Now, what is the inevitable tendency of this one-sided and exclusive study ? That the student becomes a mate- rialist, if he speculate at all. For, in the first place, he is familiar with the obtrusive facts of necessity, and is unaccustomed to develop into consciousness the more recondite facts of liberty : he is, therefore, disposed to disbelieve in the existence of phaenomena whose reality he may deny, and whose possibility he cannot under- stand. At the same time, the love of unity, and the philosophical presumption against the multiplication of essences, determine him to reject the assumption of a second, and that an hypothetical, substance, ignor- ant as he is of the reasons by which that assumption 36 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. is legitimated. In the infancy of science, this ten- dency of physical study was not experienced. When 'b its men first turned their attention on the phenomena material!* -* of nature, every event was viewed as a miracle, for every effect was considered as the operation of an in- telligence. God was not exiled from the universe of matter ; on the contrary, he was multiplied in propor- tion to its phenomena. As science advanced, the deities were gradually driven out ; and long after the sublunary world had been disenchanted, they were left for a season in possession of the starry heavens. The movement of the celestial bodies, in which Kepler still saw the agency of a free intelligence, was at length by Newton resolved into a few mechanical principles : and at last even the irregularities which Newton was compelled to leave for the miraculous correction of the Deity, have been proved to require no supernatural interposition ; for La Place has shown that all contingencies, past and future, in the heavens, find their explanation in the one fundamental law of gravitation. But the very contemplation of an order and adap- tation so astonishing, joined to the knowledge that this order and adaptation are the necessary results of a brute mechanism, when acting upon minds which have not looked into themselves for the light of which the world without can only afford them the reflec- tion, far from elevating them more than any other aspect of external creation to that inscrutable Being who reigns beyond and above the universe of nature, tends, on the contrary, to impress on them, with pecu- liar force, the conviction, that as the mechanism of nature can explain so much, the mechanism of nature can explain all. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 37 " Wonder," says Aristotle, " is the first cause of LECT. philosophy : " l but in the discovery that all existence - is but mechanism, the consummation of science would e n c a e beTut be an extinction of the very interest from which it p^^opTT-' ..xl dence. See Aristotle, Eth. Nic. , lib. 8 n irpaKrbv &yaf)6v. npaK-rbv ydp vi. c. 7, with the commentary of la-r\v iyadbv rb Sia irpdtii>s KaropOov. Eustratius. Aii 'A.vaay6pav, Kdl@a\rjv fitvov, 6npla St irpa|fws tTtpa. ED. KalTovtToiovTovt,ffoovs /j.tv,vs P Tusc. Qucc#t., lib. v. c. 3. 5' otf os Mdeos of Hippocrates. But Nearly all authorities, however, are this occurs in one of the Hippocratic agreed that he "flourished" B.C. 540- writings which is manifestly spurious, 510, in the times of Polycrates and and of date subsequent to the father Tarquinius Superbus (Clinton, F. H., of medicine. Hippocrates was an 510). His birth is usually placed in early contemporary of Socrates. [The the 49th Olympiad (B.C. 584). See expression occurs in the Htpl Euffx*)- Brandis, Oeach. der Phil., vol. i. p. noffinnri*, Opera Qvarta Classix, p. 41, 422; Zeller, Phil, der Griechen., vol. ed. Venice, 1588. ED.] i. p. 217, 2d ed. ED. 8 Perhaps rather, " the Professors /3 Compare Meiners, Qeschichte der of Wisdom. " See an able paper by Wissenchaften in Griechenland und Mr Cope in the Journal of Classical Rom, vol. i. p. 118; and Krug, Lejci- and Sacred Philology, vol. i. p. 182. kon, vol. iii. p. 211. ED. ED. 48 LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. pear in the writings of the Socratic school. It is - true, indeed, that the verb i\oo-o(j>etv is found in found in"" Herodotus, in the address by Croesus to Solon ; and that too in a participal form, to designate the latter as a man who had travelled abroad for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, (os 6v, & 4>aI8pt, /caAeTc Kal a/j.a9ovs. ED. ffjioiye /j.tya ffrai SOKC? ical Oef fi6v(f ft Lib. i. 30. trpfireiv. rb 5e ff i\6ffo % rotovr6v y Inst. Oral., Procem. n ft,a\\6v re &j/ aiT

irepl r& vpiara. oJfrio /col ras dp- 8; Scheiblerus, Op. Log., i. p. 1, seq. x** fcreJU^MwHMri irdfrts. ED. /3 Cicero, De Officiis, ii. 2 : " Nee 5 Leibnitz, quoted by Mazure, quidquam aliud est philosophia, si Cours de Philosophic, torn. i. p. 2; interpretari velis, quam studium sa- see also Wenzel, Elementa Philoso- pientise. Sapientia autem est, (ut a phice, torn. i. 7. Cf. Leibnitz, veteribus philosophis definitum est), Lettres entre Leibnitz et Clarke, rerum divinarum et humanarum, cau- Opera, p. 778, (ed. Erd. ) ED. sarumque quibus hae res continentur, Wolf, Philosophia Rationales, scientia." Cf . Tusc. Qucest., iv. 26, v. 3. 29. ED. De Fin., ii. 12; Seneca, Epist. 89; ^Descartes, Prmctpia, Epistola Au- Pseudo-Plutarch, De Plac. Philos., thoris. ClWoU, Phil. Hat., % 33. ED. Procem. : Ol plf oi>v ZraJitol t rfy i) Condillac, L'Art de Jtaisonner, ptv ffofyiav flvi\offoiav,&(ntii- Clemens Alex., Strom., viii. 8, p. 782 : v irpayftaTela irtpi drus, p. 259; Rep., vi. p. 486. ED. T rot vo-fi/wra. Kail T& tnroKfi/Ji(va Kara- y Hobbes, Computatio sive Logica, ylvrrtu. ED. c. 1 : " Philosophia est effectuum sive 6 Compare Tennemann, Gechichte Phamomenwn ex conceptis eorum derP/it/oojoAtc,Einleitung, 13. ED. causis seu generationibus, et rursus * Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, generationum quse esse possunt, ex Methodenlehre, c. 3; Krug, Philoso- cognitis effectibua per rectam ratio- phixcliea Lexikon, iii. p. 213. ED. VOL. I. D 50 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. The science of the original form of the ego or mental self; The science of science ;0 The science of the absolute ; Y The science of the absolute indifference of the ideal and real 5 or, The identity of identity and non-identity, &c. &c. e All such definitions are (if not positively erroneous), either so vague that they afford no precise knowledge of their object ; or they are so partial, that they exclude what they ought to comprehend ; or they are of such a nature that they supply no preliminary information, and are only to be understood, (if ever), after a knowledge has been ac- quired of that which they profess to explain. It is, indeed, perhaps impossible, adequately to define philo- sophy. For what is to be defined comprises what cannot be included in a single definition. For philo- sophy is not regarded from a single point of view, it is sometimes considered as theoretical, that is, in relation to man as a thinking and cognitive intelli- gence ; sometimes as practical, that is, in relation to man as a moral agent ; and sometimes, as compre- hending both theory and practice. Again, philosophy may either be regarded objectively, that is, as a com- plement of truths known ; or subjectively, that is, as a habit or quality of the mind knowing. In these cir- cumstances, I shall not attempt a definition of philo- sophy, but shall endeavour to accomplish the end which every definition proposes, make you understand, as precisely as the unprecise nature of the object-matter a Krug, Philosophisches Lexikon, 7 Schelling, Vom Ich als Printip iii. p. 213. The definition is substan- der Philosophic, 6, 9; Krug, Lexi- tially Fichte's. See his Orundlage Icon, iii. p. 213. ED. der Gesammten Wissenchaftslehre 8 Schelling, Bruno, p. 205 (2d ed. ) ( Werke, i. p. 283) ; and his Zweite Cf . Philosophic der Natur, Einleitung, Einleitung in die Wissenschaftslehre p. 64, and Zusatz sur Einleitung, p. (Werke, i. p. 515.) ED. 65-88 (2d ed.) ED. Fichte, Uber den Begriffder Wis- e Hegel, Logik ( Werke, iii. p. 64). senschqftslehre, 1 ( Werke, i. 45). ED. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 51 permits, what is meant by philosophy, and what are the LECT. sciences it properly comprehends within its sphere. As a matter of history I may here, however, paren- Definitions . , . . in Greek thetically mention, that in Greek antiquity there were antiquity. in all six definitions of philosophy which obtained celebrity. On these collectively there are extant vari- ous treatises. Among the commentators of Aristotle, that of Ammonius Hermise is the oldest; and the fullest is one by an anonymous author, lately published by Dr Cramer in the fourth volume of his Anecdota Grceca Parisiensia.P Of the six, the first and second define philosophy from its object-matter, that which it is about ; the third and fourth, from its end, that for the sake of which it is ; the fifth, from its relative pre-eminence ; and the sixth, from its etymology. The first of these definitions of philosophy is, " the knowledge of things existent, as existent," (yva>cris TOW OVTtoV 17 OITO,).^ The second is " the knowledge of things divine and human," (yvoicrt? 6ei(ov /cat av9payrriv(av Trpay/xa- rw*/). 5 These are both from the object-matter; and both were referred to Pythagoras. The third and fourth, the two definitions of philo- sophy from its end, are, again, both taken from Plato. Of these the third is, " philosophy is a meditation of death," (/teXerTj Oavdrov) ; e the fourth, " philosophy a Ammonil in quinque voces For- by Tzetzes, Chiliads, x. 600. ED. phyrii CommentariiM, p. 1 (ed. Aid.) y Cf. Arist. Metaph., iii. 1. ED. Given in part by Brandis, Scholia in 5 See ante, p. 49, note 0. ED. Aristotelem, p. 9. ED. Phcedo, p. 80 : Tovro 8 ovtiv &\\o /3 P. 389. Extracted also in part l 6. This commentary is conjectured eft? )U*\TT) Oavdrov ; Cf. Cicero, Tusc. byVal. Rose(DeAristoteluiLibrorum Quaxt., i. 30, with the relative com- Ordine et Auctoritate, p. 243) to be mentary by Davis; Macrobius, In the work of Olympiodorus. The de- Som. Scipionis, i. 13; Damascenus, ti nit ions quoted in the text are given Dialectica, c. 3. ED. 52 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. is a resembling of the Deity in so far as that is competent to man," (OJJLOLOMTLS $eo> /caret TO Swarbv in. The fifth, that from its pre-eminence, was borrowed from Aristotle, and defined philosophy "the art of arts, and science of sciences," (rex^ rexyuv /cat eTrtcr- Finally, the sixth, that from the etymology, was, like the first and second, carried up to Pythagoras it defined philosophy "the love of wisdom," (i\o(rota ) ; and philosophy, the medicine of souls, (evyeiv Sn rd- eftj r] ffoQia. The nearest approach to Xiffra- vyrj 5e 6fwluffis Off Kara T& a definition of Philosophy in the Me- Suvar6f. ED. taphysics is in A minor, c. 1 : 'Opdus /3 The anonymous commentator 5' i?x tl Ka ^ r ^ Ka\*ia9a.i r^v ED. but the sense is substantially that ex- 8 Anon, apud Cramer, Anecdota, iv. pressed in Book L c. 2 : 'A/cpjjSeVra- p. 398; Brandis, Scholia, p. 7. ED. rat 8e ruv tiriffTrnj.i\oias /J.evolia'ris /J.fyt 8e rerrapa, rb ori, the former signifying the knowledge rb Si6ri, fl effri, vi ttrnv. These were simply of what is, the latter of what distinguished by the Latin logicians must be.] Oral Interpolation. as the qucestiones scibiles, and were 8 The terms historical and empiri- usually rendered quod sit, cur sit, an cal are used as synonymous by Aris- sit, quid sit. ED. totle, as both denoting a knowledge This expression in Latin, at least of the Sn. (Compare the De Incessu in Latin not absolutely barbarous, Animalium, c. 1 ; Metaph., i. 1.) can only be translated vaguely by Aristotle, therefore, calls his empiri- an accusative and an infinitive, for cal work on animals, History ofAni- you are probably aware that the con- mals; Theophrastus, his empirical junctive quod, by which the Greek work on plants, History of Plants ; OTI is often translated, has always a Pliny, his empirical book on nature casual signification in genuine Lati- in general, Natural History. Pliny nity. Thus, we cannot say, scio quod says: "Nobis propositum est natu- res sit, credo quod tu sis doctus : this ras rerum icdicare manifestos, non is barbarous. We must say, scio causa# indagare dubias. " See Bran - rem esse, credo te esse doctum. dis, Geschichte der Philosophic, i. p. 2. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 57 of the connection of effect and cause, either in LECT. in. reality or in thought. It is sufficient for our present purpose to observe that, while, by the constitution of our nature, we are unable to conceive anything to begin to be, without referring it to some cause, still the knowledge of its particular cause is not involved in the knowledge of any particular effect. By this necessity which we are under of thinking some cause for every phaenomenon ; and by our original ignorance of what particular causes belong to what particular effects, it is rendered impossible for us to acquiesce in the mere knowledge of the fact of a phaenomenon : on the contrary, we are determined, we are neces- sitated, to regard each phsenomenon as only partially known until we discover the causes on which it de- pends for its existence. For example, we are struck with the appearance in the heavens called the rainbow. Think we cannot that this phaenomenon has no cause, though we may be wholly ignorant of what that cause is. Now, our knowledge of the phaenomenon as a mere fact, as a mere isolated event, does not content us ; we therefore set about an inquiry into the cause, which the constitution of our mind compels us to suppose, and at length discover that the rainbow is the effect of the refraction of the solar rays by the watery particles of a cloud. Having ascertained the cause, but not till then, we are satisfied that we fully know the effect. Now, this knowledge of the cause of a phaenomeuon is different from, is something more than, the know- ledge of that phaenomenon simply as a fact ; and these two cognitions or knowledges' 3 have, accordingly, re- a See on this point the Author's [Knowledges is a term in frequent s, p. 009. ED. use by Bacon, and, though now obso- 58 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. ceived different names. The latter, we have seen, is in. called historical, or empirical knowledge ; the former is called philosophical, or scientific, or rational know- ledge." Historical, is the knowledge that a thing is philosophical, is the knowledge why or how it is. And as the Greek language, with peculiar felicity, expresses historical knowledge by the on the -yvwo-ts OTL GCTTL : so, it well expresses philosophical knowledge by the m the yvaxTLs Sum ecrrt, though here its relative superiority is not the same. To recapitulate what has now been stated : There are two kinds or degrees of knowledge. The first is the knowledge that a thing is ort XPW - ecrTi, rem esse ; and it is called the knowledge of the fact, historical, or empirical know- ledge. The second is the knowledge why or how a thing is, SIOTI XP^P- a ecru, cur res sit ; and is termed the knowledge of the cause, philosophical, scientific, rational knowledge. Philosophy Philosophical knowledge, in the widest acceptation of the term, and as synonymous with science, is thus the knowledge of effects as dependent on their causes. Now, what does this imply ? In the first place, as every cause to which we can ascend is itself also an effect, it follows that it is the scope, that is, the aim of philosophy, to trace up the series of effects and causes, until we arrive at causes which are not also themselves effects. These first causes do not indeed lie within the reach of philosophy, nor even within the sphere of our comprehension ; nor, consequently, on lete, should be revived, as, without Method to Science, Preface, p. xxv., it, we are compelled to borrow cogni- p. 166, et alibi passim. ED.] tions to express its import.] Oral a Wolf, Philosophia Rationalis, 6; Interpolation. [See "Bacon's Advance- Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, ment of Learning, p. 176, (Works, Methodenlehre, c. 3. ED. vol. ii., ed. Mont); and Sergeant's 8 Arist. Anal. Post., ii. 1. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 59 the actual reaching them does the existence of phi- LECT. losophy depend. But as philosophy is the knowledge - of effects in their causes, the tendency of philosophy is ever upwards ; and philosophy can, in thought, in theory, only be viewed as accomplished, which in reality it never can be, when the ultimate causes, the causes on which all other causes depend, have been attained and understood. But, in the second place, as every effect is only pro- duced by the concurrence of at least two causes, (and by cause, be it observed, I mean everything without which the effect could not be realised), and as these concurring or coefficient causes, in fact, constitute the effect, it follows, that the lower we descend in the series of causes, the more complex will be the product ; and that the higher we ascend, it will be the more simple. Let us take, for example, a neutral salt. This, as you probably know, is the product the combina- tion of an alkali and an acid. Now, considering the salt as an effect, what are the concurrent causes, the coefficients, which constitute it what it is 1 These are, first, the acid, with its affinity to the alkali ; secondly, the alkali, with its affinity to the acid ; and thirdly, the translating force (perhaps the human hand) which made their affinities available, by bringing the two bodies within the sphere of mutual attraction. Each of these three concurrents must be considered as a partial cause, for, abstract any one, and the effect is not produced. Now, these three partial causes are each of them again effects ; but effects evidently less complex than the effect which they, by their concur- a Arist. Anal. Post., i. 24: "En /j.4- rfpas-rb (ffxarov tftii) ovrtas l>rrii>. Cf. Xpt rovrov ftfrovfjuv rb 5ii r(, nal ir6rf Metaph. , i. 2 : At! -yip ra.ini\v -riav olJfjifda flSfvai, vrav n$) $ STJ rt &\\o irpurruv apx t) 6tf Vt\OS fbp Kal tcffV. El). 60 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. rence, constituted. But each of these three consti- iii tuents is an effect, and therefore to be analysed into its causes ; and these causes again into others, until the procedure is checked by our inability to resolve the last constituent into simpler elements. But, though thus unable to carry our analysis beyond a limited ex- tent, we neither conceive, nor are we able to conceive, the constituent in which our analysis is arrested, as itself anything but an effect. We therefore carry on the analysis in imagination ; and as each step in the procedure carries us from the more complex to the more simple, and consequently, nearer to unity, we at last arrive at that unity itself, at that ultimate cause which, as ultimate, cannot again be conceived as an effect. philosophy Philosophy thus, as the knowledge of effects in their tendTto- 7 causes, necessarily tends, not towards a plurality of cLu^e! a s ultimate or first causes, but towards one alone. This first cause, the Creator, it can indeed never reach, as an object of immediate knowledge ; but, as the con- vergence towards unity in the ascending series is mani- fest, in so far as that series is within our view, and as it is even impossible for the mind to suppose the con- vergence not continuous and complete, it follows, unless all analogy be rejected, unless our intelligence be declared a lie, that we must, philosophically, be- lieve in that ultimate or primary unity which, in our present existence, w T e are not destined in itself to apprehend. a I may notice that an ultimate from causes to effects, that is, in cause, and a first cause, are the same, the progressive order. This synony- but viewed in different relations, mous meaning of the terms ultimate What is called the ultimate cause in and primary it is important to recol- ascending from effects to causes, lect, for these words are in very that is, in the regressive order, is common use in philosophy, called the first cause in descending LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 61 Such is philosophical knowledge in its most exten- LECT. sive signification ; and, in this signification, all the - sciences, occupied in the research of causes, may be viewed as so many branches of philosophy. There is, however, one section of these sciences Sciences i -i I'll denomi- which is denominated philosophical by pre-eminence ; nated phi- i i i i M i " 1-11 losophical sciences, which the term philosophy exclusively de- by P re- notes, when employed in propriety and rigour. What these sciences are, and why the term philosophy has been specially limited to them, I shall now endeavour to make you understand. " Man," says Protagoras, " is the measure of the Man's o i e ,1 i , knowledge universe ; and, in so lar as the universe is an object relative. of human knowledge, the paradox is a truth. What- ever we know, or endeavour to know, God or the world, mind or matter, the distant or the near, we know, and can know only in so far as we possess a faculty of knowing in general ; and we can only exercise that faculty under the laws which control and limit its operations. However great, and infinite, and various, therefore, may be the universe and its contents, these are known to us, not as they exist, but as our mind is capable of knowing them. Hence the brocard " Quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum recipientis."0 In the first place, therefore, as philosophy is a a See Plato, Thecetettis, p. 152 ; pitur in patientem secundum modum Arist., Metaph., x. 6. ED. patientis." Ibid., Pars i. Q. 14, art. /3 Boethius, De Consol. Phil. v. 1: "Scientia eat secundum modum Prosaiv. : " Omne enim quod cognos- cognoscentis. Scitum enim est in citur, non secundum sui vim, sed ae- sciente secundum modum scientis." cundum cognoscentium potius com- Chauvin gives the words of the text, prehenditurfaoultatem." Proclus, In See Lexicon Philosophicum, art. Fi- Plat. Farm., p. 748,ed.Stallbaum: Tb nitas. See also other authorities to yiyvuffKOf Kara r^v iavrovyiyixaffH.fi the same effect quoted in the Author's vffif. Aquinas, Summa, Pars L Q. Discussions, p. 644. ED. 79, art. 3: " Similitude agentis reci- 62 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. knowledge, and as all knowledge is only possible under the conditions to which our faculties are sub- mary p pro- jected, the grand, the primary problem of philo- sophy must be to investigate and determine these conditions, as the necessary conditions of its own possibility. The study of In the second place, as philosophy is not merely a phiiosophi- knowledge, but a knowledge of causes, and as the mind itself is the universal and principal concurrent cause in every act of knowledge ; philosophy is, con- sequently, bound to make the mind its first and para- mount object of consideration. The study of mind is thus the philosophical study by pre-eminence. There is no branch of philosophy which does not suppose this as its preliminary, which does not borrow from Branches of this its light. A considerable number, indeed, are only the science of mind viewed in particular aspects, Logic. or considered in certain special applications. Logic, for example, or the science of the laws of thought, is only a fragment of the general science of mind, and presupposes a certain knowledge of the operations Ethics. which are regulated by these laws. Ethics is the science of the laws which govern our actions as moral agents ; and a knowledge of these laws is only possible through a knowledge of the moral agent Politics, himself. Political science, in like manner, supposes a knowledge of man in his natural constitution, in order to appreciate the modifications which he receives, and of which he is susceptible, in social and civil life. The Fine The Fine Arts have all their foundation in the theory of the beautiful ; and this theory is afforded by that part of the philosophy of mind, which is conversant with the phsenomena of feeling. Eeligion, Theology, mind! y in fine, is not independent of the same philosophy. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 63 For as God only exists for us as we have faculties LECT. in. capable of apprehending his existence, and of fulfilling his behests, nay, as the phsenomena from which we are warranted to infer his being are wholly mental, the examination of these faculties and of these phseno- mena is, consequently, the primary condition of every sound theology. In short, the science of mind, whe- ther considered in itself, or in relation to the other branches of our knowledge, constitutes the principal and most important object of philosophy, constitutes in propriety, with its suite of dependent sciences, philosophy itself." This limitation of the term Philosophy to the sciences Misapply of mind, when not expressly extended to the other term Fhiio- branches of science, has been always that generally this coun- prevalent; yet it must be confessed that, in this ry ' country, the word is applied to subjects with which, on the continent of Europe, it is rarely, if ever, asso- ciated. With us the word philosophy, taken by itself, does not call up the precise and limited notion which it does to a German, a Hollander, a Dane, an Italian, or a Frenchman ; and we are obliged to say the philo- sophy of mind, if we do not wish it to be vaguely extended to the sciences conversant with the phseno- mena of matter. We not only call Physics by the name of Natural Philosophy, but every mechanical process has with us its philosophy. We have books on the philosophy of Manufactures, the philosophy of Agriculture, the philosophy of Cookery, &c. In all this we are the ridicule of other nations. Socrates, it is said, brought down philosophy from the clouds, the English have degraded her to the kitchen ; and a Cf. Cousin, Court de I'Hiatoirede Programme de la Premiere Partie du la Phil. Mod., Prem. Sx* viro\afj.$dvov. Eth. Nic., vi. 7 : AeT &pa rbv voriTiir^i irepl alrias Kal dp^cs tffTiv ^ ffoQbv p)) fjiovov TCL tit ir>i> apx^v ei'SeVat, a.Kpi@eo"rpa,s i) air\ovi\o(ro(pia, i dem Prwrem Commentarii, ed. Creu- eBxpiiffTos *7 T *i* ax/"?i]rfov tlrt (ify tfuXoffo^ri- [" Se moquer de la philosophic rtov, i\o- c'est vraiment philosopher." Pascal, ffotprirtov. Quoted also by the anon- Penstes, part i. art. xi. 36. Com- ymous commentator in Cramer's pare Montaigne, Essais, lib. ii. c. xii. Anecdota, iv. p. 391. ED. torn. ii. p. 216, ed. 1725.] VOL. I. E 66 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. some are therefore contained in man's very capacity '. for knowledge ; these are essential and necessary. But there are others, again, which lie in certain feelings with which he is endowed ; these are complementary and assistant. The first Of the former class, that is, of the essential causes, renTtytwo- there are in all two : the one is, the necessity we feel 1. xheprin- 1 connect Causes with Effects ; the other, to carry up caiseand our knowledge into Unity. These tendencies, however, Effect. no identical in their origin, coincide in their result; for, as I have previously explained to you, in ascend- ing from cause to cause, we necessarily, (could we carry our analysis to its issue), arrive at absolute unity. Indeed, were it not a discussion for which you are not as yet prepared, it might be shown, that both principles originate in the same condition, that both emanate, not from any original power, but from the same original powerlessness of mind. a Of the former, namely, the tendency, or rather the neces- sity, which we feel to connect the objects of our expe- rience with others which afford the reasons of their existence, it is needful to say but little. The nature of this tendency is not a matter on which we can at present enter; and the fact of its existence is too notorious to require either proof or illustration. It is sufficient to say, or rather to repeat what we have already stated, that the mind is unable to realise in thought the possibility of any absolute commence- ment ; it cannot conceive that anything which begins to be is anything more than a new modification of pre-existent elements ; it is unable to view any individual thing as other than a link in the mighty chain of being ; and every isolated object is viewed a This is partially argued in the Discussions, p. 609. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 67 by it only as a fragment which, to be known, must LECT. be known in connection with the whole of which it constitutes a part. It is thus that we are unable to rest satisfied with a mere historical knowledge of ex- istence ; and that even our happiness is interested in discovering causes, hypothetical at least, if not real, for the various phsenomena of the existence of which our experience informs us. " Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas." a The second tendency of our nature, of which philo- 2. The love sophy is the result, is the desire of Unity. On this, which indeed involves the other, it is necessary to be somewhat more explicit. This tendency is one of the most prominent characteristics of the human mind. It, in part, originates in the imbecility of our facul- ties. We are lost in the multitude of the objects presented to our observation, and it is only by assort- ing them in classes that we can reduce the infinity of nature to the finitude of mind. The conscious Ego, the conscious Self, by its nature one, seems also con- strained to require that unity by which it is distin- guished, in everything which it receives, and in every- thing which it produces. I regret that I can illustrate this only by examples which cannot, I am aware, as yet be fully intelligible to all. We are conscious of a scene presented to our senses only by uniting its parts into a perceived whole. Perception is thus a uni- fying act. The imagination cannot represent an object without uniting, in a single combination, the various elements of which it is composed. Generalisation is only the apprehension of the one in the many, and language little else than a registry of the factitious a Virgil, Gcorgics, il 490. 68 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. unities of thought. The judgment cannot affirm or deny one notion of another, except by uniting the two in one indivisible act of comparison. Syllogism is simply the union of two judgments in a third. Eeason, Intellect, vov8e \6yos far at- Kal yap 6 \6yos in que secundum impartibilemcognosci- iroAAwj/ tls, tltrtp Tt'\eios- Kal 77 yvuxris, bilis totius comprehensionem." ED. Sra rb yiviaffKov tv ylvyrai irpbs r& a Monadologie, 14. ED. yi/uffr6v. In Platonis Theologiam, p. ft Kritik dor reinen Vernunft, p. 76 (ed. 1618). ED. 359, ed. 1799. ED. e See De Memoria, 5, for applica- y CL Philebus, sub. init., especi- tionof this principle to the problem of ally p. 16: A*?? ijfjMs atl fiiav Iteav Eeminiscence. Cf. Reid! 8 Works, p. irtpl Trav-rbs (ndurroTf Of jit vovs ^rrrt'tv ; 900. See also Problems, xviii. 9, where and Republic, v. p. 475 et seq __ ED. it is used to explain the higher plea- 5 Enn., iii. lib. viii. c. 2, on which sure we derive from those narratives Ficinus says : " Cognoscendi potentia that relate to a single subject. ED. inipsoactucognitionisunumquodam- ( De Libero Arbitrio, lib. iii. 23. modo fit cum objecto, et quo magis [St Augustin applied the principle of fit unum, eo perfectior est cognitio, Unity to solve the theory of the Beau- atque vicissim." Enn., vi lib. ix. c. tiful: "Omnis pulchritudinis forma 1 : 'Aptr)) 8i ^vx^J 8rov ds tv, Kal tls unitas est." Epist. xviii.] Oral In- /A/af bfi.oKoyiai' IvwOij .... 'ErctSJ) ri terpolation. 70 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. when it is observed that solid bodies are compressible, '. we are induced to expect that liquids will be found to be so likewise ; we subject them, consequently, to a series of experiments ; nor do we rest satisfied until it be proved that this quality is common to both classes of substances. Compressibility is then pro- claimed a physical law, a law of nature in general ; and we experience a vivid gratification in this recog- nition of unconditioned universality. Another ex- ample : Kant, tt reflecting on the differences among the planets, or rather among the stars revolving round the sun, and having discovered that these differences be- trayed a uniform progress and proportion, a propor- tion which was no longer to be found between Saturn and the first of the comets, the law of unity and the analogy of nature, led him to conjecture that, in the intervening space, there existed a star, the discovery of which would vindicate the universality of the law. This anticipation was verified. Uranus was discovered by Herschel, and our dissatisfaction at the anomaly appeased. Franklin, in like manner, surmised that lightning and the electric spark were identical ; and when he succeeded in verifying this conjecture, our love of unity was gratified. From the moment an isolated fact is discovered, we endeavour to refer it to other facts which it resembles. Until this be accom- plished, we do not view it as understood. This is the case, for example, with sulphur, which, in a certain degree of temperature, melts like other bodies, but at a higher degree of heat, instead of evaporating, again a Attyemeine Naturgeschichte und however, is only true of Venus, the Theorie des Himmels, 1755 ; Werke, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. The ec- vol. vi. p. 88. Kant's conjecture was centricity diminishes again in Uranus, founded on a supposed progressive and still more in Neptune. Subsequent increase in the eccentricities of the discoveries have thus rather weaken- planetary orbits. This progression, ed than confirmed the theory. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 71 consolidates. When a fact is generalised, our discon- LECT. tent is quieted, and we consider the generality itself - as tantamount to an explanation. Why does this apple fall to the ground ? Because all bodies gravi- tate towards each other. Arrived at this general fact, we inquire no more, although ignorant now as pre- viously of the cause of gravitation ; for gravitation is nothing more than a name for a general fact, the why of which we know not. A mystery, if recognised as universal, would no longer appear mysterious. " But this thirst of unity, this tendency of mind Love of . <"*? a to generalise its knowledge, and our concomitant belief sourl* of in the uniformity of natural phenomena, is not only an effective mean of discovery, but likewise an abun- dant source of error. Hardly is there a similarity de- tected between two or three facts, than men hasten to extend it to all others ; and if, perchance, the similarity has been detected by ourselves, self-love closes our eyes to the contradictions which our theory may encounter from experience." "I have heard," says Condillac, " of a philosopher who had the happi- ness of thinking that he had discovered a principle which was to explain all the wonderful phenomena of chemistry, and who, in the ardour of his self-gratula- tion, hastened to communicate his discovery to a skil- ful chemist. The chemist had the kindness to listen to him, and then calmly told him that there was but one unfortunate circumstance for his discovery, that the chemical facts were precisely the converse of what he had supposed them to be. * Well, then/ said the philosopher, ' have the goodness to tell me what they are, that I may explain them on my system/"' 3 We are a Gamier, Coura de Psychologic, /3 Tra'M de Systime*, chap xii. p. 192-94. [Cf. Ancillon, Nouv. Mt- (Euvres Philos., torn iv. p. 146 (ed. lan'jes, L p. 1 et seq.] 1795). 72 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. naturally disposed to refer everything we do not know - to principles with which we are familiar. As Aristotle observes," the early Pythagoreans, who first studied arithmetic, were induced, by their scientific predilec- tions, to explain the problem of the universe by the properties of number ; and he notices also that a cer- tain musical philosopher was, in like manner, led to suppose that the soul was but a kind of harmony.' 3 The musician suggests to my recollection a passage of Dr Eeid. " Mr Locke," says he, " mentions an eminent musician who believed that God created the world in six days, and rested the seventh, because there are but seven notes in music. I myself," he continues, " knew one of that profession who thought that there could be only three parts in harmony to wit, bass, tenor, and treble ; because there are but three persons in the Trinity/' 7 The alchemists would see in nature only a single metal, clothed with the different appear- ances which we denominate gold, silver, copper, iron, mercury, &c., and they confidently explained the mys- teries, not only of nature, but of religion, by salt, sulphur, and mercury. 8 Some of our modern zoolo- gists recoil from the possibility of nature working on two different plans, and rather than renounce the unity which delights them, they insist on recognising the wings of insects in the gills of fishes, and the sternum of quadrupeds in the antennae of butterflies, and all this that they may prove that man is only the evolution of a molluscum. Descartes saw in the physical world only matter and motion ; e and, more recently, it has been maintained that thought itself a Metaph., L 5. ED. y Intellectual Powers, Ess. vi. chap. /3 De Anima, i. 4 ; Plato, Phcedo, viii. ; Coll. Works, p. 473. p. 86. The same theory was after- 8 See Brucker, Hint. Philosophies, wards adopted by Aristotle's own vol. iv. p. 677 et seq, ED. pupil, Aristoxenus. See Cicero, Tusc, e Prindpia, pars ii. 23. ED, Quaxt., i. 10. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 73 is only a movement of matter." Of all the faculties LECT. IV. of the mind, Condillac recognised only one, which transformed itself like the Protean metal of the alche- mists ; aod he maintains that our belief in the rising of to-morrow's sun is a sensation.' 3 It is this ten- dency, indeed, which has principally determined phi- losophers, as we shall hereafter see, to neglect or violate the original duality of consciousness ; in which, as an ultimate fact, a self and not self, mind know- ing and matter known, are given in counterpoise and mutual opposition; and hence the three Unitarian schemes of Materialism, Idealism, and absolute Iden- tity. 7 In fine, Pantheism, or the doctrine which iden- tifies mind and matter, the Creator and the creature, God and the universe, how are we to explain the prevalence of this modification of atheism in the most ancient and in the most recent times 1 Simply be- cause it carries our love of unity to its highest fruition. To sum up what has just been said in the words of Sir John Davies, a highly philosophic poet of the Elizabethan age : " Musicians think our souls are harmonies ; Physicians hold that they complexions be ; Epicures make them swarms of atomies : Which do by chance into our bodies flee. One thinks the soul is air ; another fire ; Another blood, diffused about the heart ; Another saith the elements conspire, And to her essence each doth yield a part. Some think one gen'ral soul fills every brain, As the bright sun sheds light in every star ; And others think the name of soul is vain, And that we only well-mix'd bodies are. a Priestley, Disquisitions relating ft The preceding illustrations are to Matter and Spirit, sect. iii. p. 24 borrowed from Gamier, PsycJiologit, et seq.; Free Discussion of Material- p. 194. ED. iw and Necessity, pp. 258, 267 et y See the Author's Supplementary e>j. ED. Dissertations to Rid, Note C. ED. 74 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Thus these great clerks their little wisdom show, TV While with their doctrines they at hazard play ; Tossing their light opinions to and fro, To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they ; For no craz'd brain could ever yet propound, Touching the soul so vain and fond a thought ; But some among these masters have been found, Which, in their schools, the self-same thing have taught." influence To this love of unity to this desire of reducing of precon- . !j ceivedopin- the ooiects of our knowledge to harmony and system ionreduci- J . .* i . bie to love a source of truth and discover} 7 " 11 subservient to observation, but of error and delusion if allowed to dictate to observation what phenomena are to be perceived ; to this principle, I say, we may refer the influence which preconceived opinions exercise upon our perceptions and our judgments, by inducing us to see and require only what is in unison with them. What we wish, says Demosthenes, that we believe ; 7 what we expect, says Aristotle, that we find 5 truths which have been re-echoed by a thousand confessors, and confirmed by ten thousand examples. Opinions once adopted become part of the intellectual system of their holders. If opposed to prevalent doctrines, self-love defends them as a point of honour, exagge- rates whatever may confirm, overlooks or extenuates whatever may contradict. Again, if accepted as a general doctrine, they are too often recognised, in consequence of their prevalence, as indisputable truths, and all counter-appearances peremptorily overruled as manifest illusions. Thus it is that men will not see a Lewd, according to Took, from y BouXerat rot/0' iKcunos Kal otfrat. Anglo-Saxon, Lcewed, past participle Demosth. Olynth. , iii. p. 68. ED. of Lcewan, to mislead. It was former- 8 Rhet., ii. 1 : T< fjikv ^iriOv/jLowri Kal ly applied to the (Jay) people in con- eve\iri$i OVTI, fay y rb ^ff6fj.fvov ySv, tradistinction from the clergy. See Kal ecreo-flai /caJ ayaObt] %ffeots, vol. ii. p. 385 (ed. 1599) : 'Eirl 8i a passage to a similar effect, Rhetoric, rov i\offofTf t fyri, rb far*'"* rb lib i. C. 11. flaujtdfeiv, Kut Man a so- . . - ., .. dai animal, the existence of society, from a family to a state, sup- poses a certain harmony of sentiment among its mem- bers ; and nature has, accordingly, wisely implanted in us a tendency to assimilate in opinions and habits of thought to those with whom we live and act. There is thus, in every society great or small, a certain gra- vitation of opinions towards a common centre. As, in our natural body, every part has a necessary sympathy with every other, and all together form, by their har- monious conspiration, a healthy whole ; so, in the social body, there is always a strong predisposition in each of its members to act and think in unison with the rest. This universal sympathy, or fellow-feeling, of our social nature, is the principle of the different spirit dominant in different ages, countries, ranks, sexes, and periods of life. It is the cause why fashions, why po- litical and religious enthusiasm, why moral example, either for good or evil, spread so rapidly, and exert so powerful an influence. As men are naturally prone to imitate others, they consequently regard, as important or insignificant, as honourable or disgraceful, as true o Epist. xciv. Polit., i. 2. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 85 or false, as good or bad, what those around them con- LECT. sider in the same light. They love and hate what they see others desire and eschew. This is not to be re- gretted; it is natural, and, consequently, it is right. Indeed, were it otherwise, society could not subsist, for nothing can be more apparent than that mankind in general, destined as they are to occupations incom- patible with intellectual cultivation, are wholly incap- able of forming opinions for themselves on many of the most important objects of human consideration. If such, however, be the intentions of nature with respect to the unenlightened classes, it is manifest that a heavier obligation is thereby laid on those who enjoy the advantages of intellectual cultivation, to examine with diligence and impartiality the foundations of those opinions which have any connection with the welfare of mankind. If the multitude must be led, it is of consequence that it be led by enlightened conductors." That the great multitude of mankind are, by natural disposition, only what others are, is a fact at all times so obtrusive, that it could not escape observation from the moment a reflective eye was first turned upon man. " The whole conduct of Cambyses," says Hero- dotus,/ 3 the father of history, " towards the Egyptian gods, sanctuaries, and priests, convinces me that this king was in the highest degree insane, for otherwise he would not have insulted the worship and holy things of the Egyptians. If any one should accord to all men the permission to make free choice of the best among all customs, undoubtedly each would choose his own. That this would certainly happen can be shown by many examples, and, among others, by the a See Stewart, Elements, Introd. )8 Lib. iii. cc. 37, 38. Part ii. 1 ; Work*, vol. ii. p. 67 ED. 86 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. following. The King Darius once asked the Greeks - who were resident at his court, at what price they could be induced to devour their dead parents. The Greeks answered, that to this no price could bribe them. Thereupon the king asked some Indians who were in the habit of eating their dead parents, what they would take not to eat but to burn them ; and the Indians answered even as the Greeks had done." Herodotus concludes this narrative with the observa- tion, that " Pindar had justly entitled Custom the Queen of the World." Sceptical The ancient sceptics, from the conformity of men in fromThe 6 every country, their habits of thinking, feeling, and of custom, acting, and from the diversity of different nations in these habits, inferred that nothing was by nature beau- tiful or deformed, true or false, good or bad, but that these distinctions originated solely in custom. The modern scepticism of Montaigne terminates in the same assertion ; and the sublime misanthropy of Pascal has almost carried him to a similar exaggeration. " In the just and the unjust," says the latter, " we find hardly anything which does not change its character in chang- ing its climate. Three degrees of an elevation of the pole reverses the whole of jurisprudence. A meridian is decisive of truth, and a few years of possession. Fun- damental laws change. Eight has its epochs. A plea- sant justice which a river or a mountain limits. Truth, on this side the Pyrenees, error on the other !"' This doctrine was exaggerated, but it has a foundation in truth ; and the most zealous champions of the immu- tability of moral distinctions are unanimous in ac- knowledging the powerful influence which the opinions, tastes, manners, affections, and actions of the society a Penates, partie i. art. vi. 8, (vol. ii. p. 126, ed. Faugfcre.) LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 87 in which we live, exert upon all and each of its mem- LECT. bers." Nor is this influence of man on man less unambi- This influ- .. * . -i -ii. i . . /. ence of man guous in times 01 social tranquillity, than m crises 01 on man in . , i . - i . . i IT- timC8 b th social convulsion. In seasons oi political and religious of trauquii- 1-1 . 11 , lity and con- reVOlutlOn, there arises a struggle between the resisting vuision. force of ancient habits and the contagious sympathy of new modes of feeling and thought. In one portion of society, the inveterate influence of custom prevails over the contagion of example; in others, the contagion of example prevails over the conservative force of an- tiquity and habit. In either case, however, we think and act always in sympathy with others. " We re- main," says an illustrious philosopher, " submissive so long as the world continues to set the example. As we follow the herd in forming our conceptions of what is respectable, so we are ready to follow the multitude also, when such conceptions come to be questioned or rejected ; and are no less vehement reformers, when the current of opinion has turned against former estab- lishments, than we were zealous abettors while that current continued to set in a different direction."' 3 Thus it is that no revolution in public opinion is Relation the work of an individual, of a single cause, or of a Smdwdto day. When the crisis has arrived, the catastrophe 8 must ensue ; but the agents through whom it is ap- parently accomplished, though they may accelerate, cannot originate its occurrence. Who believes that but for Luther or Zwingli the Reformation would not have been ? Their individual, their personal energy and zeal, perhaps, hastened by a year or two the event; a See Meiners, Untersuchungen iiber serrations in the text are borrowed. die Denkkraftf. und Willenskrdfle de /3 Ferguson's Moral and Political Mensdien, ii. 325 et seq. (ed. 1806) ; Science, vol. i. part i. chap. ii. 11, from whom most of the preceding ob- p. 135. 88 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. k u t had the public mind not been already ripe for their revolt, the fate of Luther and Zwingli, in the sixteenth century, would have been that of Huss and Jerome of Prague in the fifteenth. Woe to the revolutionist who is not himself a creature of the revolution ! If he an- ticipate, he is lost ; for it requires, what no individual can supply, a long and powerful counter-sympathy in a nation to untwine the ties of custom which bind a people to the established and the old. This is finely expressed by Schiller, in a soliloquy from the mouth of the revolutionary Wallenstein : Schiller. ^1^ ig tny pur p ose ? Hast thou fairly weighed it ? Thou seekest even from its broad base to shake The calm enthroned majesty of power, By ages of possession consecrate Firm rooted in the rugged soil of custom And with the people's first and fondest faith, As with a thousand stubborn tendrils twined. That were no strife where strength contends with strength. It is not strength I fear I fear no foe Whom with my bodily eye I see and scan ; Who, brave himself, inflames my courage too. It is an unseen enemy I dread, Who, in the hearts of mankind, fights against me Fearful to me but from his own weak fear. Not that which proudly towers in life and strength Is truly dreadful ; but the mean and common, The memory of the eternal yesterday, Which, ever-warning, ever still returns, And weighs to-morrow, for it weighed to-day ; Out of the common is man's nature framed, And custom is the nurse to whom he cleaves. Woe then to him whose daring hand profanes The honoured heir-looms of his ancestors ! There is a consecrating power in time ; And what is grey with years to man is godlike. Be in possession, and thou art in right ; The crowd will lend thee aid to keep it sacred." a This may enable you to understand how seductive a The Death of Wattenstdn, (translated by Mr George Moir,) Act. i. scene 4. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 89 is the influence of example ; and I should have no LECT. end were I to quote to you all that philosophers have said of the prevalence and evil influence of prejudice and opinion. We have seen that custom is called, by Pindar and Testimonies of philoso- Herodotus, the Queen of the world and the same phew to the power of thing is expressed by the adage " Mundus regitur received opinionibus." " Opinion," says the great Pascal, " dis- poses of all things. It constitutes beauty, justice, hap- piness ; and these are the all in all of the world. I would with all my heart see the Italian book of which I know only the title, a title, however, which is itself worth many books Delia opinione regina del mondo. I subscribe to it implicitly."" " Coutume," saysKegnier, " Coutume, opinion, reines de notre sort, Vous reglez des mortels, et la vie, et la mort ! " " Almost every opinion we have," says the pious Char- ron, " we have but by authority ; we believe, judge, act, live, and die on trust, as common custom teaches us ; and rightly, for we are too weak to decide and choose of ourselves. But the wise do not act thus." P "Every opinion," says Montaigne, "is strong enough to have had its martyrs ; " 7 and Sir W. Raleigh " It is opinion, not truth, that travelleth the world without passport." 5 "Opinion," says Heraclitus, " is a falling sickness ;" c and Luther "Odoxa! doxa! quam es communis noxa." In a word, as Hommel has it, " An ounce of custom outweighs a ton of reason." *" Such being the recognised universality and evil ef- a Penates, partie i. art. vi. 3. [Vol. 8 Preface to his History of the ii. p. 52, ed. Faugere. M. Faugerehas World. restored the original text of Pascal t Diog. Laert., lib. ix. 7. "Z/rma^tMartondiHposedetout." The f [Alex. v. Joch (Hommel), liber ordinary reading is L 'opinion. ED.] Belohnung und Strafe, p. 111. See De la Sagesae, liv. i. chap, xvi Krug, Philosophwchf* Lexikon, vol. v. y Esuais, liv. i. chap. xl. p. 467, art. Gnoohnlieit.} 90 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. feet of prejudice, philosophers have, consequently, been unanimous in making doubt the first step towards phi- phersTua- losopliy. Aristotle has a fine chapter in his Metaphy- making 111 sics a on the utility of doubt, and on the things which firs" step 6 we ought first to doubt of; and he concludes by es- phy. ' ' tablishing that the success of philosophy depends on the art of doubting well. This is even enjoined on us by the Apostle. For in saying " Prove " (which may be more correctly translated test) " Test all things," he implicitly commands us to doubt all things. Bacon. " He," says Bacon, " who would become philosopher, must commence by repudiating belief ; " and he con- cludes one of the most remarkable passages of his writings with the observation, that " were there a single man to be found with a firmness sufficient to efface from his mind the theories and notions vulgarly received, and to apply his intellect free and without prevention, the best hopes might be entertained of his Descartes, success." 7 " To philosophise," says Descartes, " seri- ously, and to good effect, it is necessary for a man to renounce all prejudices ; in other words, to apply the greatest care to doubt of all his previous opinions so long as these have not been subjected to a new examination, and been recognised as true." s But it is needless to multiply authorities in support of so a Lib. ii. c. 1. ED. mus, notionibus, farrago quaedam est, # This saying is attributed by Ga- et congeries. Quod siquis setate ma- tien-Arnoult to Diderot. See Doct. tura, et sensibus integris, et mente Phil., p. 39. ED. repurgata, se ad experientiam, et ad 7 ' ' Nemo adhuc tanta mentis con- particularia de integro applicet, de stantia inventus est, ut decreverit, et eo melius sperandum est." Nov. sibi imposuerit, theorias et notiones Org. , i. aph. xcvii. ; Works, vol. ix. communes penitus abolere, et intel- p. 252, (Montagu's ed. ) See also lectum abrasum et sequum ad parti- omnino Nov. Org., L aph. Ixviii. cularia, de integro, applicare. Itaque 8 Prin. Phil, pars i. 75. [Cf. ilia ratio humana quam habemus, ex Clauberg, De Dubitatione Cartesiana, multa fide, et multo etiam casu, nee cc. L ii. Opera, p. 1131. ED.] non ex puerilibus, quas primo hausi- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 91 obvious a truth. The ancient philosophers refused to LECT. admit slaves to their instruction. Prejudice makes ' men slaves ; it disqualifies them for the pursuit of truth ; and their emancipation from prejudice is what philosophy first inculcates on, what it first requires of, its disciples." Let us, however, beware that we act not the part of revolted slaves ; that in asserting our liberty we do not run into licence. Philosophical Phiiosophi . ' _ - tTT , . cal doubt. doubt is not an end but a mean. We doubt in order that we may believe ; we begin that we may not end with doubt. We doubt once that we may believe always ; we renounce authority that we may follow reason ; we surrender opinion that we may obtain knowledge. We must be protestants, not in- fidels, in philosophy. "There is a great difference," Maie- says Malebranche, " between doubting and doubting. We doubt through passion and brutality ; through blindness and malice, and finally through fancy and from the very wish to doubt ; but we doubt also from prudence and through distrust, from wisdom and through penetration of mind. The former doubt is a doubt of darkness, which never issues to the light, but leads us always further from it ; the latter is a doubt which is born of the light, and which aids in a certain sort to produce light in its turn." Indeed, were the effect of philosophy the establishment of doubt, the remedy would be worse than the disease. Doubt, as a permanent state of mind, would be, in fact, little better than an intellectual death. The mind lives as it believes, it lives in the affirmation of itself, of nature, and of God ; a doubt upon any one of these would be a diminution of its life, a doubt upon the a [Cf. Gatien -Arnault, Doct. Phil., $ Recherche de la V&ritt, liv. i. p. 41.] chap. xx. 3. 92 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. three, were it possible, would be tantamount to a men- tal annihilation. It is well observed, by Mr Stewart, Stewart " that it is not merely in order to free the mind from the influence of error, that it is useful to examine the foundation of established opinions. It is such an examination alone, that, in an inquisitive age like the present, can secure a philosopher from the danger of unlimited scepticism. To this extreme, indeed, the complexion of the times is more likely to give him a tendency, than to implicit credulity. In the for- mer ages of ignorance and superstition, the intimate association which had been formed, in the prevailing systems of education, between truth and error, had given to the latter an ascendant over the minds of men, which it could never have acquired if divested of such an alliance. The case has, of late years, been most remarkably reversed : the common -sense of mankind, in consequence of the growth of a more liberal spirit of inquiry, has revolted against many of those absurdities which had so long held human reason in captivity ; and it was, perhaps, more than could have been reasonably expected, that, in the first mo- ments of their emancipation, philosophers should have stopped short at the precise boundary which cooler reflection and more moderate views would have pre- scribed. The fact is, that they have passed far beyond it ; and that, in their zeal to destroy prejudices, they have attempted to tear up by the roots many of the best and happiest and most essential principles of our nature. That implicit credulity is a mark of a feeble mind, will not be disputed ; but it may not, perhaps, be as generally acknowledged, that the case is the same with unlimited scepticism : on the contrary, we are sometimes apt to ascribe this disposition to a more LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 93 than ordinary vigour of intellect. Such a prejudice LECT. was by no means unnatural, at that period in the history of modern Europe, when reason first began to throw off the yoke of authority, and when it unques- tionably required a superiority of understanding, as well as of intrepidity, for an individual to resist the contagion of prevailing superstition. But, in the pre- sent age, in which the tendency of fashionable opinions is directly opposite to those of the vulgar, the philo- sophical creed, or the philosophical scepticism, of by far the greater number of those who value themselves on an emancipation from popular errors, arises from the very same weakness with the credulity of the mul- titude ; nor is it going too far to say, with Kousseau, that ' he who, in the end of the eighteenth century, has brought himself to abandon all his early principles without discrimination, would probably have been a bigot in the days of the League/ In the midst of these contrary impulses of fashionable and vulgar prejudices, he alone evinces the superiority and the strength of his mind, who is able to disentangle truth from error; and to oppose the clear conclusions of his own unbiassed faculties to the united clamours of superstition and of false philosophy. Such are the men whom nature marks out to be the lights of the world ; to fix the wavering opinions of the multitude, and to impress their own characters on that of their age.'" In a word, philosophy is, as Aristotle has justly Aristotle. expressed it, not the art of doubting, but the art of doubting well.0 a Element*, vol. i. book ii. 1 ; Coll. airopfjip vtrrtpov tlnropla Work, voL ii. p. 68 et seq. ED. \v 81- ft6v. ED. 94 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. In the second place, in obedience to the precept of Socrates, the passions, under which we shall include practical sloth, ought to be subjugated. subjuga- n These ruffle the tranquillity of the mind, and conse- quently deprive it of the power of carefully consider- ing all that the solution of a question requires should be examined. A man under the agitation of any lively emotion, is hardly aware of aught but what has immediate relation to the passion which agitates and engrosses him. Among the affections which influence the will, and induce it to adhere to scepticism or error, sioth. there is none more dangerous than sloth. The greater proportion of mankind are inclined to spare themselves the trouble of a long and laborious inquiry ; or they fancy that a superficial examination is enough ; and the slightest agreement between a few objects, in a few petty points, they at once assume as evincing the correspondence of the whole throughout. Others apply themselves exclusively to the matters which it is absolutely necessary for them to know, and take no account of any opinion but that which they have stumbled on, for no other reason than that they have embraced it, and are unwilling to recommence the labour of learning. They receive their opinion on the authority of those who have had suggested to them their own ; and they are always facile scholars, for the slightest probability is, for them, all the evidence that they require. Pride. Pride is a powerful impediment to a progress in knowledge. Under the influence of this passion, men seek honour but not truth. They do not cultivate what is most valuable in reality, but what is most valuable in opinion. They disdain, perhaps, what can be easily accomplished, and apply themselves to the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 95 obscure and recondite ; but as the vulgar and easy is LECT. the foundation on which the rare and arduous is built, - they fail even in attaining the object of their ambition, and remain with only a farrago of confused and ill- assorted notions. In all its phases, self-love is an enemy to philosophical progress ; and the history of philosophy is filled with the illusions of which it has been the source. On the one side, it has led men to close their eyes against the most evident truths which were not in harmony with their adopted opinions. It is said that there was not a physician in Europe, above the age of forty, who would admit Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. On the other hand, it is finely observed by Bacon, that " the eye of human intellect is not dry, but receives a suffu- sion from the will and from the affections, so that it may almost be said to engender any sciences it pleases. For what a man wishes to be true, that he prefers be- lieving." And, in another place, " if the human intel- lect hath once taken a liking to any doctrine, either because received and credited, or because otherwise pleasing, it draws everything else into harmony with that doctrine, and to its support; and albeit there may be found a more powerful array of contradictory instances, these, however, it either does not observe, or it contemns, or by distinction extenuates and rejects." P o Nov. Org. t lib. i. aph. xlix. Ibid., aph. xlvi. 96 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTUEE VI. THE METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY. LECT. THE next question we proceed to consider is, What VL is the true Method or Methods of Philosophy ? There is only one possible method in philosophy ; and what have been called the different methods of different philosophers, vary from each other only as more or less perfect applications of this one Method to the objects of knowledge. Method a All method" is a rational progress, a progress wawfcan towards an end ; and the method of philosophy is the procedure conducive to the end which philosophy pro- poses. The ends, the final causes, of philosophy, as we have seen, are two ; first, the discovery of efficient causes, secondly, the generalisation of our knowledge into unity ; two ends, however, which fall together into one, inasmuch as the higher we proceed in the discovery of causes, we necessarily approximate more and more to unity. The detection of the one in the many might, therefore, be laid down as the end to Philosophy . . V ' V2 11- haa but one which philosophy, though it can never reach it, tends Possible . method, continually to approximate. But, considering philo- o [On the difference between Or- aliam;'Methodusutunamperaliam." der and Method, see Facciolati, Budi- Cf. Zabarella, Op. Log., pp. 139, 149, menta Logica, pars iv. c. 1, note: 223, 225; Molinaeus, Log., p. 234 et "Methodus differt ab Ordine ; quia seq., p. 244 et seq., ed. 1613.] ordo facit ut rem unam discainus post LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 97 sophy in relation to both these ends, I shall endeavour LECT. J VI. to show you that it has only one possible method. Considering philosophy, in the first place, in relation This shown , r ,. , in relation to its first end, the discovery ot causes, we nave to the first . , . end of pin- seen that causes, (taking that term as synonymous for all without which the effect would not be), are only the coefficients of the effect; an effect being nothing more than the sum or complement of all the partial causes, the concurrence of which constitute its existence. This being the case, and as it is only by experience that we discover what particular causes must conspire to produce such or such an effect, it follows, that nothing can become known to us as a cause except in and through its effect ; in other words, that we can only attain to the knowledge of a cause by extracting it out of its effect. To take the example we formerly employed, of a neutral salt. This, as I observed, is made up by the con- junction of three proximate causes, viz., an acid, an alkali, and the force which brought the alkali and the acid into the requisite approxima- tion. This last, as a transitory condition, and not always the same, we shall throw out of account. Now, though we might know the acid and the alkali in themselves as distinct phaenomena, we could never know them as the concurrent causes of the salt, unless we had known the salt as their effect. And though, in this example, it happens that we are able to compose the effect by the union of its causes, and to decompose it by their separation, this is only an accidental circumstance ; for the far greater num- ber of the objects presented to our observation, can only be decomposed, but not actually recomposed, and in those which can be recomposed, this possibility VOL. I. G 98 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. is itself only the result of a knowledge of the causes - previously obtained by an original decomposition of the effect. Analysis. In so far, therefore, as philosophy is the research of causes, the one necessary condition of its possibility is the decomposition of effects into their constituted causes. This is the fundamental procedure of philo- sophy, and is called by a Greek term Analysis. But though analysis be the fundamental procedure, it is still only a mean towards an end. We analyse only that we may comprehend ; and we comprehend only inasmuch as we are able to reconstruct in thought the complex effects which we have analysed into their ele- ments. This mental reconstruction is, therefore, the final, the consummative procedure of philosophy, and Synthesis, it is familiarly known by the Greek term Synthesis. Analysis and synthesis, though commonly treated as two different methods, are, if properly understood, only the two necessary parts of the same method. Each is the relative and the correlative of the other. Analysis, without a subsequent synthesis, is incom- plete ; it is a mean cut off from its end. Synthesis, without a previous analysis, is baseless ; for synthesis receives from analysis the elements which it recom- poses. And, as synthesis supposes analysis as the pre- requisite of its possibility, so it is also dependent on analysis for the qualities of its existence. The value of every synthesis depends upon the value of the fore- going analysis. If the precedent analysis afford false elements, the subsequent synthesis of these elements will necessarily afford a false result. If the elements furnished by analysis are assumed, and not really dis- covered, in other words, if they be hypothetical, the synthesis of these hypothetical elements will con- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 99 stitute only a conjectural theory. The legitimacy of LECT. every synthesis is thus necessarily dependent on the - legitimacy of the analysis which it presupposes, and on which it founds. These two relative procedures are thus equally ne- constitute r\ t 11 i a *' n gi e cessary to each other. On the one hand, analysis method. without synthesis affords only a commenced, only an incomplete, knowledge. On the other, synthesis with- out analysis is a false knowledge, that is, no know- ledge at all. Both, therefore, are absolutely necessary to philosophy, and both are, in philosophy, as much parts of the same method as, in the animal body, in- spiration and expiration are of the same vital func- tion. But though these operations are each requisite to the other, yet were we to distinguish and compare what ought only to be considered as conjoined, it is to analysis that the preference must be accorded. An analysis is always valuable ; for though now without a synthesis, this synthesis may at any time be added ; whereas a synthesis without a previous analysis is radically and ah initio null. So far, therefore, as regards the first end of philoso- phy, or the discovery of causes, it appears that there is only one possible method, that method of which analysis is the foundation, synthesis the completion. In the second place, considering philosophy in relation to its second end, the carrying up our knowledge into unity, the same is equally apparent. Everything presented to our observation, whether only one external or internal, whether through sense or self- Sod consciousness, is presented in complexity. Through relation to sense the objects crowd upon the mind in multitudes, and each separate individual of these multitudes is itself a congeries of many various qualities. The same 100 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. is the case with the phenomena of self-consciousness. Every modification of mind is a complex state ; and the different elements of each state manifest them- selves only in and through each other. Thus, nothing but multiplicity is ever presented to our observation ; and yet our faculties are so limited that they are able to comprehend at once only the very simplest con- junctions. There seems, therefore, a singular dispro- portion between our powers of knowledge and the objects to be known. How is the equilibrium to be restored? This is the great problem proposed by nature, and which analysis and synthesis, in combi- nation, enable us to solve. For example, I perceive a tree, among other objects of an extensive landscape, and I wish to obtain a full and distinct conception of that tree. What ought I to do ? Divide et impera: I must attend to it by itself, that is, to the exclusion of the other constituents of the scene before me. I thus analyse that scene ; I separate a petty portion of it from the rest, in order to consider that portion apart. But this is not enough, the tree itself is not a unity, but, on the contrary, a complex assemblage of ele- ments, far beyond what my powers can master at once. I must carry my analysis still farther. Accord- ingly, I consider successively its height, its breadth, its shape ; I then proceed to its trunk, rise from that to its branches, and follow out its different ramifica- tions ; I now fix my attention on the leaves, and severally examine their form, colour, &c. It is only after having thus, by analysis, detached all these parts, in order to deal with them one by one, that I am able, by reversing the process, fully to compre- hend them again in a series of synthetic acts. By synthesis, rising from the ultimate analysis step by step, I view the parts in relation to each other, and, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 101 finally, to the whole of which they are the constituents; LECT. I reconstruct them ; and it is only through these two counter-processes of analysis and synthesis that I am able to convert the confused perception of the tree, which I obtained at first sight, into a clear, and dis- tinct, and comprehensive knowledge." But if analysis and synthesis be required to afford us a perfect knowledge even of one individual object of sense, still more are they required to enable the mind to reduce an indefinite multitude of objects, the infi-. nitude we may say of nature, to the limits of its own finite comprehension. To accomplish this, it is requi- site to extract the one out of the many, and thus to recall multitude to unity, confusion to order. And how is this performed ? The one in the many being that in which a plurality of objects agree, that is, may be considered as the same ; and the agreement of objects in any common quality being discoverable only by an observation and comparison of the objects themselves : it follows that a knowledge of the one can only be evolved out of a foregoing knowledge of the many. But this evolution can only be accomplished by an analysis and a synthesis. By analysis, from the infinity of objects presented to our observation, we select some. These we consider apart, and, further, only in certain points of view, and we compare these objects with others also considered in the same points of view. So far the procedure is analytic. Having discovered, however, by this observation and compa- rison, that certain objects agree in certain respects, we generalise the qualities in which they coincide, that is, from a certain number of individual instances we infer a general law ; we perform what is called an act of induction. This induction is erroneously viewed induction. a[0n the subject of analysis and synthesis, compare Condillac, Loyique,cc. i. ii.] 102 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. as analytic ; it is purely a synthetic process." For example, from our experience, and all experience, be it that of the individual or of mankind, is only finite, from our limited experience, I say, that bodies, as observed by us, attract each other, we infer by induc- tion the unlimited conclusion that all bodies gravi- tate towards each other. Now, here the consequent contains much more than was contained in the ante- cedent. Experience, the antecedent only says, and , only can say this, that, and the other body gravi- tate, (that is, some bodies gravitate) ; the consequent educed from that antecedent says, all bodies gravi- tate. The antecedent is limited, the consequent un- limited. Something, therefore, has been added to the antecedent in order to legitimate the inference, if we are not to hold the consequent itself as absurd ; for, as you will hereafter learn, no conclusion must con- tain more than was contained in the premises from which it is drawn. What then is this something? If we consider the inductive process, this will be at once apparent. The affirmation, this, that, and the other body gra- vitate, is connected with the affirmation, all bodies gravitate, only by inserting between the two a third affirmation, by which the two other affirmations are connected into reason and consequent, that is, into a logical cause and effect. What that is I shall explain. All scientific induction is founded on the presumption that nature is uniform in her operations. Of the ground and origin of this presumption, I am not now a It may be considered as the one simpler and more convenient point of or the other, according as the whole view; and in this respect Induction is and its parts are viewed in the rela- properly synthetic. See the Author's tions of comprehension or of exten- Discussions,^. 173. ED. sion. The latter, however, is the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 103 to speak. I shall only say, that, as it is a principle LECT. which we suppose in all our inductions, it cannot be itself a product of induction. It is, therefore, inter- polated in the inductive reasoning by the mind itself. In our example the reasoning will, accordingly, run as follows : This, that, and the other body, (some bodies), are observed to gravitate ; But, (as nature is uniform in her operations), this, that, and the other body, (some bodies), represent all bodies ; Therefore all bodies gravitate. Now, in this and other examples of induction, it is the mind which binds up the separate substances ob- served and collected into a whole, and converts what is only the observation of many particulars into a uni- versal law. This procedure is manifestly synthetic. Now, you will remark that analysis and synthesis are here absolutely dependent on each other. The previous observation and comparison, the analytic foundation, are only instituted for the sake of the subsequent induction, the synthetic consummation. What boots it to observe and to compare, if the uniformities we discover among objects are never generalised into laws \ We have obtained an histo- rical, but not a philosophical, knowledge. Here, there- fore, analysis without synthesis is incomplete. On the other hand, an induction which does not proceed upon a competent enumeration of particulars, is either doubt- ful, improbable, or null ; for all synthesis is dependent on a foregone analysis for whatever degree of certainty it may pretend to. Thus, considering philosophy in relation to its second end, unity or system, it is mani- fest, that the method by which it accomplishes that 104 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. end, is a method involving both an analytic and a VI. synthetic process: The history Now, as philosophy has only one possible method, phy m^i- so the History of philosophy only manifests the con- more or less ditions of this one method, more or less accurately fulfilment fulfilled. There are aberrations in the method, no of the condi- , . -, tions of the aberrations irom it. Earnest "" " Philosophy commenced with the first act of re- on the objects of sense or self-consciousness, for the purpose of explaining them. And with that first act of reflection, the method of philosophy began, in its application of an analysis, and in its application of a synthesis, to its object. The first philosophers nat- urally endeavoured to explain the enigma of external nature. The magnificent spectacle of the material uni- verse, and the marvellous demonstrations of power and wisdom which it everywhere exhibited, were the objects which called forth the earliest efforts of speculation. Philosophy was thus, at its commencement, physical, not psychological ; it was not the problem of the soul, but the problem of the world, which it first attempted to solve. " And what was the procedure of philosophy in its solution of this problem ? Did it first decompose the whole into its parts, in order again to reconstruct them into a system ? This it could not accomplish ; but still it attempted this, and nothing else. A com- plete analysis was not to be expected from the first efforts of intelligence ; its decompositions were neces- sarily partial and imperfect ; a partial and imperfect analysis afforded only hypothetical elements ; and the synthesis of these elements issued, consequently, only in a one- sided or erroneous theory. " Thales, the founder of the Ionian philosophy, de- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 105 voted an especial study to the phenomena of the LECT. material universe ; and, struck with the appearances i i t> f Thales and of power which water manifested in the formation 01 the ionic IT 11 1 ' 1 i. School. bodies, he analysed all existences into this element, which he viewed as the universal principle, the uni- versal agent of creation. He proceeded by an incom- plete analysis, and generalised by hypothesis the law which he drew by induction from the observation of a small series of phenomena. " The Ionic school continued in the same path. They limited themselves to the study of external nature, and sought in matter the principle of existence. Anaxi- mander of Miletus, the countryman and disciple of Thales, deemed that he had traced the primary cause of creation to an ethereal principle, which occupied space, and whose different combinations constituted the universe of matter. Anaximenes found the ori- ginal element in air, from which, by rarefaction and condensation, he educed existences. Anaxagoras car- ried his analysis farther, and made a more discreet use of hypothesis ; he rose to the conception of an intelligent first cause, distinct from the phenomena of nature ; and his notion of the Deity was so far above the gross conceptions of his contemporaries, that he was accused of atheism. "Pythagoras, the founder of the Italic school, ana- Pythagoras lysed the properties of number ; and the relations which italic this analysis revealed, he elevated into principles of the mental and material universe. Mathematics were his only objects; his analysis was partial, and his synthesis was consequently hypothetical. The Italic school developed the notions of Pythagoras, and, ex- clusively preoccupied with the relations and harmonies of existence, its disciples did not extend their specu- 106 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. lation to the consideration either of substance or of VI. cause. " Thus, these earlier schools, taking external nature for their point of departure, proceeded by an imperfect analysis, and a presumptuous synthesis, to the con- struction of exclusive systems, in which Idealism, or Materialism, preponderated, according to the kind of data on which they founded. Eieatic " The Eleatic school, which is distinguished into two branches, the one of Physical, the other of Meta- physical, speculation, exhibits the same character, the same point of departure, the same tendency, and the same errors. The soph- " These errors led to the scepticism of the Sophists, Socrates, which was assailed by Socrates, the sage who deter- mined a new epoch in philosophy by directing obser- vation on man himself; and henceforward the study of mind becomes the prime and central science of philosophy. " The point of departure was changed, but not the method. The observation or analysis of the human mind, though often profound, remained always incom- plete. Fortunately, the first disciples of Socrates, imi- tating the prudence of their master, and warned by the downfall of the systems of the Ionic, Italic, and Eleatic schools, made a sparing use of synthesis, and hardly a pretension to system. piato and " Plato and Aristotle directed their observation on Aristotle. . the phsenomena of intelligence, and we cannot too highly admire the profundity of their analysis, and even the sobriety of their synthesis. Plato devoted himself more particularly to the higher faculties of intelligence ; and his disciples were led, by the love of generalisation, to regard as the intellectual whole LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. 107 those portions of intelligence which their master had LECT. analysed ; and this exclusive spirit gave birth to sys terns false, not in themselves, but as resting upon a too narrow basis. Aristotle, on the other hand, whose genius was of a more positive character, analysed with admirable acuteness those operations of mind which stand in more immediate relation to the senses ; and this tendency, which among his followers became often exclusive and exaggerated, naturally engendered sys- tems which more or less tended to materialism." ' The school of Alexandria, in which the systems School of resulting from these opposite tendencies were com- bined, endeavoured to reconcile and to fuse them into a still more comprehensive system. Eclecticism, conciliation, union, were, in all things, the grand aim of the Alexandrian school. Geographically situated between Greece and Asia, it endeavoured to ally Greek with Asiatic genius, religion with philosophy. Hence the Neoplatonic system, of which the last great representative is Proclus. This system is the result of the long labour of the Socratic schools. It is an edifice reared by synthesis out of the materials which analysis had collected, proved, and accumulated, from Socrates down to Plotinus. But a synthesis is of no greater value than its rela- tive analysis ; and as the analysis of the earlier Greek philosophy was not complete, the synthesis of the Alexandrian school was necessarily imperfect. In the scholastic philosophy, analysis and observa- tion were too often neglected in some departments of iophy. philosophy, and too often carried rashly to excess in others. After the revival of letters, during the fifteenth o Geruzez, Nouveau Court de Philosophit, p. 4-8. Paris, 1834, (2d ed.) 108 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. and sixteenth centuries, the labours of philosophy were principally occupied in restoring and illustrating Philosophy -f , J from the the Greek systems ; and it was not until the seven- letters, teenth century, that a new epoch was determined by the genius of Bacon and Descartes. In Bacon and Bacon and Descartes our modern philosophy may be said to ori- Descartes. . . t i ginate, inasmuch as they were the first who made the doctrine of method a principal object of consideration. They both proclaimed, that, for the attainment of scientific knowledge, it is necessary to observe with care, that is, to analyse ; to reject every element as hypothetical, which this analysis does not spontane- ously afford ; to call in experiment in aid of observa- tion ; and to attempt no synthesis or generalisation, until the relative analysis has been completely accom- plished. They showed that previous philosophers had erred, not by rejecting either analysis or synthesis, but by hurrying on to synthetic induction from a limited or specious analytic observation. They pro- pounded no new method of philosophy, they only expounded the conditions of the old. They showed that these conditions had rarely been fulfilled by phi- losophers in time past ; and exhorted them to their fulfilment in time to come. They thus explained the petty progress of the past philosophy; and justly anticipated a gigantic advancement for the future. Such was their precept, but such unfortunately was not their example. There are no philosophers who merit so much in the one respect ; none, perhaps, who deserve less in the other. Result of Of philosophy since Bacon and Descartes we at ricai sketch present say nothing. Of that we shall hereafter have phy. ! c frequent occasion to speak. But to sum up what this historical sketch was intended to illustrate. There is LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 109 but one possible method of philosophy, a combina- LECT. tion of analysis and synthesis ; and the purity and equilibrium of these two elements constitute its per- fection. The aberrations of philosophy have been all so many violations of the laws of this one method. Philosophy has erred, because it built its systems upon incomplete or erroneous analysis; and it can only proceed in safety, if, from accurate and unexclu- sive observation, it rise, by successive generalisation, to a comprehensive system. 110 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTURE VII. THE DIVISIONS OF PHILOSOPHY. LECT. I HAVE already endeavoured to afford you a general - notion of what Philosophy comprehends : I now pro- ceed to say something in regard to the Parts into which it has been divided. Here, however, I must limit myself to the most famous distributions, and to those which, as founded on fundamental principles, it more immediately concerns you to know. For, were I to attempt an enumeration of the various Divisions of Philosophy which have been proposed, I should only confuse you with a multitude of contradictory opinions, with the reasons of which you could not, at present, possibly be made acquainted. Expediency Seneca, in a letter to his young friend Lucilius, of Ph'uoso- 11 expresses the wish that the whole of philosophy might, like the spectacle of the universe, be at once submit- ted to our view. " Utinam, quemadmodum universi mundi facies in conspectum venit, ita philosophia tota nobis posset occurrere, simillimum mundo spectacu- lum." But as we cannot survey the universe at a glance, neither can we contemplate the whole of philo- sophy in one act of consciousness. We can only master it gradually and piecemeal; and this is in fact the reason why philosophers have always distributed their a Epist. Ixxxix. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. Ill science, (constituting, though it does, one organic LECT. whole), into a plurality of sciences. The expediency, and even necessity, of a division of philosophy, in order that the mind may be enabled to embrace in one general view its various parts, in their relation to each other, and to the whole which they constitute, is ad- mitted by every philosopher. " Res utilis," continues Seneca, "et ad sapientiam properanti utique necessaria, dividi philosophiam, et ingens corpus ejus in membra disponi. Facilius enim per partes in cognitionem to- tius adducimur." ( But although philosophers agree in regard to the utility of such a distribution, they are almost as little at one in regard to the parts, as they are in respect to the definition, of their science ; and, indeed, their dif- ferences in reference to the former, mainly arise from their discrepancies in reference to the latter. For they who vary in their comprehension of the whole, cannot agree in their division of the parts. The most ancient and universally recognised distinc- The most tion of philosophy, is into Theoretical and Practical. ^Ton into These are discriminated by the different nature of and^PnuT their ends. Theoretical, called likewise speculative, " and contemplative, philosophy has for its highest end mere truth or knowledge. Practical philosophy, on the other hand, has truth or knowledge only as its proximate end, this end being subordinate to the ulterior end of some practical action. In theoretical philosophy, we know for the sake of knowing, scimus ut sciamus : in practical philosophy, we know for the sake of acting, scimus ut operemur.P I may here a Epist. Ixxxix. roes has it, Per speculativam, scimus /3 QftaprrrtKris fi.lv iiriffr'fi/j.-ris Tt\os ut sciamu*, per practkam xcimus ut ixllQua, vpaKTutrit 5' fpyov. ArUt. operemur." Discussion*, \>. 134. Cf. Metaph., A minor, c. 1; "or as Aver- InMetaph., lib. ii. coin. 3. ED. 112 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. notice the poverty of the English language, in the - ' want of a word to express that practical activity The term . . f . , Active. which. is contradistinguished irom mere intellectual or speculative energy, what the Greeks express by irpdo-creiv, the Germans by handeln. The want of such a word occasions frequent ambiguity ; for, to express the species which has no appropriate word, we are compelled to employ the generic term active. Thus our philosophers divide the powers of the mind into Intellectual and Active. They do not, however, thereby mean to insinuate that the powers called intellectual are a whit less energetic than those spe- cially denominated active. But, from the want of a better word, they are compelled to employ a term which denotes at once much more and much less than they are desirous of expressing. I ought to observe that the term practical has also obtained with us certain collateral significations, which render it in some respects unfit to supply the want." But to return. History of This distinction of Theoretical and Practical phi- of in f losophy was first explicitly enounced by Aristotle ; /* t and the attempts of the later Platonists to carry it up to Plato, and even to Pythagoras, are not worthy of statement, far less of refutation. Once promulgated, the division was, however, soon generally recognised. The Stoics borrowed it, as may be seen from Seneca : 7 " Philosophia et contemplativa est et activa ; spectat, simulque agit." It was also adopted by the Epicu- reans; and, in general, by those Greek and Eoman aCf..ffew?s JFbrib,p.511,n.t. ED. ed by Plato; Politicus, p. 258: Towi? )8 Metaph. , v. 1 : Hacra Sidvoia, ^ roivvv avii.ira.ffas firiffT-ti^as Siaipet, T)\V irpaKTin)] f) irotririK^ t) fleeopijTi/c^j. Cf. fiff trpaKTiK^v irpofftnroov, T^V 5 i^ovov Metaph.,x.7; Top.,vi. 6; viii. 3. But fviaff-riK^v. ED. the division had been at least iutimat- 7 Ep. xcv. 10. LECTUHES ON METAPHYSICS. 113 philosophers who viewed their science as versant either LECT. VII. in the contemplation of nature (^vcri/o)), or in the - regulation of human action (yOiK-rj) ; a for by nature they did not denote the material universe alone, but their Physics included Metaphysics, and their Ethics embraced Politics and Economics. There was thus only a difference of nomenclature ; for Physical and Theoretical, Ethical and Practical Philosophy, were with them terms absolutely equivalent. I regard the division of philosophy into Theoretical The divi- and Practical as unsound, and this for two reasons. ios P h y into The first is, that philosophy, as philosophy, is only and pralT cognitive, only theoretical : whatever lies beyond the sphere of speculation or knowledge, transcends the sphere of philosophy ; consequently, to divide philo- sophy by any quality ulterior to speculation, is to divide it by a difference which does not belong to it. Now, the distinction of practical philosophy from theo- retical commits this error. For, while it is admitted that all philosophy, as cognitive, is theoretical, some philosophy is again taken out of this category on the ground, that, beyond the mere theory, the mere cog- nition, it has an ulterior end in its application to practice. But, in the second place, this difference, even were it admissible, would not divide philosophy ; for, in point of fact, all philosophy must be regarded as prac- tical, inasmuch as mere knowledge, that is, the mere possession of truth, is not the highest end of any a Sextns Empiricus, Adv. Math., jtefl' ov nvh KO! rbv "EirlKovpov rdrrov- vii. 14 : Tuv 8i Siptpfi r^v criv ws Kal r^v \oytK^iv Oftaplav ^K0d\- \nrotm\ffvLos, rb fyvffiKbv fi/za cal \oyiK6v, curei duas paries philosophize puta- iy tpcuri fivts, /tT^px' TO 'Apx^ew* verunt esse, Naturalem, atque Mora- Si 6 'tifhjvaws ri> vffiKbv v ra /j.ev ydp efficitur quod etiam post actionem elffiv frfpyeicu- ra 8e trap' auras tpya. permanet. Nam Poetica dicta est Tivd. Ibid., vi. 4 ; Magna Moralia, airb TOV iroifiv quse tamen palpabilem i. 35. Cf. Quintilian, Institut., lib. materiam non tractat, neque opus ii. c. 18. ED. facit ipsa Poetse fictione durabilius. /3 Cf. Burgersdyck, Institut. Log., Quod enim poemata supersint, id non lib. i. 6 : " Logica dicitur iroietv, id est ab ea actione qua efficiuntur, sed est, facere sive efficere syllogismos, a scriptione. Atque hsec de genere. " definitiones, &c. Neque enim verum See also Scheibler, Opera, Tract, est, quod quidam aiunt, iroteiV semper Procem. iii. p. 6. ED. significare ejusmodi actionem, qua LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 119 sciences and not to others, and without a knowledge LECT. of which principle the various employment of the term must appear to you capricious and unintelligible. It is needless, perhaps, to notice that the rule applies only to the philosophical sciences, to those which received their form and denominations from the learned. The mechanical dexterities were beneath their notice ; and these were accordingly left to receive their appellations from those who knew nothing of the Aristotelic pro- prieties. Accordingly, the term art is in them applied, without distinction, to productive and unproductive operations. We speak of the art of rope-dancing, equally as of the art of rope-making. But to return. The division of philosophy into Theoretical and Univemi- T ityofthe Practical is the most important that has been made ; division of i 1-11 T in Philosophy and it is that which nas entered into nearly all into Theore- the distributions attempted by modern philosophers. Practical. Bacon was the first, after the revival of letters, who Bacon, essayed a distribution of the sciences and of philo- sophy. He divided all human knowledge into His- tory, Poetry, and Philosophy. Philosophy he distin- guished into branches conversant about the Deity, about Nature, and about Man ; and each of these had their subordinate divisions, which, however, it is not necessary to particularise." Descartes distributed philosophy into theoretical Descartes and practical, with various subdivisions ; but his fol- lowers. lowers adopted the division of Logic, Metaphysics, Physics, and Ethics. 7 Gassendi recognised, like the a Advancement of Learning; Works, Philosophic, contenant la Logique, la vol. ii. pp. 100, 124, (ed. Montagu) ; Metaphyaique, la Physique, et la Mo- De. Auymentis Scientiarum, lib. ii. c. rale. Cf. Clauberg: " Physica .... 1, lib. iii. c. 1; Works, vol. viii. pp. Philosophia Naturalis dicitur; dis- 87, 152. Ed. tincta a Supernatural! seu Metaphy- See the Prefatory Epistle to the sica, et a Rational! seu Logica, nec- Principia. ED. non a Morali seu Practica." Disput. 7 See Sylvain Regis, Court entierde Phys. L, Opera, p. 54. ED. 120 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. ancients, three parts of philosophy, Logic, Physics, and Ethics," and this, along with many other of Gassendi's doctrines, was adopted by Locked Kant distinguished Kant. philosophy into theoretical and practical, with various subdivisions ; y and the distribution into theoretical and practical was also established by Fichte. 5 Conclusion I have now concluded the Lectures generally in- of Introduc- .. . . _. _ tory Lee- troductory to the proper business 01 the Course. In these Lectures, from the general nature of the subjects, I was compelled to anticipate conclusions, and to depend on your being able to supply a good deal of what it was impossible for me articulately to explain. I now enter upon the consideration of the matters which are hereafter to occupy our attention, with comparatively little apprehension; for, in these, we shall be able to dwell more upon details, while, at the same time, the subject will open upon us by degrees, so that, every step that we proceed, we shall find the progress easier. But I have to warn you, that you will probably find the very commencement the most arduous, and this not only because you will come less inured to difficulty, but because it will there be necessary to deal with principles, and these of a general and abstract nature; whereas, having once mastered these, every subsequent step will be com- paratively easy. Order of the Without entering upon details, I may now sum- marily state to you the order which I propose to follow in the ensuing Course. This requires a pre- liminary exposition of the different departments of a Syntagma Philosophicum, Lib. thodenlehre, c. 3. ED. Procem. c. 9 (Opera, Lugduni, 1658, S Grundlage der gesammten Wis- voL i. p. 29.) ED. semchaftnlehre, 4 (Werke, vol. i. p. Essay, book iv. ch. 21. ED. 126.) ED. 7 Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Me- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 121 Philosophy, in order that you may obtain a compre- LECT. hensive view of the proper objects of our consideration, and of the relations in which they stand to others. Science and Philosophy are conversant either about Distribution Mind or about Matter. The former of these is Philo- Lophicai sophy properly so called. With the latter we have nothing to do, except in so far as it may enable us to throw light upon the former, for Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science, or complement of sciences, exclusively occupied with mind. Now the Philosophy of Mind, Psychology or Metaphysics, in the widest signification of the terms, is threefold; for the object it immediately proposes for consideration may be either, 1, PHENO- . MENA in general ; or, 2, LAWS ; or, 3, INFERENCES, EESULTS. This I will endeavour to explain. The whole of philosophy is the answer to these The three three questions : 1, What are the Facts or Phsenomena ^ 8 ? ue! to be observed ? 2, What are the Laws which regulate these facts, or under which these phaenomena appear ? 3, What are the real Kesults, not immediately mani- fested, which these facts or phaenomena warrant us in drawing ? If we consider the mind merely with the view of i. observing and generalising the various phsenomena it reveals, that is, of analysing them into capacities or faculties, we have one mental science, or one depart- ment of mental science ; and this we may call the PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIND. It is commonly called PSYCHOLOGY EMPIRICAL PSYCHOLOGY, or the INDUC- TIVE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND : we might call it PHE- ' O NOMENAL PSYCHOLOGY. It is evident that the divi- sions of this science will be determined by the classes into which the phaenomena of mind are distributed. 122 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. If, again, we analyse the mental phenomena with - the view of discovering and considering, not contin- TI. Nomo- gent appearances, but the necessary and universal Mind. facts, i.e., the Laws by which our faculties are gov- erned, to the end that we may obtain a criterion by which to judge or to explain their procedures and manifestations, we have a science which we may call the NOMOLOGY OF MIND, NOMOLOGICAL PSYCHO- its subdi- LOGY. Now, there will be as many distinct classes of Nomological Psychology, as there are distinct classes of mental phsenomena under the Phaenomenological division. I shall, hereafter, show you that there are Three great classes of these phenomena, viz., 1, The phsenomena of our Cognitive faculties, or faculties of Knowledge ; 2, The phaenomena of our Feelings, or the phaenomena of Pleasure and Pain ; and, 3, The phaenomena of our Conative powers, in other words, the phaenomena of Will and Desire. (These you must, for the present, take upon trust. ) a Each of these classes of phaenomena has accordingly a science which is conversant about its laws. For as each pro- poses a different end, and, in the accomplishment of that end, is regulated by peculiar laws, each must, consequently, have a different science conversant about these laws, that is, a different Nomology. i. Nomo- There is no one, no Nomological, science of the Cognitive faculties in general, though we have some older treatises which, though partial in their subject, afford a name not unsuitable for a nomology of the cognitions, viz., Gnoseologia or Gnostologia. There is no independent science of the laws of Perception ; if there were, it might be called ^Esthetic, which, how- ever, as we shall see, would be ambiguous. Mnemonic, or the science of the laws of Memory, has been elabo- a See infra, Lect. xi. p. 183 et seq. ED.' LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS. 123 rated at least in numerous treatises; but the name LECT. VII. Anamnestic, the art of Recollection or Reminiscence, might be equally well applied to it. The laws of the Representative faculty, that is, the laws of Associa- tion, have not yet been elevated into a separate no- mological science. Neither have the conditions of the Regulative or Legislative faculty, the faculty itself of Laws, been fully analysed, far less reduced to system ; though we have several deservedly forgotten treatises, of an older date, under the inviting name of Noo logics. The only one of the cognitive faculties, whose laws Logic. constitute the object-matter of a separate science, is the Elaborative, the Understanding Special, the faculty of Relations, the faculty of Thought Proper. This nomology has obtained the name of LOGIC among other appellations, but not from Aristotle. The best name would have been DIANOETIC. Logic is the science of the laws of thought, in relation to the end which our cognitive faculties propose, i.e., the TRUE. To this head might be referred Grammar, Universal Grammar, Philosophical Grammar, or the science conversant with the laws of Language as the instru- ment of thought. The Nomology of our Feelings, or the science of the 2. i u- T. -L lo gy fthe laws which govern our capacities 01 enjoyment, in Feeling*. relation to the end which they propose, i.e., the PLEASURABLE, has obtained no precise name in our language. It has been called the Philosophy of Taste, and, on the Continent especially, it has been deno- minated ^Esthetic. Neither name is unobjectionable. The first is vague, metaphorical, and even delusive. In regard to the second, you are aware that cucr^cris in Greek means feeling in general, as well as sense in particular, as our term feeling means either the sense of touch in particular, or sentiment and the capacity 124 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. of the pleasurable and painful in general. Both terms - are, therefore, to a certain extent ambiguous; but this objection can rarely be avoided, and ^Esthetic, if not the best expression to be found, has already been long and generally employed. It is now nearly a century since Baumgarten, a celebrated philosopher of the Leibnitio-Wolfian school, first applied the term Esthetic to the doctrine which we vaguely and peri- phrastically denominate the Philosophy of Taste, the theory of the Fine Arts, the science of the Beautiful and Sublime," &c. ; and this term is now in general acceptation, not only in Germany, but throughout the other countries of Europe. The term Apolaustic would have been a more appropriate designation. 3. Nome- Finally, the Nomology of our Conative powers is c^ativl e Practical Philosophy, properly so called ; for practical philosophy is simply the science of the laws regula- tive of our Will and Desires, in relation to the end which our conative powers propose, i.e., the GOOD. Ethics. This, as it considers these laws in relation to man as an individual, or in relation to man as a member of society, will be divided into two branches, Ethics and Politics ; and these again admit of various subdivisions. So much for those parts of the Philosophy of Mind, which are conversant about Phenomena, and about Laws. The Third great branch of this philosophy is that which is engaged in the deduction of Inferences or Results. in. Onto- In the First branch, the Phaenomenology of mind, Meta P hy- philosophy is properly limited to the facts afforded roper ' in consciousness, considered exclusively in themselves. But these facts may be such as not only to be objects of knowledge in themselves, but likewise to furnish us o Baumgarten' s work on this sub- was published in 1750-58. ED. ject, entitled ^EstJietica (two vola.), LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 125 with grounds of inference to something out of them- LECT. selves. As effects, and effects of a certain character, they may enable us to infer the analogous character of their unknown causes ; as phenomena, and phse- nomena of peculiar qualities, they may warrant us in drawing many conclusions regarding the distinctive character of that unknown principle, of that unknown substance, of which they are the manifestations. Al- though, therefore, existence be only revealed to us in phsenomena, and though we can, therefore, have only a relative knowledge either of mind or of matter; still, by inference and analogy, we may legitimately attempt to rise above the mere appearances which experience and observation afford. Thus, for example, the existence of God and the immortality of the Soul are not given us as phsenomena, as objects of imme- diate knowledge ; yet, if the phsenomena actually given do necessarily require, for their rational expla- nation, the hypotheses of immortality and of God, we are assuredly entitled, from the existence of the former, to infer the reality of the latter. Now, the science conversant about all such inferences of unknown being from its known manifestations, is called ONTOLOGY, or METAPHYSICS PROPER. We might call it INFERENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY. The following is a tabular view of the distribution of Philosophy as here proposed : Facts.-Phamomenology, ( Cognitions. Empirical Psychology. 1 Feelings. (.Conative Powers (Will and Desire). Mind or ( Conscious- ness affords Cognitions, Logic. ' No ol , y' Ra- ) Feelings, ^Esthetic. tional Psychology. j . Morftl Philosophy . _ .... ,..,. Political Philosophy. Conative Powers. Results, Ontology, In- ( Being of God. ferential Psychology. j Immortality of the Soul, tic. 126 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. In this distribution of the philosophical sciences, you will observe that I take little account of the cele- brated division of Philosophy into Speculative and Practical, which I have already explained to you, for I call only one minor division of philosophy practical, viz., the Nomology of the Conative powers, not because that science is not equally theoretical with any other, but simply because these powers are properly called practical, as tending to practice or overt action. Such is the distribution of Philosophy, which I ven- ture to propose as the simplest and most exhaustive ; and I shall now proceed, in reference to it, to specify the particular branches which form the objects of our consideration in the present course. - The subjects assigned to the various chairs of the jectlV 11 Philosophical Faculty, in the different Universities of Philosophy Europe, were not calculated upon any comprehensive Cities of view of the parts of philosophy, and of their natural connection. Our universities were founded when the Aristotelic philosophy was the dominant, or rather the exclusive, system, and the parts distributed to the dif- ferent classes, in the faculty of Arts or Philosophy, were regulated by the contents of certain of the Aris- totelic books, and by the order in which they were studied. Of these, there were always Four great divi- sions. There was, first, Logic, in relation to the Orga- non of Aristotle; secondly, Metaphysics, relative to his books under that title ; thirdly, Moral Philosophy, relative to his Ethics, Politics, and Economics ; and, fourthly, Physics, relative to his Physics, and the col- lection of treatises styled in the schools the Parva Naturalia. But every university had not a full comple- ment of classes, that is, did not devote a separate year a See ante, p. 113. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 127 to each of the four subjects of study ; and, accordingly, LECT. in those seats of learning where three years formed the curriculum of philosophy, two of these branches were combined. In this university, Logic and Metaphysics were taught in the same year; in others, Metaphy- sics and Moral Philosophy were conjoined ; and, when the old practice was abandoned of the several Regents or Professors carrying on their students through every department, the two branches which had been taught in the same year were assigned to the same chair. What is most curious in the matter is this, Aristotle's treatise On the Soul being, (along with his lesser trea- tises on Memory and Reminiscence, on Sense and its Objects, &c.), included in the Parva Naturalia, and, he having declared that the consideration of the soul was part of the philosophy of nature," the science of Mind was always treated along with Physics. The Professors of Natural Philosophy have, however, long abandoned the philosophy of mind, and this branch has been, as more appropriate to their departments, taught both by the Professors of Moral Philosophy and by the Professors of Logic and Metaphysics, for you are not to suppose that metaphysics and psycho- logy are, though vulgarly used as synonymous expres- sions, by any means the same. So much for the historical accidents which have affected the subjects of the different chairs. I now return to the distribution of philosophy, which Subjects ap - I have given you, and, first, by exclusion, I shall tell toXs* e you what does not concern us. In this class, we have nothing to do with Practical Philosophy, that is, a De Anima, i. 1 : #i/o-icoC rb ttw- KO! 6pl(tv)Cil, ^ iriffTjt ^ rfjj rot- Waj Bfaprjfftu rov QuffiKov, 8vcri, / breathe or blow, ing terms in rN i T f i other lan- as TTvcv/xa in Greek, and spintus in Latin, irom verbs of the same signification. In like manner, anima and animus are words which, though in Latin they have lost their primary signification, and are only known in their secondary or metaphorical, yet, in their ori- ginal physical meaning, are preserved in the Greek az>e/xo9, wind or air. The English soul, and the Ger- man Seele, come from a Gothic root saivalaf which signifies to storm. Ghost, the old English word for a [The terms PsycJwlo ay and Pneu- ~ ,, (l.Theoloeia(Naturalis). ,7 n Pneumatolo- L . , ,. ^ matology, or Pneumatic, are not equi- . p ) 2. Angelographia, Dae- valents. The latter word was used ' I monologia. for the doctrine of spirit in general, ('3. Psychologia. which was subdivided into three See Theoph. Gale, Logica, p. 455, branches, as it treated of the three (1681).] orders of spiritual substances, God, See Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, Angels, and Devils, and Man. vol. ii. p. 99. In Anglo-Saxon, Sawel, Thus Sawal, Sawl, Saul. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 135 spirit in general, and so used in our English version of LECT. the Scriptures, is the same as the German Geist" and is derived from Gas or Gescht, which signifies air. In like manner, the two words in Hebrew for soul or spirit, nephesh and ruach, are derivatives of a root which means to breathe; and in Sanscrit the word atmd (analogous to the Greek 0177x69, vapour or air) signifies both mind and wind or air.P Sapientia, in Latin, originally meant only the power of tasting ; as sagacitas only the faculty of scenting. In French, pen- ser comes from the Latin pendere, through pensare, to weigh, and the terms, attentio, intentio, (entendement) , comprehensio, apprehensio, penetratio, understanding, &c., are just so many bodily actions transferred to the expression of mental energies. 7 There is, therefore, on this ground, no reason to re- By whom . ., , , 7 , 77' t ^ ie a PP e l~ ject such useful terms as psychology ana psycholoqi- lation p 8 y- , ^ v w ^ v y chology firgt cat ; terms, too, now in such general acceptation in employed. the philosophy of Europe. I may, however, add an historical notice of their introduction. Aristotle's principal treatise on the philosophy of mind is en- titled Ilepl ^vx^s ; but the first author who gave a treatise on the subject under the title Psychologia, (which I have observed to you is a modern compound), is Otto Casmaun, who, in the year 1594, published at Hanau his very curious work, "Psychologia Anthro- pologica sive Animce Humance Doctrina" This was followed, in two years, by his "Anthropologies Pars II., hoc est, de fabrica Humani Corporis." This author a Scotch Ohaist, Gastly. a Vital Principle, p. 5-6. ] /3 [See H. Schmid, Versuch einer y [On this pointsee Leibnitz, Awir. Mftaphynk der inneren Natur, p. 69, Ess., liv. iii. ch. i. 5; Stewart, Phil. note ; Scheidler's Psychologic, pp. 299- Eiisays Work*, vol. v. Essay v. ; 301, 320 ft teq. Cf. Theoph. Gale, Brown, Human Understanding, p. J'hilosophia Oeneralis, pp. 321, 322. 388 et seTij Si tributed to St Austin, entitled De vairr6s tffTiv 5pt In the first place, the employment of the Greek term a In the older and Aristotelian Logicians, the term property was less sense of the term. See Topic*, i. 5 : correctly used to denote a necessary "iSjov 8' iff*\v ft p)) 87jAoi fi.it> rb ri fa quality, whether peculiar or not. tlvai, fi6vstanc e e. denied the reality of any unknown ground of the known phenomena ; and have maintained that mind and matter have no substantial existence, but are merely the two complements of two series of asso- ciated qualities. This doctrine, is, however, altogether futile. It belies the veracity of our primary beliefs ; it leaves unsatisfied the strongest necessities of our intellectual nature ; it admits as a fact that the phe- nomena are connected, but allows no cause explana- tory of the fact of their connection. Others, again, have fallen into an opposite error. They have at- tempted to speculate concerning the nature of the unknown grounds of the phenomena of mind and matter apart from the phenomena, and have, accord- ingly, transcended the legitimate sphere of philoso- phy. A third party have taken some one, or more, of the phenomena themselves as the basis or substratum of the others. Thus Descartes, at least as understood and followed by Malebranche and others of his dis- ciples, made thought or consciousness convertible with the substance of mind ; a and Bishops Brown and Law, with Dr Watts, constituted solidity and extension into the substance of body. This theory is, however, liable to all the objections which may be alleged against the first. a Principia, para i. 8, 51-53. On Encyclopaedia Britannica, art this point see Stewart, Works, vol. ii. Metaphysics, pp. 615, GIG (7th ed.) p. 473, Note A ; also the completed [Cf. Descartes, Principia, para i. edition of Reid's Works, p. 961. ED. 53 ; pars ii. 4. ED.] 156 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. I defined Psychology, the science conversant about - the phenomena of the mind, or conscious-subject, or tion ot^ self, or ego. The former parts of the definition have (continued.) been explained ; the terms mind, conscious-subject, self, and ego, come now to be considered. These are all only expressions for the unknown basis of the mental phenomena, viewed, however, in different relations. Mind. Of these the word mind is the first. In regard to the etymology of this term," it is obscure and doubt- ful ; perhaps, indeed, none of the attempts to trace it to its origin are successful. It seems to hold an ana- logy with the Latin mens, and both are probably de- rived from the same common root. This root, which is lost in the European languages of Scytho-Indian origin, is probably preserved in the Sanscrit mena, to know or understand. The Greek vovs, intelligence, is, in like manner, derived from a verb of precisely the same meaning (voeco). The word mind is of a more limited signification than the term soul. In the Greek philosophy, the term i/w^, soul, comprehends, besides the sensitive and rational principle in man, the prin- ciple of organic life, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and, in Christian theology, it is likewise used, in contrast to irveupa. or spirit, in a vaguer and more extensive signification. Since Descartes limited psychology to the domain of consciousness, the term mind has been rigidly em- ployed for the self-knowing principle alone. Mind, therefore, is to be understood as the subject of the various internal phsenomena of which we are con- scious, or that subject of which consciousness is the general phenomenon. Consciousness is, in fact, to the mind what extension is to matter or body. Though o On etymology of mind, &c. see Scheidler's Psychologic, p. 325. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 157 both are phenomena, yet both are essential qualities ; for we can neither conceive rnind without conscious- ness, nor body without extension. Mind can be de- Mind can , . , f, . .be defined lined only a posteriori, that is, only irom its mam- only a .po- festations. What it is in itself, that is, apart from its manifestations, we, philosophically, know nothing, and, accordingly, what we mean by mind is simply that which perceives, thinks, feels, wills, desires, &c. Mind, with us, is thus nearly coextensive with the Rational and Animal souls of Aristotle ; for the faculty of voluntary motion, which is a function of the animal soul in the Peripatetic doctrine, ought not, as is gen- erally done, to be excluded from the phsonomena of consciousness and mind. The definition of mind from its qualities is given by Aristotle ; it forms the second definition in his Treatise on the Soul, a and after him, it is the one generally adopted by philosophers, and, among others, by Dr Reid.' 3 That Reid, therefore, should have been praised for having thus defined the mind, shows only the ignorance of his encomiasts. He has no peculiar merit in this respect at all. The next term to be considered is conscious sub- conscious wet. And first, what is it to be conscious ? With- u Jec out anticipating the discussion relative to conscious- ness, as the fundamental function of intelligence, I may, at present, simply indicate to you what an act of consciousness denotes. This act is of the most a De Anima, ii. 2: 'H ^"X^ & raTs, Kal reky Swcf/ucit irrb rovrtav iiri- rovro if fa/ire KO.\ al(rOav6^t6a Kal 810- voov^tv. In lib. ii. De Anima, p. 76, voofytBa Trpcarwt. Cf. Thernistius : (Aid. Fol.) ED. Ei 5i XP*I A*'?*'" r ^ (Kcurrov rovruv, )8 Intellectual Powers, Essay i. c. 2 ; olov ri rb voririK^v, t) ri rb air ArmcfflWor, rt ri> votlv, KO! man, we understand that in him ri rb cdff6 ou- 158 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. elementary character ; it is the condition of all know- ledge ; I cannot, therefore, define it to you ; but, as you are all familiar with the thing, it is easy to enable you to connect the thing with the word. I know, I desire, I feel. What is it that is common to all these ? Knowing and desiring and feeling are not the same, and may be distinguished. But they all agree in one fundamental condition. Can I know, without knowing that I know 1 Can I desire, without knowing that I desire \ Can I feel, without knowing that I feel \ This is impossible. Now this knowing that I know or desire or feel, this common condition of self-knowledge, is precisely what is denominated Con- sciousness. So much at present for the adjective conscious: now for the substantive, subject, conscious-subject. Though consciousness be the condition of all internal phsenomena, still it is itself only a phenomenon ; and, therefore, supposes a subject in which it inheres ; that is, supposes something that is conscious, some- thing that manifests itself as conscious. And, since consciousness comprises within its sphere the whole phsenomena of mind, the expression conscious-subject is a brief, but comprehensive, definition of mind itself. I have already informed you of the general mean- ing of the word subject in its philosophical applica- tion, viz., the unknown basis of phenomenal or manifested existence. It is thus, in its application, common equally to the external and to the internal worlds. But the philosophers of mind have, in a manner, usurped and appropriated this expression to themselves. Accordingly, in their hands, the phrases o Compare Discussions, p. 47, and Note H, p. 929 et seq. ED. the completed edition of -Reid's Works, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 159 conscious or thinking subject, and subject simply, mean LECT. precisely the same thing ; and custom has prevailed so far, that, in psychological discussions, the subject is a term now currently employed, throughout Europe, for the mind or thinking principle* The question here occurs, what is the reason of UM of the this employment "? If mind and subject are only con- ject vindi- vertible terms, why multiply synonyms ? Why ex- ca change a precise and proximate expression for a vague and abstract generality ? The question is pertinent, and merits a reply ; for unless it can be shown that the word is necessary, its introduction cannot possibly be vindicated. Now, the utility of this expression is founded on two circumstances. The first, that it affords an adjective ; the second, that the terms sub- ject and subjective have opposing relatives in the terms object and objective, so that the two pairs of words together, enable us to designate the primary and most important analysis and antithesis of philosophy, in a more precise and emphatic manner than can be done by any other technical expressions. This will require some illustration. Subject, we have seen, is a term for that in which Terms sub- the phenomena revealed to our observation, inhere, Objective ; ill i i -,-, their origin what the schoolmen have designated the matena and in qua. Limited to the mental phaenomena, subject, '" therefore, denotes the mind itself ; and subjective, that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the thinking sub- ject. Object, on the other hand, is a term for that about which the knowing subject is conversant, what the schoolmen have styled the materia circa quam ; while objective means that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the object known, and not from the subject a See the Author's note, Reid's Works, p. 806. ED. 160 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. knowing ; and thus denotes what is real in opposition to what is ideal, what exists in nature, in contrast to what exists merely in the thought of the individual. Now, the great problem of philosophy is to analyse the contents of our acts of knowledge, or cognitions, to distinguish what elements are contributed by the knowing subject, what elements by the object known. There must, therefore, be terms adequate to designate these correlative opposites, and to discrimi- nate the share which each has in the total act of cognition. But, if we reject the terms subject and subjective, object and objective, there are no others competent to the purpose. Errors At this stage of your progress, Gentlemen, it is not wMu^the 1 easy to make you aware of the paramount necessity of ject m and ub such 3, distinction, and of such terms, or to show you object. j low ^ f rom tne wan O f W0 rds expressive of this primary antithesis, the mental philosophy of this country has been checked in its development, and involved in the utmost perplexity and misconception. It is sufficient to remark at present, that to this defect in the lan- guage of his psychological analysis, is, in a great measure, to be attributed the confusion, not to say the errors, of Keid, in the very cardinal point of his philosophy, a confusion so great that the whole tendency of his doctrine was misconceived by Brown, who, in adopting a modification of the hypothesis of a representative perception, seems not even to have suspected, that he, and Keid, and modern philosophers in general, were not in this at one." The terms sub- jective and objective denote the primary distinction in consciousness of self and not-self, and this distinction a See on this question the Author's Supplementary Dissertations to Reid's Discussions, p. 45 et seq., and his Works, Notes B and C. En. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 161 involves the whole science of mind ; for this science LECT. IX is nothing more than a determination of the subjective - and objective, in themselves and in their mutual rela- tions. The distinction is of paramount importance, and of infinite application, not only in Philosophy proper, but in Grammar, Rhetoric, Criticism, Ethics, Politics, Jurisprudence, Theology. I will give you an example, a philological example. Suppose a lexicographer had to distinguish the two meanings of the word certainty. Certainty expresses either, the firm conviction which we have of the truth of a thing ; or the character of the proof on which its reality rests. The former is the subjective meaning ; the latter the objective. By what other terms can they be distinguished and described 1 The distinction of subject and object, as marking History of out the fundamental and most thorough-going an- Subject and tithesis in philosophy, we owe, among many other J. I cannot say. Socr. You can at least say that the man is that which uses the body 1 Alcib. True. Socr. Now, does anything use the body but the mind? Alcib. Nothing. Socr. The mind is, therefore, the man? Alcib. The mind alone." To the same effect, Aristotle asserts that the mind contains the man, not the man the mind. a " Thou art the soul," says Hierocles, " but the body is thine."' 3 So Cicero " Mens cuj usque is est quisque, non ea figura quse digito demonstrari potest;" 7 and Macro- bius " Ergo qui videtur, non ipse verus homo est, sed verus ille est, a quo regitur quod videtur." 5 No one has, however, more beautifully expressed Arbuthuot. this truth than Arbuthnot: 6 " What am I, whence produced, and for what end? Whence drew I being, to what period tend ? Am I th' abandon' d orphan of blind chance, Dropp'd by wild atoms in disorder'd dance ? Or, from an endless chain of causes wrought, And of unthinking substance, born with thought ? Am I but what I seem, mere flesh and blood, A branching channel with a mazy flood ? The purple stream that through my vessels glides, Dull and unconscious flows, like common tides, The pipes, through which the circling juices stray, Are not that thinking I, no more than they : a That the mind is the man, is O-CO/JM a6v. ED. maintained by Aristotle in several y Somnium Scipionis, c. 8. ED. places. Cf . Eth. Nic. , ix. 8 ; x. 7 ; but 8 Macrobius, In Somnium Scipionis, these do not contain the exact words lib. ii. c. 12. ED. of the text. ED. f Know thyself. See Dodsley's Col- $ In Aurea Pythagoreorum Car- lection, vol. i. p. 180. ED. mina, 26: 2fr ybp el i) tyvxt- T& 5i LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 165 This frame, compacted with transcendent skill, LECT Of moving joints obedient to my Mall ; IX. Nurs'd from the fruitful glebe, like yonder tree, Waxes and wastes, I call it mine, not me. New matter still the mould'ring mass sustains ; The mansion chang'd, the tenant still remains ; And, from the fleeting stream repair'd by food, Distinct, as is the swimmer from the flood." But let us come to a closer determination of the The Self _ or Ego in point ; let us appeal to our experience. " I turn my' relation to attention on my being, and find that I have organs, gaus, and and that I have thoughts. My body is the comple- ment of my organs ; am I then my body, or any part of my body \ This I cannot be. The matter of my body, in all its points, is in a perpetual flux, in a perpetual process of renewal. I, / do not pass away, I am not renewed. None probably of the molecules which constituted my organs some years ago, form any part of the material system which I now call mine. It has been made up anew ; but I am still what I was of old. These organs may be mutilated, one, two, or any number of them may be removed ; but not the less do I continue to be what I was, one and entire. It is even not impossible to conceive me existing, deprived of every organ, I, therefore, who have these organs, or this body, / am neither an organ nor a body. " Neither am I identical with my thoughts, for they are manifold and various. I, on the contrary, am one and the same. Each moment they change and succeed each other : this change and succession takes * o place in me, but I neither change nor succeed myself in myself. Each moment, I am aware or am consci- ous of the existence and change of my thoughts : this change is sometimes determined by me, sometimes by 166 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. something different from me; but I always can dis- tinguish myself from them, I am a permanent being, an enduring subject, of whose existence these thoughts are only so many modes, appearances, or phenomena. I who possess organs and thoughts am, therefore, neither these organs nor these thoughts. " I can conceive myself to exist apart from every organ. But if I try to conceive myself existent with- out a thought, without some form of consciousness, I am unable. This or that thought may not be perhaps necessary; but of some thought it is neces- sary that I should be conscious, otherwise I can no longer conceive myself to be. A suspension of thought is thus a suspension of my intellectual existence ; I am, therefore, essentially a thinking, a conscious being; and my true character is that of an intelli- gence, an intelligence served by organs/" But this thought, this consciousness, is possible only in, and through, the consciousness of Self. The Self, the I, is recognised in every act of intelligence, as the subject to which that act belongs. It is I that perceive, I that imagine, I that remember, I that attend, I that compare, I that feel, I that desire, I that will, I that am conscious. The I, indeed, is only manifested in one or other of these special modes ; but it is manifested in them all ; they are all only the phaenomena of the I, and, therefore, the science conversant about the phaenomena of mind is, most simply and unambiguously, said to be conversant about the phaenomena of the / or Ego. This expression, as that which, in many relations, best marks and discriminates the conscious mind, has now become familiar in every country, with the ex- ec Gatien-Arnoult, [Eoct. Phil., p. 34-36. ED.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 167 ception of our own. Why it has not been naturalised LECT. with us is not unapparent. The French have two words for the Ego or I Je and Moi. The former of these is less appropriate as an abstract term, being in sound ambiguous ; but le moi admirably expresses what the Germans denote, but less felicitously, by their Das Ich. In English the I could not be tolerated ; because, in sound, it would not be distinguished from the word significant of the organ of sight. We must, therefore, either renounce the term, or resort to the Latin Ego ; and this is perhaps no disadvantage, for, as the word is only employed in a strictly philosophical relation, it is better that this should be distinctly marked, by its being used in that relation alone. The term Self is more allowable ; yet still the expressions Ego and Non-Ego are felt to be less awkward than those of Self SD& Not-Self So much in explanation of the terms involved in the definition which I gave you of Psychology. 168 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTURE X. EXPLICATION OP TERMS. LECT. I NOW proceed, as I proposed, to the consideration of ! a few other words of frequent occurrence in philo- sophy, and which it is expedient to explain at once, before entering upon discussions in which they will continually recur. I take them up without order, except in so far as they may be grouped together by their meaning ; and the first I shall consider, are the terms hypothesis and theory. Hypothesis. When a phsenomenon is presented to us which can be explained by no cause within the sphere of our experience, we feel dissatisfied and uneasy. A desire arises to escape from this unpleasing state ; and the consequence of this desire is an effort of the mind to recall the outstanding phaenomenon to unity, by assigning it, ad interim, to some cause or class, to which we imagine that it may possibly belong, until we shall be able to refer it, permanently, to that cause, or class, to which we shall have proved it actually to appertain. The judgment by which the phaenomenon is thus provisorily referred, is called an hypothesis, a supposition. Hypotheses have thus no other end than to satisfy the desire of the mind to reduce the objects of its knowledge to unity and system ; and they do this in recalling them, ad interim, to some principle, through LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 169 which the mind is enabled to comprehend them. From LECT. this view of their nature it is manifest, how far they - are permissible, and how far they are even useful and expedient, throwing altogether out of account the possibility that what is at first assumed as hypotheti- cal, may subsequently be proved true. An hypothesis is allowable only under certain con- TWO 1 f\p i ir* i i i tions of legi- ditions. Ui these the nrst is, that the phenomenon timate h y - to be explained, should be ascertained actually to exist. It would, for example, be absurd to propose an hypothesis to account for the possibility of appa- ritions, until it be proved that ghosts do actually appear. This precept, to establish your fact before you attempt to conjecture its cause, may, perhaps, seem to you too elementary to be worth the state- ment. But a little longer experience will convince you of the contrary. That the enunciation of the rule is not only not superfluous, but even highly requisite as an admonition, is shown by great and numerous examples of its violation in the history of science ; and, as Cullen has truly observed, there are more false facts current in the world than false hypo- theses to explain them. There is, in truth, nothing which men seem to admit so lightly as an asserted fact. Of this I might adduce to you a host of mem- orable examples. I shall content myself with one small but significant illustration. Charles II., soon after the incorporation of the Eoyal Society, which was established under his patronage, sent to request of that learned body an explanation of the following phenomenon. When a live fish is thrown into a basin of water, the basin, water, and fish do not weigh more than the basin and water before the fish is thrown in ; whereas, when a dead 170 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. fish is employed, the weight of the whole is exactly equal to the added weights of the basin, the water, and the fish. Much learned discussion ensued regard- ing this curious fact, and several elaborate papers, pro- pounding various hypotheses in explanation, were read on the occasion. At length a member, who was better versed in Aristotle than his associates, recollected that the philosopher had laid it down, as a general rule of philosophising, to consider the an sit of a fact, before proceeding to investigate the cur sit ; and he ventured to insinuate to his colleagues, that though the autho- rity of the Stagirite was with thenij the disciples of Bacon, of small account, it might possibly not be altogether inexpedient to follow his advice on the present occasion ; seeing that it did not, in fact, seem at variance with common sense, and that none of the hypotheses proposed were admitted to be altogether satisfactory. After much angry discussion, some mem- bers asserting the fact to be in itself notorious, and others declaring that to doubt of its reality was an insult to his majesty, and tantamount to a construc- tive act of treason, the experiment was made, when lo ! to the confusion of the wise men of Gotham, the name by which the Society was then popularly known, it was found that the weight was identical, whether a dead or a living fish were used. This is only a past and petty illustration. It would be easy to adduce extensive hypotheses, very generally accredited, even at the present hour, which are, how- ever, nothing better than assumptions founded on, or explanatory of, phsenomena which do not really exist in nature. The second. The second condition of a permissible hypothesis is, that the phsenomenon cannot be explained otherwise, than by an hypothesis. It would, for example, have LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 171 been absurd, even before the discoveries of Franklin, LECT. x to account for the phenomenon of lightning by the hypothesis of supernatural agency. These two condi- tions, of the reality of the phenomenon, and the neces- sity of an hypothesis for its explanation, being ful- filled, an hypothesis is allowable." But the necessity of some hypothesis being con- criteria of the excel- ceded, how are we to discriminate between a good icnce of an and a bad, a probable and an improbable, hypo- thesis ? The comparative excellence of an hypothesis requires, in the first place, that it involve nothing contradictory, either internally or externally, that is, either between the parts of which it is composed, or between these and any established truths. Thus, the Ptolemaic hypothesis of the heavenly revolutions be- came worthless, from the moment that it was contra- dicted by the ascertained phaenomena of the planets Venus and Mercury. Thus, the Wernerian hypothesis in geology is improbable, inasmuch as it is obliged to maintain that water was originally able to hold in solution substances which it is now incapable of dis- solving. The Huttonian hypothesis, on the contrary, is so far preferable, that it assumes no eifect to have been produced by any agent, which that agent is not known to be capable of producing. In the second place, an hypothesis is probable in proportion as the phenomenon in question can be by it more com- pletely explained. Thus, the Copernican hypothesis is more probable than the Tychonic and semi-Tychonic, inasmuch as it enables us to explain a greater number of phaenomena. In the third place, an hypothesis is probable, in proportion as it is independent of all subsidiary hypotheses. In this respect, again, the a [On the conditions of legitimate Sturm, Phymca Electiva, Diss. Pnelim. hypothesis compare John Christopher art. 3, torn. i. p. 28.] 172 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Copernican hypothesis is more probable than the - Tychonic. For, though both save all the phenomena, the Copernican does this by one principal assumption ; whereas the Tychonic is obliged to call in the aid of several subordinate suppositions, to render the prin- cipal assumption available. So much for hypothesis. I have dwelt longer on hypothesis than perhaps was necessary ; for you must recollect that these terms are, at present, considered only in order to enable you to understand their signification when casually employed. We shall probably, in a subse- quent part of the Course, have occasion to treat of them expressly, and with the requisite details. I shall, therefore, be more concise in treating of the cognate expression, theory. This word is employed by English writers, in a very loose and improper sense. It is with them usually convertible with hypo- thesis, and hypothesis is commonly used as another term for conjecture. Dr Eeid, indeed, expressly does this ; he identifies the two words, and explains them as philosophical conjectures, as you may see in his First Essay on the Intellectual Powers, (Chap. III.) a This is, however, wrong ; wrong, in relation to the original employment of the terms by the ancient phi- losophers ; and wrong, in relation to their employment by the philosophers of the modern nations. Theory, The terms theory and theoretical are properly used in opposition to the terms practice and practical ; in this sense they were exclusively employed by the an- cients ; and in this sense they are almost exclusively employed by the Continental philosophers. Prac- tice is the exercise of an art, or the application of a science, in life, which application is itself an art, for it a Works, p. 235; see also p. 97. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 173 is not every one who is able to apply all he knows ; LECT. there being required, over and above knowledge, a - - certain dexterity and skill. Theory, on the contrary, is mere knowledge or science. There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice ; each to a certain extent supposes the other. On the one hand, theory is dependent on practice, practice must have preceded theory; for theory being only a gener- alisation of the principles on which practice proceeds, these must originally have been taken out of, or ab- stracted from, practice. On the other hand, this is true only to a certain extent ; for there is no practice without a theory. The man of practice must have always known something, however little, of what he did, of what he intended to do, and of the means by which his intention was to be carried into effect. He was, therefore, not wholly ignorant of the principles of his procedure ; he was a limited, he was, in some degree, an unconscious, theorist. As he proceeded, however, in his practice, and reflected on his performance, his theory acquired greater clearness and extension, so that he became at last distinctly conscious of what he did, and could give, to himself and others, an account of his procedure. " Per varies usus artem experientia fecit, Exemplo monstrante viain." In this view, theory is, therefore, simply a know- ledge of the principles by which practice accomplishes its ends. The opposition of Theoretical and Practical philo- Theoretical sophy is somewhat different ; for these do not stand cai Phi simply related to each other as theory and practice. Practical philosophy involves likewise a theory, a a [Manilius, i. 62.] 174 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. theory, however, subordinated to the practical appli- ' cation of its principles ; while theoretical philosophy has nothing to do with practice, but terminates in mere speculative or contemplative knowledge." The next group of associated words to which I would call your attention, is composed of the terms, power, faculty, capacity, disposition, habit, act, opera- tion, energy, function, &c. Power. Of these the first is power, and the explanation of Reid'gcriti- ... ., , PIIII cism of this, in a manner, involves that ot all the others. I have, in the first place, to correct an error of Dr Eeid, in relation to this term, in his criticism of Locke's statement of its import. You will observe that I do not, at present, enter on the question, How do we acquire the notion of power ? and I defend the following passage of Locke, only in regard to the meaning and comprehension of the term. " The mind," says Locke, " being every day informed, by the senses, of the alteration of those simple ideas it observes in things without, and taking notice how one comes to an end, and ceases to be, and another begins to exist which was not before ; reflecting also on what passes within itself, and observing a constant change of its ideas, sometimes by the impression of outward objects on the senses, and sometimes by the determination of its own choice ; and concluding from what it has so constantly observed to have been, that the like changes will, for the future, be made on the same things, by like agents, and by the like ways ; considers, in one thing, the possibility of having any of its simple ideas changed, and, in another, the possibility of making that change ; and so comes by that idea which we call power. Thus we say, fire has a power to melt gold, a See ante, p. 113. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 175 that is, to destroy the consistency of its insensible LECT. parts, and consequently its hardness, and make it '. fluid, and gold has a power to be melted : that the sun has a power to blanch wax, and wax a power to be blanched by the sun, whereby the yellowness is de- stroyed, and whiteness made to exist in its room. In which, and the like cases, the power, we consider, is in reference to the change of perceivable ideas; for we cannot observe any alteration to be made in, or ope- ration upon, anything, but by the observable change of its sensible ideas ; nor conceive any alteration to be made, but by conceiving a change of some of its ideas. Power, thus considered, is twofold viz., as able to make, or able to receive, any change : the one may be called active, and the other passive power." I have here only to call your attention to the dis- Active and . i-i Passive tmction 01 power into two kinds, active and passive Power, the former meaning id quod potest facere, that which can effect or can do, the latter id quod potest Jieri, that which can be effected or can be done. In both cases the general notion of power is expressed by the verb potest or can. Now, on this, Dr Eeid makes the following strictures/ "On this account by Locke/' he says, " of the origin of our idea of power, I would beg leave to make two remarks, with the respect that is most justly due to so great a philosopher and so good a man." We are at present concerned only with the first of these remarks by Dr Keid, which is as follows, " Whereas Locke distinguishes power into active and passive, I conceive passive power is no power at all. He means by it, the possibility of being changed. To call this power, seems to be a misapplication of the a Essay, Book ii. ch. 21, 1. ED. Works, p. 519. ED. Active Powers, Essay i. ch. 3; 176 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. word. I do not remember to have met with the phrase - passive power in any other good author. Mr Locke seems to have been unlucky in inventing it ; and it deserves not to be retained in our language. Perhaps he was unwarily led into it, as an opposite to active power. But I conceive we call certain powers active, to distinguish them from other powers that are called speculative. As all mankind distinguish action from speculation, it is very proper to distinguish the powers by which those different operations are performed, into active and speculative. Mr Locke, indeed, ac- knowledges that active power is more properly called power : but I see no propriety at all in passive power; it is a powerless power, and a contradiction in terms." These observations of Dr Reid arc, I am sorry to say, erroneous from first to last. The latter part, in which he attempts to find a reason for Locke being unwarily betrayed into making this distinction, is supposing the distinction untenable, and Locke its author, wholly inadequate to account for his hallu- cination ; for, surely, the powers by which we specu- late are, in their operations, not more passive than those that have sometimes been styled active, but which are properly denominated practical. But in the censure itself on Locke, Reid is altogether mis- taken. In the first place, so far was Locke from being unlucky in inventing the distinction, it was invented some two thousand years before. In the second place, to call the possibility of being changed a power, is no misapplication of the word. In the third place, so far is the phrase passive power from not being employed by any good author, there is hardly a metaphysician previous to Locke, by whom it was LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 177 not familiarly used. In fact, this was one of the most LECT. celebrated distinctions in philosophy. It was first - formally enounced by Aristotle, and from him was universally adopted. Active and passive power are in Greek styled Swa^t? Trot^n/o^and SiW/u? TraOrjT 1/07 ; in Latin, potentia activa, and potentia passiva.P Power, therefore, is a word which we may use both in an active, and in a passive, signification ; and, in psychology, we may apply it both to the active facul- ties, and to the passive capacities, of mind. This leads to the meaning of the terms faculty and Faculty. capacity. Faculty (facultas) is derived from the ob- solete Latin facul, the more ancient form offacilis, from which again facilitas is formed. It is properly limited to active power, and, therefore, is abusively applied to the mere passive affections of mind. Capacity (capacitas), on the other hand, is more capacity. properly limited to these. Its primary signification, which is literally room for, as well as its employment, favours this ; although it cannot be denied, that there are examples of its usage in an active sense. Leibnitz, as far as I know, was the first who limited its psycho- logical application to the passivities of mind. In his famous Nouveaux Essais sur I' Entendement Humain, a work written in refutation of Locke's Essay on the same subject, he observes : " We may say that power (puissance), in general, is the possibility of change. a See Metaph., iv. (v.) 12; viii. power by terminations in r6s. Thus (ix.) 1. ED. iroii]TiK6v, that which can make; WOITJ- /3 This distinction is, indeed, estab- r6i>, that which can be made ; Ktinjrt- lished in the Greek language itself. n6v, that which can move ; KIVTTTOV, That tongue has, among its other that which can be moved ; and so marvellous perfections, two sets of irpaKTiKds and -irpaKrSs, alffO-itrtitSs and potential adjectives, the one for active, alafairAs, voririicds and vorir6s, olito- the other for passive power. Those So/uTjriKdj and olKo&o/*riT6s, &c. [Cf. for active power are denoted by ter- Lord Monboddo's A ncient Metaphy- minations in TK<$J, those for passive sics, vol. L p. 8. ED.] VOL. I. M 178 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Now the change, or the act of this possibility, being action in one subject and passion in another, there will be two powers (deux puissance), the one passive, the other active. The active may be called faculty, and perhaps the passive might be called capacity, or receptivity. It is true that the active power is some- times taken in a higher sense, when, over and above the simple faculty, there is also a tendency, a nisus ; and it is thus that I have used it in my dynamical considerations. We might give to it in this meaning the special name of force" ' I may notice that Reid seems to have attributed no other meaning to the term power than that of force. Power, then, is active and passive ; faculty is active power, capacity is passive power.' 3 Disposition, The two terms next in order, are disposition, in Greek, Siaflecri? ; and habit, in Greek, If is. I take these together as they are similar, yet not the same. Both are tendencies to action ; but they differ in this, that disposition properly denotes a natural tendency, habit an acquired tendency. Aristotle distinguishes them by another difference. " Habit (eft?) is discriminated from disposition (Sta^ecrt?) in this, that the latter is easily movable, the former of longer duration, and more difficult to be moved." 7 I may notice that habit is formed by the frequent repetition of the same action or passion, and that this repetition is called consue- tude, or custom. The latter terms, which properly a Nouveawx Essais, liv. ii. ch. 21. tersuchungen iiber das Wesen und 2. ED. Wirken der menschlichen Seele, p. 66 ; ft [Distinction of Faculty and Pow- Jouffroy, Melanges, p. 345 et seq. ; er, Faculty being given to self-ac- Daube, Essai d'Idtologie, p. 136 ; tive forces, Power to both active Fries, Anthropologie, i. p. 26, (ed. and passive : see Wolf, Psych. Emp., 1820.)] 29; Psych. Rat., 81; Weiss, Un- y Categ., c. 8. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 179 signify the cause, are not unfrequently abusively em- LECT. ployed for habit, their effect. I may likewise observe that the terms power, faculty, capacity, are more appropriately applied to natural, than to acquired, capabilities, and are thus inapplicable to mere habits. I say mere habits, for where habit is superinduced upon a natural capability, both terms may be used. Thus we can say both the faculty of abstraction, and the habit of abstraction, the capacity of suffering and the habit of suffering ; but still the meanings are not identical. The last series of cognate terms are act, operation, Act, o pe - energy. They are all mutually convertible, as all de- noting the present exertion or exercise of a power, a faculty, or a habit. I must here explain to you the famous distinction of actual and potential existence, Potential for, by this distinction, act, operation, energy, are con- tradiscriminated from power, faculty, capacity, dispo- sition, and habit. This distinction, when divested of certain subordinate subtleties of no great consequence, is manifest and simple. Potential existence means merely that the thing may be at some time ; actual existence, that it now is. a Thus, the mathematician, when asleep or playing at cards, does not exercise his skill ; his geometrical knowledge is all latent, but he is still a mathematician, potentially. " Ut quamvis tacet Hermogenes, cantor tamen atque Optimus est modulator ; ut Alfenus vafer, omni Abjecto instrumento artis, clausaque taberna, Sutor erat." Hermogenes, says Horace, was a singer, even when silent ; how 1 a singer, not in actu but in posse. So a This distinction is well illustrat- burg on Arist. de Anima, ii. 1. ED. ed in the learned note of Trendelen- Horace, Sat. i. 3, 129. ED. 180 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Alfenus was a cobbler, even when not at work ; that is, he was a cobbler potential ; whereas, when busy in his booth, he was a cobbler actual. In like manner, my sense of sight potentially exists, though my eyelids are closed ; but when I open them, it exists actually. Now, power, faculty, capacity, dis- position, habit, are all different expressions for potential or possible existence ; act, operation, energy, for actual or present existence. Thus the power of imagination expresses the unexerted capability of imagining ; the act of imagination denotes that power elicited into immediate, into present, existence. The different synonyms for potential existence, are existence & Swdfjiei, in potentia, in posse, in power ; for actual existence, existence & tvtpyeia, or ev evreXe^eta, in acto, in esse, in act, in operation, in energy. The term energy is precisely the Greek term for act or operation ; but it has vulgarly obtained the meaning of forcible activity." Function. The word functio, in Latin, simply expresses per- formance or operation ; functio muneris is the exer- tion of an energy of some determinate kind.^ But with us the word function has come to be employed in the sense of munus alone, and means not the exer- cise, but the specific character, of a power. Thus the function of a clergyman does not mean with us the a But there is another relation of accomplishment. This affords the potentiality and actuality which . I distinction taken by Aristotle of first may notice, Hermogenes, Alfenus, and second energy, the first being before, and after, acquiring the habits the habit acquired, the second the of singer, and cobbler. There is thus immediate exercise of that habit, a double kind of potentiality and ac- [Cf. De Anima, lib. ii. c. 1. ED.] tuality, for when Hermogenes has ft [" Functio est actio qua facultas obtained the habit and power of sing- vim suam exerit, suumque effectum ing, though not actually exercising, producit." Tosca, Comp.Philosoph., he is a singer in actu, in relation to vol. vii. p. 156.] himself, before he had acquired the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 181 performance of his duties, but the peculiarity of those LECT. duties themselves. The function of nutrition does not - mean the operation of that animal power, but its dis- criminate character. So much by way of preliminary explanation of the psychological terms in most general and frequent use. Others, likewise, I shall, in the sequel, have occasion to elucidate ; but these may, I think, more appropriately be dealt with as they happen to occur. 182 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTUKE XL OUTLINE OF DISTRIBUTION OF MENTAL PHENOMENA: CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS SPECIAL CONDITIONS. LECT. I NOW proceed to the consideration of the important ! subject, the Distribution of the Mental Phsenomena of 'the men? into their primary or most general classes. In regard men p a h * n to the distribution of the mental phaenomena, I shall not at present attempt to give any history or criti- cism of the various classifications which have been proposed by different philosophers. These classifica- tions are so numerous, and so contradictory, that, in the present stage of your knowledge, such a history would only fatigue the memory, without informing the understanding; for you cannot be expected to be as yet able to comprehend, at least many of the reasons which may be alleged for, or against, the dif- ferent distributions of the human faculties. I shall, therefore, at once proceed to state the classification of these, which I have adopted as the best. Conscious- In taking a comprehensive survey of the mental ness. the > ,1 n oneessen- phenomena, these are all seen to comprise one essen- of the men- tial element, or to be possible only under one necessary mena. ffin condition. This element or condition is Conscious- ness, or the knowledge that I, that the Ego exists, in some determinate state. In this knowledge they appear, or are realised as phsenomena, and with this LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 183 knowledge they likewise disappear, or have no longer LECT. a phsenomenal existence ; so that consciousness may '. be compared to an internal light, by means of which, and which alone, what passes in the mind is rendered visible. Consciousness is simple, is not composed of parts, either similar or dissimilar. It always resem- bles itself, differing only in the degrees of its inten- sity; thus, there are not various kinds of conscious- ness, although there are various kinds of mental modes, or states, of which we are conscious. What- ever division, therefore, of the mental phsenomena may be adopted, all its members must be within con- sciousness ; that is, we must not attempt to divide consciousness itself, which must be viewed as compre- hensive of the whole phsenomena to be divided ; far less should we reduce it, as a special phenomenon, to a particular class. Let consciousness, therefore, remain one and indivisible, comprehending all the modifications, all the phsenomena, of the thinking subject. But taking, again, a survey of the mental modi- Three grand fications, or phsenomena, of which we are conscious, mental phae- these are seen to divide themselves into THREE great classes. In the first place, there are the phsenomena of Knowledge ; in the second place, there are the phsenomena of Feeling, or the phsenomena of Pleasure and Pain ; and, in the third place, there are the phse- nomena of Will and Desire." Let me illustrate this by an example. I see a pic- ture. Now, first of all, I am conscious of perceiving a certain complement of colours and figures, I re- cognise what the object is. This is the phsenome- non of Cognition or Knowledge. But this is not the a Compare Stewarts Works, vol. ii., Advertisement by Editor. ED. 184 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LKCT. only phenomenon of which I may be here conscious. I may experience certain affections in the contempla- tion of this object. If the picture be a masterpiece, the gratification will be unalloyed ; but if it be an unequal production, I shall be conscious, perhaps, of enjoyment, but of enjoyment alloyed with dissatisfac- tion. This is the phenomenon of Feeling, or of Pleasure and Pain. But these two phenomena do not yet exhaust all of which I may be conscious on the occasion. I may desire to see the picture long, to see it often, to make it my own; and, perhaps, I may will, resolve, or determine so to do. This is the complex phenomenon of Will and Desire, iheir no- The English language, unfortunately, does not afford rauoclature. . us terms competent to express and discriminate, with, even tolerable clearness and precision, these classes of phenomena. In regard to the first, indeed, we have comparatively little reason to complain, the synony- mous terms, Jcnoivledge and cognition, suffice to distin- guish the phenomena of this class from those of the other two. In the second class, the defect of the lan- guage becomes more apparent. The word feeling is the only term under which we can possibly collect the phenomena of pleasure and pain, and yet this word is ambiguous. For it is not only employed to denote what we are conscious of as agreeable or disagreeable in our mental states, but it is likewise used as a synonym for the sense of touch." It is, however* principally in relation to the third class that the defi- ciency is manifested. In English, unfortunately, we have no term capable of adequately expressing what is a [Brown uses feeling for con- susceptible of a variety of feelings, sciousness. Oral. Interp. ] ; e.g., Phi- every new feeling being a change of losophy of the Human Mind, Lecture its state. " ED. xi., p. 66, (ed. 1830): "The mind is LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 185 common both to will and desire ; that is, the nisus or LECT. XI conatus, the tendency towards the realisation of their end. By will is meant a free and deliberate, by desire a blind and fatal, tendency to act. a Now, to express, I say, the tendency to overt action, the quality in which desire and will are equally contained, we pos- sess no English term to which an exception of more or less cogency may not be taken. Were we to say the phsenomena of tendency, the phrase would be vague ; and the same is true of the phsenomena of doing. Again, the term phsenomena of appetency is objec- tionable, because (to say nothing of the unfamiliarity of the expression) appetency, though perhaps etymo- logically unexceptionable, has both in Latin and Eng- lish a meaning almost synonymous with desire. Like the Latin appetentia, the Greek ope^ts is equally ill- balanced, for, though used by philosophers to compre- hend both will and desire, it more familiarly suggests the latter, and we need not, therefore, be solicitous, with Mr Harris and Lord Monboddo, to naturalise in English the term orectic.P Again, the phrase phseno- mena of activity would be even worse ; every possible objection can be made to the term active powers, by which the philosophers of this country have designated the orectic faculties of the Aristotelians. For you will observe, that all faculties are equally active ; and it is not the overt performance, but the tendency towards it, for which we are in quest of an expression. The German is the only language I am acquainted with, which is able to supply the term of which philosophy is in want. The expression Bestrebungs Vermogen, o Cf. Aristotle, Rhet., i. 10 : Eov\ij- ft See Lord Monboddo's Ancient t i l ' "' mental consecution. V eelmg and appetency suppose know- phono- mena. ledge. The cognitive faculties, therefore, stand first. But as will, and desire, and aversion, suppose a know- ledge of the pleasurable and painful, the feelings will stand second as intermediate between the other two. Such is the highest or most general classification of < the mental phaenomena, or of the phaenomena of which first 8 object TV . , i i of consido- we are conscious. .But as these primary classes are, as ration. we have shown, all included under one universal phae- nomenon, the phaenomenon of consciousness, it fol- lows that Consciousness must form the first object of our consideration. I shall not attempt to give you any preliminary detail of the opinions of philosophers in relation to consciousness. The only effect of this would be to confuse you. It is necessary, in the first place, to obtain correct and definite notions on the subject, and having obtained these, it will be easy for you to understand in what respects the opinions that have been hazarded on the cardinal point of all philosophy, nes8 C by U are inadequate or erroneous. I may notice that Dr gtewut. a See below, vol. ii. p. 2 et aeq.Eu. ronsriims- 190 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Reid and Mr Stewart have favoured us with no special or articulate account of consciousness. The former, indeed, intended and promised this. In the seventh chapter of the first Essay On the Intellectual Powers, which is entitled Division of the Powers of the Mind, the concluding paragraph is as follows : " I shall not, therefore, attempt a complete enumer- ation of the powers of the human understanding. I shall only mention those which I propose to explain, and they are the following : " 1st, The powers we have by means of our External Senses; 2dly, Memory; 3 dly, Conception; 4thly, The powers of Resolving and Analysing complex objects, and compounding those that are more simple ; 5thly, Judging; 6thly, Reasoning; 7thly, Taste; Sthly, Moral Perception; and, last of all, Consciousness."' The work, however, contains no essay upon Con- sciousness ; but, in reference to this deficiency, the author, in the last paragraph of the book, states, "As to Consciousness, what I think necessary to be said upon it has been already said ; Essay vi., chap, v."/ 3 the chapter, to wit, entitled On the First Principles of Contingent Truths. To that chapter you may, how- ever, add what is spoken of consciousness in the first chapter of the first Essay, entitled, Explication of Words, 7. 7 We are, therefore, left to glean the opinion of both Reid and Stewart on the subject of consciousness, from incidental notices in their writings ; but these are fortunately sufficient to supply us with the necessary information in regard to their opinions on this subject. Conscious- Nothing has contributed more to spread obscurity over a very transparent matter, than the attempts of a Works, p. 244 ED. Ib. p. 508. ED. y Ib. p. 222. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 191 philosophers to define consciousness. Consciousness LECT. cannot be defined, we may be ourselves fully aware what consciousness is, but we cannot, without con- fusion, convey to others a definition of what we ourselves clearly apprehend. The reason is plain. Consciousness lies at the root of all knowledge. Con- sciousness is itself the one highest source of all com- prehensibility and illustration, how, then, can we find aught else by which consciousness may be illus- trated or comprehended? To accomplish this, it would be necessary to have a second consciousness, through which we might be conscious of the mode in which the first consciousness was possible. Many philoso- phers, and among others Dr Brown, have defined consciousness a feeling? But how do they define a feeling ? They define, and must define it, as some- thing of which we are conscious; for a feeling of which we are not conscious, is no feeling at all. Here, there- fore, they are guilty of a logical see-saw, or circle. They define consciousness by feeling, and feeling by consciousness, that is, they explain the same by the same, and thus leave us in the end no wiser than we were in the beginning. Other philosophers say that consciousness is a knowledge, and others, again, that it is a belief or conviction of a knowledge. Here, again, we have the same violation of logical law. Is there any knowledge of which we are not conscious ? Is there any belief of which we are not conscious ? There is not, there cannot be ; therefore, consciousness is not contained under either knowledge or belief, but, on the contrary, knowledge and belief are both contained under consciousness. In short, the notion of conscious- ness is so elementary, that it cannot possibly be re- a Philosophy of the Human Mind, Lecture xi.,p. 67 et seq., ed. 1830. ED. 192 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. solved into others more simple. It cannot, therefore, - be brought under any genus, any more general con- ception ; and, consequently, it cannot be defined, conscious- But though consciousness cannot be logically defined, of phiioso- it may, however, be philosophically analysed. This liyfa. * analysis is effected by observing and holding fast the phenomena or facts of consciousness, comparing these, and, from this comparison, evolving the universal con- ditions under which alone an act of consciousness is possible. It is only in following this method that we can attain to precise and accurate knowledge of the con- tents of consciousness ; and it need not afflict us if the result of our investigation be very different from the conclusions that have been previously held, what kind But, before proceeding to show you in detail what of act the , f . , word con- the act of consciousness comprises, it may be proper, l ci e p n ioyed in the first place, to recall to you, in general, what and e wLt'it kind of act the word is employed to denote. I know, I feel, I desire, &c. What is it that is necessarily involved in all these \ It requires only to be stated to be admitted, that when I know, I must know that I know, when I feel, I must know that I feel, when I desire, I must know that I desire. The knowledge, the feeling, the desire, are possible only under the condition of being known, and being known by me. For if I did not know that I knew, I would not know, if I did not know that I felt, I would not feel, if I did not know that I desired, I would not desire. Now, this knowledge, which I, the subject, have of these modifications of my being, and through which knowledge alone these modifications are pos- sible, is what we call consciousness. The expressions / know that I know, / know that I feel, / know LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 193 that I desire, are thus translated by, / am conscious xi. that I know, / am conscious that I feel, / am con scions that I desire. Consciousness is thus, on the one hand, the recognition by the mind or ego of its acts and affections ; in other words, the self-affirmation, that certain modifications are known by me, and that these modifications are mine. But, on the other hand, consciousness is not to be viewed as anything different from these modifications themselves, but is, in fact, the general condition of their existence, or of their exist- ence within the sphere of intelligence. Though the simplest act of mind, consciousness thus expresses a relation subsisting between two terms. These terms are, on the one hand, an I or Self, as the subject of a certain modification, and, on the other, some modifi- cation, state, quality, affection, or operation belonging to the subject. Consciousness thus, in its simplicity, necessarily involves three things, 1, A recognising or knowing subject ; 2, A recognised or known modifica- tion ; and, 3, A recognition or knowledge by the sub- ject of the modification. From this it is apparent, that consciousness and Conscious- knowledge each involve the other." An act of know- knowledge ledge may be expressed by the formula, I know ; an each other. act of consciousness by the formula, / know that I know : but as it is impossible for us to know without at the same time knowing that we know ; so it is impossible to know that we know without our actually knowing. The one merely explicitly expresses what the other implicitly contains. Consciousness and know- ledge are thus not opposed as really different. Why, then, it may be asked, employ two terms to express notions, which, as they severally infer each other, are a See Reid" Works (completed edition), p. 933. ED. VOL. I. N ' 194 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LRCT. really identical ? To this the answer is easy. Eealities may be in themselves inseparable, while, as objects of our knowledge, it may be necessary to consider them apart. Notions, likewise, may severally imply each other, and be inseparable even in thought ; yet, for the purposes of science, it may be requisite to dis- tinguish them by different terms, and to consider them in their relations or correlations to each other. Take illustrated a geometrical example, a triangle. This is a whole tncai g ex e composed of certain parts. Here the whole cannot be conceived as separate from its parts, and the parts cannot be conceived as separate from their whole. Yet it is scientifically necessary to have different names for each, and it is necessary now to consider the whole in relation to the parts, and now the parts in correlation to the whole. Again, the constituent parts of a triangle are sides and angles. Here the sides suppose the angles, the angles suppose the sides, and, in fact, the sides and angles are in themselves, in reality, one and indivisible. But they are not the same to us, to our knowledge. For though we cannot abstract, in thought, the sides from the angle, the angle from the sides, we may make one or other the principal object of attention. We may either con- sider the angles in relation to each other, and to the sides ; or the sides in relation to each other, and to the angles. And to express all this, it is necessary to distinguish, in thought and in expression, what, in nature, is one and indivisible. By the dis- As it is in geometry, so it is in the philosophy of mind. We require different words, not only to ex- press objects and relations different in themselves, but to express the same objects and relations under the different points of view in which they are placed by LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 195 the mind, when scientifically considering them. Thus, LECT. in the present instance, consciousness and knowledge are not distinguished by different words as different things, but only as the same thing considered in different aspects. The verbal distinction is taken for the sake of brevity and precision, and its convenience warrants its establishment. Knowledge is a relation, and every relation supposes two terms. Thus, in the relation in question, there is, on the one hand, a sub- ject of knowledge, that is, the knowing mind, and on the other, there is an object of knowledge, that is, the thing known ; and the knowledge itself is the relation between these two terms. Now, though each term of a relation necessarily supposes the other, nevertheless one of these terms may be to us the more interesting, and we may consider that term as the principal, and view the other only as subordinate and correlative. Now, this is the case in the present instance. In an act of knowledge, my attention may be principally attracted either to the object known, or to myself as the subject knowing; and, in the latter case, although no new element be added to the act, the condition involved in it, / know that I know, becomes the primary and prominent matter of con- sideration. And when, as in the philosophy of mind, the act of knowledge comes to be specially considered in relation to the knowing subject, it is, at last, in the progress of the science, found convenient, if not absolutely necessary, to possess a scientific word in which this point of view should be permanently and distinctively embodied. But, as the want of a tech- nical and appropriate expression could be experienced only after psychological abstraction had acquired a certain stability and importance, it is evident that 196 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. the appropriation of such an expression could not, in '. any language, be of very early date. And this is shown by the history of the synonymous terms for consciousness in the different languages, a history which, though curious, you will find noticed in no History of publication whatever. The employment of the word the term . . conscious- conscientia, oi which our term consciousness is a translation, is, in its psychological signification, not older than the philosophy of Descartes. Previously to him this word was used almost exclusively in the ethical sense expressed by our term conscience, and in the striking and apparently appropriate dictum of its use by St Augustin, " certissima scientia et clamante con- tin. U| scientia/'' 3 which you may find so frequently paraded by the Continental philosophers, when illustrating the certainty of consciousness ; in that quotation, the term is, by its author, applied only in its moral or reli- gious signification. Besides the moral application, the words conscire and conscientia were frequently employed to denote participation in a common know- ledge. Thus the members of a conspiracy were said conscire, and conscius is even used for conspirator ; and, metaphorically, this community of knowledge is attributed to inanimate objects, as, wailing to the rocks, a lover says of himself, "Et conscia saxa fatigo."? I would not, however, be supposed to deny that these words were sometimes used, in ancient Latinity, in the modern sense of consciousness, or being con- scious. An unexceptionable example is afforded by a See the completed edition of 7 Buchanan, Silvae, iii. 17. Com- Reid's Works, Note I, p. 942-945. pare Virgil jEmid, ix. 429 : " Ccelum ED. hoc et conscia sidera tester." ED. ft De Trinitate, xiii. 1. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 197 Quintilian in his Institutiones, lib. xii. cap. xi. ; and LECT. more than one similar instance may be drawn from Tertullian/ and other of the Latin fathers. Until Descartes, therefore, the Latin terms conscire First used i i i ky Des- and conscientia were very rarely usurped in their cartes in i -i i i ' -i present present psychological meaning, a meaning which, it P?y choio- is needless to add, was not expressed by any term in Sg! " the vulgar languages ; for, besides Tertullian, I am aware of only one or two obscure instances in which, as translations of the Greek terms o-vvaia-ddvo^ai and o-vvaiaOrjo-is, of which we are about to speak, the terms conscio and conscientia were, as the nearest equivalents, contorted from their established significa- tion to the sense in which they were afterwards em- ployed by Descartes. Thus, in the philosophy of the West, we may safely affirm that, prior to Descartes, there was no psychological term in recognised use for what, since his time, is expressed in philosophical Latinity by conscientia, in French by conscience, in English by consciousness, in Italian by conscienza, and in German by Bewusstseyn. It will be observed that in Latin, French, and Italian (and I might add the Spanish and other Romanic languages), the terms are analogous ; the moral and psychological meaning being denoted by the same word. In Greek there was no term for consciousness until a "Conscius sum mihi, quantum $ [De Testimonio Animce, c. 5: mediocritate valid, quaeque antea " Sed qui ejusmodi eruptiones animae scierim, quaeque opens hujusce gra- non putavit doctrinam esse naturtu tia potuerim inquire re, candide me et congenitae et ingenitae conscientite atque sitnpliciter in uotitiam eorum, tacita commissa." De Carne Christi, si qui forte cognoscere voluissent, c. 3 : " Sed satis erat illi, inquis, protulisse." This sense, however, conscientia sua." Cf. Augustin, De is not unusuaL Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Trinitate, x. c. 7: "Et quia sibi Qiuent., iL 4: " Mihi sum conscius, bene conscia est principatus sui quo nunquam me nimia cupidum fuis.se corpus regit. "] vita;. "D. 198 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. the decline of philosophy, and in the later ages of the - language. Plato and Aristotle, to say nothing of other conscis- r philosophers, had no special term to express the know- GreVk until ledge which the mind affords of the operations of its of e p hnogo- e faculties, though this, of course, was necessarily a fre- quent matter of their consideration. Intellect was supposed by them to be cognisant of its own opera- tions ; it was only doubted whether by a direct or by a reflex act. In regard to sense, the matter was more perplexed ; and, on this point, both philosophers seem to vacillate in their opinions. In his Thecetetus" Plato accords to sense the power of perceiving that it per- ceives ; whereas, in his Charmides/ this power he denies to sense, and attributes to intelligence, (vou?.) In like manner, an apparently different doctrine may be found in different works of Aristotle. In his Treatise on the Soul he thus cogently argues : " When we perceive that we see, hear, &c., it is necessary that by sight itself we perceive that we see, or by another sense. If by another sense, then this also must be a sense of sight, conversant equally about the object of sight, colour. Consequently there must either be two senses of the same object, or every sense must be percipient of itself. Moreover, if the sense percipient of sight be different from sight itself, it follows either that there is a regress to infinity, or we must admit at last some sense percip- ient of itself ; but if so, it is more reasonable to admit this in the original sense at once." 7 Here a conscious- o " Accedit testimonium Platonis ^ alffddvercu. This passage, however, in Theseteto, ubi ait sensum sentire is not exactly in point. ED. quod sentit et quod non sentit." /9 P. l&letscq. Cf. Conimbriceuses, Conimbriceuses, In Arist. De Anim., I. c. Plato, however, merely denies iii. 2. The passage referred to is pro- that there can be a sense which per- bably Tfiecet., p. 192: 'AMvarov . . . ceives the act of sensation without it alffOdvfTai -ye, erfp6v ri S>v a.itr6 alffOavfrai, &v TI y De Anima, iii. 2. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 199 ness is apparently attributed to each several sense. This, LECT. however, is expressly denied in his work On Sleep - and Waking, " to say nothing of his Problems, which, I am inclined, however, to think, are not genuine. It is there stated that sight does not see that it sees, neither can sight or taste judge that sweet is a quality different from white ; but that this is the function of some common faculty, in which they both converge. The apparent repugnance may, however, easily be re- conciled. But what concerns us at present, in all these discussions by the two philosophers there is no single term employed to denote that special aspect of the phenomenon of knowledge, which is thus by them made matter of consideration. It is only under the Terms tan- i -pji . -, , -, . later rlatomsts and Aristotelians that peculiar terms, tamount to 1 ness adopt- tantamount to our consciousness, were adopted into ed by the the language of philosophy. In the text of Diogenes tonists and v -r ~ /* i Aristoteli- Laertms, indeed, (vu. 85), I find ?0-i? manifestly :ms. employed in the sense of consciousness. This, how- ever, is a corrupt reading ; and the authority of the best manuscripts and of the best critics shows that crwSco-ts is the true lection.' 3 The Greek Platonists and Aristotelians, in general, did not allow that the recognition that we know, that we feel, that we desire, &c., was the act of any special faculty, but the general attribute of intellect; and the power of reflecting, of turning back upon itself, was justly viewed as the distinctive quality of intelligence. It a De Somno, c. 2, 4. The pas- sions, p. 61. ED. sage in the Problems, which may per- ft The correction tffis is made haps have the same meaning, though by Menage on the authority of Suidas, it admits of a different interpreta- v. fyn'fi- Kuster, on the other hand, tion, is sect. xi. 33 : Xajpir) 7T/305 eavrov, and the term owaAar&qtrw was adopted. This I find employed particularly by Proclus, Plotinus, and Simplicius." The term crweiSr/o-is, the one equivalent to the conscientia of the Latins, re- mained like conscientia itself, long exclusively applied to denote conscience or the moral faculty ; and it is only in Greek writers who, as Eugenius of Bulgaria, have flourished since the time of Descartes and Leib- nitz, that crwetS^o-is has, like the conscientia of the Latins, been employed in the psychological meaning of consciousness.' 3 I may notice that the word (wcrig, in the sense of consciousness, is also to be occasionally met with in the later authors on philo- sophy in the Greek tongue. The expression crvvaicr- 6r) that consciousness is an actual and not a ittSnS"" 1 potential knowledge." Thus a man is said to know, knowledge, j^ fe gfole to know, that 7 + 9 are = 16, though that equation be not, at the moment, the object of his thought; but we cannot say that he is conscious of this truth unless while actually present to his mind. 2. inline- The second limitation is, that consciousness is an ledge. immediate, not a mediate knowledge. We are said, for example, to know a past occurrence when we re- present it to the mind in an act of memory. We know the mental representation, and this we do im- mediately and in itself, and are also said to know the past occurrence, as mediately knowing it through the mental modification which represents it. Now, we are conscious of the representation as immediately known, but we cannot be said to be conscious of the thing represented, which, if known, is only known through its representation. If, therefore, mediate knowledge be in propriety a knowledge, consciousness is not coextensive with knowledge. This is, however, a pro- blem we are hereafter specially to consider. I may here also observe, that, while all philosophers agree in making consciousness an immediate knowledge, some, as Eeid and Stewart, do not admit that all immediate knowledge is consciousness. They hold that we have an immediate knowledge of external objects, but they hold that these objects are beyond the sphere of con- sciousness.' 3 This is an opinion we are, likewise, soon to canvass. a Compare Reid's Works, p. 810. )3 See Reid, Intellectual Powers, ED. Essay vi. ch. 5, 1, 5 ; Works, pp. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 203 The third condition of consciousness, which may be LECT. held as universally admitted, is, that it supposes a con- trast, a discrimination ; for we can be conscious only di^mi-' , , . , nation of inasmuch as we are conscious of something ; and we one object . * i . i -, from an- are conscious oi something only inasmuch as we are other, conscious of what that something is, that is, dis- tinguish it from what it is not. This discrimination is of different kinds and degrees. In the first place, there is the contrast between the This discri- ' -i f i i / -i mination of two grand opposites, self and not-self, ego and non- various . , /. i . kiiids and ego, mind and matter ; (the contrast of subject and degrees. object is more general.) We are conscious of self only in and by its contradistinction from not-self ; and are conscious of not-self only in and by its contradistinc- tion from self. In the second place, there is the dis- crimination of the states or modifications of the inter- nal subject or self from each other. We are conscious of one mental state only as we contradistinguish it from another; where two, three, or more such states are confounded, we are conscious of them as one ; and were we to note no difference in our mental modifica- tions, we might be said to be absolutely unconscious." Hobbes has truly said, " Idem semper sentire, et non sentire, ad idem recidunt."^ In the third place, there is the distinction between the parts and qualities of the outer world. We are conscious of an external object only as we are conscious of it as distinct from others ; where several distinguishable objects are con- founded, we are conscious of them as one ; Avhere no object is discriminated, we are not conscious of any. 442, 445. Stewart, Outlines of Moral ft Elemenia Philosophic, part iv. Philosophy, part i. 1, 2; Collected c. 25, 5. Opera, ed. Molesworth, Works, vol. ii. p. 12. ED. vol. i. p. 321. English Works, vol. i. a [Cf. Aristotle, Phy*. Auacult., p. 394. Eu. lib. iv. c. 16, 1, (ed. Pacii).] 204 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Before leaving this condition, I may parenthetically - state, that, while all philosophers admit that conscious- ness involves a discrimination, many do not allow it any cognisance of aught beyond the sphere of self. The great majority of philosophers do this because they absolutely deny the possibility of an immediate know- ledge of external things, and, consequently, hold that consciousness, in distinguishing the non-ego from the ego, only distinguishes self from self ; for they main- tain, that what we are conscious of as something dif- ferent from the perceiving mind, is only, in reality, a modification of that mind, which we are condemned to mistake for the material reality. Some philosophers, however, (as Eeid and Stewart), who hold, with man- kind at large, that we do possess an immediate know- ledge of something different from the knowing self, still limit consciousness to a cognisance of self; and, consequently, not only deprive it of the power of dis- tinguishing external objects from each other, but even of the power of discriminating the ego and non-ego. These opinions we are afterwards to consider. With this qualification, all philosophers may be viewed as admitting that discrimination is an essential condition of consciousness. 4. judg- The fourth condition of consciousness, which may be assumed as very generally acknowledged, is, that it involves judgment. A judgment is the mental act by which one thing is affirmed or denied of an- other. This fourth condition is in truth only a necessary consequence of the third, for it is impos- sible to discriminate without judging, discrimination, or contradistinction, being in fact only the denying one thing of another. It may to some seem strange that consciousness, the simple and primary act of in- nient. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 205 telligence, should be a judgment, which philosophers, LECT. in general, have viewed as a compound and derivative operation. This is, however, altogether a mistake. A judgment is, as I shall hereafter show you, a simple act of mind, for every act of mind implies a judg- ment. Do we perceive or imagine without affirming, in the act, the external or internal existence of the object ? a Now these fundamental affirmations are the affirmations, in other words, the judgments, of con- sciousness. The fifth undeniable condition of consciousness is 5. Memory. memory. This condition also is a corollary of the third. For without memory our mental states could not be held fast, compared, distinguished from each other, and referred to self. Without memory, each indivisible, each infinitesimal, moment in the mental succession, would stand isolated from every other, would constitute, in fact, a separate existence. The notion of the ego or self, arises from the recognised permanence and identity of the thinking subject in contrast to the recognised succession and variety of its modifications. But this recognition is possible only through memory. The notion of self is, therefore, the result of memory. But the notion of self is in- volved in consciousness, so consequently is memory. a See ReUFs Work* (completed with the Editor's Notes. ED. edition), pp. 243, 414, 878, 933-4, 206 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTUEE XII. CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS SPECIAL CONDITIONS I RELATION TO COGNITIVE FACULTIES IN GENERAL. LECT. So far as we have proceeded, our determination of the contents of consciousness may be viewed as that tiuuT ' universally admitted; for though I could quote to you certain counter-doctrines, these are not of such importance as to warrant me in perplexing the dis- cussion by their refutation, which would indeed be nothing more than the exposition of very palpable mistakes. Let us, therefore, sum up the points we have established. We have shown, in general, that consciousness is the self-recognition that we know, or feel, or desire, &c. We have shown, in particular, 1, That consciousness is an actual or living, and not a potential or dormant, knowledge ; 2, That it is an immediate and not a mediate knowledge ; 3, That it supposes a discrimination ; 4, That it involves a judgment ; and, 5, That it is possible only through memory. n. Special We are now about to enter on a more disputed conscious- territory ; and the first thesis I shall attempt to estab- neraity adT lish, involves several subordinate questions. I state, then, as the first contested position which I 1. Our con- sciousness am O maintain, that our consciousness is coextensive coextensive w i* n OUT knowledge. But this assertion, that we have no knowledge of which we are not conscious, is tan- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 20 7 tamount to the other, that consciousness is coexten- LECT. sive with our cognitive faculties, and this again is convertible with the assertion, that consciousness is not a special faculty, but that our special faculties of knowledge are only modifications of consciousness. The question, therefore, may be thus stated, Is con- sciousness the genus under which our several facul- ties of knowledge are contained as species, or, is consciousness itself a special faculty co-ordinate with, and not comprehending, these ? Before proceeding to canvass the reasonings of those Error of Dr who have reduced consciousness from the general condition, to a particular variety, of knowledge, I may notice the error of Dr Brown, in asserting that, " in the systems of philosophy which have been most gen- erally prevalent, especially in this part of the island, consciousness has always been classed as one of the intellectual powers of the mind, differing from its other powers, as these mutually differ from each other." ^ This statement, in so far as it regards the opinion of philosophers in general, is not only not true, but the very reverse of truth. For, in place of con- sciousness being, " in the systems most generally pre- valent," classed as a special faculty, it has, in all the greater schools of philosophy, been viewed as the uni- versal attribute of the intellectual arts. Was con- sciousness degraded to a special faculty in the Platonic, in the Aristotelian, in the Cartesian, in the Lockian, in the Leibnitian, in the Kantian philosophies \ These are the systems which have obtained a more general authority than any others, and yet in none of these is the supremacy of consciousness denied ; in all of them a Compare RevFs Works (completed /3 Philosophy of the Human Mind, edition), p. 929-30. ED. Lecture xi., p. 67, ed. 1830. ED. 208 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. it is either expressly or implicitly recognised. Dr Brown's assertion is so far true in relation to this country, that by Hutcheson," Keid, and Stewart, to say nothing of inferior names, consciousness has been considered as nothing higher than a special faculty. As I regard this opinion to be erroneous, and as the error is one affecting the very cardinal point of phi- losophy, as it stands opposed to the peculiar and most important principles of the philosophy of Eeid and Stewart themselves, and has even contributed to throw around their doctrine of perception an obscur- ity that has caused Dr Brown actually to mistake it for its converse, and as I have never met with any competent refutation of the grounds on which it rests, I shall endeavour to show you that, notwithstanding the high authority of its supporters, this opinion is altogether untenable. Reid and As I previously stated to you, neither Dr Eeid Stewart on -. .- ^ . , conscious- nor Mr fetewart has given us any regular account of consciousness ; their doctrine on this subject is to be found scattered in different parts of their works. The two following brief passages of Eeid contain the principal positions of that doctrine. The first is from the first chapter of the first Essay On the Intellectual Powers :? " Consciousness is a word used by philosophers to signify that im- mediate knowledge which we have of our present thoughts and purposes, and, in general, of all the pre- sent operations of our minds. Whence we may ob- serve that consciousness is only of things present. To apply consciousness to things past, which some- times is done in popular discourse, is to confound o See Reid's Works (completed ft Works, p. 222. edition), p. 930. ED. ness. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 209 consciousness with memory ; and all such confusion LECT. of words ought to be avoided in philosophical dis course. It is likewise to be observed, that conscious- ness is only of things in the mind, and not of external things. It is improper to say, I am conscious of the table which is before me. I perceive it, I see it ; but do not say I am conscious of it. As that consciousness by which we have a knowledge of the operations of our own minds, is a different power from that by which we perceive external objects, and as these different powers have different names in our language, and, I believe, in all languages, a philosopher ought carefully to preserve this distinction, and never to confound things so different in their nature." The second is from the fifth chapter of the sixth Essay On the In- tellectual Powers : a " Consciousness is an operation of the understanding of its own kind, and cannot be logically defined. The objects of it are our present pains, our pleasures, our hopes, our fears, our desires, our doubts, our thoughts of every kind; in a word, all the passions and all the actions and operations of our own minds, while they are present. We may remember them when they are past ; but we are con- scious of them only while they are present." Besides what is thus said in general of consciousness, in his treatment of the different special faculties Keid con- trasts consciousness with each. Thus in his essays on Perception, on Conception or Imagination, and on Memory, he specially contradistinguishes conscious- ness from each of these operations;' 3 and it is also incidentally by Keid, 7 but more articulately by a Work*, p. 442. 331 ; Essay iv., Works, p. 368. ED. /3 See Intellectual Powers, Essay i., y See Works, p. 239. Compare Works, p. 222, and Essay ii., Works, pp. 240, 258, 347, 419-20, 443. p. 297; Essay iiL, Works, pp. 340, ED. VOL. I. 210 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Stewart, discriminated from Attention and Reflec- XII. tion. Conscious- According to the doctiine of these philosophers, con- daf faculty, sciousness is thus a special faculty/ co-ordinate with S and the other intellectual powers, having like them a par- ticular operation and a peculiar object. And what is the peculiar object which is proposed to conscious- ness ? y The peculiar objects of consciousness, says Dr Eeid, are all the present passions and operations of our minds. Consciousness thus has for its objects, among the other modifications of the mind, the acts of our cognitive faculties. Now here a doubt arises. If consciousness has for its object the cognitive opera- tions, it must know these operations, and, as it knows these operations, it must know their objects : conse- quently, consciousness is either not a special faculty, but a faculty comprehending every cognitive act ; or it must be held that there is a double knowledge of every object, first, the knowledge of that object by its particular faculty, and second, a knowledge of it by consciousness as taking cognisance of ever} 7 " mental operation. But the former of these alternatives is a surrender of consciousness as a co-ordinate and special faculty, and the latter is a supposition not only un- philosophical but absurd. Now, you will attend to the mode in which Reid escapes, or endeavours to escape, from this dilemma. This he does by assigning to consciousness, as its object, the various intellectual operations to the exclusion of their several objects. "I am conscious," he says, " of perception, but not of the object I perceive ; I am conscious of memory, but a Coll. Works, vol. ii. p. 134, and Note H, p. 929 et seq., completed pp. 122, 123. ED. edition. ED. j8 On Reid's reduction of conscious- 7 See the same argument in the ness to a special faculty, compare Author's Discussions, p. 47. ED. the Author's edition of his Works, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 211 not of the object I remember." By this limitation, if LECT. tenable, he certainly escapes the dilemma, for he would - i i f -I ' i t t Raid's limi- thus disprove the truth or the principle on which it tation of the i i i /> i sphere of proceeds viz., that to be conscious ot the operation of a faculty is, in fact, to be conscious of the object able. of that operation. The whole question, therefore, turns upon the proof or disproof of this principle, for if it can be shown that the knowledge of an operation ne- cessarily involves the knowledge of its object, it follows that it is impossible to make consciousness conversant about the intellectual operations to the exclusion of their objects. And that this principle must be admit- ted, is what, I hope, it will require but little argument to demonstrate. Some things can be conceived by the mind each NO con- separate and alone ; others only in connection with of a cogni- something else. The former are said to be things without' a absolute ; the latter, to be things relative. Socrates, ness of its and Xanthippe, may be given as examples of the for- Jec mer ; husband and wife, of the latter. Socrates, and Xanthippe, can each be represented to the mind with- out the other ; and if they are associated in thought, it is only by an accidental connection. Husband and wife, on the contrary, cannot be conceived apart. As relative and correlative, the conception of husband involves the conception of wife, and the conception of wife involves the conception of husband. Each is thought only in and through the other, and it is im- possible to think of Socrates as the husband of Xan- thippe, without thinking of Xanthippe as the wife of Socrates. We cannot, therefore, know what a husband is without also knowing what is a wife, as, on the other hand, we cannot know what a wife is without also knowing what is a husband. You will, therefore, un- derstand from this example the meaning of the logical 212 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. axiom, that the knowledge of relatives is one, or that the knowledge of relatives is the same. This being premised, it is evident that if our intel- lectual operations exist only in relation, it must be im- possible that consciousness can take cognisance of one term of this relation without also taking cognisance of the other. Knowledge, in general, is a relation between a subject knowing and an object known, and each operation of our cognitive faculties only exists by rela- tion to a particular object, this object at once calling it into existence, and specifying the quality of its ex- istence. It is, therefore, palpably impossible that we can be conscious of an act without being conscious of the object to which that act is relative. This, how- ever, is what Dr Reid and Mr Stewart maintain. They maintain that I can know that I know, without know- ing what I know, or that I can know the knowledge without knowing what the knowledge is about; for example, that I am conscious of perceiving a book without being conscious of the book perceived, that I am conscious of remembering its contents without being conscious of these contents remembered, and shown in so forth. The unsoundness of this opinion must, how- ever, be articulately shown by taking the different fa- culties in detail, which they have contradistinguished ies< from consciousness, and by showing, in regard to each, that it is altogether impossible to propose the operation of that faculty to the consideration of consciousness, and to withhold from consciousness its object. Tmagina- I shall commence with the faculty of imagination, to which Dr Reid and Mr Stewart have chosen, under various limitations, to give the name of Conception. a Reid, Intellectual Powers, Essay Elements, vol. i. ck. 3 ; Works, vol. iv. ch. 1 ; Works, p. 360. Stewart, ii. p. 145. E. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 213 This faculty is peculiarly suited to evince the error of TJECT. holding that consciousness is cognisant of acts, but not of the objects of these acts. " Conceiving, Imagining, and Apprehending," says Dr Eeid, " are commonly used as synonymous in our language, and signify the same thing which the logi- cians call Simple Apprehension. This is an operation of the mind different from all those we have men- tioned [Perception, Memory, &c.] Whatever we per- ceive, whatever we remember, whatever we are con- scious of, we have a full persuasion or conviction of its existence. What never had an existence cannot be remembered ; what has no existence at present cannot be the object of perception or of consciousness ; but what never had, nor has any existence, may be con- ceived. Every man knows that it is as easy to con- ceive a winged horse or a centaur, as it is to conceive a horse or a man. Let it be observed, therefore, that to conceive, to imagine, to apprehend, when taken in the proper sense, signify an act of the mind which im- plies no belief or judgment at all. It is an act of the mind by which nothing is affirmed or denied, and which therefore can neither be true nor false." And again : " Consciousness is employed solely about ob- jects that do exist, or have existed. But conception is often employed about objects that neither do, nor did, nor will, exist. This is the very nature of this faculty, that its object, though distinctly conceived, may have no existence. Such an object we call a crea- ture of imagination, but this creature never was created. " That we may not impose upon ourselves in this matter, we must distinguish between that act or ope- ration of the mind, which we call conceiving an a Works, p. 223. 214 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. object, and the object which we conceive. When we - conceive anything, there is a real act or operation of the mind ; of this we are conscious, and can have no doubt of its existence. But every such act must have an object ; for he that conceives must conceive some- thing. Suppose he conceives a centaur, he may have a distinct conception of this object, though no centaur ever existed." c And again : " I conceive a centaur. This conception is an operation of the mind of which I am conscious, and to which I can attend. The sole object of it is a centaur, an animal which, I believe, never existed." Now, here it is admitted by Eeid, that imagination has an object, and in the example adduced, that this object has no existence out of the mind. The object of imagination is, therefore, in the mind, is a modi- fication of the mind. Now, can it be maintained that there can be a modification of mind, a modification of which we are aware, but of which we are not con- scious 1 But let us regard the matter in another aspect. We are conscious, says Dr Eeid, of the imagination of a centaur, but not of the centaur imagined. Now, nothing can be more evident than that the object and the act of imagination are identical. Thus, in the example alleged, the centaur imagined and the act of imagining it, are one and indivisible. What is the act of imagining a centaur but the centaur imaged, or the image of the centaur ? what is the image of the centaur but the act of imagining it \ The centaur is both the object and the act of imagination : it is the same thing viewed in different relations. It is called the object of imagination, when considered as repre- senting a possible existence ; for everything that a Works, p. 368. ft Works, p. 373. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 215 can be construed to the mind, everything that does LECT. not violate the laws of thought, in other words, every- thing that does not involve a contradiction, may be conceived by the mind as possible. I say, therefore, that the centaur is called the object of imagination, when considered as representing a possible existence; whereas the centaur is called the act of imagination, when considered as the creation, work, or operation, of the mind itself. The centaur imagined and the ima- gination of the centaur, are thus as much the same indivisible modification of mind as a square is the same figure, whether we consider it as composed of four sides, or as composed of four angles, or as pater- nity is the same relation whether we look from the son to the father, or from the father to the son. We cannot, therefore, be conscious of imagining an object without being conscious of the object imagined, and, as regards imagination, Keid's limitation of conscious- ness is, therefore, futile. I proceed next to Memory : " It is by Memory," Memory, says Dr Eeid, " that we have an immediate knowledge of things past. The senses give us information of things only as they exist in the present moment ; and this information, if it were not preserved by memory, would vanish instantly, and leave us as ignorant as if it had never been. Memory must have an object. Every man who remembers must remember some- thing, and that which he remembers is called the object of his remembrance. In this, memory agrees with perception, but differs from sensation, which has no object but the feeling itself. Every man can dis- tinguish the thing remembered from the remembrance of it. We may remember anything which we have seen, or heard, or known, or done, or suffered ; but the 216 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. remembrance of it is a particular act of the mind which now exists, and of which we are conscious. To confound these two is an absurdity which a thinking man could not be led into, but by some false hypo- thesis which hinders him from reflecting upon the thing which he would explain by it/" " The object of memory, or thing remembered, must be something that is past ; as the object of perception and of con- sciousness, must be something which is present. What now is, cannot be an object of memory ; neither can that which is past and gone be an object of perception, or of consciousness. "^ To these passages, which are taken from the first chapter of the third Essay On the Intellectual Powers, I must add another from the sixth chapter of the same Essay, the chapter in which he criticises Locke's doctrine in regard to our Personal Identity. " Leaving/' he says, " the conse- quences of this doctrine to those who have leisure to trace them, we may observe, with regard to the doc- trine itself, first, that Mr Locke attributes to con- sciousness the conviction we have of our past actions, as if a man may now be conscious of what he did twenty years ago. It is impossible to understand the meaning of this, unless by consciousness be meant memory, the only faculty by which we have an imme- diate knowledge of our past actions. Sometimes, in popular discourse, a man says he is conscious that he did such a thing, meaning that he distinctly remem- bers that he did it. It is unnecessary, in common discourse, to fix accurately the limits between consci- ousness and memory. This was formerly shown to be the case with regard to sense and memory. And, therefore, distinct remembrance is sometimes called a Works, p. 339. $ Works, p. 340. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 217 sense, sometimes consciousness, without any inconve- LECT. . xii. nience. But this ought to be avoided in philosophy, - otherwise we confound the different powers of the mind, and ascribe to one what really belongs to an- other. If a man be conscious of what he did twenty years or twenty minutes ago, there is no use for memory, nor ought we to allow that there is any such faculty. The faculties of consciousness and memory are chiefly distinguished by this, that the first is an immediate knowledge of the present, the second an immediate knowledge of the past." From these quotations it appears that Reid dis- tinguishes memory from consciousness in this, that memory is an immediate knowledge of the past, con- sciousness an immediate knowledge of the present. We may, therefore, be conscious of the act of memory as present, but of the object of memory as past, con- sciousness is impossible. Now, if memory and con- sciousness be, as Reid asserts, the one an immediate knowledge of the past, the other an immediate know- ledge of the present, it is evident that memory is a faculty whose object lies beyond the sphere of con- sciousness; and, consequently, that consciousness can- not be regarded as the general condition of every in- tellectual act. We have only, therefore, to examine whether this attribution of repugnant qualities to consciousness and memory be correct, whether there be not assigned to one or other a function which does not really belong to it. Now, in regard to what Dr Reid says of conscious- ness, I admit that no exception can be taken. Con- sciousness is an immediate knowledge of the present. We have, indeed, already shown that consciousness is a Works, p. 351. 218 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. an immediate knowledge, and, therefore, only of the - actual or now-existent. This being admitted, and pro- fessing, as we do, to prove that consciousness is the one generic faculty of knowledge, we, consequently, must maintain that all knowledge is immediate, and only of the actual or present, in other words, that what is called mediate knowledge, knowledge of the past, knowledge of the absent, knowledge of the non-actual or possible, is either no knowledge at all, or only a knowledge contained in, and evolved out of, an imme- diate knowledge of what is now existent and actually present to the mind. Tins, at first sight, may appear like paradox ; I trust you will soon admit that the counter doctrine is self-repugnant. Memory I proceed, therefore, to show that Dr Reid's asser- med^te" 1 tion of memory being an immediate knowledge of the ofThl pst. past, is not only false, but that it involves a contradic- tion in terms." Conditions Let us first determine what immediate knowledge dia know- is, and then see whether the knowledge we have of the past, through memory, can come under the con- ditions of immediate knowledge. Now nothing can be more evident than the following positions : 1, An object to be known immediately must be known in itself, that is, in those modifications, qualities, or phaenomena, through which it manifests its existence, and not in those of something different from itself ; for, if we suppose it known not in itself, but in some other thing, then this other thing is what is imme- diately known, and the object known through it is only an object mediately known. But, 2, If a thing can be immediately known only if known in itself, it is manifest, that it can only be a Compare Discussions, p. 50. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 219 known in itself, if it be itself actually in existence, LECT. and actually in immediate relation to our faculties of ' knowledge. Such are the necessary conditions of immediate knowledge ; and they disprove at once Dr Reid's assertion, that memory is an immediate knowledge of the past. An immediate knowledge is only con- ceivable of the now existent, as the now existent alone can be known in itself. But the past is only past, inasmuch as it is not now existent ; and as it is not now existent, it cannot be known in itself. The immediate knowledge of the past is, therefore, im- possible. We have, hitherto, been considering the conditions of immediate knowledge in relation to the object ; let us now consider them in relation to the cognitive act. Every act, and consequently every act of knowledge, exists only as it now exists ; and as it exists only in the now, it can be cognisant only of a now-existent object. Memory is an act, an act of knowledge ; it can, therefore, be cognisant only of a now-existent object. But the object known in memory is, ex Application hypothesi, past ; consequently, we are reduced to the ditkms to dilemma, either of refusing a past object to be known ied ge we in memory at all, or of admitting it to be only medi- Memory, ately known, in and through a present object. That the latter alternative is the true one, it will require a very few explanatory words to convince you. What are the contents of an act of memory ? An act of memory is merely a present state of mind, which we are con- scious of not as absolute, but as relative to, and repre- senting, another state of mind, and accompanied with the belief that the state of mind, as now represented, has actually been. I remember an event I saw, the 220 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. landing of George IV. at Leith. This remembrance XII ' is only a consciousness of certain imaginations, in- volving the conviction that these imaginations now represent ideally what I formerly really experienced. All that is immediately known in the act of memory, is the present mental modification ; that is, the repre- sentation and concomitant belief. Beyond this mental modification, we know nothing ; and this mental modification is not only known to consciousness, but only exists in and by consciousness. Of any past object, real or ideal, the mind knows and can know nothing, for, ex hypothesi, no such object now exists; or if it be said to know such an object, it can only be said to know it mediately, as represented in the pre- sent mental modification. Properly speaking, how- ever, we know only the actual and present, and all real knowledge is an immediate knowledge. What is said to be mediately known, is, in truth, not known to be, but only believed to be ; for its existence is only an inference resting on the belief, that the mental modification truly represents what is in itself beyond the sphere of knowledge. What is immedi- ately known must be ; for what is immediately known is supposed to be known as existing. The denial of the existence, and of the existence within the sphere of consciousness, involves, therefore, a denial of the immediate knowledge of an object. We may, accord- ingly, doubt the reality of any object of mediate know- ledge, without denying the reality of the immediate knowledge on which the mediate knowledge rests. In memory, for instance, we cannot deny the existence of the present representation and belief, for their exist- ence is the consciousness of their existence itself. To doubt their existence, therefore, is, for us, to doubt the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 221 existence of our consciousness. But as this doubt it- LECT. XII self exists only through consciousness, it would, conse quently, annihilate itself. But, though in memory we must admit the reality of the representation and belief, as facts of consciousness, we may doubt, we may deny, that the representation and belief are true. We may assert that they represent what never was, and that all beyond their present mental existence is a delusion. This, however, could not be the case if our knowledge of the past were immediate. So far, therefore, is me- mory from being an immediate knowledge of the past, that it is at best only a mediate knowledge of the past ; while, in philosophical propriety, it is not a knowledge of the past at all, but a knowledge of the present and a belief of the past. But in whatever terms we may choose to designate the contents of memory, it is manifest that these contents are all within the sphere of consciousness. a What I have said in regard to object of this conception is four hun- Dr Reid's doctrine of memory as an dred miles distant ; and I have no immediate knowledge of the past, reason to think that it acts upon me, applies equally to his doctrine of or that I act upon it ; but I can conception or imagination, as an im- think of it notwithstanding." This mediate knowledge of the distant, requires no comment. I shall, sub- a case which 1 deferred noticing, sequently, have occasion to show when I considered his contradistinc- how Reid confused himself about tion of that faculty from conscious- the term object, this being part ness. "I can conceive," he says, and parcel of his grand error in con - "an individual object that really founding representative or mediate, exists, such as St Paul's Church in and intuitive or immediate know- London. I have an idea of it ; that ledge, is, I conceive it. The immediate 222 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTURE XIII. CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS SPECIAL CONDITIONS I RELATION TO COGNITIVE FACULTIES IN GENERAL. LECT. WE now proceed to consider the third faculty which XIII . Dr Reid specially contradistinguishes from Conscious- ness, I mean perception, or that faculty through without which we obtain a knowledge of the external world, now e ge. ^ vou w 'jj observe that Reid maintains against Reid con- ' > tradjstin- ^ ne immense majority of all, and the entire multitude guishes con- J sciousness O f mo dem, philosophers, that we have a direct and from per- ception, immediate knowledge of the external world. He thus vindicates to mind not only an immediate knowledge of its own modifications, but also an immediate know- ledge of what is essentially different from mind or self, the modifications of matter. He did not, how- ever, allow that these were known by any common faculty, but held that the qualities of mind were exclusively made known to us by Consciousness, the qualities of matter exclusively made known to us by Perception. Consciousness was, thus, the faculty of immediate knowledge, purely subjective ; perception, the faculty of immediate knowledge, purely objective. The Ego was known by one faculty, the Non-Ego by another. " Consciousness," says Dr Reid, " is only of things in the mind, and not of external things. It is improper to say, I am conscious of the table which is before me. I perceive it, I see it, but do not say I LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 223 am conscious of it. As that consciousness by which LECT. XIII we have a knowledge of the operations of our own - minds, is a different power from that by which we per- ceive external objects, and as these different powers have different names in our language, and, I believe, in all languages, a philosopher ought carefully to pre- serve this distinction, and never to confound things so different in their nature.'" And in another place he observes : " Consciousness always goes along with perception ; but they are different operations of the mind, and they have their different objects. Con- sciousness is not perception, nor is the object of con- sciousness the object of perception. "^ Dr Reid has many merits as a speculator, but the Principal only merit which he arrogates to himself, the prin- corded^o cipal merit accorded to him by others, is, that he was philosopher. the first philosopher, in more recent times, who dared, in his doctrine of immediate perception, to vindicate, against the unanimous authority of philosophers, the universal conviction of mankind. But this doctrine he has at best imperfectly developed, and, at the same time, has unfortunately obscured it, by errors of so singular a character that some acute philoso- phers, for Dr Brown does not stand alone, have never even suspected what his doctrine of perception actually is. One of these errors is the contradistinc- tion of perception from consciousness. I may here notice, by anticipation, that philosophers, Modem P hi- at least modern philosophers, before Reid, allowed to before Reid the mind no immediate knowledge of the external trine of re- reality. They conceded to it only a representative or mediate knowledge of external things. Of these some, oth forms. a Intellectual Powers, Essay i., /3 Ibid., Essay ii., chap. iii. Works, chap. i. Work*, p. 223. p. 297. 224 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. however, held that the representative object, the object immediately known, was different from the mind knowing, as it was also different from the reality it represented ; while others, on a simple hypothesis, maintained that there was no intermediate entity, no tertium quid, between the reality and the mind, but that the immediate or representative object was itself a mental modification." The latter thus granting to mind no immediate knowledge of aught beyond its own modification, could, consequently, only recognise a consciousness of self. The former, on the contrary, could, as they actually did, accord to consciousness Reid ex- a cognisance of not-self. Now, Reid, after asserting empts the . _ _ ._ . . _. 1 object of against the philosophers the immediacy 01 our know- perception - _ - 1 I Til 1 from the ledge of external things, would almost appear to have sphere of i -i i i *" 111 i ic conscious- been startled by his own boldness ; and, instead ot carrying his principle fairly to its issue, by according to consciousness on his doctrine that knowledge of the external world as existing, which, in the doctrine of the philosophers, it obtained of the external world as represented, he inconsistently stopped short, split im- mediate knowledge into two parts, and bestowed the knowledge of material qualities on perception alone, allowing that of mental modifications to remain exclu- sively with consciousness. Be this, however, as it may, the exemption of the objects of perception from the sphere of consciousness, can be easily shown to be self-contradictory. What ! say the partisans of Dr Reid, are we not to distinguish, as the product of different faculties, the knowledge we obtain of objects in themselves the a For a full discussion of the van- tary Dissertations to ReieCs Works, ous theories of knowledge and per- Notes B and C. ED. ception, see the Author's Suppkmen- ness. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 225 most opposite t Mind and matter are mutually sepa- LECT. rated by the whole diameter of being. Mind and matter are, in fact, nothing but words to express two series of phenomena known less in themselves, than in contradistinction from each other. The difference of the phenomena to be known, surely legitimates a difference of faculty to know them. In answer to this, we admit at once, that were the question merely whether we should not distinguish, under conscious- ness, two special faculties, whether we should not study apart, and bestow distinctive appellations on, consciousness considered as more particularly cog- nisant of the external world, and consciousness con- sidered as more particularly cognisant of the inter- nal, this would be highly proper and expedient. But this is not the question. Dr Reid distinguishes consciousness as a special faculty from perception as a special faculty, and he allows to the former the cognisance of the latter in its operation, to the exclu- sion of its object. He maintains that we are conscious of our perception of a rose, but not of the rose per- ceived that we know the ego by one act of know- ledge, the non-ego by another. This doctrine I hold to be erroneous, and it is this doctrine I now proceed to refute. In the first place, it is not only a logical axiom, but That in thi. a self-evident truth, that the knowledge of opposites wronjT is one. Thus, we cannot know what is tall without Frm D the' knowing what is short, we know what is virtue only as we know what is vice, the science of health is of'oppo but another name for the science of disease. Nor do " we know the opposites, the I and Thou, the ego and non-ego, the subject and object, mind and matter, by a different law. The act which affirms that this par- VOL. I. P 22G LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. ticular phenomenon is a modification of Me, virtually affirms that the phenomenon is not a modification of anything different from Me, and, consequently, implies a common cognisance of self and not-self; the act which affirms that this other phenomenon is a modification of something different from Me, virtually affirms that the phenomenon is not a modification of Me, and, consequently, implies a common cognisance of not-self and self. But unless we are prepared to maintain that the faculty cognisant of self and not-self is diffe- rent from the faculty cognisant of not-self and self, we must allow that the ego and non-ego are known and discriminated in the same indivisible act of know- ledge. What, then, is the faculty of which this act of knowledge is the energy "? It cannot be Reid's con- sciousness, for that is cognisant only of the ego or mind, it cannot be Reid's perception, for that is cog- nisant only of the non-ego or matter. But as the act cannot be denied, so the faculty must be admitted. It is not, however, to be found in Reid's catalogue. But though not recognised by Reid in his system, its necessity may, even on his hypothesis, be proved. For if with him we allow only a special faculty imme- diately cognisant of the ego, and a special faculty im- mediately cognisant of the non-ego, we are at once met with the question, By what faculty are the ego and non-ego discriminated 1 We cannot say by conscious- ness, for that knows nothing but mind, we cannot say by perception, for that knows nothing but matter. But as mind and matter are never known apart and by themselves, but always in mutual correlation and contrast, this knowledge of them in connection must be the function of some faculty, not like Reid's consciousness and perception, severally limited to mind LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 227 and matter as exclusive objects, but cognisant of LECT. them as the ego and non-ego, as the two terms of a relation. It is thus shown that an act and a faculty must, perforce, on Eeid's own hypothesis, be admitted, in which these two terms shall be comprehended toge- ther in the unity of knowledge, in short, a higher consciousness, embracing Reid's consciousness and per- ception, and in which the two acts, severally cogni- tive of mind and matter, shall be comprehended, and reduced to unity and correlation. But what is this but to admit at last, in an unphilosophical com- plexity, the common consciousness of subject and object, of mind and matter, which we set out with denying in its philosophical simplicity? But, in the second place, the attempt of Reid to 2, Reid's , . 11* limitation make consciousness conversant about the various cog- of C0 n- ..... , i . / i i scioasness mtive iaculties to the exclusion ot their objects, is is suicidal equally impossible in regard to Perception, as we have trine of an imme- shown it to be in relation to Imagination and Me- diate know- , , . ledge of the mory ; nay, the attempt, in the case ot perception, external would, if allowed, be even suicidal of his great doctrine of our immediate knowledge of the external world. Reid's assertion that we are conscious of the act of it first of perception, but not of the object perceived, involves, a general first of all, a general absurdity. For it virtually asserts that we can know what we are not conscious of know- ing. An act of perception is an act of knowledge ; what we perceive, that we know. Now, if in percep- tion there be an external reality known, but of which external reality we are, on Reid's hypothesis, not con- scious, then is there an object known, of which we are not conscious. But as we know only inasmuch as we know that we know, in other words, inasmuch as we are conscious thatwe know, we cannot know an object 228 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. without being conscious of that object as known ; con- xin. . J , . ' . sequently, we cannot perceive an object without being conscious of that object as perceived. And, se- But, again, how is it possible that we can be con- destroys the scious of an operation of perception, unless conscious- of conscious- ness be coextensive with that act ; and how can it be coextensive with the act, and not also conversant with its object \ An act of knowledge is only possible in relation to an object, and it is an act of one kind or another only by special relation to a particular object. Thus the object at once determines the exist- ence, and specifies the character of the existence, of the intellectual energy. An act of knowledge existing and being what it is only by relation to its object, it is manifest that the act can be known only through the object to which it is correlative ; and Reid's sup- position that an operation can be known in conscious- ness to the exclusion of its object, is impossible. For example, I see the inkstand. How can I be conscious that my present modification exists, that it is a per- ception, and not another mental state, that it is a perception of sight to the exclusion of every other sense, and, finally, that it is a perception of the ink- stand, and of the inkstand only ; unless my conscious- ness comprehend within its sphere the object which at once determines the existence of the act, qualifies its kind, and distinguishes its individuality \ Annihilate the inkstand, you annihilate the perception ; annihi- late the consciousness of the object, you annihilate the consciousness of the operation. whence the It undoubtedly sounds strange to say, I am con- scious of the inkstand, instead of saying, I am con- fession* scious of the perception of the inkstand. This I nesf C 'the S admit, but the admission can avail nothing to Dr ." Reid, for the apparent incongruity of the expres- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 229 sion arises only from the prevalence of that doctrine LECT. of perception in the schools of philosophy, which it - is his principal merit to have so vigorously assailed So long as it was universally assumed by the learned, that the mind is cognisant of nothing beyond, either, on one theory, its own representative modifications, or, on another, the species, ideas, or representative entities, different from itself, which it contains, and that all it knows of a material world is only an internal representation which, by the necessity of its nature, it mistakes for an external reality, the sup- position of an immediate knowledge of material phae- nomena was regarded only as a vulgar, an unphiloso- phical illusion, and the term consciousness, which was exclusively a learned or technical expression for all im- mediate knowledge, was, consequently, never employed to express an immediate knowledge of aught beyond the mind itself; and thus, when at length, by Reid's own refutation of the prevailing doctrine, it becomes necessary to extend the term to the immediate know- ledge of external objects, this extension, so discordant with philosophic usage, is, by the force of association and custom, felt at first as strange and even contradic- tory. A slight consideration, however, is sufficient to reconcile us to the expression, in showing, if we hold the doctrine of immediate perception, the necessity of not limiting consciousness to our subjective states. In fact, if we look beneath the surface, consciousness was not, in general, restricted, even in philosophical usage, to the modifications of the conscious self. That great majority of philosophers who held that, in perception, we know nothing of the external reality as existing, but that we are immediately cognisant only of a repre- sentative something, different both from the object represented, and from the percipient mind, these 230 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. philosophers, one and all, admitted that we are con- - scious of this tertium quid present to, but not a modi- fication of, mind ; for, except Reid and his school, I am aware of no philosophers who denied that con- sciousness was coextensive or identical with imme- diate knowledge. 3, A up- But, in the third place, we have previously reserved on'which a supposition on which we may possibly avoid some seif-contra- of the self-contradictions which emerge from Reid's Reid's doc- proposing as the object of consciousness the act, but ileTv^ded. excluding from its cognisance the object, of percep- tion, that is, the object of its own object. The sup- position is, that Dr Reid committed the same error in regard to perception, which he did in regard to me- mory and imagination, and that in maintaining our immediate knowledge in perception, he meant nothing more than to maintain, that the mind is not, in that act, cognisant of any representative object different from its own modification, of any tertium quid minis- tering between itself and the external reality ; but that, in perception, the mind is determined itself to represent the unknown external reality, and that, on this self -representation, he abusively bestowed the name of immediate knowledge, in contrast to that more complex theory of perception, which holds that there intervenes between the percipient mind and the ex- ternal existence an intermediate something, different from both, by which the former knows, and by which the latter is represented. On the supposition of this mistake, we may believe him guiltless of the others ; and we can certainly, on this ground, more easily con- ceive how he could accord to consciousness a know- ledge only of the percipient act, meaning by that act the representation of the external reality; and how he LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 231 could deny to consciousness a knowledge of the object of perception, meaning by that object the unknown - reality itself. This is the only opinion which Dr Brown and others ever suspect him of maintaining ; and a strong case might certainly be made out to prove that this view of his doctrine is correct. But if such were, in truth, Reid's opinion, then has he accomplished nothing, his whole philosophy is one mighty blunder. For, as I shall hereafter show, ideal- ism finds in this simpler hypothesis of representation even a more secure foundation than on the other ; and, in point of fact, on this hypothesis, the most philoso- phical scheme of idealism that exists, the Egoistic or Fichtean, is established. Taking, however, the general analogy of Reid's This suppo- system, and a great number of unambiguous passages tenable. into account, I am satisfied that this view of his doc- trine is erroneous ; and I shall endeavour, when we come to treat of mediate and immediate knowledge, to explain how, from his never having formed to himself an adequate conception of these under all their pos- sible forms, and from his historical ignorance of them as actually held by philosophers, he often appears to speak in contradiction of the vital doctrine which, in equity, he must be held to have steadily maintained. Besides the operations we have already considered, Reid and Imagination or Conception, Memory, and Perception, maintain, which Dr Reid and Mr Stewart have endeavoured ticTn and n " to discriminate from Consciousness, there are further ar e ac C tsm>t to be considered Attention and Reflection, which, in ^ or con- e like manner, they have maintained to be an act or acts, not subordinate to, or contained in, Conscious- ness. But, before proceeding to show that their doc- trine on this point is almost equally untenable as on 232 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. the preceding, it is necessary to clear up some con- fusion, and to notice certain collateral errors. Certain coi- In the first place, on this head, these philosophers row noticed, are not at one ; for Mr Stewart seems inadvertently mi^pre- to have misrepresented the opinion of Dr Reid in re- doctrine of* gard to the meaning and difference of Attention and and I differ- ng Reflection. Reid either employs these terms as syno- tentlon and nymous expressions, or he distinguishes them only by making attention relative to the consciousness and perception of the present ; reflection, to the memory of the past. In the fifth chapter of the second Essay on the Intellectual Powers" he says : " In order, however, to our having a distinct notion of any of the operations of our own minds, it is not enough that we be conscious of them ; for all men have this con- sciousness. It is farther necessary that we attend to them while they are exerted, and reflect upon them with care while they are recent and fresh in our memory. It is necessary that, by employing ourselves frequently in this way, we get the habit of this atten- tion and reflection," &c. And in the first chapter of the sixth Essay, " Mr Locke/' he says, " has restricted the word reflection to that which is employed about the operations of our minds, without any authority, as I think, from custom, the arbiter of language. For, surely, I may reflect upon what I have seen or heard, as well as upon what I have thought. The word, in its proper and common meaning, is equally applicable to objects of sense and to objects of consciousness. He has likewise confounded reflection with conscious- ness, and seems not to have been aware that they are different powers, and appear at very different periods of life."' 3 In the first of these quotations, Reid might o Works, p. 258. Ibid., p. 420. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 233 use attention in relation to the consciousness of the LECT. n r i i XIIL present, reflection, to the memory oi the past; but in the second, in saying that reflection " is equally applicable to objects of sense and to objects of consci- ousness," he distinctly indicates that the two terms are used by him as convertible. Reid (I may notice Reid wrong , \ i n i in his cen- by the way) is wholly wrong in his strictures on sure of T i / ! i ,> ^ n Locke's Locke lor his restricted usage oi the term reflection ; usage of for it was not until after his time that the term came, Reflection. by Wolf, to be philosophically employed in a more extended signification than that in which Locke cor- rectly applies it." Reid is likewise wrong, if we And in say- literally understand his words, in saying that reflec- Reflection tion is employed in common language in relation to inrTiati^n objects of sense. It is never employed except upon sense!" the mind and its contents. We cannot be said to reflect upon any external object, except in so far as that object has been previously perceived, and its image become part and parcel of our intellectual furniture. We may be said to reflect upon it in memory, but not in perception. But to return. Reid, therefore, you will observe, identifies attention and reflection. Now, Mr Stewart, in the chapter on Attention in the first volume of his Elements? says : " Some important observations on the subject of attention occur in different parts of Dr Reid's writ- ings ; particularly in his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, p. 62, and his Essays on the Active Powers of Man, p. 78 et seq. To this ingeuious au- thor we are indebted for the remark, that attention to a [Wolf, Psychologia Empirica, successive ad ea quae in re percepta 257: " Attentionis successiva direc- insunt, proarbitriodirigendi."] Reid tio ad ea qua; in re percepta insunt, is further criticised in the Author's dicitur Rfflexio. Unde simul liquet edition of his Works, pp. 347, 420. quid sit facultas reflectendi, scilicet ED. quod sit facultas attentioncm suam /3 Wvrka, vol. ii. pp. 122, 123. 234 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. things external is properly called observation ; and at- tention to the subjects of our consciousness, reflection."" Locke not I may, however, notice a more important inadvert- use the* term ence of Mr Stewart, and this it is the more requisite in its pay- to do, as his authority is worthy of high respect, not i. only on account of philosophical talent, but of histo- rical accuracy. In various passages of his writings, Mr Stewart states that Locke seems to have con- sidered the employment of the term reflection, in its psychological acceptation, as original to himself; and he notices it as a curious circumstance th.tt j5ir John Davies, Attorney-General to Queen Elizabeth, should, in his poem on the Immortality of the Soul, have employed this term in the same signification. How Mr Stewart could have fallen into this error, is wholly inconceivable. The word, as employed by Locke, was in common use in every school of philosophy for fifteen hundred years previous to the publication of the Essay on the Human Understanding. P It was a term in the philosophy both of Descartes 7 and of Gassendi ; 5 and it was borrowed by them from the schoolmen, with whom it was a household word. e From the schoolmen, indeed, Locke seems to have adopted a This distinction has been at- de T Esprit de PHomme, preface, p. tempted by others. [See Keckennann, xL] Opera, torn. i. p. 1612, where he dis- 5 [Gassendi, Physica, Sect. III. tinguishes reflection, " intellectio re- Memb. Post., lib. ix. c. 3. (Opera, flexa, interna, per quam homo intel- Leyden, 1658, vol. ii. p. 451.) "Ad ligit suum intellectum, " from " in- secundam vero operationem prseser- tellectio externa, qua intellectus alias tim spectat ipsa intellectus ad suam res extra se positas percipit. " See operationem attentio, reflexiove il- also Mazure, Cours de Philosophic, la supra actionem propriam, qua se tom. i. p. 381. ED.] intelligere intelligit, cogitatve se co- j3 For historical notices of the use gitare."] of the term, see Reid's Works, (com- [We have the Scholastic brocard pleted edition), pp. 946, 947. ED. pointing to the difficulties of the 7 [Descartes, Epist., P. ii., Ep. vi. study of self : " Reflexiva cogitatio (See Gruyer, Essais Philosophupies, facile fit deflexiva." See Kecker- tom. iv. p. 118.) De la Forge, Traite mann, Opera, tom. i. p. 406.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 235 the fundamental principle of his philosophy, the de- LECT. rivation of our knowledge through the double medium - of sense and reflection, at least, some of them had in terms articulately enounced this principle five centuries previous to the English philosopher, and enounced it also in a manner far more correct than was done by him ; a for they did not, like Locke, re- gard reflection itself as a source of knowledge, thus reducing all our knowledge to experience and its gen- eralisation, but viewed in reflection only the channel through which, along with the contingent phsenomena of our internal experience, we discover the necessary judgments which are original or native to the mind. There is, likewise, another oversight of Mr Stewart which I may notice. " Although/' he says, " the con- nection between attention and memory has been fre- quently remarked in general terms, I do not recol- lect that the power of attention has been mentioned by any of the writers on pneumatology, in their enu- meration of the faculties of the mind ; nor has it been considered by any one, so far as I know, as of sufficient importance to deserve a particular examination. "0 So far is this from being the case that there are many previous authors who have considered attention as a separate faculty, and treated of it even at greater o [See Scotus, Super Universalibus lativus, Heflexus. See Constantius, Porphyrii, Qu. ill : " Ad tertium (a Sarnano), Tract, de Secundis In- dico quod ilia propositio Aristotelis, tentionibus, ad calcem Scoti Operum, nihilest in intellectuquin prius fuerit p. 452.) See also Philip Mocenicus, in sensu, vera eat de eo quod est Contemplationes (1581), pas.rim; Go- primum intelligibile, quod est scili- clenius, Lexikon Philosophicum, v. cet quod quid est rei materialis, non Reflexus; Keckermann, Opera, torn, autem de omnibus per se intelligibi- i. pp. 1600, 1612 ; Conimbricenses, libus; quia multa per se intelligun- In Arist. De Anima, pp. 370, 373.] tur,nonquiaspeciemfaciunt in sensu, [Compare JKeid'ti Work*, (completed Red per reflexionem intellectus. " (By edition), pp. 777, 778, 946. Ei>.] the Scotists the act of intellect was Element*, i. c. 2. Collected Worts, regarded as threefold : Rectus,Col- vol. ii. p. 12 Ei>. 236 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. length than Mr Stewart himself. This is true not XIII - only of the celebrated Wolf," but of the whole Wolfian school ; and to these I may add Condillac/ Contzen, 7 Tiedemann, 8 Irwing, e Malebranche/ and many others. 77 But this by the way. is Attention Taking, however, Attention and Reflection for acts fe^Tt fLm of the same faculty, and supposing, with Mr Stewart, nes? that reflection is properly attention directed to the phenomena of mind, observation, attention directed to the phsenomena of matter ; the main question comes to be considered, Is attention a faculty dif- ferent from consciousness, as Reid and Stewart main- tain ? As the latter of these philosophers has not argued the point himself, but merely refers to the arguments of the former in confirmation of their common doctrine, it will be sufficient to adduce the Reid quoted following passage from Reid, in which his doctrine on to thisqiL- this head is contained. " I return," he says, " to what I mentioned as the main source of information on this subject attentive reflection upon the operations of our own minds. " All the notions we have of mind and its opera- tions, are, by Mr Locke, called ideas of reflection. A man may have as distinct notions of remembrance, of judgment, of will, of desire, as he has of any object whatever. Such notions, as Mr Locke justly observes, are got by the power of reflection. But what is this o Psychologies Empirica, 234 et e Erfahrungen und Untersuchungen seq. ED. iiber den Menschen, von Karl Franz /3 Origine des Connoissances Hu- von Irwing, Berlin, 1777, b. i. p. 411; maines, part i. ii. ch. 2. ED. b. ii. p. 209. ED. y Prelectiones Logicce et Metaphy- De la Recherche de la Verite, sicce, auctore Adamo Contzen, (Mech- lib. iii. ch. 4 ; lib. vL ch. 2. Trait 6 lin, 1830), vol. iii. p. 31. (Originally de Morale, ch. 5 ED. published in 1775-1780.) ED. 77 Compare Reid's Works, (com- 8 Handbuch der Psychologic, p. 121. pleted edition), p. 945-46. ED. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 237 power of reflection 1 ' It is/ says the same author, LECT. ' that power by which the mind turns its view inward, - and observes its own actions and operations/ He observes elsewhere, * That the understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself; and that it requires art and pains to set it at a distance, and make it its own object/ " This power of the understanding to make its own operations its object, to attend to them, and examine them on all sides, is the power of reflection, by which alone we can have any distinct notion of the powers of our own or of other minds. "This reflection ought to be distinguished from consciousness, with which it is too often confounded, even by Mr Locke. All men are conscious of the operations of their own minds, at all times while they are awake ; but there are few who reflect upon them, or make them objects of thought."' Dr Reid has rightly said that attention is a volun- what At- tary act. This remark might have led him to the observation, that attention is not a separate faculty, or a faculty of intelligence at all, but merely an act of will or desire, subordinate to a certain law of intelli- gence. This law is, that the greater the number of objects to which our consciousness is simultaneously extended, the smaller is the intensity with which it is able to consider each, and consequently the less vivid and distinct will be the information it obtains of the several objects.' 3 This law is expressed in the old adage, " Pluribus intentus, minor est ad singula sensus." a Intellectual Powers, Essay i., ii. 673; Fries, Anthropoloyie, i. 83; chap. v. Works, p. 239. and Schulze, Uber die Menschliche [Cf. Steeb, Uber den Afenschen, Erkenntniss, p. 65.] 238 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. Such being the law, it follows that, when our interest XIII. - in any particular object is excited, and when we wish to obtain all the knowledge concerning it in our power, it behoves us to limit our consideration to that object, to the exclusion of others. This is done by an act of volition or desire, which is called atten- tion. But to view attention as a special act of intel- ligence, and to distinguish it from consciousness, is utterly inept. Consciousness may be compared to a telescope, attention to the pulling out or in of the tubes in accommodating the focus to the object ; and we might, with equal justice, distinguish, in the eye, the adjustment of the pupil from the general organ of vision, as, in the mind, distinguish attention from consciousness as separate faculties. Not, however, that they are to be accounted the same. Attention is con- sciousness and something more. It is consciousness voluntarily applied, under its law of limitations, to some determinate object ; it is consciousness, concen- trated. In this respect, attention is an interesting subject of consideration ; and having now finished what I proposed in proof of the position, that con- sciousness is not a special faculty of knowledge, but coextensive with all our cognitions, I shall proceed to consider it in its various aspects and relations ; and Attention having just stated the law of limitation, I shall go on to what I have to say in regard to attention as a gene- siousness n " fal phsenomenon of consciousness. Can we at- And here, I have first to consider a question in which I am again sorry to find myself opposed to niany distinguished philosophers, and, in particular, to one whose opinion on this, as on every other point of psychological observation, is justly entitled to the highest consideration. The philosopher I allude to is Mr Stewart. The question is, Can we attend to more LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 239 than a single object at once ? For if attention be LECT. & J . xiu. nothing but the concentration of consciousness on a smaller number of objects than constitute its widest compass of simultaneous knowledge, it is evident that unless this widest compass of consciousness be limited to only two objects, we do attend when we converge consciousness on any smaller number than that total complement of objects which it can embrace at once. For example, if we suppose that the number of objects which consciousness can simultaneously apprehend be six, the limitation of consciousness to five, or four, or three, or two, or one, will all be acts of attention, dif- ferent in degree, but absolutely identical in kind. Mr Stewart's doctrine is as follows : " Before," he Stewart says, " we leave the subject of Attention, it is proper to reference to take notice of a question which has been stated with tionT* respect to it ; whether we have the power of attending to more than one thing at one and the same instant ; or, in other words, whether we can attend, at one and the same instant, to objects which we can attend to separately ? This question has, if I am not mistaken, been already decided by several philosophers in the negative ; and I acknowledge, for my own part, that although their opinion has not only been called in question by others, but even treated with some degree of contempt as altogether hypothetical, it appears to me to be the most reasonable and philosophical that we can form on the subject. " There is, indeed, a great variety of cases in which the mind apparently exerts different acts of attention at once ; but from the instances which have already been mentioned, of the astonishing rapidity of thought, it is obvious that all this may be explained without supposing those acts to be coexistent ; and I may even venture to add, it may all be explained in the 240 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. most satisfactory manner, without ascribing to our - intellectual operations a greater degree of rapidity than that with which we know, from the fact, that they are sometimes carried on. The effect of practice in increasing this capacity of apparently attending to different things at once, renders this explanation of the phenomenon in question more probable than any other. " The case of the equilibrist and rope-dancer already mentioned, is particularly favourable to this explana- tion, as it affords direct evidence of the possibility of the mind's exerting different successive acts in an in- terval of time so short, as to produce the same sensible effect as if they had been exerted at one and the same moment. In this case, indeed, the rapidity of thought is so remarkable, that if the different acts of the mind were not all necessarily accompanied with different movements of the eye, there can be no reason for doubting that the philosophers whose doctrine I am now controverting, would have asserted that they are all mathematically coexistent. " Upon a question, however, of this sort, which does not admit of a perfectly direct appeal to the fact, I would by no means be understood to decide with con- fidence ; and, therefore, I should wish the conclusions I am now to state, to be received as only conditionally established. They are necessary and obvious conse- quences of the general principle, ' that the mind can only attend to one thing at once ;' but must stand or fall with the truth of that supposition. " It is commonly understood, I believe, that in a con- cert of music, a good ear can attend to the different parts of the music separately, or can attend to them all at once, and feel the full effect of the harmony. If the doctrine, however, which I have endeavoured to LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 241 establish be admitted, it will follow that in the latter LECT. XIII case the mind is constantly varying its attention from the one part of the music to the other, and that its operations are so rapid as to give us no perception of an interval of time. " The same doctrine leads to some curious conclu- sions with respect to vision. Suppose the eye to be fixed in a particular position, and the picture of an object to be painted on the retina. Does the mind perceive the complete figure of the object at once, or is this perception the result of the various perceptions we have of the different points in the outline ? With respect to this question, the principles already stated lead me to conclude, that the mind does at one and the same time perceive every point in the outline of the object, (provided the whole of it be painted on the retina at the same instant,) for perception, like consciousness, is an involuntary operation. As no two points, however, of the outline are in the same direction, every point by itself constitutes just as dis- tinct an object of attention to the mind, as if it were separated by an interval of empty space from all the rest. If the doctrine, therefore, formerly stated be just, it is impossible for the mind to attend to more than one of these points at once ; and as the percep* tion of the figure of the object implies a knowledge of the relative situation of the different points with respect to each other, we must conclude that the per- ception of figure by the eye is the result of a number of different acts of attention. These acts of attention, however, are performed with such rapidity, that the effect with respect to us, is the same as if the per- ception were instantaneous. " In farther confirmation of this reasoning, it may VOL. i. Q 242 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. b e remarked, that if the perception of visible figure were an immediate consequence of the picture on the retina, we should have, at the first glance, as dis- tinct an idea of a figure of a thousand sides, as of a triangle or a square. The truth is, that when the figure is very simple, the process of the mind is so rapid that the perception seems to be instantaneous ; but when the sides are multiplied beyond a certain number, the interval of time necessary for these dif- ferent acts of attention becomes perceptible. " It may, perhaps, be asked what I mean by a point in the outline of a figure, and what it is that consti- tutes this point one object of attention. The answer, I apprehend, is, that this point is the minimum visibile. If the point be less, we cannot perceive it ; if it be greater, it is not all seen in one direction. " If these observations be admitted, it will follow that, without the faculty of memory, we could have had no perception of visible figure." Brown coin- On this point, Dr Brown not only coincides with cides with * . Stewart, Mr Stewart in regard to the special fact of attention, but asserts in general that the mind cannot exist at the same moment in two different states, that is, in two states in either of which it can exist separately. " If the mind of man," he says, " and all the changes which take place in it, from the first feeling with which life commenced to the last with which it closes, could be made visible to any other thinking being, a certain series of feelings alone, that is to say, a cer- tain number of successive states of mind, would be distinguishable in it, forming indeed a variety of sen- sations, and thoughts, and passions, as momentary states of the mind, but all of them existing individu- a Elements, vol. L chap. 2. Works, vol. ii. p. 140-143. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 243 ally and successively to each other. To suppose the LECT. mind to exist in two different states, in the same - moment, is a manifest absurdity/'* I shall consider these statements in detail. Mr criticism of Stewart's first illustration of his doctrine is drawn from a concert of music, in which, he says, " a good jus' ear can attend to the different parts of the music separately, or can attend to them all at once, and feel the full effect of the harmony." This example, how- ever, appears to me to amount to a reduction of his opinion to the impossible. What are the facts in this example ? In a musical concert, we have a multitude of different instruments and voices, emitting at once an infinity of different sounds. These all reach the ear at the same indivisible moment in which they perish, and, consequently, if heard at all, much more if their mutual relation or harmony be perceived, they must be all heard simultaneously. This is evident. For if the mind can attend to each minimum of sound only successively, it, consequently, requires a minimum of time in which it is exclusively occupied with each minimum of sound. Now, in this minimum of time, there coexist with it, and with it perish, many minima of sound which, ex hypothesi, are not perceived, are not heard, as not attended to. In a concert, therefore, on this doctrine, a small number of sounds only could be perceived, arid above this petty maximum, all sounds would be to the ear as zero. But what is the fact ? No concert, however numerous its instruments, has yet been found to have reached, far less to have sur- passed, the capacity of mind and its organ. But it is even more impossible, on this hypothesis, a Lfcturti on the Philosophy of the 1830). ED. Human Mind, Lect. xi. p. 67, (ed. 244 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. to understand how we can perceive the relation XIII of different sounds, that is, have any feeling of the narmon y of a concert. In this respect, it is, indeed, doctrine, to f e i fa $e. It is maintained that as we cannot attend understand / how we can ^ once to wo SO unds, we cannot perceive them as perceive the dmrent^ coexistent ; consequently, the feeling of harmony of sounds. which we are conscious, must proceed from the feel- ing of the relation of these sounds as successively perceived in different points of time. We must, there- fore, compare the past sound, as retained in memory, with the present, as actually perceived. But this is impossible on the hypothesis itself. For we must, in this case, attend to the past sound in memory, and to the present sound in sense at once, or they will not be perceived in mutual relation as harmonic. But one sound in memory and another sound in sense, are as much two different objects as two different sounds in sense. Therefore, one of two conclusions is inevit- able : either we can attend to two different objects at once, and the hypothesis is disproved ; or we cannot, and all knowledge of relation and harmony is impos- sible, which is absurd. His second The consequences of this doctrine are equally start- illustration from the ling, as taken irom Mr btewart s second illustration, phenomena ., . 1 . . TT 111 i -\ of vision, irom the phenomena 01 vision. He holds tnat the perception of figure by the eye is the result of a number of separate acts of attention, and that each act of attention has for its object a point the least that can be seen, the minimum visibile. On this hy- pothesis, we must suppose that, at every instantaneous opening of the eyelids, the moment sufficient for us to take in the figure of the objects comprehended in the sphere of vision, is subdivided into almost in- finitesimal parts, in each of which a separate act of LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 245 attention is performed. This is, of itself, sufficiently LECT. inconceivable. But this being admitted, no difficulty - is removed The separate acts must be laid up in memory, in imagination. But how are they there to form a single whole, unless we can, in imagination, attend to all the minima visibilia together, which in perception we could only attend to severally *? On this subject I shall, however, have a more appropriate occasion of speaking, when I consider Mr Stewart's doctrine of the relation of colour to extension. o See infra, vol. ii. p. 144 et seq. 246 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTURE XIV. CONSCIOUSNESS, ATTENTION IN GENEEAL. LECT. IN the former part of our last Lecture, I concluded the - argument against Reid's analysis of Consciousness into *" a special faculty, and showed you that, even in rela- tion to Perception, (the faculty by which we obtain a knowledge of the material universe), Consciousness is still the common ground in which every cognitive operation has its root. I then proceeded to prove the same in regard to Attention. After some observa- tions touching the confusion among philosophers, more or less extensive, in the meaning of the term reflec- tion, as a subordinate modification of attention, I en- deavoured to explain to you what attention properly is, and in what relation it stands to consciousness. I stated that attention is consciousness applied by an act of will or desire under a particular law. In so far as attention is an act of the conative faculty, it is not an act of knowledge at all, for the mere will or desire of knowing is not an act of cognition. But the act of the conative faculty is exerted by relation to a certain law of consciousness, or knowledge, or intelligence. This law, which we call the Law of Limitation, is, that the intension of our knowledge is in the inverse ratio of its extension, in other words, that the fewer objects we consider at once, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 247 the clearer and more distinct will be our knowledge LECT. XIV. of them. Hence the more vividly we will or desire - that a certain object should be clearly and distinctly known, the more do we concentrate consciousness through some special faculty upon it. I omitted, I find, to state that I think Reid and Stewart incorrect in asserting that attention is only a voluntary act, meaning by the expression voluntary, an act of free- will. I am far from maintaining, as Brown and others do, that all will is desire ; but still I am persuaded Attention i e -\ i i c- possible that we are frequently determined to an act 01 atten- without an i i i i i* f act ^ fr' ee ~ tion, as to many other acts, independently 01 our tree win. and deliberate volition. Nor is it, I conceive, possible to hold that, though immediately determined to an act of attention by desire, it is only by the permission of our will that this is done ; consequently, that every act of attention is still under the control of our voli- tion. This I cannot maintain. Let us take an ex- ample : When occupied with other matters, a person may speak to us, or the clock may strike, without our having any consciousness of the sound ; a but it is wholly impossible for us to remain in this state of un- consciousness intentionally and with will. We cannot determinately refuse to hear by voluntarily withhold- ing our attention ; and we can no more open our eyes, and, by an act of will, avert our mind from all per- ception of sight, than we can, by an act of will, cease to live. We may close our ears or shut our eyes, as we may commit suicide ; but we cannot, with our organs unobstructed, wholly refuse our attention at will. It, therefore, appears to me the more correct doctrine to hold that there is no consciousness without attention, without concentration, but that attention is of three a See Reid, Active Powers, Essay ii. ch. 3. Works, p. 537. ED. 248 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. degrees or kinds. The first, a mere vital and irre- xiv. . . sistible act ; the second, an act determined by desire, w hi cn > though involuntary, may be resisted by our kinds r w ^ > *he third, an act determined by a deliberate vo- lition. An act of attention, that is, an act of con- centration, seems thus necessary to every exertion of consciousness, as a certain contraction of the pupil is requisite to every exercise of vision. We have formerly noticed, that discrimination is a condition of con- sciousness ; and a discrimination is only possible by a concentrative act, or act of attention. This, how- ever, which corresponds to the lowest degree, to the mere vital or automatic act of attention, has been refused the name ; and attention, in contradistinction to this mere automatic contraction, given to the two other degrees, of which, however, Eeid only recognises the third. Nature and Attention, then, is to consciousness, what the con- oTatTeuTion. traction of the pupil is to sight ; or to the eye of the mind, what the microscope or telescope is to the bodily eye. The faculty of attention is not, therefore, a special faculty, but merely consciousness acting under the law of limitation to which it is subjected. But whatever be its relations to the special faculties, attention doubles all their efficiency, and affords them a power of which they would otherwise be destitute. It is, in fact, as we are at present constituted, the primary condition of their activity. Can we at- Having thus concluded the discussion of the ques- tendtomore . v ,-i i f ,-\ than a single tion regarding the relation 01 consciousness to the other cognitive faculties, I proceeded to consider various questions which, as not peculiar to any of the special faculties, fall to be discussed under the head of consciousness, and I commenced with the curious once ; LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 249 problem, Whether we can attend to more than a single LECT. object at once. Mr Stewart maintains, though not - without hesitation, the negative. I endeavoured to show you that his arguments are not conclusive, and that they even involve suppositions which are so monstrous as to reduce the thesis he supports ad im- possibile. I have now only to say a word in answer Brown's to Dr Brown's assertion of the same proposition, that the' though in different terms. In the passage I adduced not exist in our last Lecture, he commences by the assertion, moment in 11-1 i . two diffe- tnat the mind cannot exist, at the same moment, in rent states. two different states,- that is, in two states in either of which it can exist separately, and concludes with the averment that the contrary supposition is a manifest absurdity. I find the same doctrine maintained by This doc- Locke in that valuable, but neglected, treatise entitled An Examination of P$re Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing all Things in God. In the thirty -ninth section he says : " Different sentiments are different modifications of the mind. The mind or soul that perceives, is one immaterial, indivisible substance. Now, I see the white and black on this paper, I hear one singing in the next room, I feel the warmth of the fire I sit by, and I taste an apple I am eating, and all this at the same time. Now, I ask, take modifica- tion for what you please, can the same un extended, indivisible substance, have different, nay, inconsistent and opposite, (as these of white and black must be), modifications at the same time ? Or must we suppose distinct parts in an indivisible substance, one for black, another for white, and another for red ideas, and so of the rest of those infinite sensations which we have in sorts and degrees ; all which we can dis- tinctly perceive, and so are distinct ideas, some where- 250 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. of are opposite as heat and cold, which yet a man - may feel at the same time V Leibnitz has not only given a refutation of Locke's Essay, but likewise of his Examination of Malebranche. In reference to opposed by the passage I have just quoted, Leibnitz says : " Mr Locke asks, ' Can the same unextended, indivisible substance, have different, nay, inconsistent and oppo- site modifications, at the same time ?' I reply, it can. What is inconsistent in the same object, is not incon- sistent in the representation of different objects which we conceive at the same moment. For this there is no necessity that there should be different parts in the- soul, as it is not necessary that there should be different parts in the point on which, however, different angles Aristotle rest."" The same thing had, however, been even better forgoing 10 said by Aristotle, whose doctrine I prefer translating doctrine. ,1 r> m to you, as more perspicuous, in the following passage His view, from Joannes Grammaticus, (better known by the surname Philoponus), a Greek philosopher, who flourished towards the middle of the sixth century. It is taken from the Prologue to his valuable com- mentary on the De Anima of Aristotle ; and, what is curious, the very supposition which on Locke's doctrine would infer the corporeal nature of mind, is alleged by the Aristotelians and Condillac, in proof of its im- materiality. " Nothing bodily, says Aristotle, can, at the same time, in the same part, receive contraries. The finger cannot at once be wholly participant of white and of black, nor can it, at once and in the same place, be both hot and cold. But the sense at the same moment apprehends contraries. Wherefore, it knows that this is first, and that second, and that it discriminates the black from the white. In what a Remarques sur le Sentiment du phica, edit. Erdmann, p. 451. ED. Pere Malebranche; Opera Philoso- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 251 manner, therefore, does sight simultaneously perceive LECT. contraries ? Does it do so by the same ? or does it by one part apprehend black, by another, white ? If it does so by the same, it must apprehend these with- out parts, and it is incorporeal. But if by one part it apprehends this quality, and by another that, this, he says, is the same as if I perceived this, and you that. But it is necessary that that which judges should be one and the same, and that it should even apprehend by the same the objects which are judged. Body cannot, at the same moment and by the same part, apply itself to contraries or things absolutely different. But sense at once applies itself to black and to white ; it, therefore, applies itself indivisibly. It is thus shown to be incorporeal. For if by one part it appre- hended white, by another part apprehended black, it could not discern the one colour from the other ; for no one can distinguish that which is perceived by himself as different from that which is perceived by another." 6 So far Philoponus. Dr Brown calls the sensation of sweet one mental Criticism of i c t t t 11 c Brown's state, the sensation 01 cold another ; and as the one ot doctrine. these states may exist without the other, they are con- sequently different states. But will it be maintained a The text of Aristotle here par- o>j Aryfi, ovru /col votl /col aicrBdi'trai. tially paraphrased, (Prooem. f. 3& "On u.tv ovv oi>x ol6v rt *cfx a> /" cr M**' ' s ed. 1535), and more fully in Com- Kpivfiv rk Kx e P ia > t '*' a Sr/Aov art 8' mentary on texts 144, 149, is as fol- ovS* tv Kt^upurufvy xpAvy, fvrftBfv. lows : *H /col O~YI\OV 8Vi i) ffo.pf OVK "floTrtp yo.p rb avrb \tyti on 'irtpov, to~n rb t6v a\7j0es, avvQtais TIS act of judgment; but the remark ap- r objects can taneous consideration of a single object, a question the mind TT , . . n embrace at arises, How many objects can it embrace at once fence? a [Bonstetten, Etudes de fHomme, Aid. ) Nemesius, De Natura Homi- tom. ii. p. 377, note.] nis, c. vii. p. 184, ed. Matthtei.] /3 [See Aquinas, Summa, para L,qu. 7 For these authorities, see Conim- 85, art. 4. Cf. Alex. Aphrodisienais, bricenses, In De Anima, lib. iii c. De Anima, lib. i. c. 22, f. 134 a (ed. viii. qu. 6, p. 499 et seq.E>D. 254 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. You will recollect that I formerly stated that the xiv. . J - greater the number of objects among which the atten- tion of the mind is distributed, the feebler and less distinct will be its cognisance of each. " Pluribus intentus, minor est ad singnla sensus." Consciousness will thus be at its maximum of intensity when attention is concentrated on a single object ; and the question comes to be, how many several ob- jects can the mind simultaneously survey, not with vivacity, but without absolute confusion 1 I find this problem stated and differently answered, by different philosophers, and apparently without a knowledge of each other. By Charles Bonnet a the mind is allowed to have a distinct notion of six objects at once ; by Abraham Tucker' 3 the number is limited to four; while Destutt-Tracy 7 again amplifies it to six. The opinion of the first and last of these philosophers appears to me correct. You can easily make the experiment for yourselves, but you must be aware of grouping the ob- jects into classes. If you throw a handful of marbles on the floor, you will find it difficult to view at once more than six, or seven at most, without confusion ; but if you group them into twos, or threes, or fives, you can comprehend as many groups as you can units; because the mind considers these groups only as units, it views them as wholes, and throws their parts out of consideration. You may perform the experiment also by an act of imagination. a [Essai de Psychologic, c. xxxviii. who allows us to embrace, at one p. 132. Compare his Essai A nalytiqiie view, five unities. D'Alembert, Me- sur rAme, torn. i. c. xiii. p. 163 etseq.] langes, vol. iv. pp. 40, 151. Ancillon, j8 [Light of Nature, c. xiv. 5.] Nouveaux Melanges, torn. ii. p. 135. 7 [fcttologie, torn. i. p. 453. Com- Malebranche, Recherche, liv. iii. c. 2, pare Degerando, Des Signes, i. 167, torn. i. p. 191.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 255 Before leaving this subject, I shall make some ob- servations on the value of attention, considered in its - highest degree as an act of will, and on the import- ance of forming betimes the habit of deliberate con- centration. The greater capacity of continuous thinking that a . vaiueof 11 -I attention man possesses, the longer and more steadily can he considered ? * . in its highest follow out the same tram of thought, the stronger is degree as an . . . act of will. his power 01 attention ; and in proportion to his power of attention will be the success with which his labour is rewarded. All commencement is difficult ; and this is more especially true of intellectual effort. When we turn for the first time our view on any given object, a hundred other things still retain possession of our thoughts. Even when we are able, by an arduous exertion, to break loose from the matters which have previously engrossed us, or which every moment force themselves on our consideration, even when a reso- lute determination, or the attraction of the new object, has smoothed the way on which we are to travel ; still the mind is continually perplexed by the glimmer of intrusive and distracting thoughts, which prevent it from placing that which should exclusively occupy its view, in the full clearness of an undivided light. How great soever may be the interest which we take in the new object, it will, however, only be fully estab- lished as a favourite when it has been fused into an integral part of the system of our previous know- ledge, and of our established associations of thoughts, feelings, and desires. But this can only be accom- plished by time and custom. Our imagination and our memory, to which we must resort for materials with which to illustrate and enliven our new study, accord us their aid unwillingly, indeed, only by 256 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. compulsion. But if we are vigorous enough to pursue our course in spite of obstacles, every step, as we ad- vance, will be found easier ; the mind becomes more animated and energetic ; the distractions gradually di- minish; the attention is more exclusively concentrated upon its object ; the kindred ideas flow with greater freedom and abundance, and afford an easier selection of what is suitable for illustration. At length, our system of thought harmonises with our pursuit. The whole man becomes, as it may be, philosopher, or his- torian, or poet ; he lives only in the trains of thought relating to this character. He now energises freely, and, consequently, with pleasure ; for pleasure is the reflex of unforced and unimpeded energy. All that is produced in this state of mind, bears the stamp of ex- cellence and perfection. Helvetius justly observes, that the very feeblest intellect is capable of compre- hending the inference of one mathematical position from another, and even of making such an inference itself. Now, the most difficult and complicate de- monstrations in the works of a Newton or a Laplace, are all made up of such immediate inferences. They are like houses composed of single bricks. No greater exertion of intellect is required to make a thousand such inferences than is requisite to make one ; as the effort of laying a single brick is the maximum of any individual effort in the construction of such a house. Thus, the difference between an ordinary mind and the mind of a Newton, consists principally in this, that the one is capable of the application of a more contin- uous attention than the other, that a Newton is able without fatigue to connect inference with inference in one long series towards a determinate end ; while the man of inferior capacity is soon obliged to break or let o De F Esprit, Discours iii. c. iv. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 257 fall the thread which he had begun to spin. This is, LECT. in fact, what Sir Isaac, with equal modesty and shrewd- ness, himself admitted. To one who complimented him on his genius, he replied that if he had made any discoveries, it was owing more to patient attention than to any other talent." There is but little analogy between mathematics and play-acting; but I heard the great Mrs Siddons, in nearly the same language, attribute the whole superiority of her unrivalled talent to the more intense study which she bestowed upon her parts. If what Alcibiades, in the Symposium? of Plato, narrates of Socrates were true, the father of Socrates. Greek philosophy must have possessed this faculty of meditation or continuous attention in the highest degree. The story, indeed, has some appearance of exaggeration ; but it shows what Alcibiades, or rather Plato through him, deemed the requisite of a great thinker. According to this report, in a military expe- dition which Socrates made along with Alcibiades, the philosopher was seen by the Athenian army to stand for a whole day and a night, until the breaking of the second morning, motionless, with a fixed gaze, thus showing that he was uninterruptedly engrossed with the consideration of a single subject: "And thus," says Alcibiades, " Socrates is ever wont to do when his mind is occupied with inquiries in which there are difficulties to be overcome. He then never interrupts his meditation, and forgets to eat, and drink, and sleep, everything, in short, until his inquiry has reached its termination, or, at least, until he has seen some light in it." In this history there may be, as I have said, exaggeration; but still the truth of the principle is undeniable. Like Newton, Descartes arro- Descartes. a See RevT Worts, p. 537. ft P. 220. ED. VOL. I. R 258 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. gated nothing to the force of his intellect. What he XIV - had accomplished more than other men, that he attri- con. buted to the superiority of his method;" and Bacon, in like manner, eulogises his method, in that it places all men with equal attention upon a level, and leaves little or nothing to the prerogatives of genius./ 3 Nay, genius itself has been analysed by the shrewdest ob- servers into a higher capacity of attention. " Genius," eivetius. says Helvetius, 7 whom we have already quoted, " is nothing but a continued attention," (une attention suivie.) " Genius," says Buffon, 5 " is only a protracted patience," (une longue patience.) " In the exact sci- ences, at least," says Cuvier, 6 " it is the patience of a sound intellect, when invincible, which truly consti- chester- tutes genius." And Chesterfield has also observed, that " the power of applying an attention, steady and undissipated, to a single object, is the sure mark of a superior genius." f These examples and authorities concur in establish- ing the important truth, that he who would, with suc- cess, attempt discovery, either by inquiry into the works of nature, or by meditation on the phaenomena of mind, must acquire the faculty of abstracting him- self, for a season, from the invasion of surrounding objects, must be able even, in a certain degree, to emancipate himself from the dominion of the body, and live, as it were, a pure intelligence, within the J.nst;uiccs 01 ( ^ the power circle of his thoughts. This faculty has been mani- ot'Abstrac- i i -n i tion. fested, more or less, by all whose names are associated aDiscoursdelaMethode^Tp.l. ED. e [Eloge Historique de M. Haiiy, /3 Nov. Org., lib. i. aph. 61. ED. quoted by Toussaint, De la Pensee, y De P Esprit, Discours iii. chap. p. 219.] iv. ED. f Letters to his Son. Letter Ixxxix. 8 [Quoted by Ponelle, Manuel, p. [Compare Bonnet, Essai Analytique, 371.] . torn, i., prSface, p. 8.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 259 with the progress of the intellectual sciences. In some, LECT. indeed, the power of abstraction almost degenerated into a habit akin to disease, and the examples which now occur to me, would almost induce me to retract what I have said about the exaggeration of Plato's history of Socrates. Archimedes," it is well known, was so absorbed in a Archimedes. geometrical meditation, that he was first aware of the storming of Syracuse by his own death-wound, and his exclamation on the entrance of Roman soldiers was, Noli turbare circulos meos. In like manner, Joseph Scaliger/ the most learned of men, when a Jo 8e ph Protestant student in Paris, was so engrossed in the study of Homer, that he became aware of the mas- sacre of St Bartholomew, and of his own escape, only on the day subsequent to the catastrophe. The philoso- pher Carneades 7 was habitually liable to fits of medi- Cameades. tation so profound, that, to prevent him sinking from inanition, his maid found it necessary to feed him like a child. And it is reported of Newton, that, while Newton, engaged in his mathematical researches, he sometimes forgot to dine. Cardan, 5 one of the most illustrious cardan. of philosophers and mathematicians, was once, upon a journey, so lost in thought, that he forgot both his way and the object of his journey. To the questions of his driver whither he should proceed, he made no answer ; and when he came to himself at nightfall, he was sur- prised to find the carriage at a stand-still, and directly under a gallows. The mathematician Vieta e was some- vieta. a See Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. 8 [Steeb, Uber den Menschen, ii. c. 7. ED. 671.] See D. HeinsiuH, In Josephi See Thuanus, Histories sui tern- Scaliyeri Obitum Funebris Oratio, porls, lib. cxxix., torn. v. p. 1045, ed. (1609), p. 15. ED. 1630. ED. y Valerius Maximus, loc. cit. ED. 260 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. times so buried in meditation, that for hours he bore XIV -1- more resemblance to a dead person than to a living, and was then wholly unconscious of everything going on around him. On the day of his marriage, the great Budseus. Budseus forgot everything in his philological specula- tions, and he was only awakened to the affairs of the external world by a tardy embassy from the marriage- party, who found him absorbed in the composition of his Commentarii. Male- It is beautifully observed by Malebranche, " that quoted on the discovery of truth can only be made by the labour Import- of attention ; because it is only the labour of atten- tention. tion which has light for its reward;'" 1 and, in an- other place :P " The attention of the intellect is a na- tural prayer by which we obtain the enlightenment of reason. But since the Fall, the intellect frequently expe- riences appalling droughts; it cannot pray; the labour of attention fatigues and afflicts it. In fact, this labour is at first great, and the recompense scanty ; while, at the same time, we are unceasingly solicited, pressed, agitated by the imagination and the passions, whose inspiration and impulses it is always agreeable to obey. Nevertheless, it is a matter of necessity; we must invoke reason to be enlightened; there is no other way of obtaining light and intelligence but by the labour of attention. Faith is a gift of God which we earn not by our merits ; but intelligence is a gift usually only conceded to desert. Faith is a pure grace in every sense ; but the understanding of a truth is a grace of such a character that it must be merited by labour, or by the co-operation of grace. Those, then, who are capable of this labour, and who a TraM de Morale, partie i. chap. /3 Ibid., partie i. chap. v. 4. vi. 1. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 261 are always attentive to the truth which ought to LECT. XIV. guide them, have a disposition which would undoubt edly deserve a name more magnificent than those bestowed on the most splendid virtues. But although this habit or this virtue be inseparable from the love of order, it is so little known among us that I do not know if we have done it the honour of a par- ticular name. May I, therefore, be pardoned in calling it by the equivocal name of force of intellect. To acquire this true force by which the intellect sup- ports the labour of attention, it is necessary to begin betimes to labour ; for, in the course of nature, we can only acquire habits by acts, and can only strengthen them by exercise. But perhaps the only difficulty is to begin. We recollect that we began, and that we were obliged to leave off. Hence we get discouraged; we think ourselves unfit for meditation; we renounce reason. If this be the case, whatever we may allege to justify our sloth and negligence, we renounce virtue, at least in part. For without the labour of attention, we shall never comprehend the grandeur of religion, the sanctity of morals, the little- ness of all that is not God, the absurdity of the pas- sions, and of all our internal miseries. Without this labour, the soul will live in blindness and in disorder; because there is naturally no other way to obtain the light that should conduct us : we shall be eternally under disquietude and in strange embarrassment ; for we fear everything when we walk in darkness and surrounded by precipices. It is true that faith guides and supports ; but it does so only as it produces some light by the attention which it excites in us ; for light alone is what can assure minds, like ours, which have so many enemies to fear." 262 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. I have translated a longer extract than I intended XIV _ _ when I began ; but the truth and importance of the observations are so great, and they are so admirably expressed in Malebranche's own inimitable style, that it was not easy to leave off. They are only a frag- ment of a very valuable chapter on the subject, to study of which I would earnestly refer you, indeed, I may togs *" ta ^ e tms opportunity of saying, that there is no phi- blalTche losophical author who can be more profitably studied mendLd. tnan Malebranche. As a thinker, he is perhaps the most profound that France has ever produced; and as a writer on philosophical subjects, there is not an- other European author who can be placed before him. His style is a model at once of dignity and of natural ease ; and no metaphysician has been able to express himself so clearly and precisely without resorting to technical and scholastic terms. That he was the author of a celebrated, but exploded hypothesis, is, perhaps, the reason why he is far less studied than he otherwise deserves. His works are of principal value for the admirable observations on human nature which they embody ; and were everything to be expunged from them connected with the Vision of all Things in the Deity, and even with the Cartesian hypotheses in gene- ral, they would still remain an inestimable treasury of the acutest analyses, expressed in the most appropri- ate, and, therefore, the most admirable, eloquence. In the last respect, he is only approached, certainly not surpassed, by Hume and Mendelssohn. I have dwelt at greater length upon the practical bearings of Attention, not only because this principle constitutes the better half of all intellectual power, but because it is of consequence that you should be fully aware of the incalculable importance of acquir- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 263 ing, by early and continued exercise, the habit of LECT. attention. There are, however, many points of great - moment on which I have not touched, and the depen- dence of Memory upon Attention might alone form an interesting matter of discussion. You will find some excellent observations on this subject in the first and third volumes of Mr Stewart's Elements* a See Coll. Works, ii. p. 122 et seq., and p. 352. ED. 264 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTUEE XV. CONSCIOUSNESS, -ITS EVIDENCE AND AUTHORITY. LECT. HAVING now concluded the discussion in regard to XV - what Consciousness is, and shown you that it con- nws the"" stitutes the fundamental form of every act of know- ledge ; I now proceed to consider it as the source from whence we must derive every fact in the Philo- sophy of Mind. And, in prosecution of this purpose, I shall, in the first place, endeavour to show you that it really is the principal, if not the only source, from which all knowledge of the mental pheenomena must be obtained; in the second place, I shall consider the character of its evidence, and what, under differ- ent relations, are the different degrees of its autho- rity ; and, in the last place, I shall state what, and of what nature, are the more general phaenomena which a Under the first head here speci- fied, the Author occasionally deliv- ered from the Chair three lectures, which contained "a summary view of the nervous system in the higher animals, more especially in man ; and a statement of some of the re- suits obtained [by him] from an ex- tensive and accurate induction on the size of the Encephalus and its principal parts both in man and the lower animals, serving to prove that no assistance is afforded to Mental Philosophy by the examination of the Nervous System, and that the doctrine, or doctrines, which found upon the supposed parallelism of brain and mind, are, as far as ob- servation extends, wholly ground- less. " These lectures, as foreign in their details from the general subject of the Course, are omitted in the present publication. A general sum- mary of the principal conclusions to which the researches of the Author on this subject conducted him, will be found in Appendix II. ED. LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. 265 it reveals. Having terminated these, I shall then LECT. descend to the consideration of the special faculties of knowledge, that is, to the particular modifications of which consciousness is susceptible. We proceed to consider, in the first place, ' , . . , . . lity of Phi- authority, the certainty, 01 this instrument. Now, losophyim- i T .-, i and if consciousness be also the sole criterion by which unerring, we can interpret the meaning of what this revelation contains, this revelation must be very obscure, this criterion must be very uncertain, seeing that the various systems of philosophy all equally appeal to this revelation, and to this criterion, in support of the most contradictory opinions. As to the fact of the variety and contradiction of philosophical sys- tems, this cannot be denied, and it is also true that all these systems either openly profess allegiance to consciousness, or silently confess its authority. But admitting all this, I am still bold enough to main- tain, that consciousness affords not merely the only revelation, and only criterion of philosophy, but that this revelation is naturally clear, this criterion, in itself, unerring. The history of philosophy, like the history of theology, is only, it is too true, the history LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 267 of variations, and we must admit of the book of con- LECT. XV. sciousness what a great Calvinist divine" bitterly - confessed of the book of Scripture, " Hie liber est in quo quaerit sua dogmata quisque ; Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua." In regard, however, to either revelation, it can be Cause of variation in shown that the source of this diversity is not in the philosophy. book, but in the reader. If men will go to the Bible, not to ask of it what they shall believe, but to find in it what they believe already, the standard of unity and truth becomes in human hands only a Lesbian rule.' 3 And if philosophers, in place of evolving their doc- trines out of consciousness, resort to consciousness only when they are able to quote its authority in confirmation of their preconceived opinions, philoso- phical systems, like the sandals of Theramenes, 7 may fit any feet, but can never pretend to represent the immutability of nature. And that philosophers have been, for the most part, guilty of this, it is not ex- tremely difficult to show. They have seldom or never taken the facts of consciousness, the whole facts of con- sciousness, and nothing but the facts of consciousness. They have either overlooked, or rejected, or interpolated. Before we are entitled to accuse consciousness of Wenre being a false, or vacillating, or ill-informed witness, j^^ we are bound, first of all, to see whether there be any rules by which, in employing the testimony of con- sciousness, we must be governed ; and whether philo- ! sophers have evolved their systems out of conscious- sciousness, a S. Werenfels, Dissertattones, Am- KOLVUV. ED. W e must be stel, 1716, voL ii. p. 391. ED. y eTjpa^tVrjy 5i& rb n^i itAvniov &AAck governed. /3 Aristotle, Eth, Nic. t v. 10: Tot! KO.\ 4ira.iJ. -i . t . doubt is the tact of its evidence as given, but we may hesitate possible in to admit that beyond itself of which it assures us. I a tact of shall explain by taking an example. In the act of ness, n- ,, J . . lustratedin Jiixternal .Perception, consciousness gives as a conjunct the case of fact, the existence of Me or Self as perceiving, and the existence of something different from Me or Self as perceived. Now the reality of this, as a subjective datum, as an ideal phaenomenon, it is absolutely impossible to doubt without doubting the existence of consciousness, for consciousness is itself this fact; and to doubt the existence of consciousness is absolutely impossible; for as such a doubt could not exist, except in and through consciousness, it would, consequently, a See Reid's Works, Note A, p. 743 et seq. ED. 272 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. annihilate itself. We should doubt that we doubted. xv. As contained, as given, in an act 01 consciousness, the contrast of mind knowing and matter known can- not be denied. But the whole phenomenon as given in conscious- ness may be admitted, and yet its inference disputed. It may be said, consciousness gives the mental subject as perceiving an external object, contradistinguished from it as perceived : all this we do not, and cannot, deny. But consciousness is only a phsenomenon; the contrast between the subject and object may be only apparent, not real; the object given as an ex- ternal reality, may only be a mental representation, which the mind is, by an unknown law, determined unconsciously to produce, and to mistake for some- thing different from itself. All this may be said and believed, without self-contradiction, nay, all this has, by the immense majority of modern philosophers, been actually said and believed. in the case In like manner, in an act of Memory consciousness Q0ry< connects a present existence with a past. I cannot deny the actual phaenomenon, because my denial would be suicidal, but I can, without self-contradiction, assert that consciousness may be a false witness in regard to any former existence; and I may maintain, if I please, that the memory of the past, in consciousness, is no- thing but a phaenomenon, which has no reality beyond the present. There are many other facts of conscious- ness which we cannot but admit as ideal phaenomena, but may discredit as guaranteeing aught beyond their phsenomenal existence itself. The legality of this doubt I do not at present consider, but only its possibility; all that I have now in view being to show that we must not confound, as has been done, the double im- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 273 port of the facts, and the two degrees of evidence for LECT. their reality. This mistake has, among others, been - made by Mr Stewart." " The belief," he says, " which Stewart . i . , confounds accompanies consciousness, as to the present existence these two of its appropriate phsenomena, has been commonly con- evidence! sidered as much less obnoxious to cavil, than any of the other principles which philosophers are accustomed to assume as self-evident, in the formation of their metaphysical systems. No doubts on this head have yet been suggested by any philosopher how sceptical soever, even by those who have called in question the existence both of mind and of matter. And yet the fact is, that it rests on no foundation more solid than our belief of the existence of external objects ; or our belief, that other men possess intellectual powers and faculties similar to those of which we are conscious in ourselves. In all these cases, the only account that can be given of our belief is, that it forms a necessary part of our constitution ; against which metaphysicians may easily argue so as to perplex the judgment, but of which it is impossible- ^ us to divest ourselves for a moment, when we are called on to employ our rea- son, either in the business of life, or in the pursuits of science. While we are under the influence of our appetites, passions, or affections, or even of a strong speculative curiosity, all those difficulties which be- wildered us in the solitude of the closet, vanish before the essential principles of the human frame." With all the respect to which the opinion of so dis- criticism of tinguished a philosopher as Mr Stewart is justly en- new. titled, I must be permitted to say, that I cannot but regard his assertion, that the present existence of the phsenomena of consciousness, and the reality of a Phil. Essays Works, voL v. p. 57. VOL. I. S 274 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. that to which these phenomena bear witness, rest on XV - a foundation equally solid, as wholly untenable. The second fact, the fact testified to, may be worthy of all credit, as I agree with Mr Stewart in thinking that it is ; but still it does not rest on a foundation equally solid as the fact of the testimony itself. Mr Stewart confesses that of the former no doubt had ever been suggested by the boldest sceptic ; and the latter, in so far as it assures us of our having an immediate knowledge of the external world, which is the case alleged by Mr Stewart, has been doubted, nay denied, not merely by sceptics, but by modern philosophers almost to a man. This historical circumstance, there- fore, of itself, would create a strong presumption, that the two facts must stand on very different foundations ; and this presumption is confirmed when we investi- gate what these foundations themselves are. The one fact, the fact of the testimony, is an act of consciousness itself ; it cannot, therefore, be invali- dated without self-contradiction. For, as we have fre- quently observed, to doubt of the reality of that of which we are conscious is impossible ; for as we can only doubt through consciousness, to doubt of con- sciousness is to doubt of consciousness by conscious- ness. If, on the one hand, we affirm the reality of the doubt, we thereby explicitly affirm the reality of con- sciousness, and contradict our doubt ; if, on the other hand, we deny the reality of consciousness, we impli- citly deny the reality of our denial itself. Thus, in the act of perception, consciousness gives us a conjunct fact, an ego or mind, and a non-ego or matter, known together, and contradistinguished from each other. Now, as a present phenomenon, this double fact can- not possibly be denied. I cannot, therefore, refuse the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 275 fact, that, in perception, I am conscious of a phsenome- LECT. non, which I am compelled to regard as the attribute - of something different from my mind or self. This I must perforce admit, or run into self-contradiction. But admitting this, may I not still, without self-con- tradiction, maintain that what I am compelled to view as the phaenomenon of something different from me is nevertheless (unknown to me) only a modification of my mind ? In this I admit the fact of the testimony of consciousness as given, but deny the truth of its report. Whether this denial of the truth of conscious- ness as a witness, is or is not legitimate, we are not, at this moment, to consider : all I have in view at present is, as I said, to show that we must distinguish in consciousness two kinds of facts, the fact of con- sciousness testifying, and the fact of which conscious- ness testifies ; and that we must not, as Mr Stewart has done, hold that we can as little doubt of the fact of the existence of an external world, as of the fact that consciousness gives, in mutual contrast, the phae- nomenon of self, in contrast to the phaenomenon of not-self." Under this first law, let it, therefore, be laid down, Results of in the first place, that by a fact of consciousness, pro- Parcimony. perly so called, is meant a primary and universal fact of our intellectual being; and, in the second, that such facts are of two kinds, 1, The facts given in the act of consciousness itself; and, 2, The facts which consciousness does not at once give, but to the a The only philosopher whom I an external world is not self-contra- have met with, touching on the ques- dictory ; by no means, he is only tion, is Father Buffier, and he seems mad." TraiU den Premieres Vtritte to strike the nail upon the head. He c. xi. 89. [See Reid's Works, p. says, as I recollect, " He who gain- 787. ED.] says the evidence of consciousness of 276 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. reality of which it only bears evidence. And as sim- plification is always a matter of importance, we may throw out of account altogether the former class of these facts ; for of such no doubt can be, or has been, entertained. It is only the authority of these facts as evidence of something beyond themselves, that is, only the second class of facts, which becomes matter of discussion ; it is not the reality of consciousness that we have to prove, but its veracity." ii. The Law The second rule is, That the whole facts of con- of Integrity. . i i i i sciousness be taken without reserve or hesitation, whether given as constituent, or as regulative, data. This rule is too manifest to require much elucida- tion. As philosophy is only a development of the phaenomena and laws of consciousness, it is evident that philosophy can only be complete, as it compre- hends, in one harmonious system, all the constituent, and all the regulative, facts of consciousness. If any phenomenon or constituent fact of consciousness be omitted, the system is not complete ; if any law or regulative fact is excluded, the system is not legitimate, in. The The violation of this second rule is, in general, Harmony, connected with a violation of the third, and we shall accordingly illustrate them together. The third is, That nothing but the facts of consciousness be taken, or if inferences of reasoning be admitted, that these at least be recognised as legitimate only as de- duced from, and only in subordination to, the imme- diate data of consciousness, and that every position be rejected as illegitimate which is contradictory of these. These nius- The truth and necessity of this rule are not less conjunction, evident than the truth and necessity of the preceding. Philosophy is only a systematic evolution of the con- a See Reid's Works, p. 743 et seq.~ ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 277 tents of consciousness, by the instrumentality of con- LECT. sciousncss ; it, therefore, necessarily supposes, in both - respects, the veracity of consciousness. But, though this be too evident to admit of doubt, HOW scep- ,., ,, ,, ticism arises and though, no philosopher has ever openly thrown out of P ar- ~ , ,1 A VM. f tiald g- on allegiance to the authority 01 consciousness, we matic 8y s- find, nevertheless, that its testimony has been silently overlooked, and systems established upon principles in direct hostility to the primary data of intelligence. It is only such a violation of the integrity of con- sciousness, by the dogmatist, that affords, to the sceptic, the foundation on which he can establish his proof of the nullity of philosophy. The sceptic cannot assail the truth of the facts of consciousness in them- selves. In attempting this he would run at once into self-contradiction. In the first place, he would enact the part of a dogmatist, that is, he would positively, dogmatically, establish his doubt. In the second, waiving this, how. can he accomplish what he thus proposes ? For why \ He must attack conscious- ness either from a higher ground, or from conscious- ness itself. Higher ground than consciousness there is none ; he must, therefore, invalidate the facts of consciousness from the ground of consciousness itself. On this ground, he cannot, as we have seen, deny the facts of consciousness as given ; he can only attempt to invalidate their testimony. But this again can be done only by showing that consciousness tells dif- ferent tales, that its evidence is contradictory, that its data are repugnant. But this no sceptic has ever yet been able to do. Neither does the sceptic or negative philosopher himself assume his principles ; he only accepts those on which the dogmatist or positive philosopher attempts to establish his doc- 278 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LRCT. trine : and this doctrine he reduces to zero, by show- xv. . ... . - ing that its principles are, either mutually repug- nant, or repugnant to facts of consciousness on which, though it may not expressly found, still, as facts of consciousness, it cannot refuse to recognise without denying the possibility of philosophy in general. violations I shall illustrate the violation of this rule by ex- concUnd amples taken from the writings of the late ingenious in tL writ- Dr Thomas Brown. I must, however, premise that Thomas r this philosopher, so far from being singular in his easy way of appealing to, or overlooking, the facts of consciousness, as he finds them convenient or incon- venient for his purpose, supplies only a specimen of Brown's the too ordinary style of philosophising;. Now, you doctrine of J j( r . . ' , External must know, that i)r Jorown maintains the common Perception ... .. - - involves an doctrine ol the philosophers, that we have no imme- inconsist- _. .. ._ ., '-. - _. ency. diate knowledge oi anything beyond tne r states or modifications of our own minds, that we are only conscious of the ego, the non-ego, as known, being only a modification of self, which mankind at large are illusively determined to view as external and different from self. This doctrine is contradictory of the fact to which consciousness testifies, that the object of which we are conscious in perception, is the external reality as existing, and not merely its repre- sentation in the percipient mind. That this is the fact testified to by consciousness, and believed by the common-sense of mankind, is admitted even by those philosophers who reject the truth of the testimony and the belief. It is of no consequence to us at pre- sent what are the grounds on which the principle is founded, that the mind can have no knowledge of aught besides itself; it is sufficient to observe that, this prin- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 279 ciple being contradictory of the testimony of conscious- LECT. ness, Dr Brown, by adopting it, virtually accuses con- sciousness of falsehood. But if consciousness be false in its testimony to one fact, we can have no confidence in its testimony to any other ; and Brown, having himself belied the veracity of consciousness, cannot, therefore, again appeal to this veracity as to a credible authority. But he is not thus consistent. Although he does not allow that we have any knowledge of the existence of an outer world, the existence of that world he still maintains. And on what grounds ? He admits the reasoning of the idealist, that is, of the philosopher who denies the reality of the material universe, he admits this to be invincible. How, then, is his conclusion avoided 1 Simply by appealing to the universal belief of mankind in favour of the existence of external things," that is, to the autho- rity of a fact of consciousness. But to him this appeal is incompetent. For, in the first place, having already virtually given up, or rather positively rejected, the testimony of consciousness, when consciousness de- posed to our immediate knowledge of external things, how can he even found upon the veracity of that mendacious principle, when bearing evidence to the unknown existence of external things ? I cannot but believe that the material reality exists ; therefore, it does exist, for consciousness does not deceive us, this reasoning Dr Brown employs when defending his assertion of an outer world. I cannot but believe that the material reality is the object immediately known in perception ; therefore, it is immediately known, for consciousness does not deceive us, this a Philosophy of the Human Mind, See this argument further pursued in lecture xxviii., p. 175-177, ed. 1830. the Author's Diacums'wm, p. 92. ED. 280 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. reasoning Dr Brown rejects when establishing the A V . foundation of his system. In the one case he main- tains, this belief, because irresistible, is true ; in the other case, he maintains, this belief, though irresist- ible, is false. Consciousness is veracious in the former belief, mendacious in the latter. I approbate the one, I reprobate the other. The inconsistency of this is apparent. It becomes more palpable when we con- sider, in the second place, that the belief which Dr Brown assumes as true rests on, is, in fact, only the reflex of, the belief which he repudiates as false. Why do mankind believe in the existence of an outer world ? They do not believe in it as in something unknown ; but, on the contrary, they believe it to exist, only because they believe that they immediately know it to exist. The former belief is only as it is founded on the latter. Of all absurdities, therefore, the greatest is to assert, on the one hand, that con- sciousness deceives us in the belief that we know any material object to exist ; and, on the other, that the material object exists, because, though on false grounds, we believe it to exist. The same I may give you another instance, from the same Brown 8 author, of the wild work that the application of this ^sonai our rule makes, among philosophical systems not legiti- ltlt)- mately established. Dr Brown, with other philoso- phers, rests the proof of our Personal Identity, and of our Mental Individuality, on the ground of beliefs, which, as " intuitive, universal, immediate, and irresist- ible," he, not unjustly, regards as the " internal and never-ceasing voice of our Creator, revelations from on high, omnipotent, [and veracious], as their Author/ 70 a Philosophy of the Human Mind, also Sir W. Hamilton's Discussions, Lecture xiii., p. 79, ed. 1830. See p. 96. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 281 To him this argument is, however, incompetent, as LECT contradictory. What we know of self or person, we know only as a fact of consciousness. In our perceptive conscious- ness, there is revealed, in contrast to each, a self and a not-self. This contrast is either true or false. If true, then am I conscious of an object different from me, that is, I have an immediate perception of the external reality. If false, then am I not conscious of anything different from me, but what I am con- strained to regard as not-me is only a modification of me, which, by an illusion of my nature, I mis- take, and must mistake, for something different from me. Now, will it be credited that Dr Brown and be it remembered that I adduce him only as the represen- tative of a great majority of philosophers affirms or denies, just as he finds it convenient or inconvenient, this fact, this distinction, of consciousness ? In his doctrine of perception, he explicitly denies its truth, in denying that mind is conscious of aught beyond itself. But, in other parts of his philosophy, this false fact, this illusive distinction, and the deceitful belief founded thereupon, are appealed to, (I quote his ex- pressions), as " revelations from on high, as the never-ceasing voice of our Creator," &c. Thus, on the veracity of this mendacious belief, Dr Brown establishes his proof of our personal identity. Touching the object of perception, when its evidence is inconvenient, this belief is quietly passed over, as incompetent to distinguish not-self from self ; in the question regarding our personal identity, where its testimony is convenient, it is clamorously cited as an inspired witness, exclusively competent to distinguish 282 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. self from not-self. Yet why, if, in the one case, it - mistook self for not-self, it may not, in the other, mistake not-self for self, would appear a problem not of the easiest solution. And of our The same belief, with the same inconsistency, is ity. called in to prove the Individuality of mind. But if we are fallaciously determined, in our perceptive con- sciousness, to regard mind both as mind and as matter, for, on Brown's hypothesis, in perception, the object perceived is only a mode of the percipient subject, if, I say, in this act, I must view what is supposed one and indivisible, as plural, and different, and opposed, how is it possible to appeal to the authority of a tes- timony so treacherous as consciousness for an evidence of the real simplicity of the thinking principle ? How, says the materialist to Brown, how can you appeal against me to the testimony of consciousness, which you yourself reject when against your own opinions, and how can you, on the authority of that testimony, maintain the unity of self to be more than an illusive appearance, when self and not-self, as known to con- sciousness, are, on your own hypothesis, confessedly only modifications of the same percipient subject ? If, on your doctrine, consciousness can split what you hold to be one and indivisible into two, not only dif- ferent but opposed, existences, what absurdity is there, on mine, that consciousness should exhibit as phsenomenally one, what we both hold to be really manifold ? If you give the lie to consciousness in favour of your hypothesis, you can have no reasonable objection that I should give it the lie in favour of mine. If you can maintain that not-self is only an illusive phenomenon, being, in fact, only self in dis- ci Lecture xii., p. 74, ed. 1830. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 283 guise ; I may also maintain, a contra, that self itself is LECT. only an illusive phenomenon, and that the apparent unity of the ego is only the result of an organic har- mony of action between the particles of matter. From these examples, the truth of the position I The abso- . . /. -i /. /. lute and maintain is manifest, that a tact of consciousness can universal 11 i i p f i 11 veracity of only be rejected on the supposition of falsity, and that, conscious- the falsity of one fact of consciousness being admitted, be main- tallied the truth of no other fact of consciousness can be main- tained. The legal brocard, Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, is a rule not more applicable to other wit- nesses than to consciousness. Thus, every system of philosophy which implies the negation of any fact of consciousness, is not only necessarily unable, without self-contradiction, to establish its own truth by any appeal to consciousness ; it is also unable, without self- contradiction, to appeal to consciousness against the falsehood of any other system. If the absolute and universal veracity of consciousness be once surren- dered, every system is equally true, or rather all are equally false ; philosophy is impossible, for it has now no instrument by which truth can be discovered, no standard by which it can be tried ; the root of our nature is a lie. But though it is thus manifestly the common interest of every scheme of philosophy to preserve intact the integrity of consciousness, almost every scheme of philosophy is only another mode in which this integrity has been violated. If, therefore, I am able to prove the fact of this various violation, and to show that the facts of consciousness have never, or hardly ever, been fairly evolved, it will fol- low, as I said, that no reproach can be justly addressed to consciousness as an ill-informed, or vacillating, or perfidious witness, but to those only who were too 284 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. proud, or too negligent, to accept its testimony, to employ its materials, and to obey its laws. And on this supposition, so far should we be from despairing of the future advance of philosophy from the experi- ence of its past wanderings, that we ought, on the contrary, to anticipate for it a steady progress, the moment that philosophers can be persuaded to look to consciousness, and to consciousness alone, for their materials and their rules. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 285 LECTUEE XVI. CONSCIOUSNESS, - VIOLATIONS OF ITS AUTHORITY. ON the principle, which no one has yet been found LECT. bold enough formally to deny, and which, indeed, requires only to be understood to be acknowledged, viz., that as all philosophy is evolved from conscious- En* an/ ness, so, on the truth of consciousness, the possibility ETpieof of all philosophy is dependent, it is manifest, at once and without further reasoning, that no philoso- phical theory can pretend to truth except that single theory which comprehends and develops the fact of consciousness on which it founds, without retrench- ment, distortion, or addition. Were a philosophical system to pretend that it culls out all that is correct in a fact of consciousness, and rejects only what is erro- neous, what would be the inevitable result ? In the first place, this system admits, and must admit, that it is wholly dependent on consciousness for its consti- tuent elements, and for the rules by which these are selected and arranged, in short, that it is wholly de- pendent on consciousness for its knowledge of true and false. But, in the second place, it pretends to select a part, and to reject a part, of a fact given and guaran- teed by consciousness. Now, by what criterion, by what standard, can it discriminate the true from the false in this fact \ This criterion must be either con- 286 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. sciousness itself, or an instrument different from con- XVI sciousness. If it be an instrument different from consciousness, what is it 1 No such instrument has ever yet been named, has ever yet been heard of. If it exist, and if it enable us to criticise the data of con- sciousness, it must be a higher source of knowledge than consciousness, and thus it will replace conscious- ness as the first and generative principle of philosophy. But of any principle of this character, different from consciousness, philosophy is yet in ignorance. It re- mains unenounced and unknown. It may, therefore, be safely assumed not to be. The standard, therefore, by which any philosophical theory can profess to regu- late its choice among the elements of any fact of con- sciousness, must be consciousness itself. Now, mark the dilemma. The theory makes consciousness the discriminator between what is true and what is false in its own testimony. But if consciousness be as- sumed to be a mendacious witness in certain parts of its evidence, how can it be presumed a veracious wit- ness in others \ This it cannot be. It must be held as false in all, if false in any ; and the philosophical theory which starts from this hypothesis, starts from a negation of itself in the negation of philosophy in general. Again, on the hypothesis that part of the deliverance of consciousness is true, part false, how can consciousness enable us to distinguish these ? This has never yet been shown ; it is, in fact, inconceivable. But, further, how is it discovered that any part of a datum of consciousness is false, another true ? This can only be done if the datum involve a contradiction. But if the facts of consciousness be contradictory, then is consciousness a principle of falsehood; and the greatest of conceivable follies would be an attempt LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 287 to employ such a principle in the discovery of truth. LECT. And such an act of folly is every philosophical theory which, departing from an admission that the data of consciousness are false, would still pretend to build out of them a system of truth. But, on the other hand, if the data of consciousness are not contradictory, and consciousness, therefore, not a self-convicted deceiver, how is the unapparent falsehood of its evidence to be evinced? This is manifestly impossible; for such falsehood is not to be presumed ; and, we have pre- viously seen, there is no higher principle by which the testimony of consciousness can be canvassed and red- argued. Consciousness, therefore, is to be presumed veracious ; a philosophical theory which accepts one part of the harmonious data of consciousness and re- jects another, is manifestly a mere caprice, a chimera not worthy of consideration, far less of articulate dis- proof. It is ab initio null I have been anxious thus again to inculcate upon you this view in regard to the relation of Philosophy to Consciousness, because it contains a preliminary refutation of all those proud and wayward systems which, though they can only pretend to represent the truth, inasmuch as they fully and fairly develop the revelations vouchsafed to us through conscious- ness, still do, one and all of them, depart from a false or partial acceptance of these revelations themselves ; and because it affords a clear and simple criterion of certainty in our own attempts at philosophical con- struction. If it be correct, it sweeps away at once a world of metaphysical speculation ; and if it curtail the dominions of human reason, it firmly establishes our authority over what remains. In order still further to evince to you the importance 288 LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. of the precept (viz., that we must look to consciousness and to consciousness alone for the materials and rules violations of philosophy), and to show articulately how all the oftheau- f . / , ., i -, -i i i ority of variations 01 philosophy have been determined by its conscious- ness iiius- neglect, I will take those facts of consciousness which lie at the very root of philosophy, and with which, con- sequently, all philosophical systems are necessarily and primarily conversant ; and point out how, besides the one true doctrine which accepts and simply states the fact as given, there are always as many various actual theories as there are various possible modes of distort- The Duality ing or mutilating this fact. I shall commence with sciousness. that great fact to which I have already alluded, that we are immediately conscious in perception of an ego and a non-ego, known together, and known in con- trast to each other. This is the fact of the Duality of Consciousness. It is clear and manifest. When I con- centrate my attention in the simplest act of percep- tion, I return from my observation with the most irre- sistible conviction of two facts, or rather two branches of the same fact ; that I am, and that something different from me exists. In this act, I am conscious of myself as the perceiving subject, and of an external reality as the object perceived; and I am conscious of both existences in the same indivisible moment of in- tuition. The knowledge of the subject does not pre- cede, nor follow, the knowledge of the object, neither determines, neither is determined by, the other. The fact of Such is the fact of perception revealed in conscious- mony of ness, and as it determines mankind in general in their ness^'nTer- almost equal assurance of the reality of an external bweTby world, as of the existence of their own minds. Con- deny 6 its sciousness declares our knowledge of material qualities to be intuitive or immediate, not representative or LECTUPvES ON METAPHYSICS. 289 mediate. Nor is the fact, as given, denied even by those LECT. who disallow its truth. So clear is the deliverance, that even the philosophers who reject an intuitive per- ception, find it impossible not to admit, that their doc- trine stands decidedly opposed to the voice of con- sciousness, to the natural convictions of mankind. I may give you some examples of the admission of this fact, which it is of the utmost importance to place beyond the possibility of doubt. I quote, of course, only from those philosophers whose systems are in contradiction of the testimony of consciousness, which they are forced to admit. I might quote to you con- fessions to this effect from Descartes, De Passionibus, article 23, and from Malebranche, Recherche, liv. iii. c. 1. To these I only refer you. The following is from Berkeley, towards the con- Berkeley. elusion of the third and last dialogue, in which his system of Idealism is established : " When Hylas is at last entirely converted, he observes to Philonous, ' After all, the controversy about matter, in the strict acceptation of it, lies altogether between you and the philosophers, whose principles, I acknowledge, are not near so natural, or so agreeable to the common sense of mankind, and Holy Scripture, as yours.' Philonous observes in the end, ' That he does not pretend to be a setter-up of new notions; his endeavours tend only to unite, and to place in a clearer light, that truth which was before shared between the vulgar and the philosophers; the former being of opinion, that those things they immediately perceive are the real things; and the latter, that the things imme- diately perceived are ideas which exist only in the mind; which two things put together do, in effect, constitute the substance of what he advances.' And VOL. i. T 290 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. he concludes by observing, ' That those principles which at first view lead to scepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.'" Here you will notice that Berkeley admits that the common belief of mankind is, that the things imme- diately perceived are not representative objects in the mind, but the external realities themselves. Hume, in like manner, makes the same confession ; and the confession of that sceptical idealist, or sceptical nihilist, is of the utmost weight. Hume. " It seems evident that men are carried by a natural instinct or prepossession to repose faith in their senses ; and that, without any reasoning, or even almost before the use of reason, we always suppose an external uni- verse, which depends not on our perception, but would exist though we and every sensible creature were ab- sent or annihilated. Even the animal creation are gov- erned by a like opinion, and preserve this belief of exter- nal objects in all their thoughts, designs, and actions. " It seems also evident that, when men follow this blind and powerful instinct of nature, they always suppose the very images presented by the senses, to be the external objects, and never entertain any sus- picion that the one are nothing but representations of the other. This very table, which we see white, and which we feel hard, is believed to exist, independent of our perception, and to be something external to our mind, which perceives it. Our presence bestows not being on it, our absence does not annihilate it. It preserves its existence uniform and entire, indepen- dent of the situation of intelligent beings, who per- ceive or contemplate it. " But this universal and primary opinion of all men a See Reid's Works, p. 284. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 291 is soon destroyed by the slightest philosophy, which LECT. teaches us that nothing can ever be present to the mind but an image or perception, and that the senses are only the inlets through which these images are conveyed, without being able to produce any imme- diate intercourse between the mind and the object. The table, which we see, seems to diminish as we re- move farther from it ; but the real table, which exists independent of us, suffers no alteration ; it was, there- fore, nothing but its image which was present to the mind. These are the obvious dictates of reason; and no man who reflects, ever doubted that the existences which we consider, when we say, this house and that tree, are nothing but perceptions in the mind, and fleeting copies or representations of other existences, which remain uniform and independent " Do you follow the instincts and propensities of nature, may they say, in assenting to the veracity of sense ? But these lead you to believe that the very perception or sensible image is the external object. Do you disclaim this principle, in order to embrace a more rational opinion, that the perceptions are only representations of something external ? You here depart from your natural propensities and more obvi- ous sentiments ; and yet are not able to satisfy your reason, which can never find any convincing argu- ment from experience to prove tha,t the perceptions are connected with any external objects."' The fact that consciousness does testify to an imme- diate knowledge by mind of an object different from a Sway*, vol. ii. pp. 154-155, 156- 370; and the same thing is acknow- 157 (edit. 1788). Similar confessions ledged by Kant, by Fichte, by Schel- are made by Hume in his Treatise of ling, byTennemann, byJacobi. Seve- Human Nature, voL i. pp. 330, 338, ral of these testimonies you will find 353, 358, 361, 369, (original edit.) ; extracted and translated in a note of in a word, you may read from 330 to my Discussions on Philosophy, p. 92. 292 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. any modification of its own, is thus admitted even by those philosophers who still do not hesitate to deny the truth of the testimony ; for to say that all men do naturally believe in such a knowledge, is only, in other words, to say that they believe it upon the authority of consciousness. A fact of consciousness, and a fact of the common sense of mankind, are only various expressions of the same import. We may, therefore, lay it down as an undisputed truth, that consciousness gives, as an ultimate fact, a primitive duality; a knowledge of the ego in relation and con- trast to the non-ego ; and a knowledge of the non- ego in relation and contrast to the ego. The ego and non-ego are, thus, given in an original synthesis, as conjoined in the unity of knowledge, and, in an origi- nal antithesis, as opposed in the contrariety of exist- ence. In other words, we are conscious of them in an indivisible act of knowledge together and at once, but we are conscious of them as, in themselves, differ- ent and exclusive of each other. The Ego Again, consciousness not only gives us a duality, Ego given but it gives its elements in equal counterpoise and independence. The ego and non-ego, mind and e matter, are not only given together, but in absolute peodoutt, coequality. The one does not precede, the other does not follow; and, in their mutual relation, each is equally dependent, equally independent. Such is the AS many fact as given in and by consciousness. Philosophers different . ' J r . phiiosophi- nave not, however, been content to accept the fact in cal systems ...,,, . . originate in its integrity, but nave been pleased to accept it only this fact, .. IT/,. . . , , . as it admits under such qualifications as it suited their systems to of various , . T , , . T /v possible devise. In truth, there are just as many amerent philosophical systems originating in this fact, as it admits of various possible modifications. An enume- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 293 ration of these modifications, accordingly, affords an LECT. enumeration of philosophical theories. In the first place, there is the grand division of phi- 1. Those losophers into those who do, and those who do not, those who accept the fact in its integrity. Of modern philoso- ceptinUs phers, almost all are comprehended under the latter fa* of 4e category, while of the former, if we do not remouDt to Consciout- the schoolmen and the ancients, I am only aware of a single philosopher/ 3 before Eeid, who did not reject, at least in part, the fact as consciousness affords it. As it is always expedient to possess a precise name The former ' J' x- J T 1 J V 1- J .L J called Na- lor a precise distinction, 1 would be inclined to deno- turai Reai- minate those who implicitly acquiesce in the primi- turai Duai- tive duality as given in consciousness, the Natural Eealists or Natural Dualists, and their doctrine, Natural Realism or Natural Dualism. In the second place, the philosophers who do not The latter, accept the fact, and the whole fact, may be divided subdivided. and subdivided into various classes by various prin- ciples of distribution. The first subdivision will be taken from the total, or partial, rejections of the import of the fact. I have previously shown you, that to deny any fact of con- sciousness as an actual phaenomenon is utterly impos- sible. But, though necessarily admitted as a present phenomenon, the import of this phaenomenon, all beyond our actual consciousness of its existence, may be denied. We are able, without self-contradiction, to suppose, and, consequently, to assert, that all to which the phenomenon of which we are conscious refers, is a deception, that, for example, the past, to a See the Author's Suppl. Disser. sequently referred to by Sir W. Ha- to Re'uts Works, Note C. ED. milton, as holding a similar doctrine This philosopher is doubtless in a paradoxical form. See below, Peter Poiret. John Sergeant is sub- voL ii. pp. 92, 124. ED. 294 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. which an act of memory refers, is only an illusion - involved in our consciousness of the present, that the unknown subject to which every phenomenon of which we are conscious involves a reference, has no reality beyond this reference itself, in short, that all our knowledge of mind or matter, is only a conscious- into Real- ness of various bundles of baseless appearances. This Nihilists, doctrine, as refusing a substantial reality to the phse- nomenal existence of which we are conscious, is called Nihilism; and, consequently, philosophers, as they affirm or deny the authority of consciousness in guar- anteeing a substratum or substance to the manifesta- tions of the ego and non-ego, are divided into Realists or Substantialists, and into Nihilists or Non-Substan- tialists. Of positive or dogmatic Nihilism there is no example in modern philosophy, for Oken's deduction of the universe from the original nothing," the nothing being equivalent to the Absolute or God, is only the paradoxical foundation of a system of realism ; and, in ancient philosophy, we know too little of the book of Gorgias the Sophist, entitled Hepl TOV ^ ovros rj irepl v(reus,P Concerning Nature or the Non-Existent, to be able to affirm whether it were maintained by him as a dogmatic and bonafide doctrine. But as a sceptical conclusion from the premises of previous phi- losophers, we have an illustrious example of Nihilism in Hume ; and the celebrated Fichte admits that the speculative principles of his own idealism would, un- less corrected by his practical, terminate in this result. 7 a Lehrbuch der NaturpMlosophie, Math., vii. 65. ED. 30-43, (ed. 1831). This work has y See a remarkable passage in the been translated for the Ray Society Bestlmmung des Menschen, p. 174, by Tulk. On Oken's doctrine of Ni- ( Werke, vol. ii. p. 245), translated hilism, see also Discussions, pp. 21, by Sir W. Hamilton, Reid's Works, 22. ED. p. 129. ED. /3 See Sextus Empiricus, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 295 The Realists or Substantialists, again, are divided LECT. into Dualists, and into Unitarians or Monists, accord- ing as they are, or are not, contented with the testi- J^S"^ 1 " inony of consciousness to the ultimate duplicity of sub- S^SSi. ject and object in perception. The Dualists, of whom andMoaist8 - we are now first speaking, are distinguished from the Natural Dualists of whom we formerly spoke, in this, that the latter establish the existence of the two worlds of mind and matter on the immediate know- ledge we possess of both series of phaenomena, a knowledge of which consciousness assures us ; whereas the former, surrendering the veracity of consciousness to our immediate knowledge of material phaanomena, and, consequently, our immediate knowledge of the existence of matter, still endeavour, by various hypo- theses and reasonings, to maintain the existence of an unknown external world. As we denominate those who maintain a dualism as involved in the fact of consciousness, Natural Dualists ; so we may style those dualists who deny the evidence of consciousness to our immediate knowledge of aught beyond the sphere of mind, Hypothetical Dualists or Cosmothetic Idealists. To the class of Cosmothetic Idealists, the great The majo- . n i>ii ifi rityofmo- majonty of modern philosophers are to be referred, dem phiio- Denying an immediate or intuitive knowledge of the long to the i . , . , . . i former of external reality, whose existence they maintain, they, theseciasses, / i i -i -i / -i and are su ^" of course, hold a doctrine of mediate or representative divided ac- i . n cording to perception ; and, according to the various modinca- their view . / i -i ' i of the re- tions of that doctrine, they are again subdivided into presentation those who view, in the immediate object of perception, tion. a representative entity present to the mind, but not a mere mental modification, and into those who hold that the immediate object is only a representative mo- dification of the mind itself. It is not always easy to 296 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. determine to which of these classes some philosophers belong. To the former, or class holding the cruder hypothesis of representation, certainly belong the followers of Democritus and Epicurus, those Aristo- telians who held the vulgar doctrine of species, (Aris- totle himself was probably a natural dualist ), and in recent times, among many others, Malebranche, Berkeley, Clarke, Newton, Abraham Tucker, &c. To these is also, but problematically, to be referred Locke. To the second, or class holding the finer hypothesis of representation, belong, without any doubt, many of the Platonists, Leibnitz, Arnauld, Crousaz, Condillac, Kant, &c. ; and to this class is also probably to be referred Descartes./ 3 The philosophical Unitarians or Monists, reject the testimony of consciousness to the ultimate duality of the subject and object in perception, but they arrive at the unity of these in different ways. Some admit the testimony of consciousness to the equipoise of the mental and material phenomena, and do not attempt to reduce either mind to matter, or matter to mind. They reject, however, the evidence of consciousness to their antithesis in existence, and maintain that mind and matter are only phenomenal modifications of the into, i. same common substance. This is the doctrine of Ab- Those who . T1 . .. . / i i i -n hold the solute Identity, a doctrine 01 which the most illus- doctrine of . i -i i Absolute trious representatives among recent philosophers are Schelling, Hegel, and Cousin. Others again deny the evidence of consciousness to the equipoise of the sub- a Aristotle's opinion is doubtful, of all knowledge. See Reid's Works, In the De Anima, L 5, he combats pp. 300, n. *, 886; also (completed the theory of Empedocles, that like edition) p. 952 a, n. *; and M. St is known by like, and appears as a Hilaire's preface to his translation of natural realist. But in the Nicoma- the De Anima, p. xxii __ ED. chean Ethics, vi. 1, he adopts the ft See the Author's Discussions, p. principle of similarity as the basis 57 et seq. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 297 ject and object as co-ordinate and co-original elements; LECT. and as the balance is inclined in favour of the one relative or the other, two opposite schemes of psycho- logy are determined. If the subject be taken as the original and genetic, and the object evolved from it as 2. idealists; its product, the theory of Idealism is established. On the other hand, if the object be assumed as the original 3- Mate- 11 i / naiisia. and genetic, and the subject evolved from it as its pro- duct, the theory of Materialism is established. In regard to these two opposite schemes of a one- HOW a P hi- iTi-i IT 11 i i losophical sided philosophy, 1 would at present make an observa- sptem is . T often pre- tion to which it may be afterwards necessary to recur vented from 1 1 C 1 f R H' n i ' nto viz., that a philosophical system is often prevented absolute f e IT 11 -IT ii idealism or from falling into absolute idealism or absolute mate- absolute . . 1111- MI -Ti materialism. riahsm, and held in a kind of vacillating equilibrium, not in consequence of being based on the fact of con- sciousness, but from the circumstance that its mate- rialistic tendency in one opinion happens to be coun- teracted by its idealistic tendency in another ; two opposite errors, in short, co-operating to the same result as one truth. On this ground is to be ex- plained why the philosophy of Locke and Condillac did not more easily slide into materialism. Deriving our whole knowledge, mediately or immediately, from the senses, this philosophy seemed destined to be fairly analysed into a scheme of materialism ; but from this it was for a long time preserved, in consequence of involving a doctrine, which, on the other hand, if not counteracted, would have naturally carried it over into idealism. This was the doctrine of a representa- tive perception. The legitimate issue of such a doc- trine is now admitted on all hands, to be absolute idealism ; and the only ground on which it has been latterly thought possible to avoid this conclusion, 298 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. an appeal to the natural belief of mankind in the XVI - existence of an external world, is, as I showed you, incompetent to the hypothetical dualist or cosmothetic idealist. In his hands such an appeal is self-contra- dictory. For if this universal belief be fairly applied, it only proves the existence of an outer world by dis- proving the hypothesis of a representative perception. To recapitulate what I have now said : The philo- going. sophical systems concerning the relation of mind and matter, are coextensive with the various possible modes in which the fact of the Duality of Conscious- ness may be accepted or refused. It may be accepted either wholly and without reserve, or it may not. The former alternative affords the class of Natural Realists or Natural Dualists. Those, again, who do not accept the fact in its absolute integrity, are subdivided in various manners. They are, first of all, distinguished into Realists or Substantialists, and into Nihilists, as they do, or do not, admit a subject, or subjects, to the two opposite series of phsenomena which consciousness reveals. The former class is again distributed into Hypothetical Dualists or Cosmothetic Idealists, and into Unitarians or Monists. The Hypothetical Dualists or Cosmothetic Idealists, are divided, according to their different theories of the representation in perception, into those who view in the object immediately perceived a tertium quid dif- ferent both from the external reality and from the conscious mind, and into those who identify this object with a modification of the mind itself. The Unitarians or Monists fall into two classes, as they do, or do not, preserve the equilibrium of sub- ject and object. If, admitting the equilibrium of these, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 299 they deny the reality of their opposition, the system LECT. of Absolute Identity emerges, which carries thought and extension, mind and matter, up into modes of the same common substance. It would be turning aside from my present purpose, were I to attempt any articulate refutation of these various systems. What I have now in view is to exhibit to you how, the moment that the fact of con- sciousness in its absolute integrity is surrendered, philosophy at once falls from unity and truth into variety and error. In reality, by the very act of refusing any one datum of consciousness, philosophy invalidates the whole credibility of consciousness, and, consciousness ruined as an instrument, philosophy is extinct. Thus, the refusal of philosophers to accept the fact of the duality of consciousness, is virtually an act of philosophical suicide. Their various systems are now only so many empty spectres, so many enchanted corpses, which the first exorcism of the sceptic reduces to their natural nothingness. The mutual polemic of these systems is like the warfare of shadows ; as the heroes in Valhalla, they hew each other into pieces, only in a twinkling to be reunited, and again to amuse themselves in other bloodless and indecisive contests." Having now given you a general view of the various Hypotheses f -i i i IT- proposed iu systems of philosophy, in their mutual relations, as regard to j i J T^ i- P /- the mode of founded on the great fact of the Duality of Conscious- intercourse T i IT- i /* between ness, 1 proceed, in subordination to this fact, to give Mind and ... . Body. you a briei account of certain famous hypotheses which it is necessary for you to know, hypotheses proposed in solution of the problem of how inter- a This simile is taken from Kant, (edit. 1799). ED. Kritik der reinen Vemunft, p. 784, 300 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. course of substances so opposite as mind and body could be accomplished. These hypotheses, of course, belong exclusively to the doctrine of Dualism, for in the Unitarian system the difficulty is resolved by the annihilation of the opposition, and the reduction of Four in the two substances to one. The hypotheses I allude to, are known under the names, 1, Of the system of Assistance or of Occasional Causes ; 2, Of the Pre- established Harmony ; 3, Of the Plastic Medium ; and, 4, Of Physical Influence. The first belongs to Descartes, De la Forge, Malebranche, and the Car- tesians in general ; the second to Leibnitz and Wolf, though not universally adopted by their school ; the third was an ancient opinion revived in modern times by Cud worth and Leclerc ; a the fourth is the common doctrine of the Schoolmen, and though not explicitly enounced, that generally prevalent at present; among modern philosophers, it has been expounded with great perspicuity by Euler.P We shall take these in their order. i. Occasion- The hypothesis of Divine Assistance or of Occa- sional Causes, sets out from the apparent impossibi- lity involved in Dualism of any actual communication between a spiritual and a material substance, that is, between extended and non-extended existences ; and it terminates in the assertion, that the Deity, on occasion of the affections of matter of the motions in the bodily organism, excites in the mind corre- spondent thoughts and representations ; and, on occa- sion of thoughts or representations arising in the o Cudworth, Intellectual System of edit. Erdmatm, p. 429. ED. the Universe, b. i. c. iii. 37. Leclerc, /3 Lettres a une Princesse cFA lle- Bibllotheque Choisie, voL ii. p. 107 magne, part ii. let. 14, ed. Cournot. et seq. See also Leibnitz, Considera- ED. tions sur la Principe de Vie, Opera, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 301 mind, that He, in like manner, produces the corre- .A. V 1 spondent movements in the body. But more explicitly: "God, according to the advocates of this scheme, governs the universe, and its constituent existences, by the laws according to which He has created them ; and as the world was originally called into being by a mere fiat of the divine will, so it owes the continu- ance of its existence from moment to moment only to the unremitted perseverance of the same volition. Let the sustaining energy of the divine will cease but for an instant, and the universe lapses into nothing- ness. The existence of created things is thus exclu- sively maintained by a creation, as it were, incessantly renewed. God is, thus, the necessary cause of every modification of body, and of every modification of mind ; and His efficiency is sufficient to afford an ex- planation of the union and intercourse of extended and unextended substances. " External objects determine certain movements in our bodily organs of sense, and these movements are, by the nerves and animal spirits, propagated to the brain. The brain does not act immediately and really upon the soul ; the soul has no direct cognisance of any modification of the brain ; this is impossible. It is God himself who, by a law which He has established when movements are determined in the brain, pro- duces analogous modifications in the conscious mind. In like manner, suppose the mind has a volition to move the arm ; this volition is, of itself, inefficacious ; but God, in virtue of the same law, causes the answer- ing motion in our limb. The body is not, therefore, the real cause of the mental modifications; nor the mind the real cause of the bodily movements. Never- theless, as the soul would not be modified without the 302 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. antecedent changes in the body, nor the body moved - without the antecedent determination of the soul, these changes and determinations are in a certain sort necessary. But this necessity is not absolute ; it is only hypothetical or conditional The organic changes, and the mental determinations, are nothing but simple conditions, and not real causes ; in short, they are occasions, or occasional causes."' This doctrine of Occasional Causes is called, likewise, the Hypothesis of Assistance, as supposing the immediate co-operation or intervention of the Deity. It is involved in the Cartesian theory, and, therefore, belongs to Descartes -f but it was fully evolved by De la Forge, 7 Malebranche, 5 and other followers of Descartes. It may, however, be traced far higher. I find it first explicitly, and in all its extent, maintained in the commencement of the twelfth century by Algazel, 6 or Elgazali, of Bagdad, surnamed the Imaun of the World ; from him it passed to the schools of the West, and many of the most illustrious philosophers of the middle ages main- tained that God is the only real agent in the universe. *" o [Laromiguiere, Lecons de Philo- a barbarous Latin translation, in the sophie, torn. ii. p. 255-6.] ninth volume of Aristotle's Works, $ See Reid's Works, completed edi- Venice, 1550. A full account of this tion, p. 961 b, n. *. ED. treatise is given in Tennemann's 7 [Tennemann (Oesch. der Phil., Geschichte der Philosophic, vol. viii. vol. x. p. 313) denies that De la p. 387 et seq. See also Degerando, Forge is an advocate, far less the Histoire Comparee, vol. iv. p. 226. first articulate expositor, of the sys- ED. tern of Occasional Causes ; but erro- [For a history of the doctrine of neously. See Traite de V Esprit de Occasional Causes before Descartes, VHomme, c. xvi., and Sigwart's Leib- see Syrbius, Institutiones PhilosopM- niz'sche LeJire von der prdstabilirten cce, (ed. Jeuae, 1726), p. 62, note.] Harmonie, p. 39 et seq.] Averroes, I. c. p. 56 : " Agens com- 8 Recherche de la Verite, lib. vi. bustionis creavit nigredinem in stup- part ii. c. 3; Entretiens sur la Meta- pa et combustionem in partibus ejus, physique, Eut. vii. ED. et posuit earn combustam et cinerem, 6 In his Destructio Phihsophorum, et est Deus gloriosus mediantibus now only known through the refuta- angelis, aut immediate." See Ten- tion of it by Averroes, called De- nemann, 1. c. p. 405. ED. structio Deslructionis, preserved in LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 303 To this doctrine Dr Keid inclines," and it is expressly LECT. maintained by Mr Stewart.^ This hypothesis did not satisfy Leibnitz. He re- 2. Pre .- '* . . , . . tablished proaches the Cartesians with converting the universe Harmony, into a perpetual miracle, and of explaining the natural, by a supernatural, order. This would annihilate phi- losophy ; for philosophy consists in the investigation and discovery of the second causes which produce the various phsenomena of the universe. 7 You degrade the Divinity, he subjoined ; you make Him act like a watchmaker, who, having constructed a timepiece, would still be obliged himself to turn the hands, to make it mark the hours. A skilful mechanist would so frame his clock that it would go for a certain period without assistance or interposition. So when God created man, He disposed his organs and faculties in such a manner that they are able of themselves to execute their functions and maintain their activity from birth to death." 5 Leibnitz thought he had devised a more philosophi- cal scheme, in the hypothesis of the Pre-established or Predetermined Harmony, (Systema Harmonics Prce- stdbilitce vel Prcedeterminatce). This hypothesis de- nies all real connection, not only between spiritual and material substances, but between substances in general; and explains their apparent communion from a previously decreed coarrangement of the Supreme Being, in the following manner : " God, before creat- ing souls and bodies, knew all these souls and bodies ; He knew also all possible souls and bodies. 6 Now, in a See Work*, pp. 257, 527. ED. ED. ft See Coll. Work*, vol. ii. pp. 97, 8 [Laromiguiere, Lefon*, torn. ii. 476-9; voL iii. pp. 230, 248, 389-91. p. 256-7.] Troimemr. Edalrcissement. ED. Opera, ed. Erdmann, p. 134. ED. 7 Synteme Nouveau de la Nature, Synleme Nouveau de la Nature, 13. Opera, ed. Erdmann, p. 137. 14. Theodicee, 62. These pas- Cf. Thtodicte, 61. Opera, p. 520. sages contain the substance of the 304 LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. this infinite variety of possible souls and bodies, it was necessary that there should be souls whose series of perceptions and determinations would correspond to the series of movements which some of these pos- sible bodies would execute ; for in an infinite number of souls, and in an infinite number of bodies, there would be found all possible combinations. Now, sup- pose that, out of a soul whose series of modifications corresponded exactly to the series of modifications which a certain body was destined to perform, and of this body whose successive movements were corre- spondent to the successive modifications of this soul, God should make a man, it is evident, that between the two substances which constitute this man, there would subsist the most perfect harmony. It is, thus, no longer necessary to devise theories to account for the reciprocal intercourse of the material and the spir- itual substances. These have no communication, no mutual influence. The soul passes from one state, from one perception, to another, by virtue of its own nature. The body executes the series of its move- ments without any participation or interference of the soul in these. The soul and body are like two clocks accurately regulated, which point to the same hour and minute, although the spring which gives motion to the one is not the spring which gives motion to the other. tt Thus the harmony which appears to combine the soul and body is, however, independent of any re- ciprocal action. This harmony was established before the creation of man ; and hence it is called the pre- established or predetermined harmony." It is needless to attempt a refutation of this hypo- remarks in the text, but not the edit. Erdmann, p. 135. ED. words. ED. ft [Laromiguiere, Lefons, torn. ii. aTroistemeEclaircissement. Opera, p. 257-8.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 305 thesis, which its author himself probably regarded more LECT. .A. V _L. as a specimen of ingenuity than as a serious doctrine. The third hypothesis is that of the Plastic Medium a. piutic between soul and body. " This medium participates of the two natures; it is partly material, partly spiritual. As material, it can be acted on by the body ; and as spiritual, it can act upon the mind. It is the mid- dle term of a continuous proportion. It is a bridge thrown over the abyss which separates matter from spirit. This hypothesis is too absurd for refutation ; it annihilates itself. Between an extended and unex- tended substance, there can be no middle existence ; [these being not simply different in degree, but contra- dictory.] If the medium be neither body nor soul, it is a chimera; if it is at once body and soul, it is con- tradictory; or if, to avoid the contradiction, it is said to be, like us, the union of soul and body, it is itself in want of a medium/' The fourth hypothesis is that of Physical Influence, 4. Physical (Influxus Physicus). " On this doctrine, external ob- jects affect our senses, and the organic motion they determine is communicated to the brain. The brain acts upon the soul, and the soul has an idea, a per- ception. The mind thus possessed of a perception or idea, is affected for good or ill. If it suffers, it seeks to be relieved of pain. It acts in its turn upon the brain, in which it causes a movement in the ner- vous system ; the nervous system causes a muscular motion in the limbs, a motion directed to remove or avoid the object which occasions the sensation of pain. " The brain is the seat of the soul, and, on this hypo- thesis, the soul has been compared to a spider seated in the centre of its web. The moment the least agitation is caused at the extremity of this web, the a [Laromiguifcre, Lefont, torn. ii. p. 253-4] VOL. I. U 306 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. insect is advertised and put upon the watch. In like ' manner, the mind situated in the brain has a point on which all the nervous filaments converge ; it is in- formed of what passes at the different parts of the body; and forthwith it takes its measures accordingly. The body thus acts with a real efficiency on the mind, and the mind acts with a real efficiency upon the body. This action or influence being real, physical, in the course of nature, the body exerts a physical influence upon the soul, the soul a physical influence upon the body. " This system is simple, but it affords us no help in explaining the mysterious union of an extended and an unextended substance. ' Tangere enim et tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res.' a Nothing can touch and be touched but what is ex- tended; and if the soul be unextended, it can have no connection by touch with the body, and the physi- cal influence is inconceivable or contradictory. "^ Historical If we consider these hypotheses in relation to their these h y - historical manifestation, the doctrine of Physical Physical' Influence would stand first ; for this doctrine, which first uen was only formally developed into system by the later Peripatetics, was that prevalent in the earlier schools of Greece. The Aristotelians, who held that the soul was the substantial form, the vital principle, of the body, that the soul was all in the whole and all in every part of the body, naturally allowed a reciprocal influence of these. By influence, (in Latin influxus), you are to understand the relation of a cause to its effect; and the term, now adopted into every vulgar language of Europe, was brought into use principally a Lucretius, i. 305. ED. p. 251-3.] /3 [Laromiguifcre, Lefons, torn. ii. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 307 by the authority of Suarez, a Spanish Jesuit, who LECT. flourished at the close of the sixteenth and beginning - of the seventeenth centuries, and one of the most illustrious metaphysicians of modern times. By him a cause is defined, Principium per se influens esse in cdiud." This definition, however, and the use of the metaphysical term influence, (for it is nothing more), are not, as is supposed, original with him. They are to be found in the pseudo-Aristotelic treatise De Causis. This is a translation from the Arabic, but a translation made many centuries before Suarez.^ But this by the way. The second hypothesis in chronological order is Plastic that of the Plastic Medium. It is to be traced to second. ' Plato. That philosopher, in illustrating the relation of the two constituents of man, says that the soul is in the body like a sailor in a ship ; that the soul em- ploys the body as its instrument ; but that the energy, or life and sense of the body, is the manifestation of a different substance, of a substance which holds a kind of intermediate existence between mind and matter. This conjecture, which Plato only obscurely hinted at, was elaborated with peculiar partiality by his followers of the Alexandrian school, and, in their psychology, the o^os, or vehicle of the soul, the me- dium through which it is united to the body, is a prominent element and distinctive principle. 7 To o Digputationes Metaphysicce, Disp. in substance from Prop. I. ED. xii., ii. 4. ED. y The passage referred to in Plato /3 The Libellu* de Caugis is printed is probably Timceus, p. 69 : Ol 8i in a Latin version made from a He- iufj.ovu.fvoi irapa\a^6vr(s opxV <^"X^ S brew one, in the seventh volume of iiOivarov, rb /xtrek rovro Bvrrrbv ffufia. the Latin edition of Aristotle's Works, avrrj Tr(pitT6pi>fv uxw* TC *ai> rb Venice, 1550, f. 144. It has been ffu/M fSoffar K.T.\. This passage, as attributed to Aristotle, toAvempace, -well as the simile of the chariot in to Alfarabi, and to Proclus. The the Phccdru*, p. 246, were interpreted above definition does not occur in it in this sense by the later Platonists. verbatim, though it may be gathered See Ficinus, Theologia Platonica, lib. 308 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. this opinion St Austin," among other Christian fathers, - was inclined, and, in modern times, it has been re- vived and modified by Gassendi/ Cudworth, 7 and Le Clerc. 5 occasional Descartes agrees with the Platonists in opposition Causes, i i t i i third. to the Aristotelians, that the soul is not the substan- tial form of the body, but is connected with it only at a single point in the brain, viz. the pineal gland. The pineal gland, he supposes, is the central point at which the organic movements of the body terminate, when conveying to the mind the determinations to voluntary motion. 6 But Descartes did not allow, like the Platonists, any intermediate or connecting substance. The nature of the connection he himself does not very explicitly state ; but his disciples have evolved the hypothesis, already explained, of Occa- sional Causes, in which God is the connecting prin- ciple, an hypothesis at least implicitly contained in his philosophy/ Finally, Leibnitz and Wolf agree with the Carte- xviii. c. 4: " Ex quo sequitur ration- ed the ancient and Platonic dogma ales animastanquam medias tales esse that matter (v\t)) is incorporeal (curui- debere, ut virtute quidem semper JUOTOS). He regarded matter as" quid- separabiles sint, .... actu autem dam inter formatum et nihil, nee sint semper conjunctse, quia familiare formatum nee nihil, informe prope corpus nanciscuntur ex sethere, quod nihil." Confess,, lib. xii. c. 6. ED. servant per immortalitatem propriam Gassendi, in his Physica, divides immortale, quod Plato currum turn the human soul into two parts, the deorum turn animarum vocat in Phae- one rational and incorporeal, the dro, vehiculumiuTimseo." The ship other corporeal, including the nutri- is more definitely expressed by Maxi- tive and sensitive faculties. The mus Tyrius, Diss. xL f (referred to by latter he regards as the medium of Stallbaiim, on the Timceus, I. c.) connection between the rational soul Ou% ^P s Ka l T ^* / ^ v T y 0^ TT ?7 irAoi/i/, and the body. See Opera, voL ii. p. tvOa & fjitv Kvfrtpv{\rns Hpxfi, us ^"X^/ 256 (ed. 1658). ED. o-ci/wtTos, i} 5e vavs #px TCU ^ y ^ 7 See above, p. 300, note ct. ED. ^VXTJS cru/j.a. Cf. also Proclus, I net. 5 See above, p. 300, note o. ED. Theol.,c. 2U6etseq.; Cudworth, Intel- e De Pass. An., art. 31, 32; De factual System, b. i. c. v. 3. Plainer, ffomine, art. 63. Cf . Reid's Works, Phil. Aphorismen, i. p. 627. ED. (compl. ed.), pp. 234, n. *, 962 b. ED. a St Augustin seems to have adopt- C See above, p. 302, note j8. ED. XVI. Pre-estab- lished LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 309 sians, that there is no real, but only an apparent in- LECT. tercourse between mind and body. To explain this apparent intercourse, they do not, however, resort to the continual assistance or interposition of the Deity, ^th ny ' but have recourse to the supposition of a harmony be- tween mind and body, established before the creation of either." All these theories are unphilosophical, because they These h y - all attempt to establish something beyond the sphere unphiioso- of observation, and, consequently, beyond, the sphere P of genuine philosophy; and because they are either, like the Cartesian and Leibnitian theories, contradic- tions of the fact of consciousness ; or, like the two other hypotheses, at variance with the facts which they suppose. What St Austin so admirably says of the substance, either of mind or of body, " Mate- riam spiritumque cognoscendo ignorari et ignorando cognosci,"' 3 I would exhort you to adopt as your opinion in regard to the union of these two existences. In short, in the words of Pascal, 7 " Man is to him- self the mightiest prodigy of nature ; for he is unable to conceive what is body, still less what is mind, but least of all is he able to conceive how a body can be united to a mind ; yet this is his proper being." A contented ignorance is, indeed, wiser than a presump- tuous knowledge ; but this is a lesson which seems the last that philosophers are willing to learn. In the words of one of the acutest of modern thinkers 5 " Magna immo maxima pars sapientise est, qusedam sequo animo nescire velle." o [On these hypotheses in general, -y Pens&s, partie i. art. vL, 26. see Zedler's Lexicon, v. Seele, p. 1098 Vol. ii. p. 74, edit. Faugere. ED. el sefj.] 8 Julius Cresar Seal iger. The pas- /3 ConftM. , lib. xii. c. 5. See ante, sage is quoted more correctly in the p. 139. ED. Author's Discussion*, p. 640. ED. 310 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTURE XVII. CONSCIOUSNESS, GENERAL PHENOMENA, ARE WE ALWAYS CONSCIOUSLY ACTIVE? LEGT. THE second General Fact of Consciousness which we ' shall consider, and out of which several questions of sllit 8 of rea ^ interest arise, is the fact, or correlative facts, of Mind - the Activity and Passivity of Mind. NO pure There is no pure activity, no pure passivity in passivit/L creation. All things in the universe of nature are reciprocally in a state of continual action and counter- action ; they are always active and passive at once. God alone must be thought of as a being active with- out any mixture of passivity, as His activity is sub- jected to no limitation. But precisely because it is unlimited, is it for us wholly incomprehensible. Actiyityand Activity and passivity are not, therefore, in the always con- manifestations of mind, distinct and independent phae- joined in the m i . ,11 manifests- nomena. inis is a great, though a common, error. mind. They are always conjoined. There is no operation of mind which is purely active ; no affection which is purely passive. In every mental modification, action and passion are the two necessary elements or factors of which it is composed. But though both are always present, each is not, however, always present in equal quantity. Sometimes the one constituent preponde- rates, sometimes the other ; and it is from the pre- ponderance of the active element in some modifica- tions of the passive element in others, that we dis- LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 311 tinguish these modifications by different names, and LECT. J xvii. consider them as activities or passivities according as they approximate to one or other of the two factors. Thus faculty, operation, energy, are words that we employ to designate the manifestations in which activity is predominant. Faculty denotes an active power ; action, operation, energy, denote its present exertion. On the other hand, capacity expresses a passive power ; affection, passion, express a present suffering. The terms mode, modification, state, may be used indifferently to signify both phsenomena ; but it must be acknowledged that these, especially the word state, are now closely associated with the passivity of mind, which they, therefore, tend rather to suggest. The passivity of mind is expressed by another term, receptivity; for passivity is only the condition, the necessary antecedent of activity, only the property possessed by the mind of standing in relation to certain foreign causes, of receiving from them impressions, determinations to act. It is to be observed, that we are never directly con- w e are f ' -A. /^ i never di- scious oi passivity. Consciousness only commences rectiy con . , . , . f -I * scious of with, is only cognisant of, the reaction consequent passivity. upon the foreign determination to act, and this re- action is not itself passive. In so far, therefore, as we are conscious, we are active ; whether there may be a mental activity of which we are not conscious, is another question.* There are certain arduous problems connected with the activity of mind, which will be more appropriately considered in a subsequent part of the course, when we come to speak of the Inferences from the Phaeno- menology of Mind, or of Metaphysics Proper. At present, I shall only treat of those questions which a See below, Lect. xviii. p. 338. ED. 312 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. are conversant about the immediate phsenomena of XVII '- activity. Of these, the first that I shall consider is one of considerable interest, and which, though variously tion, q Are determined by different philosophers, does not seem ly to lie beyond the sphere of observation. I allude to the question, Whether we are always consciously active \ Distinguish- It is evident that this question is not convertible otherques- with the question, Have we always a memory of our consciousness \ for the latter problem must be at once answered in the negative. It is also evident, that we must exclude the consideration of those states in which the mind is apparently without consciousness, but in regard to which, in reality, we can obtain no information from experiment. Concerning these we must be contented to remain in ignorance ; at least only to extend to them the analogical conclusions which our observations on those within the sphere of experiment warrant us inferring. Our question, as one of possible solution, must, therefore, be limited to the states of sleep and somnambulism, to the exclusion of those states of insensibility which we cannot ter- minate suddenly at will. It is hardly necessary to observe, that with the nature of sleep and somnam- bulism as psychological phaenomena, we have at pre- sent nothing to do ; our consideration is now strictly limited to the inquiry, Whether the mind, in as far as we can make it matter of observation, is always in a Treatment state of conscious activity. The general problem in Lnb^pht- regard to the ceaseless activity of the mind has been one agitated from very ancient times, but it has also been one on which philosophers have pronounced less pjato and on grounds of experience than of theory. Plato and a the Platonists were unanimous in maintaining the continual energy of intellect. The opinion of Aris- totle appears doubtful, and passages may be quoted LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 313 from his works in favour of either alternative. The LECT. Aristotelians, in general, were opposed, but a consider- - able number were favourable, to the Platonic doctrine. This doctrine was adopted by Cicero and St Augustin. ^^ te ' " Nunquam animus," says the former, " cogitatione et cicero and }> a IT i )) "^ Augus- motu vacuus esse potest. Ad quid menti, says tin. the latter, "praeceptum est, ut se ipsam cognoscat, nisi ut semper vivat, et semper sit in actu." The question, however, obtained its principal importance in the philosophy of Descartes. That philosopher Descartes. made the essence, the very existence, of the soul to consist in actual thought, 7 under which he included even the desires and feelings ; and thought he defined all of which we are conscious. 5 The assertion, there- fore, of Descartes, that the mind always thinks, is, in his employment of language, tantamount to the asser- tion that the mind is always conscious. That the mind is always conscious, though a funda- mental position of the Cartesian doctrine, was rather assumed, than proved by an appeal to fact and experi- ence. All is theoretical in Descartes ; all is theoreti- cal in his disciples. Even Malebranche assumes our Maie- consciousness in sleep, and explains our oblivion only by a mechanical hypothesis. 6 It was, therefore, easy for Locke to deny the truth of the Cartesian opinion, Locke. a De Divinatione, ii. 62 : "Natu- cogitet, et secundum naturam suam ram earn dico, qua nunquam animus vivat. " But in the De Anima et ejus insistens, agitatlone et motu ease va- Origiite, lib. iv. c. vi. 7, Opera, t cuus potest." ED. x. p. 391, (edit. Benedict.), occurs the Eugenios, i/xoAo7/a, p. 129. following explicit statement: " Sicut [Book iii. of his 2Tox'* TT)S Mtra- motus non cessat in corde, unde se (pirn*?)*, (edit. 1805). The reference pulsus diffundit usquequaque ven- in Eugenios is to De Trinitate, lib. x. arum, ita non quiescimus aliquid co- c. v., where a passage occurs, resem- gitando versare." ED.] bling in words the one quoted in the y Principia, pars i. 53. ED. text, but hardly supporting the doc- 8 Principia, pars i. 9. Cf. Reid's trine in question. It is as follows : IFbr)ts,(compl.ed.), p.961a,n. t. ED. " Ut quid ergo ei praeceptum est, ut se Recherche de la Verite, liv. iii. ipsam coguoscat ? Credo ut se ipsam ch. 2. ED. 314 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. and to give a strong semblance of probability to his - own doctrine by its apparent conformity with the phenomena. Omitting a good deal of what is either irrelevant to the general question, or what is now admitted to be false, as founded on his erroneous doc- trine of personal identity, the following is the sum of Locke's Locke's argument upon the point. " It is an opinion," for the he says, " that the soul always thinks, and that it has the actual perception of ideas in itself constantly, as long as it exists; and that actual thinking is as inseparable from the soul, as actual extension is from the body ; which, if true, to inquire after the begin- ning of a man's ideas, is the same as to inquire after the beginning of his soul. For by this account, soul and its ideas, as body and its extension, will begin to exist both at the same time. "But whether the soul be supposed to exist ante- cedent to, or coeval with, or some time after, the first rudiments, or organisation, or the beginnings of life in the body, I leave to be disputed by those who have better thought of that matter. I confess myself to have one of those dull souls that doth not perceive itself always to contemplate ideas ; nor can conceive it any more necessary for the soul always to think than for the body always to move : the perception of ideas being (as I conceive) to the soul, what motion is to the body ; not its essence, but one of its opera- tions. And, therefore, though thinking be supposed ever so much the proper action of the soul, yet it is not necessary to suppose that it should be always thinking, always in action. That perhaps is the privi- lege of the infinite Author and Preserver of things, who never slumbers nor sleeps ; but is not competent to any finite being, at least not to the soul of man. a Essay, book ii. chap. i. 9, 10, 14 et seq. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 315 We know certainly by experience that we sometimes LECT. think, and thence draw this infallible consequence, that there is something in us that has a power to think : but whether that substance perpetually thinks or no, we can be no further assured than experience informs us. For to say that actual thinking is es- sential to the soul and inseparable from it, is to beg what is in question, and not to prove it by reason ; which is necessary to be done if it be not a self- evident proposition. But whether this, ' that the soul always thinks/ be a self - evident proposition, that everybody assents to at first hearing, I appeal to mankind. It is doubted whether I thought all last night or no ; the question being about a matter of fact, it is begging it to bring as a proof for it an hypothesis which is the very thing in dispute ; by which way one may prove anything ; and it is but supposing that all watches, whilst the balance beats, think ; and it is sufficiently proved, and past doubt, that my watch thought all last night. But he that would not deceive himself, ought to build his hypo- thesis on matter of fact, and make it out by sensible experience, and not presume on matter of fact, be- cause of his hypothesis ; that is, because he supposes it to be so ; which way of proving amounts to this, that I must necessarily think all last night because another supposes I always think, though I myself cannot perceive that I always do so." . . . . "It will perhaps be said that 'the soul thinks even in the soundest sleep, but the memory retains it not/ That the soul in a sleeping man should be this moment busy a-thinking, and the next moment in a waking man not remember nor be able to recollect one jot of all those thoughts, is very hard to be conceived, and would need some better proof than bare assertion to 316 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. make it be believed. For who can, without any more XVII - ado but being barely told so, imagine that the greatest part of men do, during all their lives for several hours every day, think of something which, if they were asked even in the middle of these thoughts, they could remember nothing at all of? Most men, I think, pass a great part of their sleep without dreaming. I once knew a man that was bred a scholar and had no bad memory, who told me he had never dreamed in his life till he had that fever he was then newly recovered of, which was about the five or six and twentieth year of his age. I suppose the world affords more such instances ; at least every one's acquaintance will fur- nish him with examples enough of such as pass most of their nights without dreaming." .... And again, " If they say that a man is always conscious to himself of thinking ; I ask how they know it \ ' Con- sciousness is the perception of what passes in a man's own mind. Can another man perceive that I am con- scious of anything, when I perceive it not myself? No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experi- ence. Wake a man out of a sound sleep, and ask him what he was that moment thinking on. If he himself be conscious of nothing he then thought on, he must be a notable diviner of thoughts that can assure him that he was thinking : may he not with more reason assure him he was not asleep ? This is something be- yond philosophy ; and it cannot be less than revela- tion that discovers to another thoughts in my mind when I can find none there myself; and they must needs have a penetrating sight who can certainly see what I think when I cannot perceive it myself, and when I declare that I do not. This some may think to be a step beyond the Rosicrucians, it being easier to make one's self invisible to others, than to make LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 317 another's thoughts visible to one which are not visible LECT. XVII to himself. But it is but defining the soul to be ' a substance that always thinks/ and the business is done. If such definition be of any authority, I know not what it can serve for, but to make many men suspect that they have no souls at all, since they find a good part of their lives pass away without thinking. For no definitions that I know, no suppositions of any sect, are of force enough to destroy constant experi- ence ; and perhaps it is the affectation of knowing beyond what we perceive that makes so much useless dispute and noise in the world." This decision of Locke was rejected by Leibnitz in Locke's the New Essays on the Human Understanding* the posedTy great work in which he canvassed from beginning to end the Essay, under the same title, of the English philosopher. He observes, in reply to the supposition that continual consciousness is an attribute of Him ' who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth/ " that this af- fords no inference that in sleep we are wholly without perception." To the remark, "that it is difficult to conceive, that a being can think and not be conscious of thought," he replies, "that in this lies the whole knot and difficulty of the matter. But this is not in- soluble." "We must observe," he says, " that we think of a multitude of things at once, but take heed only of those thoughts that are the more prominent. Nor could it be otherwise. For were we to take heed of everything, it would be necessary to attend to an infin- ity of matters at the same moment, all of which make an effectual impression on the senses. Nay, I assert that there remains always something of all our past thoughts, that none is ever entirely effaced. Now, when we sleep without dreaming, and when stunned a Liv. ii. ch. 1. ED. 318 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. by a blow or other accident, there are formed in us XVII. an infinity of small confused perceptions/' And again he remarks : " That even when we sleep without dream- ing, there is always some feeble perception. The act of awakening, indeed, shows this : and the more easily we are aroused, the clearer is the perception we have of what passes without, although this perception is not always strong enough to cause us to awake." Now, in all this it will be observed, that Leibnitz does not precisely answer the question we have mooted. He maintains that the mind is never with- out perceptions, but, as he holds that perceptions exist without consciousness, he cannot, though he opposes Locke, be considered as affirming that the mind is never without consciousness during sleep, in short, Wolf. does always dream. The doctrine of Wolf on this point is the same with that of his master, though the Nouveaux Essais of Leibnitz were not published till long after the death of Wolf. Kant. But if Leibnitz cannot be adduced as categorically asserting that there is no sleep without its dream, this cannot be said of Kant. That great thinker dis- tinctly maintains that we always dream when asleep ; that to cease to dream would be to cease to live ; and that those who fancy they have not dreamt have only forgotten their dream./ 3 This is all that the manual of Anthropology, published by himself, contains upon the question ; but in a manuscript in my possession, which bears to be a work of Kant, but is probably only a compilation from notes taken at his lectures on Anthropology, it is further stated that we can dream more in a minute than we can act during a day, and that the great rapidity of the train of a Psychologia Rational, 59. ED. ft Anthropologie, 30, 36. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 319 thought in sleep, is one of the principal causes why LECT. we do not always recollect what we dream." He else- - where also observes that the cessation of a force to act, is tantamount to its cessation to be. Though the determination of this question is one The ques- that seems not extremely difficult, we find it dealt with withb yp hi- by philosophers, on the one side and the other, rather rather bj ...... . . 1 hypothesis by hypothesis than by experiment ; at least, we have, than by with one partial exception, which I am soon to quote to you, no observations sufficiently accurate and de- tailed to warrant us in establishing more than a very doubtful conclusion. I have myself at different times conclusion turned my attention to the point, and, as far as my r imn e ts pc observations go, they certainly tend to prove that, the Author. during sleep, the mind is never either inactive or wholly unconscious of its activity. As to the objec- Locke's as - tion of Locke and others, that, as we have often no that p c on n> 11 , r> ^ -i ,1 t> sciousness recollection 01 dreaming, we nave, therefore, never and the re- dreamt, it is sufficient to say that the assumption in ofconsdous- this argument, that consciousness, and the recollec- convertible, tion of consciousness, are convertible, is disproved in bythe ph- the most emphatic manner by experience. You have somnam- all heard of the phenomenon of somnambulism. In this remarkable state, the various mental faculties are usually in a higher degree of power than in the natural. The patient has recollections of what he has wholly forgotten. He speaks languages of which, when awake, he remembers not a word. If he use a vulgar dialect when out of this state, in it he em- ploys only a correct and elegant phraseology. The imagination, the sense of propriety, and the faculty of a The substance of this passage is by Stark e in 1831, from Kant's Lee- published in the Menschenkundt oder tares. See p. 164. ED. Philosophuche Anthropoloyie, edited 320 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. reasoning, are all in general exalted. The bodily - powers are in high activity, and under the complete control of the will ; and, it is well known, persons in this state have frequently performed feats, of which, when out of it, they would not even have imagined the possibility. And what is even more remarkable, the difference of the faculties in the two states seems not confined merely to a difference in degree. For it happens, for example, that a person who has no ear for music when awake, shall in his somnambulic crisis, sing with the utmost correctness and with full enjoy- ment of his performance. Under this affection per- sons sometimes live half their lifetime, alternating between the normal and the abnormal states, and per- forming the ordinary functions of life indifferently in both, with this distinction, that if the patient be dull and doltish when he is said to be awake, he is com- paratively alert and intelligent when nominally asleep. I am in possession of three works, written during the crisis by three different somnambulists.' 3 Now it is evident that consciousness, and an exalted conscious- ness, must be allowed in somnambulism. This cannot Conscious- possibly be denied, but mark what follows. It is ness with- T- /> IT i i i out memory the peculiarity oi somnambulism, it is the differential the charac- i i 1-11 i i -i teristicof quality by which that state is contradistinguished soi i in am- * i e -\ buiism. from the state oi dreaming, that we have no recollec- tion, when we awake, of what has occurred during its continuance. Consciousness is thus cut in two ; memory does not connect the train of consciousness in the one state with the train of consciousness in the other. When the patient again relapses into the state a For some interesting illustra- sect. iv. 2. ED. tions of this state, see Abercrombie, $ Of these works we have failed to On, the Intellectual Powers, part iii. discover any trace. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 321 of somnambulism, he again remembers all that had LECT. .X V Al, occurred during every former alternative of that state ; but he not only remembers this, he recalls also the events of his normal existence : so that whereas the patient in his somnambulic crisis, has a memory of his whole life, in his waking intervals he has a me- mory only of half his life. At the time of Locke, the phsenomena of somnam- Dreaming bulism had been very little studied ; nay, so great is without the ignorance that prevails in this country in regard m to its nature even now, that you will find this, its dis- tinctive character, wholly unnoticed in the best works upon the subject." But this distinction, you observe, is incompetent always to discriminate the states of dreaming and somnambulism. It may be true that if we recollect our visions during sleep, this recollec- tion excludes somnambulism, but the want of memory by no means proves that the visions we are known by others to have had, were not common dreams. The phenomena, indeed, do not always enable us to dis- criminate the two states. Somnambulism may exist in many different degrees. The sleep-walking from which it takes its name is only one of its higher phe- nomena, and one comparatively rare. In general, the subject of this affection does not leave his bed, and it is then frequently impossible to say whether the manifestations exhibited, are the phsenomena of som- nambulism or of dreaming. Talking during sleep, for example, may be a symptom of either, and it is often only from our general knowledge of the habits and predispositions of the sleeper, that we are warranted in referring this effect to the one and not to the other a This deficiency lias been ably Principle* of Human Physiology, supplied by Dr Carpenter. See his 827, (4th edition). ED. VOL. I. X 322 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. class of phenomena. We have, however, abundant XVII evidence to prove that forgetfulness is not a decisive criterion of somnambulism. Persons whom there is no reason to suspect of this affection, often manifest during sleep the strongest indications of dreaming, and yet, when they awaken in the morning, retain no memory of what they may have done or said during the night. Locke's argument, that because we do not always remember our consciousness during sleep, we have not, therefore, been always conscious, is thus, on the ground of fact and analogy, disproved. That the But this is not all. We can not only show that mum eon- the fact of the mind remaining conscious during sleep is possible, is even probable, we can also show, by an articulate experience, that this actually occurs. The following observations are the result of my personal experience, and similar experiments every one of you is competent to institute for himself. Results of In the first place, when we compose ourselves to personal ex- rest, we do not always fall at once asleep, but remain for a time in a state of incipient slumber, in a state intermediate between sleep and waking. Now, if we are gently roused from this transition-state, we find ourselves conscious of being in the commencement of a dream ; we find ourselves occupied with a train of thought, and this train we are still able to follow out to a point when it connects itself with certain actual perceptions. We can still trace imagination to sense, and show how, departing from the last sensible im- pressions of real objects, the fancy proceeds in its work of distorting, falsifying, and perplexing these, in order to construct out of their ruins its own grotesque edifices. In the second place, I have always observed, that LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 323 when suddenly awakened during sleep, (and to ascer- LECT. tain the fact I have caused myself to be roused at dif- - ferent seasons of the night), I have always been able to observe that I was in the middle of a dream. The recollection of this dream was not always equally vivid. On some occasions, I was able to trace it back until the train was gradually lost at a remote dis- tance ; on others, I was hardly aware of more than one or two of the latter links of the chain ; and, some- times, was scarcely certain of more than the fact, that I was not awakened from an unconscious state. Why we should not always be able to recollect our dreams, it is not difficult to explain. In our waking and our sleeping states, we are placed in two worlds of thought, not only different but contrasted, and contrasted- both in the character and in the intensity of their represen- tations. When snatched suddenly from the twilight of our sleeping imaginations, and placed in the meri- dian lustre of our waking perceptions, the necessary effect of the transition is at once to eclipse or obliterate the traces of our dreams. The act itself also of rous- ing us from sleep, by abruptly interrupting the cur- rent of our thoughts, throws us into confusion, disqua- lifies us for a time from recollection, and before we have recovered from our consternation, what we could at first have easily discerned is fled or flying. A sudden and violent is, however, in one respect, more favourable than a gradual and spontaneous wak- ening to the observation of the phsenomena of sleep. For in the former case, the images presented are fresh and prominent ; while in the latter, before our atten- tion is applied, the objects of observation have with- drawn darkling into the background of the soul. We may, therefore, I think, assert, in general, that whether 324 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LFCT. we recollect our dreams or not, we always dream. XVII Something similar, indeed, to the rapid oblivion of our sleeping consciousness, happens to us occasionally even when awake. When our mind is not intently occupied with any subject, or more frequently when fatigued, a thought suggests itself. We turn it lazily over and fix our eyes in vacancy; interrupted by the question what we are thinking of, we attempt to answer, but the thought is gone ; we cannot recall it, and say that we were thinking of nothing." General The observations I have hitherto made tend only from 8 to establish the fact, that the mind is never wholly in- active, and that we are never wholly unconscious of its activity. Of the degree and character of that acti- vity, I at present say nothing ; this may form the sub- ject of our future consideration. But in confirmation of the opinion I have now hazarded, and in proof of something more even than I have ventured to main- tain, I have great pleasure in quoting to you the sub- stance of a very remarkable essay on sleep by one of the most distinguished of the philosophers of France, jouffroy living when the extract was made, but now unfortu- confirm^ nately lost to the science of mind which he cultivated Arbor's e with most distinguished success. I referto M. Jouffroy, hfpnotot who, along with M. Royer Collard, was at the head of ScLioai. the pure school of Scottish Philosophy in France.^ The mind " I have never well understood those who admit awake wifen that in sleep the mind is dormant. When we dream, we are assuredly asleep, and assuredly also our mind is not asleep, because it thinks ; it is, therefore, mani- fest, that the mind frequently wakes when the senses are in slumber. But this does not prove that it never a Cf. Kant, Anthropologie, 30, ed. jS Melanges, p. 318, [p. 290, second 1838, ( 28, ed. 1810). ED. edition. ED.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 325 sleeps along with them. To sleep is for the mind not LECT. to dream ; and it is impossible to establish the fact, - that there are in sleep moments in which the mind does not dream. To have no recollection of our dreams, does not prove that we have not dreamt ; for it can be often proved that we have dreamt, although the dream has left no trace on our memory. " The fact, then, that the mind sometimes wakes Probable while the senses are asleep, is thus established; whereas mLi i s e the fact, that it sometimes sleeps along with them, is not : the probability, therefore, is, that it wakes always. It would require contradictory facts to destroy the force of this induction, which, on the contrary, every fact seems to confirm. I shall proceed to analyse some of these which appear to me curious and striking. They manifestly imply this conclusion, that the mind, during sleep, is not in a peculiar state, but that its activity is carried on precisely as when awake. " When an inhabitant of the province comes to Paris, induction his sleep is at first disturbed, and continually broken, support 'of by the noise of the carriages passing under his window. S ion. con He soon, however, becomes accustomed to the turmoil, and ends by sleeping at Paris as he slept in his village. " The noise, however, remains the same, and makes an equal impression on his senses ; how comes it that this noise at first hinders, and then, at length, does not hinder, him from sleeping ? " The state of waking presents analogous facts. Every one knows that it is difficult to fix our atten- tion on a book, when surrounded by persons engaged in conversation ; at length, however, we acquire this faculty. A man unaccustomed to the tumult of the streets of Paris is unable to think consecutively while walking through them ; a Parisian finds no difficulty. 326 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. He meditates as tranquilly in the midst of the crowd XVII and bustle of men and carriages, as he could in the centre of the forest. The analogy between these facts taken from the state of waking, and the fact which I mentioned at the commencement, taken from the state of sleep, is so close, that the explanation of the former should throw some light upon the latter. We shall attempt this explanation. Analysis " Attention is the voluntary application of the mind and expla- .. _. ITI-II i nation of to an object, it is established, by experience, that we cannot give our attention to two different objects at and Di'strac- the same time. Distraction (Stre distrait) is the re- moval of our attention from a matter with which we are engaged, and our bestowal of it on another which crosses us. In distraction, attention is only diverted because it is attracted by a new perception or idea, soliciting it more strongly than that with which it is occupied; and this diversion diminishes exactly in proportion as the solicitation is weaker on the part of the intrusive idea. All experience proves this. The more strongly attention is applied to a subject, the less susceptible is it of distraction ; thus it is, that a book which awakens a lively curiosity, retains the attention captive ; a person occupied with a matter affecting his life, his reputation, or his fortune, is not easily distracted ; he sees nothing, he understands nothing of what passes around him ; we say that he is deeply preoccupied. In like manner, the greater our curiosity, or the more curious the things that are spoken of around us, the less able are we to rivet our attention on the book we read. In like manner, also, if we are waiting in expectation of any one, the slightest noises occasion distraction, as these noises may be the signal of the approach we anticipate. All LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 327 these facts tend to prove that distraction results only LECT. XVII when the intrusive idea solicits us more strongly than - that with which we are occupied. " Hence it is that the stranger in Paris cannot think in the bustle of the streets. The impressions which assail his eyes and ears on every side being for him the signs of things new or little known, when they reach his mind interest him more strongly than the matter even to which he would apply his thoughts. Each of these impressions announces a cause which may be beautiful, rare, curious, or terrific ; the intel- lect cannot refrain from turning out to verify the fact. It turns out, however, no longer when experience has made it familiar with all that can strike the senses on the streets of Paris; it remains within, and no longer allows itself to be deranged. "The other admits of a similar explanation. To read without distraction in the midst of an unknown company, would be impossible. Curiosity would be too strong. This would also be the case if the sub- ject of conversation were very interesting. But in a familiar circle, whose ordinary topics of conversation are well known, the ideas of the book make an easy conquest of our thoughts. "The will, likewise, is of some avail in resisting distraction. Not that it is able to retain the attention when disquieted and curious ; but it can recall, and not indulge it in protracted absences, and, by con- stantly remitting it to the object of its volition, the interest of this object becomes at last predominant. Rational considerations, and the necessity of remain- ing attentive, likewise exert an influence ; they come in aid of the idea, and lend it, so to speak, a helping hand in concentrating on it the attention. 328 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. " But, howsoever it may be with all these petty in- fluences, it remains evident that distraction and non- distraction are neither of them matters of sense, but both matters of intelligence. It is not the senses which ' become accustomed to hear the noises of the street and the sounds of conversation, and which end in being less affected by them ; if we are at first vehemently affected by the noises of the street or drawing-room, and then little or not at all, it is because at first attention occupies itself with these impressions, and afterwards neglects them : when it neglects them it is not diverted from its object, and distraction does not take place ; when, on the contrary, it accords them notice, it abandons its object, and is then distracted. " We may observe, in support of this conclusion, that the habit of hearing the same sounds renders us some- times highly sensible to these, as occurs in savages and in the blind ; sometimes, again, almost insensible to them, as exemplified in the apathy of the Parisian for the noise of carriages. If the effect were physical,' if it depended on the body and not on the mind, there would be a contradiction, for the habit of hearing the same sounds either blunts the organ or sharpens it ; it could not at once have two, and two contrary, effects, it could have only one. The fact is, it neither blunts nor sharpens ; the organ remains the same ; the same sensations are determined : but when these sen- sations interest the mind, it applies itself to them, and becomes accustomed to their discrimination ; when they do not interest it, it becomes accustomed to ne- glect, and does not discriminate them. This is the whole mystery; the phsenomenon is psychological, not physiological. " Let us now turn our attention to the state of sleep, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 329 and consider whether analogy does not demand a LECT. similar explanation of the fact which we stated at the commencement. What takes place when a noise hinders us from sleeping ? The body fatigued begins to slumber ; then, of a sudden, the senses are struck, and we awake; then fatigue regains the ascendant, we relapse into drowsiness, which is soon again inter- rupted ; and so on for a certain continuance. When, on the contrary, we are accustomed to noise, the im- pressions it makes no longer disturb our first sleep ; the drowsiness is prolonged, and we fall asleep. That the senses are more torpid in sleep than in our waking state, is not a matter of doubt. But when I am once asleep, they are then equally torpid on the first night of my arrival in Paris as on the hundredth. The noise being the same, they receive the same impressions, which they transmit in equal vivacity to the mind. Whence comes it, then, that on the first night I am awakened, and not on the hundredth ? The physical facts are identical ; the difference can originate only in the mind, as in the case of distraction and of non- distraction in the waking state. Let us suppose that the soul has fallen asleep along with the body; on this hypothesis, the slumber would be equally deep, in both cases, for the mind and for the senses, and we should be unable to see why, in the one case, it was aroused more than in the other. It remains, therefore, certain that it does not sleep like the body; and that, in the one case, disquieted by unusual impressions, it awakens the senses to inquire what is the matter ; whilst in the other, knowing by experience of what external fact these impressions are the sign, it remains tranquil, and does not disturb the senses to obtain a useless explanation. 330 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. " For let us remark, that the mind has need of the senses to obtain a knowledge of external things. In sleep, the senses are some of them closed, as the eyes ; the others half torpid, as touch and hearing. If the soul be disquieted by the impressions which reach it, it requires the senses to ascertain the cause, and to relieve its inquietude. This is the cause why we find ourselves in a disquieted state, when aroused by an extraordinary noise ; and this could not have occurred had we not been occupied with this noise before we awoke. " This is, also, the cause why we sometimes feel, during sleep, the efforts we make to awaken our senses, when an unusual noise or any painful sensation dis- turbs our rest. If we are in a profound sleep, we are for a long time agitated before we have it in our power to awake, we say to ourselves, we must awake in order to get out of pain ; but the sleep of the senses resists, and it is only by little and little that we are able to rouse them from torpidity. Sometimes, when the noise ceases before the issue of the struggle, the awakening does not take place, and, in the morning, we have a confused recollection of having been dis- turbed during our sleep, a recollection which becomes distinct only when we learn from others that such and such an occurrence has taken place while we were asleep. illustrated " I had given orders some time ago, that a parlour - adjoining to my bedroom should be swept before I was called in the morning. For the first two days the noise awoke me ; but, thereafter, I was not aware of it. Whence arose the difference ? The noises are the same and at the same hour ; I am in the same degree of slumber; the same sensations, consequently, take LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 331 place. Whence comes it that I awoke, and do no LECT. longer awake ? For this, it appears to me, there is - but one explanation, viz. that my mind which wakes, and which is now aware of the cause of these sensa- tions, is no longer disquieted, and no longer rouses my senses. It is true that I do not retain the recollection of this reasoning ; but this oblivion is not more extra- ordinary than that of so many others which cross our mind both when awake and when asleep. " I add a single observation. The noise of the brush on the carpet of my parlour is as nothing compared with that of the heavy waggons which pass under my windows at the same hour, and which do not trouble my repose in the least. I was, therefore, awakened by a sensation much feebler than a crowd of others, which I received at the same time. Can that hypothesis afford the reason, which supposes that the awakening is a necessary event; that the sensations rouse the senses, and that the senses rouse the mind ? It is evident that my mind alone, and its activity, can explain why the fainter sensation awoke me ; as these alone can explain why, when I am reading in my study, the small noise of a mouse playing in a corner can distract my attention, while the thunder- ing noise of a passing waggon does not affect me at all. " The same explanation fully accounts for what Experience occurs with those who sleep in attendance on the sick, tenduton All noises foreign to the patient have no effect on them ; but let the patient turn him on his bed, let him utter a groan or sigh, or let his breathing become painful or interrupted, forthwith the attendant awakes, however little inured to the vocation, or interested in the welfare of the patient. Whence comes this dis- 332 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. crimination between the noises which deserve the XVII ' attention of the attendant, and those which do not, if, whilst the senses are asleep, the mind does not re- main observant, does not act the sentinel, does not consider the sensations which the senses convey, and does not awaken the senses as it finds these sensations disquieting or not 1 It is by being strongly impressed, previous to going to sleep, with the duty of attending to the respiration, motions, complaints of the sufferer, that we come to waken at all such noises, and at no others. The habitual repetition of such an impression gives this faculty to professional sick-nurses ; a lively interest in the health of the patient gives it equally to the members of his family. Awaking at " It is in precisely the same manner that we waken ed hour." 1 at the appointed hour, when before going to sleep we have made a firm resolution of so doing. I have this power in perfection ; but I notice that I lose it if I depend on any one calling me. In this latter case, my mind does not take the trouble of measuring the time or of listening to the clock. But in the former, it is necessary that it do so, otherwise the phseno- menon is inexplicable. Every one has made, or can make, this experiment ; when it fails it will be found, if I mistake not, either that we have not been suffi- ciently preoccupied with the intention, or were over- fatigued ; for when the senses are strongly benumbed, they convey to the mind, on the one hand, more ob- tuse sensations of the monitory sounds, and, on the other, they resist for a longer time the efforts the mind makes to awaken them, when these sounds have reached it. " After a night passed in this effort, we have, in general, the recollection, in the morning, of having been LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 333 constantly occupied during sleep with this thought. LECT. The mind, therefore, watched, and, full of its resolu- - tion, awaited the moment. It is thus that when we go to bed much interested with any subject, we re- member, on wakening, that during sleep we have been continually haunted by it. On these occasions the slumber is light, for, the mind being untranquil, its agitation is continually disturbing the torpor of the senses. When the mind is calm, it does not sleep more, but it is less restless. " It would be curious to ascertain, whether persons of a feeble memory, and of a volatile disposition, are not less capable than others of awakening at an ap- pointed hour ; for these two circumstances ought to produce this effect, if the notion I have formed of the phaenomenon be correct. A volatile disposition is unable strongly to preoccupy itself with the thought, and to form a determined resolution ; and, on the other hand, it is the memory which preserves a recol- lection of the resolution taken before falling asleep. I have not had an opportunity of making the experi- ment. " It appears to me, that from the previous observa- General . . . , , conclusions. tions, it inevitably follows : 1, That in sleep the senses are torpid, but that the mind wakes. 2, That certain of our senses continue to transmit to the mind the imperfect sensations they receive. 3, That the mind judges these sensations, and that it is in virtue of its judgments that it awakens, or does not awaken, the senses. 4, That the reason why the mind awakens the senses is, that sometimes the sensation disquiets it, being unusual or painful ; that sometimes the sensa- 334 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. tion warns it to rouse the senses, as being an indica- tion of the moment when it ought to do so. 5, That the mind possesses the power of awaken- ing the senses, but that it only accomplishes this by its own activity overcoming their torpor; that this torpor is an obstacle, an obstacle greater or less as it is more or less profound. " If these inferences are just, it follows that we can waken ourselves at will and at appointed signals ; that the instrument called an alarum (reveil-matin) does not act so much by the noise it makes as by the association we have established in going to bed be- tween the noise and the thought of wakening ; that, therefore, an instrument much less noisy, and emitting only a feeble sound, would probably produce the same effect. It follows, moreover, that we can inure our- selves to sleep profoundly in the midst of the loudest noises ; that to accomplish this it is perhaps sufficient, on the first night, to impress it on our minds that these sounds do not deserve attention, and ought not to waken us ; and that by this mean, any one may probably sleep as well in the mill as the miller him- self. It follows, in fine, that the sleep of the strong and courageous ought to be less easily disturbed, all things equal, than the sleep of the weak and timid. Some historical facts may be quoted in proof of this last conclusion." I shall not quote to you the observations of M. Jouffroy on Eeverie," which form a sequel, and a con- the pitman firmation of those he has made upon sleep. Before terminating this subject, I may, however, notice a rather curious case which occurs to my recollection, and which tends to corroborate the theory of the a See Melanges, p. 304 et seq. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 335 French psychologist. I give it on the authority of Junker," a celebrated physician and professor of Halle, who flourished during the first half of last century, and he says that he took every pains to verify the facts by frequent personal observation. I regret that I am enable at the moment to find the book in which the case is recorded, but of all its relevant circum- stances I have a vivid remembrance. The object of observation was the postman between Halle and a town, I forget which, some eight miles distant. This distance the postman was in the habit of traversing daily. A considerable part of his way lay across a district of unenclosed champaign meadow-land, and in walking over this smooth surface the postman was generally asleep. But at the termination of this part of his road, there was a narrow foot-bridge over a stream, and to reach this bridge it was necessary to ascend some broken steps. Now, it was ascertained as completely as any fact of the kind could be, the observers were shrewd, and the object of observation was a man of undoubted probity, I say, it was com- pletely ascertained : 1, That the postman was asleep in passing over this level course ; 2, That he held on his way in this state without deflection towards the bridge ; and, 3, That just before arriving at the bridge, he awoke. But this case is not only deserving of all credit from the positive testimony by which it is vouched ; it is also credible as only one of a class of analogous cases which it may be adduced as repre- senting. This case, besides showing that the mind must be active though the body is asleep, shows also that certain bodily functions may be dormant, while a Qedanken vom Schlafe, Halle, buck der Psychologic, p. 28-9. 1746, p. 7. See Tiedemann, Hand- ED. 336 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. others are alert. The locomotive faculty was here in XVII. exercise, while the senses were in slumber. This sug- gests to me another example of the same phsenomenon. Case of It is found in a story told by Erasmus in one of his letters, concerning his learned friend Oporinus, the celebrated professor and printer of Basle. Oporinus was on a journey with a bookseller; and, on their road, they had fallen in with a manuscript. Tired with their day's travelling, travelling was then almost exclusively performed on horseback, they came at nightfall to their inn. They were, however, curious to ascertain the contents of their manuscript, and Opori- nus undertook the task of reading it aloud. This he continued for some time, when the bookseller found it necessary to put a question concerning a word which he had not rightly understood. It was now discovered that Oporinus was asleep, and being awakened by his companion, he found that he had no recollection of what for a considerable time he had been reading. Most of you, I daresay, have known or heard of similar occurrences, and I do not quote the anecdote as anything remarkable. But, still, it is a case con- curring with a thousand others to prove, 1, That one bodily sense or function may be asleep while another is awake ; and, 2, That the mind may be in a certain state of activity during sleep, and no memory of that activity remain after the sleep has ceased. The first is evident ; for Oporinus, while reading, must have had his eyes and the muscles of his tongue and fauces awake, though his ears and other senses were asleep ; and the second is no less so, for the act of reading o This story is told by Felix Pla- mas Platerus. See Bohn, Noctam- terus (Observationes, lib. i. p. 11). bulatio ; (Haller, Disputationes ad The person to whom Oporinus read, Morborum Hist, et Curat., t. vii. p. was the father of the narrator, Tho- 443.) ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 337 supposed a very complex series of mental energies. I LECT. may notice, by the way, that physiologists have ob served, that our bodily senses and powers do not fall asleep simultaneously, but in a certain succession. We all know that the first symptom of slumber is the relaxation of the eyelids ; whereas, hearing continues alert for a season after the power of vision has been dormant. In the case last alluded to, this order was, however, violated ; and the sight was forcibly kept awake while the hearing had lapsed into torpidity. In the case of sleep, therefore, so far is it from being proved that the mind is at any moment uncon- scious, that the result of observation would incline us to the opposite conclusion. VOL. I. 338 LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS. LECTUEE XVIII. CONSCIOUSNESS, GENERAL PHENOMENA, IS THE MIND EVER UNCONSCIOUSLY MODIFIED ? LECT. I PASS now to a question in some respects of still XVIII more proximate interest to the psychologist than that S-CTunam* discussed in the preceding Lecture ; for it is one !S 8l ? ymo ~ which, according as it is decided, will determine the character of our explanation of many of the most important phsenomena in the philosophy of mind, and, in particular, the great phenomena of Memory and Association. The question I refer to is, Whether the mind exerts energies, and is the subject of modifica- tions, of neither of which it is conscious. This is the most general expression of a problem which has hardly been mentioned, far less mooted, in this coun- try ; and when it has attracted a passing notice, the supposition of an unconscious action or passion of the mind has been treated as something either unintelli- gible, or absurd. In Germany, on the contrary, it has not only been canvassed, but the alternative which the philosophers of this country have lightly considered as ridiculous, has been gravely established as a conclusion which the phaenomena not only war- rant, but enforce. The French philosophers, for a long time, viewed the question in the same light as the British. Condillac, indeed, set the latter the LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 339 example ; tt but of late a revolution is apparent, and LECT. two recent French psychologists have marvellously - propounded the doctrine, long and generally estab- lished in Germany, as something new and unheard of before their own assertion of the paradox. This question is one not only of importance, but of difficulty ; I shall endeavour to make you understand its purport by arguing it upon broader grounds than has hitherto been done, and shall prepare you, by some preliminary information, for its discussion. I shall first of all adduce some proof of the fact, that the mind may, and does, contain far more latent furniture than . Three de- consciousness informs us it possesses. To simplify grees of the discussion, I shall distinguish three degrees ofiat*ncy. this mental latency. In the first place, it is to be remembered that the The first riches, the possessions, of our mind, are not to be measured by its present momentary activities, but by the amount of its acquired habits. I know a science, or language, not merely while I make a temporary use of it, but inasmuch as I can apply it when and how I will. Thus the infinitely greater part of our spiritual treasures, lies always beyond the sphere of consciousness, hid in the obscure recesses of the mind. This is the first degree of latency. In regard to this, there is no difficulty, or dispute ; and I only take it into account in order to obviate misconception, and because it affords a transition towards the other two degrees which it conduces to illustrate. The second degree of latency exists when the mind The second, contains certain systems of knowledge, or certain a E**al gur TOrvjinc des Cannois- $ Cardailfec and Damiron. See anc< Httmaine*, Sect ii. ch. 1, below, p. 363. Eu. 4-13. ED. 340 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. habits of action, which it is wholly unconscious of XVIII - possessing in its ordinary state, but which are revealed to consciousness in certain extraordinary exaltations of its powers. The evidence on this point shows that the mind frequently contains whole systems of know- ledge, which, though in our normal state they have faded into absolute oblivion, may, in certain abnormal states, as madness, febrile delirium, somnambulism, catalepsy, &c., flash out into luminous consciousness, and even throw into the shade of unconsciousness those other systems by which they had, for a long period, been eclipsed and even extinguished. For example, there are cases in which the extinct me- mory of whole languages was suddenly restored, and, what is even still more remarkable, in which the faculty was exhibited of accurately repeating, in known or unknown tongues, passages which were never within the grasp of conscious memory in the normal state. This degree, this phaenomenon, of latency, is one of the most marvellous in the whole compass of philosophy, and the proof of its reality will prepare us for an enlightened consideration, of the third, of which the evidence, though not less certain, is not equally obtrusive. But, however re- markable and important, this phaenomenon has been almost wholly neglected by psychologists," and the cases which I adduce in illustration of its reality have never been previously collected and applied. That in madness, in fever, in somnambulism, and other abnor- mal states, the mind should betray capacities and ex- tensive systems of knowledge, of which it was at other a These remarks wp*e probably Powers. He collects some very written before the publication of curious instances, see p. 314, 10th Abercrombie, On the Intellectual edition. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 341 times wholly unconscious, is a fact so remarkable that LECT. XVIII it may well demand the highest evidence to establish - its truth. But of such a character is the evidence which I am now to give you. It consists of cases reported by the most intelligent and trustworthy ob- servers, by observers wholly ignorant of each other's testimony ; and the phsenomena observed were of so palpable and unambiguous a nature that they could not possibly have been mistaken or misinterpreted. The first, and least interesting, evidence I shall Evidence __ -i'-if t ( -\ ... from cases adduce, is derived irom cases ot madness; it is given of madness. by a celebrated American physician, Dr Eush. " The records of the wit and cunning of madmen," says Dr Rush, "are numerous in every country. Talents for eloquence, poetry, music, and painting, and uncommon ingenuity in several of the mechanical arts, are often evolved in this state of madness. A gentleman, whom I attended in an hospital in the year 1810, often delighted as well as astonished the patients and officers of our hospital by his displays of oratory, in preaching from a table in the hospital yard every Sunday. A female patient of mine who became insane, after parturition, in the year 1807, sang hymns and songs of her own composition during the latter stage of her illness, with a tone of voice so soft and pleasant that I hung upon it with delight every time I visited her. She had never discovered a talent for poetry or music, in any previous part of her life. Two instances of a talent for drawing, evolved by madness, have occurred within my knowledge. And where is the hospital for mad people, in which elegant and completely rigged ships, and curious pieces of machinery, have not been exhibited by persons who never discovered the least turn for a mechanical art, 342 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. previously to their derangement \ Sometimes we ob- 1_ serve in mad people an unexpected resuscitation of knowledge ; hence we hear them describe past events, and speak in ancient or modern languages, or repeat long and interesting passages from books, none of which, we are sure, they were capable of recollecting in the natural and healthy state of their mind." c From cases The second class of cases are those of fever; and the first I shall adduce is given on the authority of the patient himself. This is Mr Flint, a very intelli- gent American clergyman. I take it from his Recol- lections of the Valley of the Mississippi. He was travelling in the State of Illinois, and suffered the common lot of visitants from other climates, in being taken down with a bilious fever. " I am aware/' he remarks, " that every sufferer in this way is apt to think his own case extraordinary. My physicians agreed with all who saw me that my case was so. As very few live to record the issue of a sickness like mine, and as you have requested me, and as I have promised, to be particular, I will relate some of the circumstances of this disease. And it is in my view desirable, in the bitter agony of such diseases, that more of the symptoms, sensations, and sufferings should have been recorded than have been ; and that others in similar predicaments may know, that some before them have had sufferings like theirs, and have survived them. I had had a fever before, and had risen, and been dressed every day. But in this, with the first day I was prostrated to infantine weakness, and felt, with its first attack, that it was a thing very different from what I had yet experienced. Paroxysms of derangement occurred the third day, and this was o Beasley, On the Mind, p. 474 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 343 to me a new state of mind. That state of disease in LECT. which partial derangement is mixed with a conscious - ness generally sound, and a sensibility preternaturally excited, I should suppose the most distressing of all its forms. At the same time that I was unable to recognise my friends, I was informed that my memory was more than ordinarily exact and retentive, and that I repeated whole passages in the different lan- guages which I knew, with entire accuracy. I recited, without losing or misplacing a word, a passage of poetry which I could not so repeat after I recovered my health." The following more curious case, is given by Lord case of the Monboddo in his Antient Metaphysics? La a f. sse " It was communicated in a letter from the late Mr Hans Stanley, a gentleman well known both to the learned and political world, who did me the honour to correspond with me upon the subject of my first volume of metaphysics. I will give it in the words of that gentleman. He introduces it, by saying, that it is an extraordinary fact in the history of mind, which he believes stands single, and for which he does not pretend to account. Then he goes on to narrate it : ' About six-and- twenty years ago, when I was in France, I had an intimacy in the family of the late Mare'chal de Montmorenci de Laval. His son, the Comte de Laval, was married to Mademoiselle de Maupeaux, the daughter of a Lieutenant-General of that name, and the niece of the late Chancellor. This gentleman was killed at the battle of Hastenbeck ; his widow survived him some years, but is since dead. " ' The following fact comes from her own mouth. She has told it me repeatedly. She was a woman of o Vol. ii. p. 217. 344 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. perfect veracity, and very good sense. She appealed - to her servants and family for the truth. Nor did she, indeed, seem to be sensible that the matter was so extraordinary as it appeared to me. I wrote it down at the time ; and I have the memorandum among some of my papers. " ' The Comtesse de Laval had been observed, by servants who sate up with her on account of some indisposition, to talk in her sleep a language that none of them understood; nor were they sure, or, indeed, herself able to guess, upon the sounds being repeated to her, whether it was or was not gibberish. " ' Upon her lying in of one of her children, she was attended by a nurse, who was of the province of Brittany, and who immediately knew the meaning of what she said, it being in the idiom of the natives of that country; but she herself, when awake, did not understand a single syllable of what she had uttered in her sleep, upon its being retold her. " ' She was born in that province, and had been nursed in a family where nothing but that language was spoken ; so that, in her first infancy, she had known it, and no other ; but, when she returned to her parents, she had no opportunity of keeping up the use of it ; and, as I have before said, she did not understand a word of Breton when awake, though she spoke it in her sleep. " ' I need not say that the Comtesse de Laval never said or imagined that she used any words of the Breton idiom, more than were necessary to express those ideas that are within the compass of a child's knowledge of objects/" &c. Case given A highly interesting case is given by Mr Coleridge ridge? e in his Biographia Literaria* a Vol. i. p. 117, (edit. 1847). LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 345 " It occurred," says Mr Coleridge, " in a Eoman LECT. Catholic town in Germany, a year or two before my - arrival at Gottingen, and had not then ceased to be a frequent subject of conversation. A young woman of four or five and twenty, who could neither read nor write, was seized with a nervous fever ; during which, according to the asseverations of all the priests and monks of the neighbourhood, she became possessed, and, as it appeared, by a very learned devil. She con- tinued incessantly talking Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in very pompous tones, and with most distinct enun- ciation. This possession was rendered more probable by the known fact that she was or had been a heretic. Voltaire humorously advises the devil to decline all acquaintance with medical men ; and it would have been more to his reputation, if he had taken this ad- vice in the present instance. The case had attracted the particular attention of a young physician, and by his statement many eminent physiologists and psy- chologists visited the town, and cross-examined the case on the spot. Sheets full of her ravings were taken down from her own mouth, and were found to consist of sentences, coherent and intelligible each for itself, but with little or no connection with each other. Of the Hebrew, a small portion only could be traced to the Bible, the remainder seemed to be in the Eab- binical dialect. All trick or conspiracy was out of the question. Not only had the young woman ever been a harmless, simple creature ; but she was evidently labouring under a nervous fever. In the town, in which she had been resident for many years as a ser- vant in different families, no solution presented itself. The young physician, however, determined to trace her past life step by step ; for the patient herself was incapable of returning a rational answer. He at length 346 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. succeeded in discovering the place where her parents XVIII. had lived : travelled thither, found them dead, but an uncle surviving ; and from him learned that the pa- tient had been charitably taken by an old Protestant pastor at nine years old, and had remained with him some years, even till the old man's death. Of this pastor the uncle knew nothing, but that he was a very good man. With great difficulty, and after much search, our young medical philosopher discovered a niece of the pastor's who had lived with him as his housekeeper, and had inherited his effects. She re- membered the girl ; related that her venerable uncle had been too indulgent, and could not bear to hear the girl scolded ; that she was willing to have kept her, but that, after her patron's death, the girl herself re- fused to stay. Anxious inquiries were then, of course, made concerning the pastor's habits ; and the solu- tion of the phenomenon was soon obtained. For it appeared that it had been the old man's custom, for years, to walk up and down a passage of his house into which the kitchen-door opened, and to read to himself, with a loud voice, out of his favourite books. A considerable number of these were still in the niece's possession. She added, that he was a very learned man, and a great Hebraist. Among the books were found a collection of Kabbinical writings, to- gether with several of the Greek and Latin fathers ; and the physician succeeded in identifying so many passages with those taken down at the young woman's bedside, that no doubt could remain in any rational mind concerning the true origin of the impressions made on her nervous system." erai a fa!ft en These cases thus evince the general fact that a mental modification is not proved not to be, merely LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 347 because consciousness affords us no evidence of its ex- LECT. istence. This general fact being established, I now proceed to consider the question in relation to the degree of third class or degree of latent modifications, a class in relation to, and on the ground of which alone, it has ever hitherto been argued by philosophers. The problem, then, in regard to this class is, Are The P rob- there, in ordinary, mental modifications, i.e. mental gard to this activities and passivities, of which we are unconscious, stated! but which manifest their existence by effects of which we are conscious ? I have thus stated the question, because this ap- TO he con- i i . (, . -i . i . sidered in pears to me the most unambiguous lorm in which it itself, and i n -i T i n i ' n ' ks I" 8 " can be expressed ; and in treating 01 it, 1 shall, in the tory. first place, consider it in itself, and, in the second place, in its history. I adopt this order, because the principal difficulties which affect the problem arise from the equivocal and indeterminate language of philosophers. These it is obviously necessary to avoid in the first instance ; but having obtained an insight into the question itself, it will be easy, in a subse- quent historical narrative, to show how it has been per- plexed and darkened by the mode in which it has been handled by philosophers. I request your attention to this matter, as in the solution of this general problem is contained the solution of several important ques- tions, which will arise under our consideration of the special faculties. It is impossible, however, at the present stage of our progress, to exhibit all, or even the strongest part of, the evidence for the alternative which I adopt ; and you must bear in mind that there is much more to be said in favour of this opinion than what I am able at present to adduce to you. In the question proposed, I am not only strongly 348 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. inclined to the affirmative, nay, I do not hesitate to XVIII maintain, that what we are conscious of is constructed out of what we are not conscious of, that our whole Maintained, knowledge, in fact, is made up of the unknown and the incognisable. TO the affir- This at first sight may appear not only paradox- objections, ical, but contradictory. It may be objected, 1, How can we know that to exist which lies beyond the one condition of all knowledge, consciousness 1 And 2, How can knowledge arise out of ignorance, conscious- ness out of unconsciousness, the cognisable out of the incognisable, that is, how can one opposite pro- ceed out of the other ? The first In answer to the first objection, How can we objection , i/i-i i obviated, know that oi wkich. we are unconscious, seeing that consciousness is the condition of knowledge 1 it is enough to allege, that there are many things which we neither know nor can know in themselves, that is, in their direct and immediate relation to our facul- ties of knowledge, but which manifest their existence indirectly through the medium of their effects. This The mental is the case with the mental modifications in question ; tionsin they are not in themselves revealed to consciousness, manifest but as certain facts of consciousness necessarily sup- ence e3 pose them to exist and to exert an influence in the thdrdfects. mental processes, we are thus constrained to admit as modifications of mind, what are not in themselves Established pheenomena of consciousness. The truth of this will nature of be apparent, if, before descending to any special illus- CODSC10US- . '1,1 noss itself.; tration, we consider that consciousness cannot exist independently of some peculiar modification of mind ; we are only conscious as we are conscious of a de- terminate state. To be conscious, we must be con- scious of some particular perception, or remembrance, LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 349 or imagination, or feeling, &c. ; we have no general LECT. consciousness. But as consciousness supposes a special - mental modification as its object, it must be remem- bered, that this modification or state supposes a change, a transition from some other state or modi- fication. But as the modification must be present, before we have a consciousness of the modification, it is evident that we can have no consciousness of its rise or awakening; for its rise or awakening is also the rise or awakening of consciousness. But the illustration of this is contained in an answer The second to the second objection which asks, How can know- ledge come out of ignorance, consciousness out of unconsciousness, the known out of the unknown, how can one opposite be made up of the other ? In the removal of this objection, the proof of the The special thesis which I support is involved. And without the affinna r dealing in any general speculation, I shall at once g'Jne descend to the special evidence which appears to me, not merely to warrant, but to necessitate, the conclu- sion, that the sphere of our conscious modifications is only a small circle in the centre of a far wider sphere of action and passion, of which we are only conscious through its effects. Let us take our first example from Perception, i. External the perception of external objects, and in that faculty, let us commence with the sense of sight. Now, you i.The sense . * i i of Sight. either already know, or can be at once informed, what it is that has obtained the name of Minimum Visibile. Minimum ~r T /. . ,,...-. Visibile. You are ot course aware, in general, that vision is the result of the rays of light, reflected from the surface of objects to the eye ; a greater number of rays is reflected from a larger surface ; if the superficial ex- tent of an object, and, consequently, the number of 350 LECTUKES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. the rays which it reflects, be diminished beyond a certain limit, the object becomes invisible ; and the minimum visibile is the smallest expanse which can be seen, which can consciously affect us, which we can be conscious of seeing. This being understood, it is plain that if we divide this minimum visibile into two parts, neither half can, by itself, be an object of vision, or visual consciousness. They are, severally and apart, to consciousness as zero. But it is evident that each half must, by itself, have produced in us a certain modification, real though unperceived ; for as the perceived whole is nothing but the union of the unperceived halves, so the perception, the perceived affection itself of which we are conscious/ is only the sum of two modifications, each of which severally eludes our consciousness. When we look at a distant forest, we perceive a certain expanse of green. Of this as an affection of our organism, we are clearly and distinctly conscious. Now, the expanse of which we are conscious is evidently made up of parts of which we are not conscious. No leaf, perhaps no tree, may be separately visible. But the greenness of the forest is made up of the greenness of the leaves ; that is, the total impression of which we are conscious, is made up of an infinitude of small impressions of which we are not conscious. 2. sense of Take another example, from the sense of hearing. Minimum In this sense, there is, in like manner, a Minimum Audibile, that is, a sound the least which can come into perception and consciousness. But this mini- mum audibile is made up of parts which severally affect the sense, but of which affections, separately, we are not conscious, though of their joint result we are. We must, therefore, here likewise admit the reality of LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 351 modifications beyond the sphere of consciousness. To LECT. XVIII. take a special example. When we hear the distant murmur of the sea, what are the constituents of the total perception of which we are conscious 1 This murmur is a sum made up of parts, and the sum would be as zero if the parts did not count as some- thing. The noise of the sea is the complement of the noise of its several waves ; Tf KVfjidrwv and if the noise of each wave made no impression on our sense, the noise of the sea, as the result of these impressions, could not be realised. But the noise of each several wave, at the distance we suppose, is inaudible ; we must, however, admit that they pro- duce a certain modification, beyond consciousness, on the percipient subject ; for this is necessarily involved in the reality of their result. The same is equally the 3. The other i i 1 1 / i i senses. case in the other senses : the taste or smell 01 a dish, be it agreeable or disagreeable, is composed of a mul- titude of severally imperceptible effects, which the stimulating particles of the viand cause on different points of the nervous expansion of the gustatory and olfactory organs ; and the pleasant or painful feel- ing of softness or roughness is the result of an infin- ity of unfelt modifications, which the body handled determines on the countless papillae of the nerves of touch/ Let us now take an example from another mental n. Associ- process. We have not yet spoken of what is called ' the Association of Ideas ; and it is enough for our a ^Eschylus, Prometheus, 1. 89. Avant-Propos, p. 8-9, (ed. Raspe) ; ED. and lib. ii. c. i. 9 See Leibnitz, Nouveaux Estate, 352 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. present purpose that you should be aware, that one thought suggests another in conformity to certain determinate laws, laws to which the succession of our whole mental states are subjected. Now it some- times happens, that we find one thought rising im- mediately after another in consciousness, but whose consecution we can reduce to no law of association. Now in these cases we can generally discover by an attentive observation, that these two thoughts, though not themselves associated, are each associated with certain other thoughts ; so that the whole consecution would have been regular, had these intermediate thoughts come into consciousness, between the two which are not immediately associated. Suppose, for instance, that A, B, C, are three thoughts, that A and C cannot immediately suggest each other, but that each is associated with B, so that A will naturally suggest B, and B naturally suggest C. Now it may happen, that we are conscious of A, and immediately thereafter of C. How is the anomaly to be explained ? It can only be explained on the principle of latent modifica- tions. A suggests C, not immediately, but through B ; but as B, like the half of the 'minimum visibile or minimum audibile, does not rise into consciousness, we are apt to consider it as non-existent. You are pro- bably aware of the following fact in mechanics. If a number of billiard balls be placed in a straight row and touching each other, and if a ball be made to strike, in the line of the row, the ball at one end of the series, what will happen ? The motion of the im- pinging ball is not divided among the whole row ; this, which we might a priori have expected, does not happen, but the impetus is transmitted through the intermediate balls which remain each in its place, to LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 353 the ball at the opposite end of the series, and this ball LECT. XVIII. alone is impelled on. Something like this seems often to occur in the train of thought. One idea mediately suggests another into consciousness, the suggestion passing through one or more ideas which do not them- selves rise into consciousness. The awakening and awakened ideas here correspond to the ball striking and the ball struck off; while the intermediate ideas of which we are unconscious, but which carry on the suggestion, resemble the intermediate balls which remain moveless, but communicate the impulse. An instance of this occurs to me with which I was recently struck. Thinking of Ben Lomond, this thought was immediately followed by the thought of the Prussian system of education. Now, conceivable connection between these two ideas in themselves, there was none. A little reflection, however, explained the anomaly. On my last visit to the mountain, I had met upon its summit a German gentleman, and though I had no consciousness of the intermediate and unawak- ened links between Ben Lomond and the Prussian schools, they were undoubtedly these, the German, Germany, Prussia, and, these media being admitted, the connection between the extremes was manifest. I should perhaps reserve for a future occasion, Stewart's noticing Mr Stewart's explanation of this phaeno- "the!! TT i . ii i' i nomenon of menon. Me admits that a perception or idea may Associate pass through the mind without leaving any trace in ducLu the memory, and yet serve to introduce other ideas connected with it by the laws of association. Mr Stewart can hardly be said to have contemplated the possibility of the existence and agency of mental a EUmentg, part i. chap, ii.; Works, vol. ii. pp. 121, 122. VOL. I. 'A 354 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. modifications of which, we are unconscious. He grants XVIII. the necessity of interpolating certain intermediate ideas, in order to account for the connection of thought, which could otherwise be explained by no theory of association; and he admits that these intermediate ideas are not known by memory to have actually intervened. So far, there is no difference in the two doctrines. But now comes the separation. Mr Stewart supposes that the intermediate ideas are, for an instant, awakened into consciousness, but, in the same moment, utterly forgot ; whereas, the opinion I would prefer, holds that they are efficient without rising into consciousness. Mr Stewart's doctrine on Difficulties this point is exposed to all the difficulties, and has doctrine, none of the proofs in its favour, which concur in establishing the other. 1. Assumes In the first place, to assume the existence of acts sciousness of consciousness of which there is no memory beyond there is no the moment of existence, is at least as inconceivable memory. - . 1 _ ... _, - 2. violates an hypothesis as the other. J3ut, in the second place, ofcon n S cious- it violates the whole analogy of consciousness, which the other does not. Consciousness supposes memory; and we are only conscious as we are able to con- nect and contrast one instance of our intellectual existence with another. Whereas, to suppose the existence and efficiency of modifications beyond con- sciousness, is not at variance with its conditions ; for consciousness, though it assures us of the reality of what is within its sphere, says nothing against the 3. Presump- reality of what is without. In the third place, it is vour of la- demonstrated, that, in perception, there are modifica- tions, efficient, though severally imperceptible ; why, therefore, in the other faculties, should there not like- wise be modifications, efficient, though unapparent ? LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 355 In the fourth place, there must be some reason for LECT. xvm the assumed fact, that there are perceptions or ideas - of which we are conscious, but of which there is no memory. Now, the only reason that can possibly be assigned is that the consciousness was too faint to afford the condition of memory. But of conscious- ness, however faint, there must be some memory, however short. But this is at variance with the phaenomenon, for the ideas A and C may precede and follow each other without any perceptible interval, and without any the feeblest memory of B. If there be no memory, there could have been no conscious- ness ; and, therefore, Mr Stewart's hypothesis, if strictly interrogated, must, even at last, take refuge in our doctrine ; for it can easily be shown, that the degree of memory is directly in proportion to the de- gree of consciousness, and, consequently, that an abso- lute negation of memory is an absolute negation of consciousness. Let us now turn to another class of phsenomena, in. 9ur which in like manner are capable of an adequate Dexterities explanation only on the theory I have advanced ; I mean the operations resulting from our acquired Dexterities and Habits. To explain these, three theories have been advanced. TO explain The first regards them as merely mechanical or auto- theories ad- -i i i . -. i 11 vanceil. matic, and thus denying to the mind all active or The first, voluntary intervention, consequently removes them beyond the sphere of consciousness. The second, The second, again, allows to each several motion a separate act of conscious volition ; while the third, which I would The third. maintain, holds a medium between these, constitutes the mind the agent, accords to it a conscious volition over the series, but denies to it a consciousness and 356 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. deliberate volition in regard to each separate move- A V 1 11. ment in the series which it determines. The first The first of these has been maintained, among or mechan- ical theory, others, by two philosophers who. in other points. maintained by Reid and a re not frequently at one, by Reid and Hartley. " Habit," says Reid, " differs from instinct, not in its nature, but in its origin ; the latter being natural, the former acquired. Both operate without will or inten- tion, without thought, and therefore may be called mechanical principles." In another passage, he ex- presses himself thus : " I conceive it to be a part of our constitution, that what we have been accustomed to do, we acquire not only a facility but a proneness to do on like occasions ; so that it requires a par- ticular will or effort to forbear it, but to do it requires very often no will at all/'' 3 The same doctrine is laid down still more explicitly by Dr Hartley. " Suppose," says he, " a person, who has a perfectly voluntary command over his fingers, to begin to learn to play on the harpsichord. The first step is to move his fingers, from key to key, with a slow motion, looking at the notes, and exerting an express act of volition in every motion. By degrees the motions cling to one another, and to the im- pressions of the notes, in the way of association, so often mentioned ; the acts of volition growing less and less express all the time, till, at last, they become evanescent and imperceptible. For an expert per- former will play from notes, or ideas laid up in the memory, and at the same time carry on a quite differ- ent train of thoughts in his mind; or even hold a conversation with another. Whence we conclude, that a Active Powers, Essay iii., part i. ft Ibid. chap. 3; Works, p. 550. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 357 there is no intervention of the idea, or state of mind LECT. called will/' Cases of this sort Hartley calls " transi- 1 tions of voluntary actions into automatic ones.'" The second theory is maintained against the first by The second Mr Stewart ; and I think his refutation valid, though maintained, i- r> T 11 i i )) validlv as not his confirmation. i cannot help thinking it, against the he says, " more philosophical to suppose that those Stewart, actions which are originally voluntary always continue so, although, in the case of operations which are be- come habitual in consequence of long practice, we may not be able to recollect every different volition. Thus, in the case of a performer on the harpsichord, I appre- hend that there is an act of the will preceding every motion of every finger, although he may not be able to recollect these volitions afterwards, and although he may, during the time of his performance, be em- ployed in carrying on a separate train of thought. For it must be remarked, that the most rapid performer can, when he pleases, play so slowly as to be able to attend to, and to recollect, every separate act of his will in the various movements of his fingers ; and he can gradually accelerate the rate of his execution till he is unable to recollect these acts. Now, in this in- stance, one of two suppositions must be made. The one is, that the operations in the two cases are carried on precisely in the same manner, and differ only in the degree of rapidity; and that when this rapidity ex- ceeds a certain rate, the acts of the will are too mo- mentary to leave any impression on the memory. The other is, that when the rapidity exceeds a certain rate, the operation is taken entirely out of our hands, and is carried on by some unknown power, of the nature of which we are as ignorant as of the cause of the cir- a VoL i. pp. 108, 109. [Observations on Man, prop, xxl ED.] 358 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. culation of the blood, or of the motion of the intestines. XVIII '- The last supposition seems to me to be somewhat similar to that of a man who should maintain, that although a body projected with a moderate velocity is seen to pass through all the intermediate spaces in moving from one place to another, yet we are not en- titled to conclude that this happens when the body moves so quickly as to become invisible to the eye. The former supposition is supported by the analogy of many other facts in our constitution. Of some of these I have already taken notice, and it would be easy to add to the number. An expert accountant, for example, can sum up, almost with a single glance of his eye, a long column of figures. He can tell the sum with unerring certainty, while at the same time he is unable to recollect any one of the figures of which that sum is composed ; and yet nobody doubts that each of these figures has passed through his mind, or supposes that when the rapidity of the process becomes so great that he is unable to recollect the various steps of it, he obtains the result by a sort of inspiration. This last supposition would be perfectly analogous to Dr Hartley's doctrine concerning the nature of our habitual exertions. " The only plausible objection which, I think, can be offered to the principles I have endeavoured to estab- lish on this subject, is founded on the astonishing and almost incredible rapidity they necessarily sup- pose in our intellectual operations. When a person, for example, reads aloud, there must, according to this doctrine, be a separate volition preceding the articu- lation of every letter ; and it has been found by actual trial, that it is possible to pronounce about two thou- sand letters in a minute. Is it reasonable to suppose LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 359 that the mind is capable of so many different acts in LECT. . XVIII. an interval of time so very inconsiderable ? " With respect to this objection it may be observed, in the first place, that all arguments against the fore- going doctrine with respect to our habitual exertions, in so far as they are founded on the inconceivable rapidity which they suppose in our intellectual ope- rations, apply equally to the common doctrine con- cerning our perception of distance by the eye. But this is not all. To what does the supposition amount which is considered as so incredible ? Only to this, that the mind is so formed as to be able to carry on certain intellectual processes in intervals of time too short to be estimated by our faculties ; a supposition which, so far from being extravagant, is supported by the analogy of many of our most certain conclusions in natural philosophy. The discoveries made by the microscope have laid open to our senses a world of wonders, the existence of which hardly any man would have admitted upon inferior evidence ; and have gra- dually prepared the way for those physical specula- tions, which explain some of the most extraordinary phsenomena of nature by means of modifications of matter far too subtile for the examination of our organs. Why, then, should it be considered as unphilosophical, after having demonstrated the existence of various in- tellectual processes which escape our attention in con- sequence of their rapidity, to carry the supposition a little farther, in order to bring under the known laws of the human constitution a class of mental operations which must otherwise remain perfectly inexplicable ? Surely our ideas of time are merely relative, as well as our ideas of extension ; nor is there any good reason for doubting that, if our powers of attention and me- 360 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. mory were more perfect than they are, so as to give us the same advantage in examining rapid events, which the microscope gives for examining minute portions of extension, they would enlarge our views with respect to the intellectual world, no less than that instrument has with respect to the material." This doctrine of Mr Stewart, that our acts of Stewart's knowledge are made up of an infinite number of acts theory al- ,.. ready shown of attention, that is, of various acts of concentrated to involve . , - consciousness, there being required a separate act 01 attention for every minimum possible of knowledge, I have already shown you, by various examples, to But here involve contradictions. In the present instance, its specially refuted. admission would constrain our assent to the most monstrous conclusions. Take the case of a person reading. Now, all of you must have experienced, if ever under the necessity of reading aloud, that, if the matter be uninteresting, your thoughts, while you are going on in the performance of your task, are wholly abstracted from the book and its subject, and you are perhaps deeply occupied in a train of serious medita- tion. Here the process of reading is performed without interruption, and with the most punctual accuracy ; and, at the same time, the process of meditation is car- ried on without distraction or fatigue. Now, this, on Mr Stewart's doctrine, would seem impossible, for what does his theory suppose ? It supposes that separate acts of concentrated consciousness or attention, are bestowed on each least movement in either process. But be the velocity of the mental operations what it may, it is impossible to conceive how transitions be- tween such contrary operations could be kept up for a continuance without fatigue and distraction, even if a Elements, vol. i. chap. ii. ; Works, vol. ii. p. 127-131. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 361 we throw out of account the fact that the acts of at- LECT. XVJII tention to be effectual must be simultaneous, which - on Mr Stewart's theory is not allowed. We could easily give examples of far more complex operations ; but this, with what has been previously said, I deem sufficient to show, that we must either resort to the first theory, which, as nothing but the assumption of an occult and incomprehensible prin- ciple, in fact explains nothing, or adopt the theory that there are acts of mind so rapid and minute as to elude the ken of consciousness. I shall now say something of the history of this History of . ,, T i i the doctrine opinion. It is a curious tact that Locke, m the passage of uncon- T , f> -i -i i scious men- 1 read to you a few days ago, attributes this opinion tai mo unphilosopmcal, because, in the first place, it assumes an occult, an incomprehensible principle, to enable us to comprehend the effect. In the second place, ad- mitting the agency of the mind in accomplishing the series of movements before the habit or dexterity is formed, it afterwards takes it out of the hands of the mind, in order to bestow it upon another agent. This hypothesis thus violates the two great laws of philo- sophising, to assume no occult principle without necessity, to assume no second principle without necessity. This doctrine was held by Eeid, Hartley, and others. The theory The second hypothesis, which Mr Stewart adopts, of con- . , , , . T sdousness is at once complex and contradictory. It supposes a Memory, consciousness and no memory. In the first place, in this it is altogether hypothetical, it cannot advance a shadow of proof in support of the fact which it assumes, that an act of consciousness does or can take place without any, the least, continuance in memory. In the second place, this assumption is disproved by the whole analogy of our intellectual nature. It is a Dew and * law of mind, that the intensity of the present conscious- STSSeT ness determines the vivacity of the future memory. other" e c Memory and consciousness are thus in the direct ratio LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 369 of each other. On the one hand, looking from cause to LECT. effect, vivid consciousness, long memory; faint con sciousness, short memory; no consciousness, no me- mory : and, on the other, looking from effect to cause, long memory, vivid consciousness ; short memory, faint consciousness ; no memory, no consciousness. Thus, the hypothesis which postulates consciousness without memory, violates the fundamental laws of our intellectual being. But, in the third place, this hypo- thesis is not only a psychological solecism, it is, like- wise, a psychological pleonasm ; it is at once illegiti- mate and superfluous. As we must admit, from the analogy of perception, that efficient modifications may exist without any consciousness of their existence, and as this admission affords a solution of the present pro- blem, the hypothesis in question here again violates the law of parcimony, by assuming without necessity a plurality of principles to account for what one more easily suffices. The third hypothesis, then, that which employs The theory the single principle of latent agencies to account for shown"^ i / . i i 11 explain the so numerous a class ot mental phaeDomena, how does phenomena it explain the phsenomenon under consideration ? No- Ln ' of Mind or Person. This consists in the assurance we have, from consciousness, that our thinking Ego, not- withstanding the ceaseless changes of state or modifi- cation, of which it is the subject, is essentially the same thing, the same person, at every period of its exist- ence. On this subject, laying out of account certain subordinate differences in the mode of stating the fact, philosophers, in general, are agreed. Locke, a in the Essay on the Human Understanding; Leibnitz/ in the Nouveaux Essais; Butler, 7 and Eeid, 5 are particularly worthy of attention. In regard to this deliverance of consciousness, the truth of which is of vital importance, affording, as it does, the basis of moral responsibility and hope of immortality, it is, like the last, denied by Kant to afford a valid ground of scientific certainty. a Book ii. c. 27, especially 9 et Identity. ED. scq. ED. 8 Intell. Powers, Essay iii. cc. 4, ft Liv. ii. c. 27. ED. 6; Works, pp. 334-46, 350-53. y Analogy, Diss. i. Of Personal ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 375 He maintains that there is no cogent proof of the sub- LECT. stantial permanence of our thinking self, because the feeling of identity is only the condition under which thought is possible. Kant's doubt in regard to the present fact is refuted in the same manner as his doubt in regard to the preceding, and there are also a num- ber of special grounds on which it can be shown to be untenable. But of these at another time. We have now terminated the consideration of Con- sciousness as the general faculty of thought, and as the only instrument and only source of Philosophy. But before proceeding to treat of the Special Faculties, The P ecu- r . r . . liar difficul- it may be proper here to premise some observations in ties and fa- relation to the peculiar Difficulties and peculiar Facili- psvchoiogi- ties which we may expect in the application of con- gation. sciousness to the study of its own phenomena. I shall first speak of the difficulties. The first difficulty in psychological observation arises i. DifBcui- from this, that the conscious miad is at once the ob- 1. The con- - . i t i i i TITI i sc i ous mind serving subject and the object observed. What are the at once the f i o T i f -i t i observing consequences 01 this ( In the first place, the mental subject and energy, instead of being concentrated, is divided, and observed. divided in two divergent directions. The state of mind observed, and the act of mind observing, are mutually in an inverse ratio ; each tends to annihilate the other. Is the state to be observed intense, all reflex observation is rendered impossible; the mind cannot view as a spectator, it is wholly occupied as an agent or patient. On the other hand, exactly in proportion as the mind concentrates its force in the act of reflective observation, in the same proportion must the direct phaenomenon lose in vivacity, and consequently, in the precision and individuality of its 376 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. character. This difficulty is manifestly insuperable in those states of mind, which, of their very nature, as suppressing consciousness, exclude all contemporaneous and voluntary observation, as in sleep and fainting. In states like dreaming, which allow at least of a me- diate, but, therefore, only of an imperfect, observation, through recollection, it is not altogether exclusive. In all states of strong mental emotion, the passion is itself to a certain extent a negation of the tranquil- lity requisite for observation, so that we are thus impaled on the awkward dilemma, either we possess the necessary tranquillity for observation, with little or nothing to observe, or there is something to observe, but we have not the necessary tranquillity for obser- vation. All this is completely opposite in our obser- vation of the external world. There the objects lie always ready for our inspection; and we have only to open our eyes and guard ourselves from the use of hypotheses and green spectacles, to carry our obser- vations to an easy and successful termination." 2. Want of In the second place, in the study of external nature, mutual co- n . operation, several observers may associate themselves in the pur- suit; and it is well known how co-operation and mutual sympathy preclude tedium and languor, and brace up the faculties to their highest vigour. Hence the old proverb, unus homo, nullus homo. " As iron," says Solomon, " sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the understanding of his friend."' 3 " In my opinion," says Plato, 7 " it is well expressed by Homer, ' By mutual confidence and mutual aid Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made ;' a [Cf. Biunde, Versuch einer syste- ft Proverbs, xxvii. 17. The autho- matischen Behandlung der empirisch- rised version is countenance. ED. en Psychologie, i. p. 55.] 7 Protagoras, p. 348. ED. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 377 for if we labour in company, we are always more LECT. T 1 Ai.JL prompt and capable for the investigation of any hidden - matter. But if a man works out anything by solitary meditation, he forthwith goes about to find some one with whom he may commune, nor does he think his discovery assured until confirmed by the acquiescence of others." Aristotle," in like manner, referring to the same passage of Homer, gives the same solution. " Social operation," he says, "renders us more ener- getic both in thought and action ; " a sentiment which is beautifully illustrated by Ovid,^ " Scilicet ingeniis aliqua est concordia junctis, Et servat studii fcedera quisque sui. Utque meis numeris tua dat facundia nervos, Sic venit a nobis in tua verba nitor." Of this advantage the student of Mind is in a great measure deprived. He who would study the internal world must isolate himself in the solitude of his own thought ; and for man, who, as Aristotle observes, 7 is more social by nature than any bee or ant, this isola- tion is not only painful in itself, but, in place of strengthening his powers, tends to rob them of what maintains their vigour, and stimulates their exertion. In the third place, " In the study of the material 3 No fact universe, it is not necessary that each observer should of " J ness can be himself make every observation. The phsenomena acce p'j ed at J second- are here so palpable and so easily described, that the hand - experience of one observer suffices to make the facts which he has witnessed intelligible and credible to all. In point of fact, our knowledge of the external world is taken chiefly upon trust. The phaenomena of the a Eth, Nvc. viii. 1. Cf. ibid., he. ED. 9. ED. y Polit., i. 2. ED. /3 Epist. ex Ponto, ii. v. 59, 69. 378 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. internal world, on the contrary, are not thus capable - of being described ; all that the first observer can do is to lead others to repeat his experience : in the science of mind, we can believe nothing upon autho- rity, take nothing upon trust. In the physical sciences, a fact viewed in different aspects and in different cir- cumstances, by one or more observers of acknowledged sagacity and good faith, is not only comprehended as clearly by those who have not seen it for themselves, but is also admitted without hesitation, independently of all personal verification. Instruction thus suffices to make it understood, and the authority of the testi- mony carries with it a certainty which almost pre- cludes the possibility of doubt. " But this is not the case in the philosophy of mind. On the contrary, we can here neither understand nor believe at second-hand. Testimony can impose no- thing on its own authority ; and instruction is only instruction when it enables us to teach ourselves. A fact of consciousness, however well observed, however clearly expressed, and however great may be our con- fidence in its observer, is for us as nothing, until, by an experience of our own, we have observed and re- cognised it ourselves. Till this be done we cannot comprehend what it means, far less admit it to be true. Hence it follows that, in philosophy proper, instruction is limited to an indication of the position in which the pupil ought to place himself, in order by his own observation to verify for himself the facts which his instructor pronounces true." In the fourth place, the phsenomena of consciousness are not arrested during observation, they are in a ceaseless and rapid flow; each state of mind is in- a Cardaillac, Etudes de Philosophic, i. p. 6. LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 379 divisible, but for a moment, and there are not two LECT. XIX states or two moments of whose precise identity we - can be assured. Thus, before we can observe a modi- fication, it is already altered ; nay, the very intention of observing it, suffices for the change. It hence re- sults that the phenomenon can only be studied through its reminiscence ; but memory reproduces it often very imperfectly, and always in lower vivacity and memor y- precision. The objects of the external world, on the other hand, either remain unaltered during our ob- servation, or can be renewed without change ; and we can leave off at will and recommence our investi- gation without detriment to its result." In the fifth place, " The phsenoniena of the mental 5. Presented world are not, like those of the material, placed by cession. 8UC the side of each other in space. They want that form by which external objects attract and fetter our atten- tion ; they appear only in rows on the thread of time, occupying their fleeting moment, and then vanishing into oblivion ; whereas, external objects stand before us steadfast, and distinct, and simultaneous, in all the life and emphasis of extension, figure, and colour." In the sixth place, the perceptions of the different 6. Naturally qualities of external objects are decisively discrimi- each other, nated by different corporeal organs, so that colour, presented in sound, solidity, odour, flavour, are, in the sensations c themselves, contrasted, without the possibility of con- fusion. In an individual sense, on the contrary, it is not always easy to draw the line of separation be- tween its perceptions, as these are continually running into each other. Thus red and yellow are, in their a [Ancillon, Nouv. Melanges, t. ii. /3 [Biunde, Paydiologie, vol. i. p. p. 102. Cardaillac, Etudes de Phi- 56.] loa., L pp. 3, 4.] 380 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. extreme points, easily distinguished, but the transition ' point from one to the other is not precisely deter- mined. Now, in our internal observation, the mental phaenomena cannot be discriminated like the percep- tions of one sense from the perceptions of another, but only like the perceptions of the same. Thus the phenomenon of feeling, of pleasure or pain, and the phenomenon of desire, are, when considered in their remoter divergent aspects, manifestly marked out and contradistinguished as different original modifica- tions ; whereas, when viewed on their approximating side, they are seen to slide so insensibly into each other, that it becomes impossible to draw between them any accurate line of demarcation. Thus the various quali- ties of our internal life can be alone discriminated by a mental process called Abstraction ; and abstraction is exposed to many liabilities of error. Nay, the various mental operations do not present themselves distinct and separate ; they are all bound up in the same unity of action ; and as they are only possible through each other, they cannot, even in thought, be dealt with as isolated and apart. In the perception of an external object, the qualities are, indeed, likewise presented by the different senses in connection, as, for example, vinegar is at once seen as yellow^ felt as liquid, tasted as sour, and so on ; nevertheless, the qualities easily allow themselves in abstraction to be viewed as really separable, because they are all the properties of an extended and divisible body ; where- as in the mind, thoughts, feelings, desires do not stand separate, though in juxtaposition, but every mental act contains at once all these qualities, as the constituents of its indivisible simplicity. In the seventh place, the act of reflection on our LECTUEES ON METAPHYSICS. 381 internal modifications is not accompanied with that LECT. frequent and varied sentiment of pleasure, which we experience from the impression of external things. ? The act * t & of reflection Self-observation costs us a greater effort, and has less not accom - i P anied w 'th excitement than the contemplation of the material the frequent and varied world; and the higher and more refined gratification sentiment of pleasure, which it supplies when its habit has been once formed, which w . , experience cannot be conceived by those who have not as yet from the > i a impression been trained to its enjoyment. " The first part of our of external life is fled before we possess the capacity of reflective observation ; while the impressions which, from earliest infancy, we receive from material objects, the wants of our animal nature, and the prior development of our external senses, all contribute to concentrate, even from the first breath of life, our attention on the world without. The second passes without our caring to observe ourselves. The outer life is too agreeable to allow the soul to tear itself from its gratifications, and return frequently upon itself. And at the period when the material world has at length palled upon the senses, when the taste and the desire of reflection gradually become predominant, we then find ourselves, in a certain sort, already made up, and it is impossible for us to resume our life from its commencement, and to discover how we have become what we now are."' 3 "Hitherto external objects have exclusively riveted our attention ; our organs have acquired the flexi- bility requisite for this peculiar kind of observation ; we have learned the method, acquired the habit, and feel the pleasure which results from performing what we perform with ease. But let us recoil upon our- selves ; the scene changes ; the charm is gone ; diffi- a [Biunde, Psychologic, L p. 56.] ii. p. 103.] /3 [Ancillon, Nouv. Mtlanyts, t. 382 LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. LECT. culties accumulate, all that is done is done irksomely and with effort ; in a word, everything within repels, everything without attracts ; we reach the age of man- hood without being taught another lesson than read- ing what takes place without and around us, whilst we possess neither the habit nor the method of study- ing the volume of our own thoughts/" " For a long time, we are too absorbed in life to be able to detach ourselves from it in thought ; and when the desires and the feelings are at length weakened or tranquil- lised, when we are at length restored to ourselves, we can no longer judge of the preceding state, because we can no longer reproduce or replace it. Thus it is that our life, in a philosophical sense, runs like water through our fingers. We are carried along, lost, whelmed in our life ; we live, but rarely see ourselves to live. " The reflective Ego, which distinguishes self from its transitory modifications, and which separates the spectator from the spectacle of life, which it is con- tinually representing to itself, is never developed in the majority of mankind at all, and even in the thoughtful and reflective few, it is formed only at a mature period, and is even then only in activity by starts and at intervals." ^ ii. The fa- But Philosophy has not only peculiar difficulties, it phiiosophi- has also peculiar facilities. There is indeed only one tudy ' external condition on which it is dependent, and that is language ; and when, in the progress of civilisation, a language is once formed of a copiousness and pliability capable of embodying its abstractions with- out figurative ambiguity, then a genuine philosophy a [Cardaillac, Etudes de Philoso; [Ancillon, Nouv. Melanges, t. ii. pUe, t. i. p. 3.] pp. 103, 104, 105.] LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS. 383 may commence. With this one condition all is given ; LECT. the Philosopher requires for his discoveries no pre- - liminary preparations, no apparatus of instruments and materials. He has no new events to seek as the Historian ; no new combinations to form as the Mathe- matician. The Botanist, the Zoologist, the Mineralo- gist, can accumulate only by care, and trouble, and expense, an inadequate assortment of the objects neces- sary for their labours and observations. But that most important and interesting of all studies of which man himself is the object, has no need of anything external ; it is only necessary that the observer enter into his inner self in order to find there all he stands in need of, or rather it is only by doing this that he can hope to find anything at all. If he only effec- tively pursue the method of observation and analysis, he may even dispense with the study of philosophical systems. This is at best only useful as a mean to- wards a deeper and more varied study of himself, and is often only a tribute paid by philosophy to erudi- tion." a [Cf. Fries, Logtic, 126, p. 587 I 'Etude de la Philosophic, t. L, Disc, (edit. 1819). Thurot, Introduction d Prel p. 35.] APPENDIX. I. A. FKAGMENT ON ACADEMICAL HONOUKS (1836). (See Vol. I. p. 18.) BEFORE commencing the Lecture of to-day, I would occupy a few minutes with a matter in which I am confident you generally feel an interest ; I refer to the Academical Honours to be awarded to those who approve their zeal and ability in the business of the Class. After what I formerly had occasion to say, I conceive it wholly unnecessary now to attempt any proof of the fact, that it is not by anything done by others for you, but by what alone you do for yourselves, that your intellectual improvement must be de- termined. Beading and listening to Lectures are only profitable, inasmuch as they afford you the means and the occasions of exert- ing your faculties ; for these faculties are only developed in pro- portion as they are exercised. This is a principle I take for granted. A second fact, I am assured you will also allow me to assume, is, that although strenuous energy is the one condition of all improvement, yet this energy is, at first and for a long time, comparatively painful. It is painful, because it is imperfect. But as it is gradually perfected, it becomes gradually more pleasing, and when finally perfect, that is, when its power is fully devel- oped, it is purely pleasurable ; for pleasure is nothing but the concomitant or reflex of the unforced and unimpeded energy of a faculty or habit, the degree of pleasure being always in propor- tion to the degree of such energy. The great problem in education is, therefore, how to induce the pupil to undertake and go through with a course of exertion, in its result good and even agreeable, but immediately and in itself, irksome. There is no royal road to learning. " The gods," says Epicharmus," " sell us everything for a Xenophon, Memorabilia, ii. 1. 20. ED. VOL. I. 2 B 386 APPENDIX. toil ; " and the curse inherited from Adam, that in the sweat of his face man should eat his bread, is true of every human acquisi- tion. Hesiod, not less beautifully than philosophically, sings of the painful commencement, and the pleasant consummation, of virtue, in the passage of which the following is the commencement : Trjs 8' 'Aptrrjs ISpura Oeol irpoira.poiQfv %9i)Ka.v 'AOdvaror " (a passage which, it will be recollected, Milton has not less beauti- fully imitated) ; and the Latin poet has, likewise, well expressed the principle, touching literary excellence in particular : "Gaudent sudoribus artes Et sua difficilem reddunt ad limina cursum."7 But as the pain is immediate, while the profit and the pleasure are remote, you will grant, I presume, without difficulty, a third fact, that the requisite degree and continuance of effort can only be insured, by applying a stimulus to counteract and overcome the repressive effect of the feeling with which the exertion is for a season accompanied. A fourth fact will not be denied, that emu- lation and the love of honour constitute the appropriate stimulus in education. These affections are of course implanted in man for the wisest purposes ; arid, though they may be misdirected, the inference from the possibility of their abuse to the absolute inexpediency of their employment, is invalid. However dis- guised, their influence is universal : "Ad has se Romanus, Graiusque, et Barbarus induperator Erexit : causas discriminis atque laboris Inde habuit ; " 5 and Cicero shrewdly remarks, that the philosophers themselves prefix their names to the very books they write on the contempt of glory. 6 These passions actuate most powerfully the noblest minds. " Optimos mortalium/'f says the father of the Senate to Tiberius, " Optimos mortalium altissiina cupere : contemptu famae contemni a Opera et Dies, 287. ED. 7 B. Manttianus, Carmen de suscepto Sir W. Hamilton here probably Theologico Magisterio, Opera, Ant- refers to the lines in Lycidas, verpiae, 1576, torn. i. p. 174. ED. " Fame is the spur that the clear spirit 5 Juvenal, Sat.,ji. 138. ED. doth raise," &c f Pro Archia, c. 11. ED. ED. C Tacitus, Ann., iv. 38. ED. APPENDIX. 387 virtutes." " NaturaY' says Seneca, " gloriosa est virtus, et anteire priores cupit ; " and Cicero,^ in more proximate reference to our immediate object, " Honor alit artes omnesque incenduntur ad studia gloria"." But, though their influence be universal, it is most powerfully conspicuous in the young, of whom Aristotle has noted it as one of the most discriminating characteristics, that they are lovers of honour, but still more lovers of victory. 7 If, there- fore, it could be but too j ustly proclaimed of man in general : " Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam, Prsemia si tollas ? " 8 it was least of all to be expected that youth should do so. " In learning," says the wisdom of Bacon, " the flight will be [low and] slow without some feathers of ostentation." c Nothing, therefore, could betray a greater ignorance of human nature, or a greater negligence in employing the most efficient mean within its grasp, than for any seminary of education to leave unapplied these great promoting principles of activity, and to take for granted that its pupils would act precisely as they ought, though left with every inducement strong against, and without any sufficient motive in favour of, exertion. Now, I express, I believe, the universal sentiment, both within and without these walls, in saying, that this University has been unhappily all too remiss, in leaving the most powerful mean of academical education nearly, if not altogether, unemployed. You will observe I use the term University in contradiction to indivi- dual Professors, for many of these have done much in this re- spect, and all of them, I believe, are satisfied that a great deal more ought to be done. But it is not in the power of individual instructors to accomplish what can only be accomplished by the public institution. The rewards proposed to meritorious effort are not sufficiently honourable ; and the efforts to which they are frequently accorded, not of the kind or degree to be of any great or general advantage. I shall explain myself. A distinction is sought after with a zeal proportioned to its value ; and its value is measured by the estimation which it holds in public opinion. Now, though there are prizes given in many of a De Beneficiis, iii. 36. ED. 8 Juvenal, Sat., x. 431. ED. Two. Qu(ft., i. 2. ED. c Essay liv. Of Vain Glory. ED. y Jthet., i. 12. ED. 388 APPENDIX. our classes, nothing has been done to give them proper value by raising them in public estimation. They are not conferred as matters of importance by any external solemnity; they are not conferred in any general meeting of the University ; far less under circumstances which make their distribution a matter of public curiosity and interest. Compared to the publicity that might easily have been secured, they are left, so to speak, to be given in holes and corners ; and while little thought of to-day, are wholly forgotten to-morrow ; so that the wonder only is, that what the University has thus treated with such apparent contempt, should have awakened even the inadequate emulation that has been so laudably displayed. Of this great defect in our discipline, I may safely say that every Professor is aware, and it is now actually under the consideration of the Senatus, what are the most expe- dient measures to obtain a system of means of full efficiency for the encouragement and reward of academical merit. It will, of course, form the foundation of any such improvement, that the dis- tribution of prizes be made an act of the University at large ; and one of the most public and imposing character. By this means a far more powerful emulation will be roused ; a spirit which will not be limited to a certain proportion of the students, but will more or less pervade the whole, nay, not merely the students themselves, but their families ; so that when this system is brought to its adequate perfection, it will be next to impossible for a young man of generous dispositions not to put forth every energy to raise himself as high as possible in the scale of so hon- ourable a competition. But besides those which can only be effected by an act of the whole University, important improvements may, I think, be ac- complished in this respect in the several classes. In what I now say, I would not be supposed to express any opinion in regard to other classes ; but confine my observations to one under the circumstances of our own. In the first place, then, I am convinced that excitement and re- wards are principally required to promote a general and continued diligence in the ordinary business of the class. I mean, therefore, that the prizes should with us be awarded for general eminence, as shown in the Examinations and Exercises ; and I am averse on principle from proposing any premium during the course of the APPENDIX. 389 sessional labours for single and detached efforts. The effect of this would naturally be to distract attention from what ought to be the principal and constant object of occupation ; and if honour is to be gained by an irregular and transient spirit of activity, less encouragement will necessarily be afforded to regular and sedulous application. Prizes for individual Essays, for Written Analyses of important books, and for Oral Examination on their contents, may, however, with great advantage, be proposed as occupation during the summer vacation ; and this I shall do. But the honours of the Winter Session must belong to those who have regularly gone through its toils. In the second place, the value of the prizes may be greatly enhanced by giving them greater and more permanent publicity. A very simple mode, and one which I mean to adopt, is to record upon a tablet each year, the names of the successful competitors ; this tablet to be permanently affixed to the walls of the class- room, while a duplicate may, in like manner, be placed in the Common Reading-Room of the Library. In the third place, the importance of the prizes for general eminence in the business of the class may be considerably raised, by making the competitors the judges of merit among themselves. This I am persuaded is a measure of the very highest efficiency. On theory I would argue this, and in practice it has been fully verified. On this head, I shall quote to you the experience of my venerated preceptor, the late Professor Jardine of Glasgow, a man, I will make bold to say, who, in the chair of Logic of that University, did more for the intellectual improvement of his pupils than any other public instructor in this country within the memory of man. This he did not accomplish either by great erudition or great philosophical talent, though he was both a learned and an able thinker, but by the application of that pri- mary principle of education, which, wherever employed, has been employed with success, I mean the determination of the pupil to self-activity, doing nothing for him which he is able to do for him- self. This principle, which has been always inculcated by theorists on education, has, however, by few been carried fully into effect. " One difficult and very important part," says Mr Jardine, " in admin- istering the system of prizes, still remains to be stated ; and this is the a Outlines of Philosophical Education, &c., pp. 384, 385; 387, 389. 390 APPENDIX. method by which the different degrees of merit are determined, a point in which any error with regard to principle, or suspicion of practical mistake, would completely destroy all the good effects aimed at by the establishment in question. It has been already mentioned, that the qualifications which form the ground of competition for the class prizes, as they are sometimes called, and which are to be distinguished from the university prizes, are diligence, regularity of attendance, general eminence at the daily examina- tions, and in the execution of themes, propriety of academical conduct, and habitual good manners ; and, on these heads, it is very obvious, a judgment must be pronounced either by the professor, or by the students themselves, as no others have access to the requisite information. " It may be imagined, at first view, that the office of judge would be best performed by the professor ; but, after long experience, and much attention to the subject in all its bearings, I am inclined to give a decided preference to the exercise of this right as vested in the students. Were the professor to take this duty upon himself, it would be impossible, even with the most perfect conviction, on the part of the students, that his judgment and candour were unimpeachable, to give satisfaction to all par- ties ; while, on the other hand, were there the slightest reason to suspect his impartiality in either of these points, or the remotest ground for insinu- ation that he gave undue advantage to any individuals, in bringing forward their claims to the prejudice of others, the charm of emulation would be dissolved at once, and every future effort among his pupils would be enfeebled. " The indispensable qualities of good judges, then, are a competent know- ledge of the grounds upon which their judgment is to rest, and a firm re- solution to determine on the matter before them with strict impartiality. It is presumed that the students, in these respects, are sufficiently qualified. They are every-day witnesses of the manner in which the business of the class goes on, and have, accordingly, the best opportunities of judging as to the merits of their fellow-students ; they have it in their power to observe the regularity of their attendance, and the general propriety of their conduct ; they hear the questions which are put, with the answers which are given ; their various themes are read aloud, and observations are made on them from the chair. They have, likewise, an opportunity of comparing the respective merits of all the competitors, in the extemporaneous exer- cises of the class ; and they, no doubt, hear the performances of one another canvassed in conversation, and made the subject of a comparative estimate. Besides, as every individual is, himself, deeply interested, it is not possible but that he should pay the closest attention to what is going on around him ; whilst he cannot fail to be aware that he, in like manner, is con- stantly observed by others, and subjected to the ordeal of daily criticism. In truth, the character, the abilities, the diligence, and progress of students are as well known to one another, before the close of the session, as their APPENDIX. 391 faces. There cannot, therefore, he any deficiency as to means of informa- tion, to enable them to act the part of enlightened and upright judges. " But they likewise possess the other requisite for an equitable decision ; for the great majority have really a desire to judge honourably and fairly on the merit of their fellows. The natural candour and generosity of youth, the sense of right and obligations of justice, are not yet so perverted, by bad example and the ways of the world, as to permit any deliberate inten- tion of violating the integrity on which they profess to act, or any wish to conspire in supporting an unrighteous judgment. There is greater danger, perhaps, that young persons, in their circumstances, may allow themselves to be influenced by friendship or personal dislike, rather than by the pure and unbiassed sense of meritorious exertion, or good abilities ; but, on the other hand, when an individual considers of how little consequence his single vote will be among so many, it is not at all likely that he will be induced to sacrifice it either to friendship or to enmity. There are, how- ever, no perfect judges in any department of human life. Prejudices and unperceived biasses make their way into the minds even of the most upright of our fellow-creatures ; and there can be no doubt that votes are some- times thrown away, or injudiciously given, by young students in the Logic class. Still, these little aberrations are never found to disturb the opera- tion of the general principle on which the scale of merit is determined, and the list of honours filled up." Now, Gentlemen, from what I know of you, I think it almost needless to say, that, in confiding to you a function, on the intelli- gent and upright discharge of which the value and significance of the prizes will wholly depend, I do this without any anxiety for the result. I am sure at least that if aught be wanting, the defect will be found neither in your incompetency nor in your want of will. And here I would conclude what I propose to say to you on this subject ; (this has extended to a far greater length than I an- ticipated) ; I would conclude with a most earnest exhortation to those who may be discouraged from coming forward as competi- tors for academical honours, from a feeling or a fancy of inferi- ority. In the first place, I would dissuade them from this, be- cause they may be deceived in the estimate of their own powers. Many individuals do not become aware of their own talents, till placed in circumstances which compel them to make strenuous exertion. Then they and those around them discover the mistake. In the second place, even though some of you may now find yourselves somewhat inferior to others, do not for a moment de- spair of the future. The most powerful minds are frequently of 392 APPENDIX, a tardy development, and you may rest assured, that the sooner and more vigorously you exercise your faculties, the speedier and more complete will be their evolution. In the third place, I exhort you to remember that the distinctions now to be gained, are on their own account principally valuable as means towards an end, as motives to induce you to cultivate your powers by exercise. All of you, even though nearly equal, cannot obtain equal honours in the struggle ; but all of you will obtain advan- tage equally substantial, if you all what is wholly in your own power equally put forth your energies to strive. And though you should all endeavour to be first, let me remind you, in the words of Cicero, that : " Prima sequentem, pulchrum est in secundis, tertiisque consistere." a B. FKAGMENTS ON THE SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY. (a.) PORTION OP INTRODUCTORY LECTURE (1836). Before entering on the proposed subjects of consideration, I must be allowed a brief preliminary digression. In entering on a course of the Philosophy of Mind, of Philosophy Proper, we ought not, as Scotsmen, to forget that on this is, and always has been, principally founded the scientific reputation of Scotland; and, therefore, that independently of the higher claims of this philosophy to attention, it would argue almost a want of patri- otism in us, were we to neglect a study with the successful cul- tivation of which our country, and in particular this University, have been so honourably associated. Whether it be that the characteristic genius of our nation, the prcefervidum Scotorum ingenium, was more capable of power- ful effort than of persevering industry, and, therefore, carried us more to studies of principle than studies of detail ; or, (what is more probable), that institutions and circumstances have been here less favourable, than in other countries, for the promotion of erudition and research ; certain it is that the reputation for intel- a Orator., c. i. APPENDIX. 393 lectual capacity which Scotland has always sustained among the nations of Europe, is founded far less on the achievements of her sons in learning and scholarship, than on what they have done, or shown themselves capable of doing, in Philosophy Proper and its dependent sciences. In former ages, Scotland presented but few objects for scientific and literary ambition ; and Scotsmen of intellectual enterprise usually sought in other countries, that education, patronage, and applause which were denied them in their own. It is, indeed, an honourable testimony to the natural vigour of Scottish talent, that, while Scotland afforded so little encouragement for its production, a complement so large in amount and of so high a quality should have been, as it were, spontaneously supplied. During the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, there was hardly to be found a Continental University without a Scottish professor. It was, indeed, a common saying that a Scottish pedlar and a Scottish professor were everywhere to be met with. France, however, was long the great nursery of Scottish talent ; and this even after the political and religious estrangement of Scotland from her ancient ally, by the establishment of the Reformation and the accession of the Scottish monarch to the English crown ; and the extent of this foreign patronage may be estimated from the fact, that a single prelate, the illustrious Cardinal du Perron, is recorded to have found places in the seminaries of France for a greater number of literary Scotsmen than all the schools and universities of Scot- land maintained at home. But this favour to our countrymen was not without its reasons ; and the ground of partiality was not their superior erudition. What principally obtained for them reputation and patronage abroad, was their dialectical and metaphysical acuteness ; and this they were found so generally to possess, that philosophical talent became almost a proverbial attribute of the nation./ 3 During the ascendant of the Aristotelic philosophy, and so long as dexterity in disputation was considered the highest academical accomplishment, the logical subtlety of our countrymen was in high and general demand. But they were remarkable less as writers than as instructors ; for were we to consider them only in the former capacity, the works that now remain to us of these a See Discussions, p. 120. ED. See Discussion*, p. 119. ED. 394 APPENDIX. expatriated philosophers, these Scoti extra Scotiam agentes, though neither few nor unimportant, would still never enable us to account for the high and peculiar reputation which the Scot- tish dialecticians so long enjoyed throughout Europe. Such was the literary character of Scotland, before the estab- lishment of her intellectual independence, and such has it con- tinued to the present day. In illustration of this, I cannot now attempt a comparative survey of the contributions made by this country and others to the different departments of knowledge, nor is it necessary ; for no one, I am assured, will deny that it is only in the Philosophy of Mind that a Scotsman has estab- lished an epoch, or that Scotland, by the consent of Europe, has bestowed her name upon a School. The man who gave the whole philosophy of Europe a new impulse and direction, and to whom, mediately or immediately, must be referred every subsequent advance in philosophical specu- lation, was our countryman, David Hume. In speaking of this illustrious thinker, I feel anxious to be distinctly understood. I would, therefore, earnestly request of you to bear in mind, that religious disbelief and philosophical scepticism are not merely not the same, but have no natural connection ; and that while the one must ever be a matter of reprobation and regret, the other is in itself deserving of applause. Both were united in Hume ; and this union has unfortunately contributed to associate them together in popular opinion, and to involve them equally in one vague condemnation. They must, therefore, I repeat, be accurately dis- tinguished ; and thus, though decidedly opposed to one and all of Hume's theological conclusions, I have no hesitation in asserting of his philosophical scepticism, that this was not only beneficial in its results, but, in the circumstances of the period, even a necessary step in the progress of Philosophy towards truth. In the first place, it was requisite in order to arouse thought from its lethargy. Men had fallen asleep over their dogmatic systems. In Germany, the Rationalism of Leibnitz and Wolf ; in England, the Sensualism of Locke, with all its melancholy results, had subsided almost into established faiths. The Scepticism of Hume, like an electric spark, sent life through the paralysed opinions ; philosophy awoke to renovated vigour, and its problems were again to be considered in other aspects, and subjected to a more searching analysis. APPENDIX. 395 In the second place, it was necessary in order to manifest the inadequacy of the prevailing system. In this respect, scepticism is always highly advantageous ; for scepticism is only the carrying out of erroneous philosophy to the absurdity which it always virtually involved. The sceptic, qua sceptic, cannot himself lay down his premises ; he can only accept them from the dogmatist; if true, they can afford no foundation for the sceptical inference ; if false, the sooner they are exposed in their real character the better. Accepting his principles from the dominant philosophies of Locke and Leibnitz, and deducing with irresistible evidence these principles to their legitimate results, Hume showed, by the extreme absurdity of these results themselves, either that Philo- sophy altogether was a delusion, or that the individual systems which afforded the premises, were erroneous or incomplete. He thus constrained philosophers to the alternative, either of sur- rendering philosophy as null, or of ascending to higher principles, in order to re-establish it against the sceptical reduction. The dilemma of Hume constitutes, perhaps, the most memorable crisis in the history of philosophy ; for out of it the whole subsequent Metaphysic of Europe has taken its rise. To Hume we owe the Philosophy of Kant, and, therefore, also, in general, the latter philosophy of Germany. Kant explicitly acknowledges that it was by Hume's reductio ad absurdum of the previous doctrine of Causality, he was first roused from his dogmatic slumber. He saw the necessity that had arisen, of placing philosophy on a foundation beyond the reach of scep- ticism, or of surrendering it altogether ; and this it was that led him to those researches into the conditions of thought, which, considered whether in themselves or in their consequences, whether in what they established or in what they subverted, are, perhaps, the most remarkable in the annals of speculation. To Hume, in like manner, we owe the Philosophy of Eeid, and, consequently, what is now distinctively known in Europe as the Philosophy of the Scottish School. Unable to controvert the reasoning of Berkeley, as founded on the philosophy of Descartes and Locke, Reid had quietly resigned himself to Idealism ; and he confesses that he would never have been led to question the legitimacy of the common doctrine of Perception, involving though it did the negation of an external 396 APPENDIX. world, had Hume not startled him into hesitation and inquiry, by showing that the same reasoning which disproved the Existence of Matter, disproved, when fairly carried out, also the Substantiality of Mind. Such was the origin of the philosophy founded by Eeid, illustrated and adorned by Stewart ; and it is to this philosophy, and to the writings of these two illustrious thinkers, that Scotland is mainly indebted for the distinguished reputation which she at present enjoys, in every country where the study of Mind has not, as in England, been neglected for the study of Matter. The Philosophy of Eeid is at once our pride and our reproach. At home, mistaken and undervalued ; abroad, understood and honoured. The assertion may be startling, yet is literally true, that the doctrines of the Scottish School have been nowhere less fairly appreciated than in Scotland itself. To explain how they have been misinterpreted, and, consequently, neglected, in the country of their birth, is more than I can now attempt ; but as I believe that an equal ignorance prevails in regard to the high favour accorded to these speculations by those nations who are now in advance, as the most enlightened cultivators of philosophy, I shall endeavour, as briefly as possible, to show that it may be for our credit not rashly to disparage what other countries view as our chief national claim to scientific celebrity. In illustration of this, I shall only allude to the account in which our Scottish Philosophy is held in Germany and in France. There is a strong general analogy between the philosophies of Eeid and Kant ; and Kant, I may observe by the way, was a Scotsman by proximate descent. Both originate in a recoil against the Scepticism of Hume ; a both are equally opposed to the Sensualism of Locke ; both vindicate with equal zeal the moral dignity of man ; and both attempt to mete out and to define the legitimate sphere of our intellectual activity. There are, however, important differences between the doctrines, as might be antici- pated from the very different characters of the men ; and while Kant surpassed Eeid in systematic power and comprehension, Eeid excelled Kant in the caution and security of his procedure. There is, however, one point of difference in which it is now acknowledged, even by the representatives of the Kantian philo- sophy, that Kant was wrong. I allude to the doctrine of Percep- o See the completed edition of Reid's Works, Memoranda for Preface, p. xv. ED. APPENDIX. 397 tion, the doctrine which constitutes the very corner-stone of the philosophy of Eeid. Though both philosophies were, in their origin, reactions against the scepticism of Hume, this reaction was not equally determined in each by the same obnoxious conclusion. For, as it was primarily to reconnect Effect and Cause that Kant was roused to speculation, so it was primarily to regain the worlds of Mind and Matter that Reid was awakened to activity. Accord- ingly Kant, admitting, without question, the previous doctrine of philosophers, that the mind has no immediate knowledge of any existence external to itself, adopted it without hesitation as a principle, that the mind is cognisant of nothing beyond its own modifications, and that what our natural consciousness mistakes for an external world, is only an internal phenomenon, only a mental representation of the unknown and inconceivable. Reid, on the contrary, was fortunately led to question the grounds on which philosophers had given the lie to the natural beliefs of mankind ; and his inquiry terminated in the conclusion, that there exists no valid ground for the hypothesis, universally admitted by the learned, that an immediate knowledge of material objects is impossible. The attempt of Kant, if the attempt were serious, to demonstrate the existence of an external and unknown world was, as is universally admitted, a signal failure ; and his Hypothetical Realism was soon analysed by an illustrious disciple, Fichte, into an Absolute Idealism, with a logical rigour that did not admit of refutation." In the meanwhile, Reid's doctrine of Perception had attracted the attention of an acute opponent of the critical philosophy in Germany ; and that doctrine, divested of those superficial errors which have led some in- genious reasoners in this country to view and represent Reid as holding an opinion on this point identical with Kant's, was, in Kant's own country, placed in opposition against his opinion, fortified as that was by the authority of all modern philosophers. And with what result ? Simply this ; that the most dis- tinguished representatives of the Kantian school now acknow- ledge Kant's doctrine of Perception to be erroneous, and one a Some fragmentary criticisms of the Schulze, in his ^Knesidcmu-s, pub- Kantian philosophy in this respect, lished in 1792; and again in his Krltik will be found appended to this disser- der theoretischcn Philosophic, 1801. See tation. See below, p. 401 et seq. Reid's Works, p. 797. ED. ED. 398 APPENDIX. analogous to that of Eeid they have adopted in its stead. Thus, while, in Scotland, the fundamental position of Eeid's philosophy has been misunderstood, his criticism of the ideal theory treated as a blunder, and his peculiar doctrine of perception represented as essentially the same with that of the philosophers whom he assailed ; in Germany, and by his own disciples, Kant's theory of perception is admitted to be false, and the doctrine of Eeid, on this point, appreciated at its just value, and recognised as one of the most important and original contributions ever made to philosophy. But in France, I may add Italy, the triumph of the Scottish school has been even more signal than in Germany. The philo- sophy of Locke, first recommended to his countrymen by the bril- liant fancy of Voltaire, was, by the lucid subtlety of Condillac, reduced to a simplicity which not only obtained an ascendant over the philosophy of Descartes, but rendered it in France the object of all but universal admiration. Locke had deduced all knowledge from Experience, but Condillac analysed every faculty into Sense. Though its author was no materialist, the system of transformed sensation is only a disguised materialism ; and the import of the doctrine soon became but too apparent in its effects. Melancholy, however, as it was, this theory obtained an authority in France unparalleled for its universality and continuance. For seventy years, not a single work of an opposite tendency made the small- est impression on the public mind ; all discussion of principles had ceased ; it remained only to develop the remoter consequences of the system : philosophy seemed accomplished. Such was the state of opinion in France until the downfall of the Empire. In the period of tranquillity that followed the Eestora- tion, the minds of men were again turned with interest towards metaphysical speculation ; and it was then that the doctrines of the Scottish Philosophy were, for the first time, heard in the public schools of France. Eecommended by the powerful talent and high authority of Eoyer-Collard, these doctrines made converts of some of the loftiest intellects of France. A vigorous assault, in which the prowess of Cousin was remarkable, was made against the prevalent opinions, and with a success so decisive, that, after a controversy of twenty years, the school of Condillac is now, in its own country, considered as extinct ; while our Scottish philosophy APPENDIX. 399 not only obtained an ascendant in public opinion, but, through the influence of my illustrious friend M. Cousin, forms the basis of philosophical instruction in the various Colleges connected with the University of France. It must not, however, be supposed, that the French have servilely adopted the opinions of our countrymen. On the contrary, what they have borrowed they have so ably amplified, strengthened, simplified, and improved, that the common doctrines of Eeid and Stewart, of Eoyer-Collard and Jouffroy, (for Cousin falls under another category), ought in justice to be denomi- nated the Scoto-Gallican Philosophy, a name, indeed, already be- stowed upon them by recent historians of philosophy in Germany. (b.) M. JOUFFROY'S CRITICISM OF THE SCOTTISH SCHOOL.* (Probably 1837, or a little later. See (Euvres de Reid, voL i., Pr6face, p. clxxxvi.-cxcix. ED.) I must be allowed to make an observation in reference to the criticism of M. Jouffroy. Dr Eeid and Mr Stewart not only denounce as absurd the attempt to demonstrate that the original data of Consciousness are for us the rule of what we ought to believe, that is, the criteria of a relative human subjective truth ; but interdict as unphilo- sophical all question in regard to their validity, as the vehicles of an absolute or objective truth. M. Jouffroy, of course, coincides with the Scottish philosophers in regard to the former ; but, as to the latter, he maintains, with K&nt, that the doubt is legitimate, and, though he admits it to be insoluble, he thinks it ought to be entertained. Nor, on the ground on which they and he consider the question, am I disposed to dis- sent from his conclusion. But on that on which I have now placed it,0 I cannot but view the inquiry as incompetent. For what is the question in plain terms ? Simply, "Whether what our nature compels us to believe as true and real, be true and real, or only a consistent illusion ? Now this question cannot be philosophically a Published in a fuller form, in the Memoranda for Preface, p. xvii. ED. completed edition of Reid 1 a Works, j3 See Reid's Works, p. 746. ED. 400 APPENDIX. entertained, for two reasons. 1, Because there exists a presump- tion in favour of the veracity of our nature, which either precludes or peremptorily repels a gratuitous supposition of its mendacity. 2, Because we have no mean out of Consciousness of testing Consciousness. If its data are found concordant, they must be presumed trustworthy ; if repugnant, they are already proved unworthy of credit. Unless, therefore, the mutual collation of the primary data of Consciousness be held such an inquiry, it is, I think, manifestly incompetent. It is only in the case of one or more of these original facts being rejected as false, that the question can emerge in regard to the truth of the others. But, in reality, on this hypothesis, the problem is already decided ; their character for truth is gone ; and all subsequent canvassing of their probability is profitless speculation. Kant started, like the philosophers in general, with the non- acceptance of the deliverance of Consciousness, that we are immediately cognisant of extended objects. This first step decided the destiny of his philosophy. The external world, as known, was therefore only a phenomenon of the internal ; and our knowledge in general only of self, the objective only subjective ; and truth only the harmony of thought with thought, not of thought with things ; reality only a necessary illusion. It was quite in order, that Kant should canvass the veracity of all our primary beliefs, having founded his philosophy on the presumed falsehood of one ; and an inquiry followed out with such consistency and talent could not, from such a commence- ment, terminate in a different result. (c.) GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCOTTISH SCHOOL. (Written in connection with proposed MEMOIR OF MR DUGALD STEWART. On Desk, May 1856; written Autumn 1855. ED.) The Scottish School of Philosophy is distinctively characterised by its opposition to all the destructive schemes of speculation; in particular, to Scepticism, or the uncertainty of knowledge; to Idealism, or the non-existence of the material world ; to Fatalism, or the denial of a moral universe. Keid has the merit of originat- APPENDIX. 401 ing this movement, and Stewart the honour of continuing, and promoting, and extending it. In the philosophy which prevailed before Descartes, in whose doctrines it may be affirmed that modern speculation took its rise, we find all these schemes, indeed, but all marked and modi- fied in a peculiar manner. In antiquity, we have the scepticism of Pyrrho and ^nesidemus ; but this, however ingenious its object, never became popular or dangerous, and, without a formal or decisive refutation, gradually died out. In the scholastic ages, Idealism was [countenanced] by the dominant psychology, and would perhaps have taken root, but for the check it encountered from the Church, to the dogmas of which all philosophy was then voluntarily subjected. The doctrine of Representative Perception, in its cruder form, was generally accepted, and the question often mooted, " Could not God main- tain the species in the sensory, the object (external reality) being annihilated?" This problem, as philosophy affirmed, theology denied. It was possible, nay probable, according to the former ; impossible, because heretical, according to the latter." Finally, on the other hand, the Absolute Decrees of God might, at the first view, be thought, not only to favour, but to establish, a doctrine of unconditioned Fatalism. But this inference was disavowed by the most strenuous advocates of Prescience and Predestination ; and the Freewill of man asserted no less vehe- mently than the Free Grace of God. (d.) KANT AND REID. (Written in connection with proposed MEMOIR OF MR STEWART. On Desk, May 1856 ; written Autumn 1855. ED.) ****** In like manner, Kant assailed Scepticism, and the scepticism of Hume ; but with a very different result. For, if in one conclusion he controverted scepticism, he himself introduced and patronised the most unexclusive doubt. He showed, indeed, that Hume's rejection of the notion of Causality was groundless. He proved a See D'wcutunons, p. 198, second trine of Transubstantiation were in- edition, why Idealism and the doc- compatible. VOL. I. 2 C 402 APPENDIX. that, although this notion was not, and could not be, constructed from experience, still Causality was a real and efficient principle, native and necessary in human intelligence ; and that although experience did not explain its genesis, experience always supposes its operation. So far so good. But Kant did not stop here. He endeavoured to evince that pure Eeason, that Intelligence, is na- turally, is necessarily, repugnant with itself, and that speculation ends in a series of insoluble antilogies. In its highest potence, in its very essence, thought is thus infected with contradiction ; and the worst and most pervading scepticism is the melancholy result. If I have done anything meritorious in philosophy, it is in the attempt to explain the phenomena of these contradictions ; in showing that they arise only when intelligence transcends the limits to which its legitimate exercise is restricted ; and that within those bounds, (the Conditioned), natural thought is neither fallible nor mendacious " Neque decipitur, nee decipit unquam." If this view be correct, Kant's antinomies, with their conse- quent scepticism, are solved ; and the human mind, however weak, is shown not to be the work of a treacherous Creator. Eeid, on the contrary, did not subvert the trustworthiness of the one witness, on whose absolute veracity he relied. In his hands natural (and, therefore, necessary) thought Consciousness Com- mon Sense are always held out as entitled to our implicit and thorough-going confidence. The fact of the testimony sufficiently guarantees the truth of what the testimony avouches. The testi- mony, if delivered, is to be deemed pro tanto impeccable. (e.) KANT'S DOCTRINE OF SPACE AND TIME. (Fragments from early Papers. Probably before 1836. ED.) Kant, 1, Made our actual world one merely of illusion. Time and Space, under which we must perceive and think, he reduced to mere subjective spectral forms, which have no real archetype in the noumenal or real universe. We can infer nothing from this to that. Cause and Effect govern thing and thought in the APPENDIX. 403 world of Space and Time ; the relation will not subsist where Time and Space have no reality. (Lines from Fracastorius).* Corresponds with the Platonic, but more thorough-going. Kant, 2, Made Eeason, Intelligence, contradict itself in its legitimate exercise. Antilogy, antinomy, part and parcel of its nature ; not only " reasoning, but to err," but reason itself. Thus, the conviction that we live in a world of unreality and illusion, and that our very faculty of knowledge is only given us to mislead, is the result of our criticism ; Scepticism. On the contrary, my doctrine holds, 1, That Space and Time, as given, are real forms of thought and conditions of things ; 2, That Intelligence, Reason, within its legitimate limits, is legi- timate ; within this sphere it never deceives ; and it is only when transcending that sphere, when founding on its illegitimate as on its legitimate exercise, that it affords a contradictory result ; " Ne sapiamus ultra facultates." The dogmatic assertion of neces- sity, of Fatalism, and the dogmatic assertion of Liberty, are the counter and equally inconceivable conclusions from reliance on the illegitimate and one-sided. Kant holds the subjectivity of Space (and Time), and, if he does not deny, will not affirm the existence of a real space, external to our minds ; because it is a mere form of our perceptive faculty. He holds that we have no knowledge of any external thing as really existing, and that all our perceptions are merely appear- ances, i.e., subjective representations, subjective modifications, which the mind is determined to exhibit, as an apparently objec- tive opposition to itself, its pure and real subjective modifica- tions. Yet, while he gives up the external existence of space, as beyond the sphere of consciousness, he holds the reality of exter- nal material existences, (things in themselves), which are equally beyond the sphere of consciousness. It was incumbent on him to render a reason for this seeming inconsistency, and to explain how his system was not, in its legitimate conclusions, an universal Idealism ; and he has accordingly attempted to establish, by neces- sary inference, what his philosophy could not accept as an imme- diate fact of consciousness. a See below, Lect. xxi., vol. ii. p. 33. ED. 404 APPENDIX. In the second edition of his Kritik der reinen Vernunft, he has accordingly given what he calls a " strict, and, as he is convinced, the only possible, demonstration for the objective reality of our external perceptions ; " and, at the same time, he declares that it would be the eternal scandal of Philosophy, and of the general reason of mankind, if we were compelled to yield our assent to the existence of an external world, only as an article of Faith, and were unable to oppose a satisfactory refutation to any sceptical objections that might be suggested touching their reality (Vorrede, p. xxxix). The demonstration which is thus exclusively and con- fidently proposed, attempts to prove that the existence of an exter- nal world is involved in the very consciousness of self, that with- out a Thou, there could be no /, and that the Cogito ergo sum is not more certain than the Cogito ergo es. IL PHYSIOLOGICAL. (See Vol. I., p. 264.) (a.) PHRENOLOGY. ****** Such is a very general view of that system [the Nervous] and its relations, which physiologists and philosophers in general have held to be the proximate organ of the thinking principle, and many to be even the thinking principle itself. That the mind, in its lower energies and affections, is immediately dependent on the conditions of the nervous system, and that, in general, the develop- ment of the brain in the different species of animals is correspon- dent to their intelligence, these are conclusions established upon an induction too extensive and too certain to admit of doubt. Bat when we attempt to proceed a step farther, and to connect the mind or its faculties with particular parts of the nervous system, we find ourselves at once checked. Observation and experiment seem to fail ; they afford only obscure and varying reports ; and if, in this uncertainty, we hazard a conclusion, this is only a theory established upon some arbitrary hypothesis, in which fictions stand in place of facts. The uncertainty of such conclusions is shown by the unexampled diversity of opinion that has always reigned APPENDIX. 405 among those who, discontented with a prudent ignorance, have attempted to explain the phenomena of mind by the phenomena of organisation. In the first place, some, (and their opinion is not, certainly, the least philosophical), hold that, in relation to the body, the soul is less contained than containing, that it is all in the whole, and all in every part. This is the common doctrine of many of the Fathers, and of the scholastic Aristotelians." In the second place, others have attempted to connect the con- scious principle in general with a particular part of the organism, but by very different relations. Some place it there, as in a local seat ; others make it dependent on that part, as on its organ ; while others hold that the mind stands in a more immediate rela- tion to this part, only because it is the point of convergence where all the bodily sensations meet. I shall not attempt to enumerate the hundred and one conjectures in regard to the point in the corporeal organism, in proximate connection with the mind. It would occupy more than our hour to give you even a summary account of the hypotheses on this subject. In the third place, no opinion has been more generally prevalent than that different faculties and dispositions of the mind are de- pendent on different parts of the bodily organism, and more espe- cially on different parts of the nervous system. Under this head, I shall state to you one or two of the more famous opinions. The most celebrated doctrine, that which was more universally adopt- ed, and for a longer period than any other, was that which, with certain modifications, assigned different places in the Encephalos to Memory, Imagination, Sense, and the Locomotive Faculty, Eeason or Intelligence being left inorganic. This opinion we trace upward, through the Latin and Arabian schools,^ to St Austin, 7 Nemesius, 8 the Greek physician Aetius, and even to the anatomists Rufus and Tosidonius. Memory, on this hypothesis, was placed in the sub- stance of the cerebellum, or in the subjacent ventricle ; and as the phrenologists now attempt to prove that the seat of this faculty a See below, Lect. xx., vol. ii. p. 7. Venice, 1560.] ED. y De (itnesi ad Literam, lib. vii. cc. [See Gassendi, Phyttica, Sect. iiL, 17, 18. ED. [See Tenneman, t. vii. Memb. Post., lib. viii. ; Opera, t. ii. pp. p. 241.] 400, 401. Avcrroes, Dexlruct. Drstruc- 8 A> Nntura Ifominis, c. xiii., p. 204, tionum, Arut. Opera, t. x. p. 340. edit. Matthiei. ED. 406 APPENDIX. lies above the eyebrows, by the alleged fact, that when a man wishes to stimulate his recollection, he rubs the lower part of his forehead, so, of old, the same conclusion was established on the more plausible assertion, that a man in such circumstances natu- rally scratches the back of his head. The one indication is at least as good as the other. Among modern physiologists, Willis was the first who attempt- ed a new attribution of mental functions to different parts of the nervous system. He placed Perception and Sensation in the cor- pus callosum, Imagination and Appetite in the corpora striata, Memory in the cerebral convolutions, Involuntary Motion in the cerebellum, &c. ; and to Willis is to be traced the determination so conspicuous among subsequent physiologists, of attributing differ- ent mental uses to different parts of the brain. It would be bootless to state to you the many various and con- tradictory conjectures in regard to these uses. To psychologists they are, with one exception, all comparatively uninteresting, as, were they even ascertained to be something better than conjec- tures, still, as the physical condition is in all of them occult, it could not be applied as an instrument of psychological discovery. The exception which I make is, the celebrated doctrine of Gall. If true, that doctrine would not only afford us a new instrument, but would in a great measure supersede the old. In fact, the psychology of consciousness, and the psychology founded on Gall's organology, are mere foolishness to each other. They arrive at conclusions the most contradictory ; insomuch that the establish- ment of the one necessarily supposes the subversion of the other. In these circumstances, no one interested in the philosophy of man can be indifferent to an inquiry into the truth or falsehood of the new doctrine. This doctrine cannot be passed over with contempt. It is maintained not only by too many, but by too able advocates, to be summarily rejected. That its results are re- pugnant to those previously admitted, is but a sorry reason for not inquiring into their foundation. This doctrine professes to have discovered new principles, and to arrive at new conclusions ; and the truth or falsehood of these cannot, therefore, be estimated merely by their conformity or disconformity with those old results which the new professedly refute. To do so would be mere pre- judice, a mere assumption of the point at issue. At the same APPENDIX. 407 time, this doctrine professes to be founded on sensible facts. Sen- sible facts must be shown to be false, not by reasoning, but by ex- periment ; for, as old Fernelius has well expressed it, " Desipien- tis arrogantise est argumentationis necessitatem sensuum aucto- ritati anteponere." To oppose such a doctrine in such a manner is not to refute, but to recommend ; and yet, unfortunately, this has been the usual mode in which the organology of Gall and his followers has been assailed. Such an opinion must be taken on its own ground. We must join issue with it upon the facts and inferences it embraces. If the facts are true, and if the inferences necessarily follow, the opinion must be admitted ; the sooner, therefore, that we candidly inquire into these the better, for it is only thus that we shall be enabled to form a correct estimate of the evidence on which such a doctrine rests. With these views, I many years ago undertook an investigation of the fundamental facts on which the phrenological doctrine, as it is unfortunately called, is established. By a fundamental fact I mean a fact by the truth of which the hypothesis could be proved, and, consequently, by the falsehood of which it could be disproved. Now, what are such facts ? The one condition of such a fact is, that it should be general. The phrenological theory is, that there is a correspondence between the volume of certain parts of the brain, and the intensity of certain qualities of mind and character ; the former they call development, the latter manifestation. Now, individual cases of alleged conformity of development and mani- festation could prove little in favour of the doctrine, as individual cases of alleged disconformity could prove little against it ; because, 1, The phrenologists had no standard by which the proportion of cerebral development could be measured by themselves or their opponents ; 2, Because the mental manifestation was vague and in- determinate ; 3, Because they had introduced, as subsidiary hypo- theses, the occult qualities of temperament and activity, so that, in individual cases, any given head could always be explained in harmony with any given character. Individual cases were thus ambiguous ; they were worthless either to establish or to refute the theory. But where the phrenologists had proclaimed a general fact, by that fact their doctrine could be tried. For example, when they asserted as the most illustrious discovery of Gall, and as the surest inference of their doctrine, that the cerebellum is the 408 APPENDIX. organ of the sexual appetite, and established this inference as the basis of certain general facts which, as common to the whole animal kingdom, could easily be made matter of precise experiment ; by these facts the truth of their doctrine could be brought to the test, and this on ground the most favourable for them. For the general probability of their doctrine was thus estimated by the truth of its best-established element. But, on the other hand, if such general facts were found false, their disproval afforded the most satisfactory refutation of the whole system. For the phrenologists themselves readily admit that their theory is exploded, if their doctrine of the function of the cerebellum is disproved. Because, therefore, an examination of the general facts of Phrenology was at once decisive and comparatively easy, I determined, on this ground, to try the truth of the opinion. I shall state to you very generally a few results of the investigation, of which I may, without boasting, affirm that no inquiry of the kind was ever conducted with greater care or more scrupulous accuracy. I shall commence with the phrenological doctrine of the cere- bellum, on which you will see the propriety of dwelling as briefly as I can. I may mention that the extent of my experiments on this organ is wholly unconnected with phrenology. My attention was, indeed, originally turned to the relation of the after-brain to the other parts of the nervous system, when testing the accuracy of the phrenological doctrine on this point ; but that end was very soon accomplished, and it was certain discoveries which I made in regard to the laws of development and the function of this organ, and the desire of establishing these by an induction from as many of the species as possible of the animal kingdom, that led me into a more extensive inquiry than has hitherto been instituted by any professional physiologist. When I publish its results, they will disprove a hundred times over all the phrenological assertions in regard to the cerebellum ; but this will be only an accidental cir- cumstance, and of comparatively little importance. I may add, that my tables extend to above 1 000 brains of above 50 species of animals, accurately weighed by a delicate balance ; and you will remark that the phrenologists have not a single observation of any accuracy to which they can appeal. The only evidence in the shape of precise experiment on which they can found, is a table of Serres, who is no phrenologist, affording the general averages of certain APPENDIX. 409 weighings, said to have been made by him, of the brain and cerebellum in the human subject. I shall prove that table an imaginary fabrication in support of a now exploded hypothesis of the author. The alleged facts on which Gall and his followers establish their conclusion in regard to the function of the cerebellum are the following: The first is, that, in all animals, females have this organ, on an average, greatly smaller, in proportion to the brain proper, than males. Now, so far is this assertion from being correct, it is the very reverse of truth ; and I have ascertained, by an immense in- duction, that in no species of animal has the female a proportionally smaller cerebellum than the male, but that in most species, and this according to a certain law, she has a considerably larger. In no animal is this difference more determinate than in man. Women have on an average a cerebellum to the brain proper, as 1 : 7 ; men as 1 : 8. This is a general fact which I have completely established." The second alleged fact is, that in impuberal animals the cere- bellum is in proportion to the brain proper greatly less than in adults. This is equally erroneous. In all animals, long previous to puberty, has the cerebellum attained its maximum proportion. And here, also, I am indebted to the phrenologists for having led me to make the discovery of another curious law, and to establish the real function of the cerebellum. Physiologists have hitherto believed that the cerebella of all animals, indifferently, were, for a certain period subsequent to birth, greatly less, in proportion to the brain proper, than in adults ; and have taken no note of the differences in this respect between different classes. Thus, com- pletely wrong in regard to the fact, they have necessarily over- looked the law by which it is governed. In those animals that have from the first the full power of voluntary motion, and which de- pend immediately on their own exertions, and on their own power of assimilation for nutriment, the proportion of the cerebellum is as large, nay larger, than in the adult. In the chicken of the common fowl, pheasant, partridge, &c., this is the case ; and most remark- ably after the first week or ten days, when the yolk, (correspond- ing in a certain sort to the milk in quadrupeds), has been absorbed. In the calf, kid, lamb, and probably in the colt, the proportion of the a See below, (6), On Weight of Brain, p. 419. ED. 410 APPENDIX. cerebellum at birth is very little less than in the adult. In those birds that do not possess at once the full power of voluntary motion, but which are in a rapid state of growth, the cerebellum, within a few days at least after being hatched, and by the time the yolk is absorbed, is not less or larger than in the adult ; the pigeon, sparrow, &c. &c., are examples. In the young of those quadrupeds that for some time wholly depend for support on the milk of the mother, as on half-assimilated food, and which have at first feeble powers of regulated motion, the proportion of the cerebellum to the brain proper is at birth very small ; but by the end of the full period of lactation, it has with them as with other animals, (nor is man properly an exception), reached the full proportion of the adult." This, for example, is seen in the young rabbit, kitten, whelp, &c. ; in them the cerebellum is to the brain proper at birth about as 1 to 14 ; at six and eight weeks old about as 1 to 6. Pigs, &c., as possessing immediately the power of regulated motion, but wholly dependent on the milk of the mother during at least the first month after birth, exhibit a medium between the two classes. At birth the proportion is in them about 1 to 9, in the adult as 1 to 6. This analogy, at which I now only hint, has never been suspected ; it points at the new and important conclusion, (corro- borated by many other facts), that the cerebellum is the intracranial organ of the nutritive faculty, that term being taken in its broadest signification ; and it confirms also an old opinion, recently revived, that it is the condition of voluntary or systematic motion./ 3 The third alleged fact is, that the proportion of the cerebellum to the brain proper in different species, is in proportion to the en- ergy of the phrenological function attributed to it. This assertion is groundless as the others. There are many other fictions in re- gard to this organ ; but these, I think, are a sufficient specimen of the truth of the doctrine in regard to the function of the cerebellum ; and the cerebellum, you will recollect, is the citadel of Phrenology. I shall, however, give you the sample of another general fact. The organ of Veneration rises in the middle on the coronal surface of the head. Women, it is universally admitted, manifest religious feeling more strongly and generally than men ; and the phrenolo- a This may, perhaps, explain the ap- ft From a communication by the parent exception to Berkeley's theory Author, printed in Dr Munro's Ana- noticed by Adam Smith. See below, tomy of the Brain, pp. 6, 7. See be- vol. ii. p. 182 ED. low, (b), On Weight of Brain. ED. APPENDIX. 411 gists accordingly assert, that the female cranium is higher in proportion in that region than the male. This I found to be the very reverse of truth, by a comparative average of nearly two hundred skulls of either sex. In man, the female encephalos is considerably smaller than that of the male, and in shape the crania of the sexes are different. By what dimension is the female skull less than the male? The female skull is longer, it is nearly as broad, but it is much lower than the male. This is only one of several curious sexual differences of the head. I do not know whether it be worth while mentioning, that, by a comparison of all the crania of murderers preserved in the Anatomical Museum of this University, with about nearly two hundred ordinary skulls indifferently taken, I found that these criminals exhibited a development of the phrenological organs of Destructiveness and other evil propensities smaller, and a development of the higher moral and intellectual qualities larger, than the average. Nay, more, the same result was obtained when the murderers' skulls were compared, not merely with a common average, but with the individual crania of Kobert Bruce, George Buchanan, and Dr David Gregory. I omit all notice of many other decisive facts subversive of the hypothesis in question ; but I cannot leave the subject without alluding to one which disproves, at one blow, a multitude of or- gans, affords a significant example of their accuracy of statement, and shows how easily manifestation can, by the phrenologists, be accommodated to any development, real or supposed. I refer to the Frontal Sinuses. These are cavities between the tables of the frontal bone, in consequence of a divergence from each other. They are found in all puberal crania, and are of variable and, [from without], wholly inappreciable extent and depth. Where they exist, they of course interpose an insuperable bar to any estimate of the cerebral development ; and their extent being undiscover- able, they completely baffle all certain observation. Now, the phrenologists have fortunately, or unfortunately, concentrated the whole of their very smallest organs over the region of the sinus ; which thus, independently of other impediments, renders all phrenological observation more or less uncertain in regard to sixteen of their organs. Of these cavities the anatomists in general seem to have known not much, aud the phrenologists 412 APPENDIX. absolutely nothing. At least, the former are wrong in many of their positions, the latter wrong in all. I shall give you a sample of the knowledge and consistency of the phrenologists on this point. Gall first of all answered the objection of the sinus, by assert- ing that even when it existed, the plates of the frontal bone were still parallel. The truth is, that the cavity is only formed by their divergence from parallelism, and thus it is now described by the phrenologists themselves. In his latest works, Gall asserted that the sinus is frequently absent in men, and seldom or never found in women. But Spurzheim carried the negation to its highest climax, for he avers, (I quote his words), "that children and young adult persons have no holes between the two tables of the skull at the forehead, and that they occur only in old persons, or after chronic insanity." He did not always, indeed, assert as much, and in some of his works he allows that they throw some uncertainty over the organs of Individuality and Size, but not much over that of Locality. Now the fact is, as I have established by an inspection of several hundred crania, that no skull is without a sinus. This is, indeed, the common doctrine of the anatomists. But I have also proved that the vulgar doctrine of their increasing in extent, in proportion as the subject advances in life, is wholly erroneous. The smallest sinus I ever saw was in the cranium of a woman of a hundred years of age. The two facts, the fact of the universal existence of the sinus, and its great and various and inappreciable extent, and the fact of the ignorance of the phrenologists in regard to every circumstance connected with it, these two facts prove that these observers have been going on finding always manifestation and development in exact conformity ; when, lo ! it turns out that in nearly half their organs, the protuberance or depression apparent on the external bone has no connection with any correspondent protuberance or depression in the brain. Now, what does this evince ? Not merely that they were wrong in regard to these particular observations and the particular organs established upon the mistake. Of course, the whole organs lying over the sinuses are swept away. But this is not all ; for the theory supposes as its condition, that the amount of the two qualities of mental manifestation and cerebral develop- ment can be first accurately measured apart, and then compared together, and found either to be conformable or disconformable : APPENDIX. 413 and the doctrine, assuming this possibility, proves its truth only by showing that the two qualities thus severally estimated, are, in all cases, in proportion to each other. Now, if the possibility thus assumed by Phrenology were true, it would at once have discovered that the apparent amount of development over the sinus was not in harmony with the mental manifestation. But this it never did ; it always found the apparent or cranial development over the sinus conformable to the mental manifestation, though this bony development bore no more a proportion to the cerebral brain than if it had been looked for on the great toe ; and thus it is at once evident, that manifestation and development in general are, in their hands, such factitious, such arbitrary quantities, that they can always, under any circumstances, be easily brought into unison. Phrenology is thus shown to be a mere leaden rule, which bends to whatever it is applied ; and, therefore, all phrenological obser- vation is poisoned, in regard even to those organs where a similar obstacle did not prevent the discovery of the cerebral development. Suppose a mathematician to propose a new method for the solution of algebraical equations. If we applied it, and found it gave a false result, would the inventor be listened to if he said, " True, my method is wrong in these cases in which it has been tried, but it is not, therefore, proved false in those in which it has not been put to the test " ? Now, this is precisely the plea I have heard from the phrenologists in relation to the sinus. " Well ! " they say, " we admit that Gall and Spurzheim have been all wrong about the sinus, and we give up the organs above the eyes ; but our system is untouched in the others which are situate beyond the reach of that obnoxious cavity." To such reasoning there was no answer. I should have noticed, that, even supposing there had been no intervening caverns in the forehead, the small organs arranged, like peas in a pod, along the eyebrows could not have severally mani- fested any difference of development. If we suppose, (what I make bold to say was never yet observed in the brain,) that a portion of it so small in extent as any one of the six phrenological organs of Form, Size, Weight, Colour, Order, and Number, which lie side by side upon the eyebrows, was ever prominent beyond the surround- ing surface, I say, supposing the protuberance of so small a spot upon the cerebral convolutions, it could never determine a corre- sponding eminence on the external table of the skull. What would 414 APPENDIX. be the effect of such a protrusion of brain upon the cranium ? It would only make room for itself in the thickness of the bone which it would attenuate. This is shown by two examples. The first is taken from the convolutions themselves. I should, however, state, that convolution, and anfractuosity or furrow, are correlative terms, like hill and valley, the former (convolutions) being applied to the windings of the cerebral surface as rising up, the latter (anfractuosity, or furrow) being applied to them as sinking in. Convolutions are the winding eminences between the furrows ; anfractuosities the winding depressions between the convolutions. This being understood, we find, on looking to the internal surface of the cranium, that the convolutions attenuate the bone, which is sometimes quite transparent, diaphanous, over them, whereas it remains comparatively thick over the anfractuosities ; but they cause no inequality on the outer surface. Yet the convolutions, which thus make room for themselves in the bone without elevat- ing it externally, are often broader, and of course always longer, than the little organs which the phrenologists have placed along the eyebrows. A fortiori, therefore, we must suppose that an organ like Size, or Weight, or Colour, if it did project beyond the surrounding brain, would only render the superincumbent bone thinner, without causing it to rise, unless we admit that nature com- plaisantly changes her laws in accommodation to the new doctrine. But we have another parallel instance still more precisely in point. In many heads there are certain rounded eminences, (called Glandulce Paccliioni}, on the coronal surface of the brain, which nearly correspond in size with the little organs in question. Now, if the phrenological supposition were correct, that an elevation on the brain, of so limited an extent, would cause an elevation on the external table of the bone, these eminences would do so far more certainly than any similar projection over the eyebrows. For the frontal bone in the frontal region is under the continual action of muscles, and this action would tend powerfully to prevent any partial elevation ; whereas, on the upper part of the head, the bone is almost wholly exempt from such an agency. But do the glands, as they are called, of Pacchioni, (though they are no glands), do they determine an elevation on the external surface of the skull corresponding to the elevation they form on the cere- bral surface ? Not in the very least ; the cranium is there out- APPENDIX. 415 wardly quite equable, level, uniform, though probably atten- uated to the thinness of paper to accommodate the internal rising. The other facts which I have stated as subversive of what the phrenologists regard as the best-established constituents of their system, I could only state to you on my own authority. But they are founded on observations made with the greatest accu- racy, and on phsenomena, which every one is capable of verify- ing. If the general facts I gave you in regard to the cerebellum, &c., are false, then am I a deliberate deceiver ; for these are of such a nature that no one with the ordinary discourse of reason could commit an error in regard to them, if he actually made the observations. The maxim, however, which I have myself always followed, and which I would earnestly impress upon you, is to take nothing upon trust that can possibly admit of doubt, and which you are able to verify for yourselves ; and had I not been obliged to hurry on to more important subjects, I might have been tempted to show you by experiment what I have now been compelled to state to you upon authority alone." I am here reminded of a fact, of which I believe none of our present phrenologists are aware, at least all their books confi- dently assert the very reverse. It is this, that the new system is the result, not of experience, but of conjecture, and that Gall, in- stead of deducing the faculties from the organs, and generalising both from particular observations, first of all excogitated a faculty a priori, and then looked about for an organ with which to con- nect it. In short, Phrenology was not discovered but invented. You must know, then, that there are two faculties, or rather two modifications of various faculties, which cut a conspicuous figure in the psychologies of Wolf and other philosophers of the Empire : these are called in German Tiefsinn and Scharfsinn, literally deep sense and sharp sense, but are now known in English phrenological language by the terms Causality and Com- parison. Now what I wish you to observe is, that Gall found these two clumsy modifications of mind, ready shaped out in the previous theories of philosophy prevalent in his own country, and then in the language itself. Now, this being understood, you must also know that, in 1798, Gall published a letter to Retzer of Vienna, wherein he, for the first time, promulgates the nature of a. See below, (d), On Frontal Sinus, p. 424. ED. 416 APPENDIX. his doctrine, and we here catch him, reum confitentem, in the very act of conjecturing. In this letter he says : " I am not yet so far advanced in my researches as to have discovered special organs for Scharfsinn and Tiefsinn, (Comparison and Causality), for the principle of the Representative Faculty, (Vorstellungs- vermogen, another faculty in German philosophy), and for the different varieties of judgment, &c." In this sentence we see exhibited the real source and veritable derivation of the system. In the Darstellung of Froriep, a favourite pupil of Gall, under whose eye the work was published in the year 1800, twenty-two organs are given, of which the greater proportion are now either translated to new localities, or altogether thrown out. We find also that the sought-for organs had, in the interval, been found for Scharfsinn, (Comparison), and Tiefsinn, (Causality); and what fur- ther exhibits the hypothetical genealogy of the doctrine, is, that a great number of organs are assumed, which lie wholly beyond the possible sphere of observation, at the base and towards the centre of the brain ; as those of the External Senses, those of Desire, Jealousy, Envy, love of Power, love of Pleasure, love of Life, &c. An organ of Sensibility is placed above that of Amativeness, between and below two organs of Philoprogenitiveness ; an organ of Liberality, (its deficiency standing instead of an organ of Ava- rice or Acquisitiveness), is situated above the eyebrows, in the posi- tion now occupied by that of Time. An organ of Imagination is in- timately connected with that of Theosophy or Veneration, towards the vertex of the head; and Veracity is problematically established above an organ of Parental Love. An organ of Vitality is not to be forgotten, situated in the medulla oblongata, the development of which is measured by the size of the foramen magnum and the thickness of the neck. These faculties and organs are all now cashiered ; and who does not perceive that, like those of Causality and Comparison, which are still suffered to remain, they were first devised, and then quartered on some department of the brain ? We thus see that, in the first edition of the craniological hypo- thesis, there were several tiers or stories of organs, some at the base, some about the centre, and others on the surface of the brain. Gall went to lecture through Germany, and among other places he lectured at Gb'ttingen. Here an objection was stated to his sys- tem by the learned Meiners. Gall measured the development of APPENDIX. 417 an external organ by its prominence. " How," says Meiners, " do you know that this prominence of the outer organ indicates its real size? May it not merely be pressed out, though itself of inferior volume, by the large development of a subjacent organ ? " This objection it was easily seen was checkmate. A new game must be commenced, the pieces arranged again. Accordingly, all the organs at the base and about the centre of the brain were withdrawn, and the whole organs were made to run very con- veniently upwards and outwards from the lower part of the brain to its outer periphery. It would be tiresome to follow the history of phrenological vari- ation through the works of Leune and Villars to those of Bischoff and Blode, which last represent the doctrine as it flourished in 1805. In these, the whole complement of organs which Gall ever admitted is detailed, with the exception of Ideality. But their position was still vacillating. For example, in Froriep, Bischoff, and Blode, the organ of Destructiveness is exhibited as lying principally on the parietal bone, above and a little anterior to the organ of Combativeness ; while the region of the temporal bone, above and before the opening of the ear, in other words, its pre- sent situation, is marked as terra adhuc incognita. No circumstance, however, is more remarkable than the succes- sive changes of shape in the organs. Nothing can be more oppo- site than the present form of these as compared with those which the great work of Gall exhibits. In Gall's plates they are round or oval, in the modern casts and plates they are of every variety of angular configuration ; and I have been told that almost every new edition of these varies from the preceding. We may, there- fore, well apply to the phrenologist and his organology the line of Horace "Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis," with this modification, that we must read in the latter part, mutat rotunda quadratis. So much for Phrenology, for the doctrine which would substi- tute the callipers for consciousness in the philosophy of man ; and the result of my observation, the result at which I would wish you also to arrive, I cannot better express than in the language of the Roman poet ft a Epist,, lib. i. ep. i. 100. ED. Manilius, iv. 929. ED. VOL. I. 2 D 418 APPENDIX. " Materise ne quaere modum, sed perspice vires Quas ratio, non pondus habet. " In what I have said in opposition to the phrenological doctrine, I should, however, regret if it could be ever supposed that I enter- tain any feeling of disrespect for those who are converted to this opinion. On the contrary, I am prompt to acknowledge that the sect comprises a large proportion of individuals of great talent ; and I am happy to count among these some of my most valued and respected friends. To the question, How comes it that so many able individuals can be believers in a groundless opinion ? I answer, that the opinion is not wholly groundless ; it contains much of truth, of old truth it must be allowed ; but it is assur- edly no disparagement to any one that he should not refuse to admit facts so strenuously asserted, and which, if true, so neces- sarily infer the whole conclusions of the system. But as to the mere circumstance of numbers, that is of comparatively little weight, argumentum pessimi turba, a and the phrenological doctrines are of such a nature that they are secure of finding ready converts among the many. There have been also, and there are now, opinions far more universally prevalent than the one in question, which nevertheless we do not consider on that account to be undeniable. (6.) AN ACCOUNT of EXPERIMENTS on the WEIGHT and EELATIVE PRO- PORTIONS of the BRAIN, CEREBELLUM, and TUBER ANNULARE in MAN and ANIMALS, under the various circumstances of Age, Sex, Country, &c. (Published in Dr MONRO'S Anatomy of the Brain, p. 4-8. Edinburgh, 1831. ED.) The following, among other conclusions, are founded on an in- duction drawn from above sixty human brains, from nearly three hundred human skulls, of determined sex, the capacity of which, by a method I devised, was taken in sand, and the original weight of the brain thus recovered, and from more than seven hundred brains of different animals. a Seneca, De Vita Beata,c. 2. ED. Mimi et aliorum Sententice, ed. Orellii, [Afte.r Publius Syrus] [See Publii Syri p. .14. ED,] APPENDIX. 419 1. In man, the adult male Encephalos is heavier than the female ; the former nearly averaging, in the Scot's head, 3 Ib. 8 oz. troy, the latter, 3 Ib. 4 oz. ; the difference, 4 oz. In males of this country, about one brain in seven is found above 4 Ib. troy; in females, hardly one in one hundred. 2. In man, the Encephalos reaches its full size about seven years of age. This was never before proved. It is commonly believed that the brain and the body attain their full development together. The "Wenzels rashly generalised from two cases the conclusion, that the brain reaches its full size about seven years of age ; as Sb'm- mering had in like manner, on a single case, erroneously assumed that it attains its last growth by three. Gall and Spurzheim, on the other hand, assert that the increase of- the Encephalos is only terminated about forty. This result of my induction is deduced from an average of thirty-six brains and skulls of children, com- pared with an average of several hundred brains and skulls of adults. It is perhaps superfluous to observe, that it is the greater development of the bones, muscles, and hair, which renders the adult head considerably larger than that of the child of seven. 3. It is extremely doubtful whether the cranial contents usually diminish in old age. The vulgar opinion that they do, rests on no adequate evidence, and my induction would rather prove the negative. 4 The common doctrine, that the African brain, and in parti- cular that of the Negro, is greatly smaller than the European, is false. By a comparison of the capacity of two Caffre skulls, male and female, and of thirteen negro crania (six male, five female, and two of doubtful sex), the encephalos of the African was found not inferior to the average size of the European. 5. In man, the Cerebellum, in relation to the Brain proper, comes to its full proportion about three years. This anti-phreno- logical fact is proved by a great induction. 6. It is extremely doubtful whether the Cerebellum usually diminishes in old age ; probably only in cases of atrophia scnilis. 7. The female Cerebellum is, in general, considerably larger in proportion to the Brain proper, than the male. In the human subject (the Tuber excluded), the former is nearly as 1 to 7.6 ; the latter nearly as 1 to 8.4 : and this sexual difference appears to be more determinate in man than in most other animals. Almost 420 APPENDIX. the \vhole difference of weight between the male and female ence- phali lies in the brain proper ; the cerebella of the two sexes, ab- solutely, are nearly equal, the preponderance rather in favour of the women. This observation is new ; and the truth of the phreno- logical hypothesis implies the reverse. It confirms the theory of the function of the cerebellum noticed in the following paragraph. 8. The proportion of the Cerebellum to the Brain proper at birth varies greatly in different animals." 9. Castration has no effect in diminishing the Cerebellum, either absolutely or in relation to the Brain proper. The opposite doc- trine is an idle fancy, though asserted by the phrenologists as their most incontrovertible fact. Proved by a large induction. 10. The universal opinion is false, that man, of all or almost all animals, has the smallest Cerebellum in proportion to the Brain proper. Many of the commonest quadrupeds and birds have a cerebellum, in this relation, proportionally smaller than man. 11. What has not been observed, the proportion of the Tuber Annulare to the Cerebellum (and, a majore, to the Brain proper), is greatly less in children than in adults. In a girl of one year, (in my table of human brains), it is as 1 to 16.1 ; in another of two, as 1 to 14.8 ; in a boy of three, as 1 to 15.5 ; and the average of children under seven, exhibits the Pons, 7 in proportion to the cerebellum, much smaller than in the average of adults, in whom it is only as 1 to 8, or 1 to 9. 12. In specific gravity, contrary to the current doctrine, the encephalos and its parts vary very little, if at all, from one age to another. A child of two, and a woman of a hundred years, are, in this respect, nearly equal, and the intermediate ages show hardly more than individual differences. 13. The specific gravity of the brain does not vary in madness, (if one case of chronic insanity is to be depended on), contrary to what has been alleged. In fever it often does, and remarkably. 14. The Cerebellum, (the converse of the received opinion), has a For the remainder of this section, Benjamin Brodie, Psychological In- see above, Appendix II. (a), p. 409, quiries, Note H. ED. " Physiologists," &c., to p. 410, " mo- y I.e., the Pons Varolii, & term used tion. " ED. by some anatomists as synonymous j3 The effect is, in fact, to increase with the Tuber Annulare; and so the cerebellum. See the experiments here ; though others distinguish be- recorded by M. Leuret, cited by Sir tween the two. ED. APPENDIX. 421 a greater specific gravity than the Brain proper ; and this differ- ence is considerably more marked in birds than in man and quadrupeds. The opinion also of the ancients is probably true, that the Cerebellum is harder than the Brain proper. 15. The human brain does not, as asserted, possess a greater specific gravity than that of other animals. (c.) KEMARKS ON DR MORTON'S TABLES ON THE SIZE OF THE BRAIN. (Communicated to the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, conducted by Professor JAMESON. See Vol. XL VIII. p. 330 (1850). For Dr MORTON'S Tables, see the same Journal, Vol. XL VIII. p. 262. ED.) What first strikes me in Dr Morton's Tables, completely invali- dates his conclusions, he has not distinguished male from female crania. Now, as the female encephalos is, on an average, some four ounces troy less than the male, it is impossible to compare national skulls with national skulls, in respect of their capacity, unless we compare male with male, female with female heads, or, at least, know how many of either sex go to make up the national complement. A blunder of this kind is made by Mr Sims, in his paper and valuable correlative table of the weight of 253 brains (Mcdico- Chirurgical Transactions, vol. xix.) He there attacks the result of my observation, (published by Dr Monro, Anatomy of the Brain, &c., 1831), that the human encephalos, (brain proper and after- brain], reaches its full size by seven years of age, perhaps some- what earlier. In refutation of this paradox, he slumps the male and female brains together; and then, because he finds that the average weight of his adults, among whom the males are greatly the more numerous, is larger than the average weight of his impuberals, among whom the females preponderate, he jumps at once to the conclusion, that I am wrong, and that the encephalos continues to grow, to diminish, and to grow again (!), for, I forget how long, after the period of maturity. Fortunately, along with his crotchets, he has given the detail of his weighings ; and his table, when properly arranged, confutes himself, and superfluously confirms me. That is, comparing the girls with the women, and the boys 422 APPENDIX. with the men, it appears, from his own induction, that the cra- nial contents do reach the average amount, even before the age of seven. Tiedemann, (Das Him des Negers, &c., 1837, p. 4), notes the contradiction of Sims' result and mine ; but he does not solve it. The same is done, and not done, by Dr Bostock, in his Physiology. Tiedemann, however, remarks, that his own observations coincide with mine (p. 10) ; as is, indeed, evident from his Table, (p. 11), " Of the cranial capacity from birth to adolescence," though, un- fortunately, in that table, but in that alone, he has not discrimi- nated the sex. Dr Morton's conclusion as to the comparative size of the Negro brain, is contrary to Tiedemann's larger, and to my smaller, induc- tion, which concur in proving, that the Negro encephalos is not less than the European, and greatly larger than the Hindoo, the Ceylonese, and sundry other Asiatic brains. But the vice, already noticed, of Dr Morton's induction, renders it, however extensive, of no cogency in the question. Dr Morton's method of measuring the capacity of the cranium, is, certainly, no " invention " of his friend Mr Philips, being, in either form, only a clumsy and unsatisfactory modification of mine. Tiedemann's millet-seed affords, likewise, only an inaccurate approximation to the truth ; for seeds, as found by me, vary in weight according to the drought and moisture of the atmosphere, and are otherwise ill adapted to recover the size of the brain in the smaller animals. The physiologists who have latterly followed the method of filling the cranium, to ascertain the amount of the cranial contents, have adopted, not without perversion, one-half of my process, and altogether omitted the other. After reject- ing mustard -seed, which I first thought of employing, and for the reasons specified, I found that pure silicious sand was the best mean of accomplishing the purpose, from its suitable ponderosity, incompressibility, equality of weight in all weathers, and tenuity. Tiedemann, (p. 21), says, that he did not employ sand, "because, by its greater specific gravity, it might easily burst the cranial bones at the sutures." He would, by trial, have found that this objec- tion is futile. The thinnest skull of the youngest infant can re- sist the pressure of sand, were it many times greater than it is ; even Morton's lead shot proved harmless in this respect. But, APPENDIX. 423 while nothing could answer the purpose better than sand, still this afforded only one, and that an inadequate, mean towards an end. Another was requisite. By weighing the brain of a young and healthy convict, who was hanged, and afterwards weighing the sand which his prepared cranium contained, I determined the proportion of the specific gravity of cerebral substance, (which in all ages and animals is nearly equal), to the specific gravity of the sand which was employed. I thus obtained a formula by which to recover the original weight of the encephalos in all the crania which were filled; and hereby brought brains weighed and skulls gauged into a universal relation. On the contrary, the compari- sons of Tiedemann and Morton, as they stand, are limited to their own Tables. I have once and again tested the accuracy of this process, by experiment, in the lower animals, and have thus per- fect confidence in the certainty of its result, be the problem to recover the weight of the encephalos from the cranium of a spar- row, or from the cranium of an elephant. I may conclude by saying, that I have now established, apart from the proof by averages, that the human encephalos does not increase after tlu age of seven, at highest. This has been done, by measuring the heads of the same young persons, from infancy to adolescence and maturity ; for the slight increase in the size of the head, after seven (or six) is exhausted by the development to be allowed in the bones, muscles, integuments, and hair. (The following is an unpublished Memorandum in reference to preceding. ED.) March 23, 1850. Found that the specific weight of the sand I had employed for measuring the capacity of crania, was that the sand filling 32 cubic inches weighed 12,160 grains. Found at the same time that the millet-seed occupying the same number of cubic inches, weighed 5665 grains. Thus the proportion of millet-seed to sand, in specific gravity, is as 1 : 2.147. One cubic inch thus contains 380 grains sand; and 177 grains millet-seed. 424 APPENDIX. (d.) ORIGINAL KESEARCHES ON THE FRONTAL SINUSES, WITH OBSERVA- TIONS ON THEIR BEARINGS ON THE DOGMAS OF PHRENOLOGY. (From The Medical Times, May 1845, Vol. XII. p. 159 ; June 7, 1845, Vol. XII. p. 177 ; August 1845, VoL XII. p. 371. ED.) Before proceeding to state in detail the various facts and fic- tions relative to the Frontal Sinus," it will be proper to premise some necessary information touching the nature and relations of the sinuses themselves. These cruces phrenologorum are two cavities, separated from each other by a perpendicular osseous partition, and formed be- tween the tables of the frontal bone, in consequence of a diver- gence of these tables from their parallelism, as they descend to join the bones of the nose, and to build the orbits of the eye. They are not, however, mere inorganic vacuities, arising from the re- cession of the bony plates ; they constitute a part of the olfactory apparatus ; they are lined with a membrane, a continuation of the pituitary, and this, copiously supplied with blood, secretes a lubri- cating mucus which is discharged by an aperture into the nose. Various theories have been proposed to explain the mode of their formation ; but it is only the fact of their existence, fre- quency, and degree, with which we are at present interested. In the fcetus manifested only in rudiment, they are gradually, but in different subjects variously, developed, until the age of puberty ; they appear to obtain their ultimate expansion towards the age of twenty-five. They are exclusively occasioned by the elevation a It is proper to observe, that the wholly unworthy of a serious refuta- notes of which the following is an tion; and should the detail of my ob- abstract, were written above sixteen servations on these points be ever pub- years ago, and have not since been lished, it will not be done in a polemical added to or even looked at. They form. My notes on the frontal sinuses were intended for part of a treatise to having, however, been cast in relation be entitled " The Fictions of Phreno- to the phrenological hypothesis, I have logy and the Facts of Nature." My not thought it necessary to take the researches, however, particularly into labour of altering them, especially as the relations of the cerebellum, and the the phrenological fiction is, in truth, a general growth of the brain, convinced complement of all possible errors on the ine that the phrenological doctrine was subject of these cavities. APPENDIX. 425 of the external table, which determines, in fact, the rise of the nose at the period of adolescence, by affording to the nasal bones their formation and support. Sundry hypotheses have likewise been advanced to explain their uses, but it will be enough for us, from the universality of their appearance, to refute the singular fancy of the phrenologists, that these cavities are abnormal varieties, the product of old age or disease. But though the sinuses are rarely if ever absent, their size in every dimension varies to infinity. Laying aside all rarer enor- mities, and speaking, of course, only of subjects healthy and in the prime of life, in superficial extent the sinus sometimes reaches hardly above the root of the nose, sometimes it covers nearly the whole forehead, penetrates to the bottom of the orbit, and, turn- ing the external angle of the eyebrow, is terminated only at the junction of the frontal and parietal bones. Now, a sinus is small, or almost null upon one side, on the other it is, perhaps, unusually large ; while in no dimension are the two cavities, in general, strictly correspondent, even although the outer forehead present the most symmetrical appearance. In depth (or trans- verse distance between the tables) the sinus is equally incon- stant, varying indeterminably in different heads, from a line or less to half an inch and more. Now, a sinus gradually disap- pears by a gradual convergence of its walls ; now, these walls, after running nearly parallel, suddenly unite. Now, the depth of the cavity decreases from centre to circumference; now, the plates approximate in the middle and recede farther from each other, immediately before they ultimately unite. In one cranium, a sinus, collected within itself, is fairly rounded off; in another, it runs into meandering bays, or is subdivided into separate chambers, these varying without end in their relative capacity and extent. In depth, as well as in extent, the capacity of the sinus is thus wholly indeterminable ; and no one can predict, from external observation, whether the cavity shall be a lodging scanty for a fly or roomy for a mouse. It is an error of the grossest, that the extent of the sinus is in- dicated by a ridge, or crest, or blister, in the external bony plate. Such a protuberance has no certain or even probable relation to the extent, depth, or even existence, of any vacuity beneath. 426 APPENDIX. Over the largest cavities there is frequently no bony elevation ; and women, in whose crania these protuberances are in general absent or very small, exhibit the sinuses as universally existent, and not, perhaps, proportionably less extensive than those of men. The external ridge, however prominent, is often merely a sudden outward thickening of the bony wall, which sometimes has a small, sometimes no cavity at all, beneath. Apart also from the vacuity, though over the region of the sinus, no quarter of the cranium presents greater differences in thickness, whether in different subjects or in the same head, than the plates and diploe of the frontal bone ; and I have found that the bony walls themselves presented an impediment which varied inappreciably from three to thirteen lines : "fronti nulla fides." But the "fronti nulla fides," in a phrenological relation, is further illustrated by the accidents of its sinus, which all concur in manifesting the universality and possibly capacious size of that cavity. That cavity is sometimes occupied by stony con- cretions, and is the seat of ulcers, cancer, polypus, and sarcoma. When acutely inflamed the sensibility of its membrane becomes painfully intense ; and every one has experienced its irritation when simply affected with catarrh. The mucosity of this mem- brane, the great extent and security of the caverns, joined with their patent openings into the nose, render the sinuses a con- venient harbour for the nidulation, hatching, and nourishment of many parasitic animals ; indeed, the motley multitude of its guests might almost tempt us to regard it as " The cistern for all creeping things To knot and gender in." a " Chacun a son Yercoquin dans la teste" " Quemque suus vellicat Vermis" are adages which, from the vulgarity of the literal occurrence, would seem more than metaphorically true./ 3 With a frequency sometimes epidemic, 7 flies and insects here ascend to spawn their eggs, and maggots (other than phrenologi- a "Or keep it as a cistern tor foul ~Voigtel,Handb.d.PatJiol. Anat., 1804, toads vol. i. p. 292. I quote him, instar To knot aiid gender in. " omnium, as one of the best and one of Othello, act iv. sc. 2. ED. the most recent authorities. /3 In the frontal sinuses worms and 7 Forestus, Obs. Med., lib. xxi. insects are not unfrequently found. schol. 28. APPENDIX. 427 cal) are bred and fostered in these genial labyrinths. Worms, in every loathsome diversity of slime and hair, reptiles armed with fangs, crawlers of a hundred feet, ejected by the score, and varying from an inch to half an ell in length, cause by their suction, burrowing, and erosion, excruciating headache, convul- sions, delirium, and phrensy. "With many a nameless or nonde- script visitor, the leech, the lumbricus, the ascaris, the ascaris lumbricoides, the fasciola, the eruca, the oniscus, the gordius, the forficula, the scolopendra, the scorpiodes, and even the scorpion," are by a hundred observers recorded as finding in these " antres vast," these "spelunci ferarum," a birthplace or an asylum. P And the fact, sufficiently striking in itself, is not without signi- ficance in relation to the present inquiry, that these intruders o Hollerius, De Morb. Int., lib. L c. 1; Gesner, Hut. Anat., lib. v. ; Bo- neti, Sepul. Obs., 121; FerrettL I here refer to the scorpion alone. /3 Long before the sinus was anato- mically described by Carpi, this patho- logical fact had been well known to physicians. The prescription of the Delphic oracle to Demosthenes of Athens for his epilepsy, shows that the Greeks were aware of the existence of worms in the frontal sinuses of the goat. (Alex. Trallian, lib. i. c. 15.) Among the Arabians, Avicenna (Fen- estella, lib. iii. tr. 2, c. 3) tells us it was well known to the Indian physi- cians, that worms, generated in the forehead, immediately above the root of the nose, were frequently the cause of headaches; and Rhazes (Continet, lib. i. c. 10) observes that this was the opinion of Schare and others. Among the moderns, my medical ignorance suggests more authorities than I can almost summon patience eimply to name. The curious reader may con- sult, among others, Valescus de Tar- anta, Nicolaus de Nicolis, Vega, Mar- cellus Donatua, Trincavelli, Benedetti, Hollerius, Duretus, Fabricius Hildan- us, Zacuta Lusitanus, Hercules de Sax- onia, Petrus Paulus Magnus, Angellin- us, Alsarius, Cornelius Gemma, Gesner, Benevenius, Fernelius, Riolanus, For- estus, Bartholinus, Ferretti, Rolfinck, Olaus Wormius (who himself ejected a worm from the nose was it a family affection ?), Smetius (who also relates his own case), Tulpius, Heurnius, Roussseus, Monardis, Schenk, Senertus, Montuus, Borelli, Bonetus, Hertodius, Kerkringius, Joubert, Volkammer, Wohlfarth, Nannoni, Stalpert, Vander Wiel, Morgagni, Clericus, De Blegny, Salzmanii, Honold, Hill, Kilgour, Lit- tre", Maloet, Sandifort, Henkel, Har- der, Stocket, Slabber, Nil Rosen, Raz- oux, Schaarschmidt, Quelmatz, Wolf, Blumenbach, Ploucquet, Baur, Ried- lin, Zacharides, Lange, Boettcher, Welge, Wrisberg, Troia, Voigtel, Ru- dolphi, Bremser, &c. &c.; and of jour- nals Ephem. Misc. ; Acta et Nova Acta Curios. Nat. ; Commerc. Liter., Nov. 2; Breslauer Sammlung ; Dun- can's Med. Joum. ; Edinb. Med. Es- says; London Chronicle ; Philadelphia Transactions ; BlumenbaclCs Med, Bibl, &c., &c. I may here mention that the nidula- tion of the ojstrus ovinus (which occa- sionally infests the human sinus) forms a frequent epidemic among sheep and goats. The horse, the dog (and pro- bably most other animals) are similarly afflicted. 428 APPENDIX. principally infest the sinuses of women, and more especially before the period of full puberty. Such is the great and inappreciable variation of the frontal sinus and its walls, that we may well laugh at every attempt to estimate, in that quarter, the development of any part of the sub- jacent hemispheres, were that part larger than the largest even of the pretended phrenological organs. But this is nothing. Be- hind these spacious caverns, in utter ignorance of the extent, fre- quency, and even existence of this impediment, the phrenologists have placed, not one large, but seventeen of their very smallest organs ; and have thus enabled an almost insurmountable obstacle to operate in disproof of their system in its highest intensity. By concentrating all their organs of the smallest size within the limits of the sinus, they have, in the first place, carried all those organs whose range of development was least, behind the obstacle whose range of development was greatest. Where the cranium is thinner and comparatively more equal in thickness, they have placed all the organs (those of the propensities and sentiments), which present the broadest surface, and, as they themselves assure us, varying in their development from the centre to circumference by an inch and upwards ; while all the organs, (those of the intel- lect), which have the narrowest expansion, and whose varying range of development from the centre is stated to be only a quarter of an inch, (less even than the fourth of the variation of the others)/ these have been accumulated behind an impedi- ment whose ordinary differences are far more than sufficient to explain every gradation of the pretended development of the pretended organs from their smallest to their largest size. In the second place, they have thus at once thrown one half of their whole organology beyond the verge of possible discovery and possible proof. In the third place, by thus evincing that their observations on that one half had been only illusive fancies, they have afforded a criterion of the credit to be fairly accorded to their observations in relation to the other ; they have shown in this, as in other parts a Combe's System, &c., p. 31. " The amounts to an inch and upwards; and difference in development between a to a quarter of an inch in the organs of large and a small organ of the pro- intellect, which are naturally smaller pensities and some of the sentiments, than the others." APPENDIX. 429 of their doctrine, that manifestation and development are quanti- ties which, be they what they may, can on their doctrine always be brought to an equation. Nay, in the fourth place, as if determined to transcend them- selves to find "a lower deep beneath the lowest deep," they have even placed the least of their least organs at the veiy point where this, the greatest obstacle, was in its highest potency, by placing the organs of configuration, size, weight, and resistance, &c., towards the internal angle of the eyebrow, the situation where the sinus is almost uniformly deepest." Nor, in the fifth place, were they less unfortunate in the loca- tion of the rest of their minutest organs. These they arranged in a series along the upper edge of the orbit, where, independ- ently even of the sinus, the bone varies more in thickness, from one individual and from one nation to another, than in any other part of the skull; and where these organs, hardly larger, are packed together more closely than peas in a pod. These pre- tended organs, if they even severally protruded from the brain, as they never do if no sinus intervened and if, instead of lying under the thickest, they were situate under the thinnest bone of the cranium ; these petty organs could not, even in these circum- stances, reveal their development by determining any elevation, far less any sudden elevation, of the incumbent bone. That bone they could only attenuate at the point of contact, by causing an indentation on its inner surface. This is shown by what are called the glands of Pacchioni, though erroneously. These bodies, which are often found as large as, or larger than, the organs in question, and which arise on the coronal surface of the encephalos, attenu- ate to the thinnest, but never elevate in the slightest, the exter- nal bony plate, though there the action of the muscles presents a smaller impediment to a partial elevation than in the super- ciliary region. This I have frequently taken note of. As it is, these minute organs are expected to betray their dis- tinct and relative developments through the obstacle of two thick bony walls, and a large intervening chamber ; the varying differ- a Every one who has ever examined in loco fere ossium laminae a se invicem the sinus knows that what Schulze has inaxime distant." (De Cav. Cranii ; observed is true: "In illo angulo qiii A eta Phys. Med. Acad. Cos., L p. ad nares est, cavitatis fundus eat, et hoc 508. ) 430 APPENDIX. ence of the impediment being often considerably greater than the whole diameter even of the organs themselves. The fact, how- ever, is, that these organs are commonly, if not always, developed only in the bone, and may be cut out of the cranium, even in an impuberal skull destitute of the sinus, without trenching on the confines of the brain itself. At the external angle of the eyebrow at the organ of slumber, the bone, exclusive of any sinus, is some- times found to exceed an inch in thickness. How then have the phrenologists attempted to obviate the objection of the sinus ? The first organs which Gall excogitated, he placed in the region of the sinus ; and it is manifest he was then in happy unacquaint- ance with everything connected with that obnoxious cavity. In ignorance, however, Gall was totally eclipsed by Spurzheim ; who, while he seems even for a time unaware of its existence as a nor- mal occurrence, has multiplied the number and diminished the size of the organs which the sinus regularly covers. By both the founders, their organology was published before they had dis- covered the formidable nature of the impediment, and then it was too late to retract. They have attempted, indeed, to elude the objec- tion ; but the manner in which they have floundered on from blun- der to blunder, blunders not more inconsistent with each other, than contrary to the fact, shows that they have never dared to open their eyes on the reality, or never dared to acknowledge their conviction of its effect. The series of fictions in relation to the fron- tal sinus, is, out of Phrenology, in truth, unparalleled in the history of science. These fictions are substituted for facts the simplest and most palpable in nature ; they are substituted for facts contra- dicted by none, and proclaimed by every anatomical authority; and they are substituted for facts which, as determining the com- petency of phrenological proof, ought not to have been rejected without a critical refutation by the founders of that theory them- selves. But while it seemed possible for the phrenologists to find only truth, they have yet continued to find nothing but error error always at the greatest possible distance from the truth. But if they were thus so curiously wrong in matters so easy, notorious, and fundamental, how far may we not presume them to have gone astray where they were not, as it were, preserved from wandering ? The fictions by which phrenologists would obviate the objec- APPENDIX. 431 tion of the frontal sinus, may, with the opposing facts, be divided into four classes ; as they relate 1, to its nature and effect ; 2, to its indication; 3, to its frequency; and 4, to its size. I. NATURE AND EFFECT OF THE SINUS. Fact. The frontal sinus only exists in consequence of the re- cession of the two cranial tables from their parallelism ; and as this recession is inappreciable, consequently, no indication is afforded by the external plate of the eminence or depression of the brain, in contact with the internal. To this fact, Gall opposed the following Fiction. The frontal sinus interposes no impediment to the observation of cerebral development ; for as the walls of this cavity are exactly parallel, the effect of the brain upon the inner table must consequently be expressed by the outer. Authorities for the Fiction. This fiction was originally ad- vanced by Gall, in his Lectures, and, though never formally re- tracted, has not been repeated by him or Spurzheim in their works subsequently published. I therefore adduce it, not as an opinion now actutally held by the phrenologists, but as a part only of that cycle of vacillation and absurdity which, in their attempts to elude the objection of the sinus, they have fruitlessly accom- plished. That it was so originally advanced, is shown by the following authorities ; which, as beyond the reach of readers in general, I shall not merely refer to, but translate. The first is Froriep ; and I quote from the 3d edition of his Darstellung, &c., which appeared in 1802. This author was a pupil and friend of Gall, on whose doctrine he delivered lectures, and his work is referred to by Gall, in his Apologetic Memorial to the Austrian Government, in that very year, as containing an authentic exposition of his opinions. "Although at this place the frontal sinuses are found, and here constitute the vaulting of the forehead, nevertheless, Gall maintains that the brain, in conse- quence of the walls of the sinuses lying quite parallel (? !), is able to affect likewise the outer plate, and to determine its protuber- ance." P. 6 1 . The doubt and wonder are by the disciple himself. The second authority is Bartel's, whose Anthropologische Bem- erkungcn appeared in 1806. "In regard to the important ob- 432 APPENDIX. jection drawn from the frontal sinuses, Gall's oral reply is very conformable to nature. ' Here, notwithstanding the intervening cavity in the bones, there is found a parallelism between the ex- ternal and internal plates of the cranium.' " P. 125. Proof of the Fact. In refutation of a fiction so ridiculous, it is unnecessary to say a single word ; even the phrenologists now define the sinus by " a divergence from parallelism between the two tables of the bone." a It was only in abandoning this one fiction, and from the con- viction that the sinus, when it existed, did present an insuper- able obstacle to observation, that the phrenologists were obliged to resort to a plurality of fictions of far inferior efficacy; for what mattered it to them, whether these cavities were indiscoverable, frequent, and capacious, if, in effect, they interpose no obstacle to an observation of the brain ? II. INDICATION OF THE SINUS. Fact. There is no correlation between the extent and exist- ence of a sinus, and the existence and extent of any elevation, whether superciliary or glabellar; either may be present without the other, and when both are coexistent they hold no reciprocal proportion in dimension or figure. Neither is there any form whatever of cranial development which guarantees either the absence or the presence of a subjacent cavity. To this fact the phrenologists are unanimous in opposing the following Fiction. The sinus, when present, betrays its existence and extent by an irregular elevation of a peculiar character, under the appearance of a bony ridge, or crest, or blister, and is dis- tinguished from the regular forms under which the phrenological organs are developed. Authorities for the Fiction. It is sufficient to adduce Gall/ 3 and Spurzheim, 7 followed by Combe, 5 and the phrenologists in general. In support of their position, they adduce no testimony by anatomists, no evidence from nature. a Combe, System, p. 32. 7 Phys. Syst., p. 236 ; Exam, of ft Annat. et Phys., t. iv. p. 43 et seq. ; Object., p. 79 ; Phren., p. 115. and, in the same terms, Sur les Fonct. 8 Syst., pp. 21, 35, 308. APPENDIX. 433 Proof of the fact. All anatomical authority, as will be seen in the sequel, is opposed to the fiction, for every anatomist concurs in holding that the sinuses are rarely, if ever, absent ; whereas the crests or blisters which the phrenologists regard as an index of these cavities, are of comparatively rare occurrence. It must be admitted, however, that some anatomists have rashly connected the extent of the internal sinus with the extent of the external elevation. The statement of the fact is the result of my own observation of above three hundred crania ; and any person who would in like manner interrogate nature, will find that the largest sinuses are frequently in those foreheads which present no super- ciliary or glabellar elevations. I may notice, that of the fifty skulls whose phrenological development was marked under the direction of Spurzheim, and of which a table is appended, the one only head where the frontal sinuses are noted, from the ridge, as present, is the male cranium No. 1 9 ; and that cranium, it will be seen, has sinuses considerably beneath even the average extent. III. FREQUENCY OF THE SINUS. Fact. The sinuses are rarely, if ever, wanting in any healthy adult head of either sex. To this fact, the phrenologists oppose the three following incon- sistent fictions : Fiction I. The sinuses are only to be found in some male heads, being frequently absent in men until a pretty advanced age. Fiction II. In women the sinuses are rarely found. Fiction III. The presence of the sinus is abnormal ; young and adult persons have no cavities between the tables of the frontal bone, the real frontal sinuses occurring only in old per- sons, or after chronic insanity. Authorities for fiction I. This fiction is held in terms by Gall." The other phrenologists, as we shall see, are much farther in the wrong. But even for this fiction they have adduced no testimony of other observers, and detailed no observations of their own. Proof of the fact in opposition to this fiction. All anatomists there is not a single exception concur in maintaining a doc- o Aa quoted above. VOL. T. 2 E 434 APPENDIX. trine diametrically opposed to the figment of the phrenologists that the sinuses are, even in men, frequently or generally absent. Some, however, assert that the sinus in a state of health is never wanting ; while others insist that, though very rarely, cases do occur in which it is actually deficient. Of the latter opinion, Fallopius a holds that they are present "in all adults," except occasionally in the case of simous fore- heads, an exception which Riolanus' 3 and others have shown to be false. Schulze,Y Winslow, 5 Buddeus,* " that they are sometimes absolutely wanting in cases where the cranium is spongy and honeycombed" Palfyn,f " that they are sometimes, though rarely, absent. Wittich,i " that they are almost always present, though it may be admitted, that in some very rare cases they are want- ing ; " and Stalpart Van der Wiel 6 relates, that " he had seen in Nuck's Museum, preserved as a special rarity, a cranium without a frontal sinus." Of more recent authorities, Hippoly te Cloquet 4 observes, " that they are seldom wanting ; " and the present Dr Monro * found, in forty-five skulls, that while three only were without the sinus, in two of them (as observed by Schulze, Wins- low, and Buddeus), the cavity had merely been filled up by the deposition of a spongy bone. Of the former opinion, which holds that the sinus is always pre- sent, I need only quote, instar omnium, the authority of Blumen- bach,\ whose illustrious reputation is in a peculiar manner asso- ciated with the anatomy of the human cranium, and who even celebrated his professional inauguration by a dissertation, in some respects the most elaborate we possess, on the Frontal Sinuses themselves. This anatomist cannot be persuaded, even on the observation of Highmore, Albinus, Haller, and the first Monro, that normal cases ever occur of so improbable a defect ; " for," he says, " independently of the diseases afterwards to be considered, I can with difficulty admit, that healthy individuals are ever wholly destitute of the frontal sinus ; on the contrary, I am convinced o Opera, Ost., p. 105. J3 Comm. de Oss., p. 468. i\ De Olfactu, p. 17. 7 De Sin. Oss. Cap.; Acta. Phys. 6 Obs. Ear., Cent. Post. , pars prior, Med. Leop. dees.', voL L obs. 288. obs. 4. 8 Expos. Anat., Tr. des Oss. Sees., t Anat. Descr., sec. 153, ed. 1824. sec. 30. K Elem. of Anat., i. p. 134. Obs. Anat. Sel, obs. 1. . A. De Sin. Front., p. 5. APPENDIX. 435 that these distinguished men have not applied the greatest dili- gence and research." In this opinion, as observed by the present Dr Monro, a Blumenbach is supported by the concurrence of Ber- tin, Portal, Sommering, Caldani, &c. Nor does the fiction obtain any countenance from the authors whom Blumenbach opposes. I have consulted them, and find that they are all of that class of anatomists who regard the absence of the sinus, though a possible, as a rare and memorable phenomenon. Highmorefl founds his assertion on the single case of a female. Albinus/x on his own observation, and on that of other anatomists, declares that " the sinuses are very rarely absent." The first Monro,' speaking of their infinite variety in size and figure, notices as a remarkable occurrence that he had " even seen cases in which they were abso- lutely wanting." And Haller e is only able to establish the excep- tion on the case of a solitary cranium. My own experience is soon stated. Having examined above three hundred crania for the purpose of determining this point, I have been unable to find a single skull wholly destitute of a sinus. In crania, which were said to be examples of their absence, I found that the sinus still existed. In some, indeed, I found it only on one side, and in many not ascending to the point of the glabellar region, through which crania are usually cut round. The only instances of its total deficiency are, I believe, those abnormal cases in which, as observed by anatomists, the original cavity has been subsequently occupied by a puinicose deposit. Of this deposit the only examples I met with occurred in males. Authorities for fiction II. This fiction also is in terms main- tained by GalLC Neither he nor any other phrenologist has ad- duced any proof of this paradox, nor is there, I believe, to be found a single authority for its support ; while its refutation is involved in the refutation already given to fiction I. Nannoni,n indeed, says " the opinion of Fallopius that the frontal sinuses are often wanting in women, is refuted by observation ; " but Fallopius says nothing of the sort. It is also a curious circumstance, that the great majority of cases in which worms, &c., have been found in a Elem., vol. i. p. 133. 8 Osteol. par Sue, p. 54. Di*q. Anat., lib. iii. c. 4. Elem. Phys., v. p. 138. y Annot. A cad., lib. L c. 11, et Tab. C As above. Oss. TJ TrattatodeAnatomia, 1788, p. 55. 436 APPENDIX. the sinus, have occurred in females. This is noticed by Salzmann and Honold.* My own observations, extending, as I have remarked, to above three hundred crania, confirm the doctrine of all anatomists, that in either sex the absence of this cavity is a rare and abnormal phenomenon, if not an erroneous assertion. I may notice, by the way, the opinion of some anatomists,^ that the sinuses are smaller in women than in men, seems to be the result of too hasty an in- duction ; and I am inclined to think, from all I have observed, that proportionally to the less size of the female cranium, they will be found equally extensive with the male. Authorities for fiction III. This fiction was maintained by Spurzheim while in this country, from one of whose publications 7 it is extracted. It is, perhaps, one of the highest flights of phreno- logical fancy. Nor has it failed of exciting emulation in the sect. '' While a man," says Sir George Mackenzie,8 " is in the prime of life, and healthy, and manifests the faculties of the frontal organs, such a cavity very seldom exists." (!)***** "We have examined a GKEAT MANY skulls, and we have not yet seen ONE having the sinus, that could be proved to have belonged to a per- son in the vigour of life and mind." (! !) Did Sir George ever see any skull which belonged to any " person in the vigour of life and mind " without a sinus ? Did he ever see any adult skull of any person whatever in which such a cavity was not to be found ? Proof of the fact, in opposition to this fiction. This fiction deserves no special answer. It is already more than sufficiently refuted under the first. It is true, indeed, the doctrine that the frontal sinuses wax large in old age is stated in many anatomical works. I find it as far back as those of Vidus Vidius and Fallopius, but I find no ground for such a statement in nature. This I assert on a comparative examination of some thirty aged skulls. In fact, about the smal- lest frontal sinus that I ever saw, was in the head of a woman who was accidentally killed in her hundred and first year. (See also the appended Table.) I take this indeed for one of the instances in which anatomical authors have blindly copied each other ; so a. De Verme Naribus Excusso, (Hal- y Answer to Objections against the ler, Disp. Ned. Pract., i. n. 25.) Doctrines of Gall, &c., p. 79. Instar omnium, v. Sommering, De 8 Illustrations, p. 228. Fabr. Corp. Humani, i sec. 62. APPENDIX. 437 that what originates in a blunder or a rash induction ends iu having, to appearance, almost catholic authority in its favour. A curious instance of this sequacity occurs to me. The common fowl has an encephalos, in proportion to its body, about as one to five hundred ; that is, it has a brain less, by relation to its body, than almost any other bird or beast. Pozzi (Puteus), in a small table which he published, gave the proportion of the encephalos of the cock to its body, by a blunder, at about half its amount ; that is, as one to two hundred and fifty. Haller, copying Pozzi's observation, dropt the cipher, and records in his table, the brain of the common fowl as bearing a proportion to the body of one to twenty-five. This double error was shortly copied by Cuvier, Tiedemann, and, as I have myself noticed, by some twenty other physiologists ; so that, at the present moment, to dispute the fact of the common fowl having a brain more than double the size of the human, in proportion to its body, would be to maintain a paradox counter to the whole stream of scientific authority. The doctrine of the larger the sinus the older the skull, stands, I be- lieve, on no better footing. Indeed, the general opinion, that the brain contracts in the decline of life, is, to say the least of it, very doubtful, as I may take another opportunity of showing. As to the effect of chronic insanity in amplifying the sinuses, I am a sceptic ; for I have seen no such effect in the crania of mad- men which I have inspected. At all events, admitting the phren- ological fancy, it could have no influence on the question, for the statistics of insanity show, that there could not be above one cranium in four hundred where madness could have exerted any effect. IV. EXTENT OP THE SINUS. Fact. While the sinus is always regularly present, it, however, varies appreciably in its extent. For whilst, on the average, it affects six or seven organs, it is, however, impossible to determine whether it be confined to one or extended to some seventeen of these. This fact is counter to three phrenological fictions : Fiction I. The frontal sinus is a small cavity. Fiction II. The frontal sinus, when present, affects only the organ of Locality. 438 APPENDIX. Fiction III. When the sinus does exist, it only extends an obstacle over two organs, (Size and Lower Individuality), or, at most, partially affects a third, (Locality). Authorities for fiction I. Mr Combe" maintains this fiction, that the frontal sinus " is a small cavity." Authorities for fiction II. Gall/ 3 contemplates and speaks of the sinus as only affecting Locality ; and the same may be said of Spurzheim, in his earlier English works. 7 Authorities for fiction III. This fiction is that into which Spurzheim modified his previous paradoxes, when, in 1825, he published his " Phrenology." 8 Mr Combe allows that the sinus, in ordinary cases, extends over Locality, as well as over Size and Lower Individuality. All these fictions are, however, sufficiently disproved at once by the following Proof of the fact. The phrenologists term the sinus, (when they allow it being), " a small cavity" Compare this with the de- scription given by impartial anatomists of these caverns. Vidus Viclius 6 characterises them by "spatium non parvum;" Bau- hinus f styles them " cavitates insignes ; " Spigelius, 77 " cavernae satis amplce;" Laurentius,^ "sinus amplissimi ; " Bartholinus,' "cavitates amplissimce ;" Petit, K "grands cavites irregulieres ; " Sabatier,*- " cavite's larges et profondes ;" Scunnering/ "cava ampla;" Monro primus," "great cavities;" and his grandson,! "large cavities." The phrenologists further assert, that in ordinary cases the frontal sinus covers only two petty organs and a half; that is, extends only a few lines beyond the root of the nose. But what teach the anatomists ? " The frontal sinuses," says Portal, " are much more extensive than is generally believed." " In general" says Professor Walther/ " the sinuses ascend in height nearly to the middle of the frontal bone." Patissier? observes, that " their a System, p. 32. i Anat., lib. iv. c. 6. ft As quoted above. K Palfyn An., ch. i. p. 52. y Phys. Syst., p. 236, and Exam, of A Anat. Obj., p. 79. p. De Fab., i. sec. 35. 5 P. 115. v Osteol. par Sue, p. 54. e Anat., lib. ii. c. 2. I Elements. C Anat., lib. iii. c. 5. o Anat. Med., i. pp. 102, 238. 77 De Fabr., lib. ii. c. 5. v Abh. v. trokn, Kn., p. 133. Hist. Anat., lib. ii. c. 9. p Diet, des Sc. Med., t. Ii. p. 372. APPENDIX. 439 extent varies to infinity, is sometimes stretched upwards to the frontal protuberances, and to the sides, as far as the external orbitar apophyses, as is seen in many crania in the cabinet of the Paris Faculty of Medicine." Bichat" delivers the same doctrine nearly in the same words ; which, contradicted by none, is main- tained by Albinus,/ 3 Haller,7 Buddeus,* Monro primus,* and tertius,C Blumenbach, 77 Sommering,* Fife,' Cloquet,* Velpeau,*- and, in a word, by every osteologist ; for all represent these cavities as endless in their varieties, and extending not unfre- quently to the outer angles of the eyebrow, and even to the parietal bones. To finish by a quotation from one of the last and best observers : " In relation," says Voigtel/* " to their abnormal greatness or smallness, the differences, in this respect, whether in one subject as compared with another, or in one sinus in relation to the opposite of the same skull, are of so frequent occurrence that they vary almost in every cranium. They are found so small, that their depth, measured from before backwards, is hardly more than a line ; in others, on the contrary, a space of from four, five, to six lines, (i. e. half an inch), is found between the anterior and posterior wall. Still more remarkable are the variations of these cavities, in relation to their height, as they frequently rise from the trifling height of four lines to an inch at the glabella." M. Velpeau, speaking of this great and indeterminable extent of the sinus, adds : " this disposition must prevent us from being able to judge of the volume of the anterior parts of the brain by the exterior of the cranium;" an observation sufficiently obvious in relation to Phrenology, and previously made by the present Dr Monro." On the sinus and its extent, two anatomists only, as far as I am aware, have given an articulate account of their inductions Schulze, and the present Dr Monro. The former,? who wrote a distinct treatise On the Cavities or Sinuses of the Cranial Bones, examined only ten skulls, and does o Anal. Deacr., c. i. p. 102. 6 Annt. Deter., t. i. sec. 153, edit. 3. Annot. Acad., lib. i.e. ii. (?) i Tra'M d'Anat. Chir. y Elem., v. p. 138. K De Sin. Fr. t p. 3. 8 Obs. Anat., sec. 8. A De Fab., c. ii. sec. 94. c Oateol. par Sue, p. 64. p Path. Anat., i. p. 289. f Elements. v Elem., p. 133. ri Anat. ( Loc. cit. 440 APPENDIX. not detail the dimension of each several sinus. After describing these cavities, which he says, " plerisque hoininibus formantur," he adds, that " when of a middling size they hardly extend towards the temples beyond the centre of the eye, where the orbital vault is highest ; and if you measure their height from the insertion of the nasal bones, you will find it equal to an inch. Such is the condition of this cavity when moderate. That there are sinuses far greater, was taught me by another inspection of a cranium. In this case, the vacuity on the right did not pass the middle of the orbit, but that on the left stretched so far that it only ended over the external angle of the eyebrow, forming a cavity of at least two inches in breadth. Its depth was such as easily to admit the least joint of the middle finger. Its height, measured from the root of the nose on the left side, exceeded two inches, on the right it was a little less; the left sinus was, however, shallower than the right. On the left side I have said the cavity terminated over the external angle of the orbit. From this place a bony wall ran towards the middle of the crista Galli, and thus separated the sinus into a posterior and an anterior cavity. The posterior extended so far towards the temples, that it reached the place where the frontal and sincipetal bones and the processes of the sphenoidal meet. It covered the whole arch of the orbit, so that all was here seen hollow/' &c. After describing sundry appearances which the sinuses exhibited in another skull, he observes : " It was my fortune to see and to obtain possession of one cranium in which of neither of the frontal nor the sphenoidal cavities was there any vestige whatsoever. In this specimen the bones in which these vacuities are situated were thicker than usual, and more cavernous ; " an observation, as we have seen, made by other anatomists. However subversive of the phrenological statement, it will soon be seen that Schulze has understated the usual extent of the impediment. Dr Monro, a after mentioning that there "were forty-five crania of adults in the Anatomical Museum, cut with a view to exhibit the different sizes and forms of the frontal sinuses," says : " I measured the breadth or distance across the forehead ; the height or distance upwards from the transverse suture, where it divides the frontal bones and bones of the nose ; and also the depth of the a Elements, i. p. 134. APPENDIX. 441 frontal sinuses; in nine different skulls in which these sinuses were large." Omitting the table, it is sufficient to say, that in these crania the average is as follows : Breadth, within a trifle of three inches ; height, one inch and Jive-tenths ; depth, above one inch. Here the depth seems not merely the distance be- tween the external and internal tables, but the horizontal dis- tance from the glabella to the posterior wall of the sinus. These nine crania thus yield an average, little larger than an indifferent induction ; and though the sinuses are stated to have been large, the skulls appear to have been selected by Dr Monro, not so much in consequence of that circumstance, as because they were so cut as to afford the means of measuring the cavity in its three dimensions. By the kindness of Dr Monro and Mr Mackenzie, I was per- mitted to examine all the crania in the public anatomical museum and in the private collection of the Professor ; many were, for the first time, laid open for my inspection. I was thus enabled to institute an impartial induction. A random measurement of above thirty perfect crania (laying aside three skulls of old per- sons, in which the cavity of the sinus was almost entirely occu- pied by a pumicose deposit) gave the following average result : breadth, two inches four-tenths ; height, one inch and nearly five-tenths ; depth (taken like Dr Monro), rather more than eight-tenths of an inch. What in this induction was probably accidental, the sinuses of the female crania exhibited an average, in all the three dimensions, almost absolutely equal to that of the male. The relative size was consequently greater. Before the sinuses of the fifty crania of Dr Spurzheim's collec- tion, (of which I am immediately to speak), were, with the sanction of Professor Jameson, laid open upon one side, I had measured their three dimensions by the probe. This certainly could not ascertain their full extent, as, among other impediments, the probe is arrested by the septa, which so frequently subdivide each sinus into lesser chambers ; but the labour was not to be undergone a second time, especially as the proportional extent of these cavities is by relation to the phrenological organs articu- lately exhibited in the table. As it was, the average obtained by the probe is as follows : In the thirty-six male crania (one could not be measured by the probe), the breadth was two inches 442 APPENDIX. and nearly four-tenths ; the height, one inch and nearly three- tenths ; the depth, rather more than one inch. In the twelve female crania (here, also, one could not be measured by the probe), the breadth was one inch and rather more than nine- tenths ; the height, nearly one inch ; the depth, within a trifle of nine-tenths. I should notice that in all these measurements, the thickness of the external plate is included in the depth. So true is the observation of Portal, that the "frontal sinuses are much more extensive than is generally believed." The collection of fifty crania, of which the average size of the frontal sinuses has been given above, and of which a detailed table of the impediment interposed by these cavities to phrenological observation now follows, was sent by M. Eoyer, of the Jardin des Plantes, (probably by mistake), to the Eoyal Museum of Natural History in Edinburgh ; the skulls, taken from the catacombs of Paris, having, under Dr Spurzheim's inspection, been selected to illustrate the development of the various phrenological organs, which development is diligently marked on the several crania. Thus, though I have it in my power to afford a greatly more extensive table, the table of these fifty crania is, for the present purpose, sufficient. For ] , They constitute a complete and definite collection ; 2, A collection authoritative in all points against the phreno- logists ; 3, One to which it can be objected by none, that it affords only a selected or partial induction in a question touching the frontal sinus ; 4, It is a collection patent to the examination of the whole world ; 5, In all the skulls a sinus has on one side been laid open to its full extent ; the capacity of both is thus easily ascertained ; and, at the same time, with the size of the cavity, the thickness and salience of the external frontal table remains apparent. Table exhibiting the variable extent and unappreciable im- pediment, in a phrenological relation, of the Frontal Sinuses ; in a collection of fifty crania, selected, and their development marked, under the direction of Dr Spurzheim : APPENDIX. 443 3 M si . nl 1 entirely or nearly covering (t). or as more or lea afeding (), the pretended phrenological organs, according to the late and latest numeration. (1) f 3 *IS i| J-o'g is is 5 ? 1 it. W. 3 lil a a. s a -lr 20 a 22 ) 34 9 23 a 29 26 29 27 SO SI sa sa 7 3 (Eg < xlii xii vii XXX cxri ixix L. cxsiii xxxi W. ixxiii xxriii XxiT IXXT xxii XX ix 1 viii a t t t t 1 xii jg t t t * s xiii * 4 xvi to t t t t t t t t t t t * * 5 xxvi B t t t t t t * * * 6 xxxiv O t t t t t t t fer 7 xxxvi ^ 4 t t t t * t # t S xxxvii t t t t t * t * * 9 xii t t t t * 10 xxxv t t t t t t t t t t t t * * * 1 * ""-I 11 xxxix fsfl t t t t * * * a 12 ii t t t t t t * * 13 iv t t t t * 14 V t t t t t *? t 16 vi t t t t *? t 16 vil t t t t 17 ix t t t t * t 18 X t t t t t t 119 xir t t t t * ' 20 xvii 'o t t t t t t .21 xxi 1 t t. t t * * 22 xxiii t t * t * - 23 xxv o t t t t t t 21 xxvii *S t t t t t t t .25 xxviii jg t t # t * t "'! xxix t t t t * t t 1-27 xxx t * _ B * 28 xlii t t t t t t 29 xliii t t t t t t * 30 xliv t t t t t t 31 xlv t t t t * 32 xlvii t t t t t * t _ , * B 33 xlviii t t t t t t t 34 xxii i_ t t t t 35 xlix 3 E.*"2 * * 110 xxxiii 3 jj? = O t t t S 37 1 "3 Old t t t * 38 39 XV xxxii 2 "3 V [Young t t t t t t t t t t t * * 40 xxxvi |sii t t t * is" 8 , 41 xi Male t t t t 4-2 xviii o t t t t 1 t 43 xix 1 t t t t i 44 xxiv t t t t 45 XXX ~ t t t t \ t t 46 xl 2 t t t 1 t f 47 xlvi S t t t t t t 48 i -a -, t t * 49 XX l| = t t t a "a 50 iii V Old t t fc (1) The organs denoted by these numbers :ix. 7, Constnictlvcness ; xx. 32, Mirthfulness or Wit; xxii. 19(2), Indi- 'luality, Lower Individuality ; xxiii. 20, Configuration, Figure ; xxiv. 21, Sire ; xxv. 22, Weight, Resistance ; xxvl. 23, >lour ; xxvii. 24, Locality ; xxvili 26. Ca culation. Number ; xxix. 25, Order ; xxx. 19 (1). Bventua ity, Upper Indi- duality ;xxxi. 26, Time ; xxxii. 28, Mdody, Tune ; xxxiil. 20, language thin organ Gall divides in two, to wit, into e organ of Language and the organ of Words ; xxxiv. 30, Comparison ; xxxv. 81, Causality. The order of the numbers this table was taken from that of a more extensive and general table ; so that whilst here xx. 3i has not been affected all, there it was affected more frequently than ix. 7. 444 APPENDIX. In these circumstances it is to be observed In the first place, that, as already noticed, while the develop- ments of all the crania have been carefully marked, the presence of the frontal sinuses has been signalised only in one skull (the male No. 19, xiv.), in which they are, however, greatly below even the average. In the second place, that the extent of the sinus varies inde- terminably from an affection of one to an affection of sixteen organs. In the third place, in this induction of thirty-seven male and thirteen female crania, the average proportional extent of the sinuses is somewhat less in the female than in the male skulls ; the sinus in the former covering 4.4, and affecting 1.2 organs ; in the latter covering 5, and affecting 2.1 organs. This induc- tion is, however, too limited, more especially in the female crania, to afford a determination of the point, even were it not at vari- ance with other and more extensive observations. In the fourth place, the male crania exhibit at once the largest and the smallest sinuses. The largest male sinus covers 12, and affects 4 ; while the largest female sinus covers 7, and affects 3 organs : whereas, whilst the smallest male sinus affects only 1, the smallest female sinus covers 2 organs. 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