possesses over others, in a skilful application of them, arises chiefly from the general rules (never, perhaps, expressed verbally even to himself) which he has deduced from these experiments;-experiments, it must be granted, not carried on by such instruments as prisms or crucibles, but by an apparatus better suited to the intellectual laboratory which furnishes their materials. Of this remark I hope to be able to produce some new illustrations, in that part of the following volume, in which I propose to examine the process by which the acquired power of Taste is gradually formed.

As to the minds of others, it is undoubtedly but seldom that we have the means of subjecting them to formal and premeditated experiments. But even here, many exceptions occur to the general assertion which I am now combating. What is the whole business of Education, when systematically and judiciously conducted, but a practical application of rules deduced from our own experiments, or from those of others, on the most effectual modes of developing and of cultivating the intellectual faculties and the moral principles? I lay but little stress, comparatively, on those rare, though inestimable opportunities of gratifying an experimental curiosity, which are presented by the Blind and the Deaf, when they are qualified to give a distinct account of their peculiar perceptions, feelings, and habits of thought; nor on such extraordinary cases as that of the young man couched by Cheselden, whose simple and intelligent statement of what he experienced on his first introduction to the visible world, discovers powers of observation and of reflection, as well as of clear description, which do not appear

to have been equalled in any of the similar instances which have since occurred.

To counterbalance the disadvantages which the Philosophy of Mind lies under, in consequence of its slender stock of experiments, made directly and intentionally on the minds of our fellow-creatures, Human Life exhibits to our observation a boundless variety, both of intellectual and moral phenomena; by a diligent study of which, we may ascertain almost every point that we could wish to investigate, if we had experiments at our command. The difference between observation and experiment, in this instance, considered as sources of knowledge, is merely nominal; amounting to nothing more than this, that the former presents spontaneously to a comprehensive and combining understanding, results exactly similar to those, which the latter would attempt to ascertain by a more easy and rapid process, if it possessed the opportunity. Hardly, indeed, can any experiment be imagined, which has not already been tried by the hand of Nature; displaying, in the infinite varieties of human genius and pursuits, the astonishingly diversified effects, resulting from the possible combinations of those elementary fa culties and principles, of which every man is conscious in himself. Savage society, and all the different modes of civilization; the different callings and professions of individuals, whether liberal or mechanical;-the prejudiced clown; the factitious man of fashion;-the varying phases of character from infancy to old age;-the prodigies effected by human art in all the objects around us;-laws,-government,-commerce,-religion;--but above all, the records of thought, preserved in those volames which fill our libraries; what are they but experi

ments, by which Nature illustrates, for our instruction on her own grand scale, the varied range of Man's intel lectual faculties, and the omnipotence of Education in fashioning his mind?

As to the remark, that "no metaphysician expects, by "analysis, to discover a new power, or to excite a "new sensation in the mind, as the chemist discovers a "new earth or a new metal," it is abundantly obvious, that it is no more applicable to the anatomy of the mind, than to the anatomy of the body. After all the researches of physiologists on this last subject, both in the way of observation and of experiment, no discovery has yet been made of a new organ, either of power or of pleasure, or even of the means of adding a cubit to the human stature; but it does not therefore follow that these researches are useless. By enlarging his knowledge of his own internal structure, they increase the power of man in that way in which alone they profess to increase it. They furnish him with resources for remedying many of the accidents to which his health and his life are liable; for recovering, in some cases, those active powers which disease has destroyed or impaired; and, in others, by giving sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, for awakening powers of perception which were dormant be. fore. Nor must we overlook what they have contributed, in conjunction with the arts of the optician and of the mechanist, to extend the sphere of those senses, and to prolong their duration.

If we consider, in like manner, the practical purposes to which the anatomy of the Mind is subservient, we shall find the parallel infinitely to its advantage. What has Medicine yet effected in increasing the bodily pow

ers of man, in remedying his diseases, or in lengthening life, which can bear a moment's comparison with the prodigies effected by Education, in invigorating his intellectual capacities; in forming his moral habits; in developing his sensitive principles; and in unlocking all the hidden sources of internal enjoyment? Nor let ti be objected, that education is not a branch of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. So far as it is effectual and salutary, it is founded on those principles of our nature which have forced themselves on general observation, in consequence of the experience of ages. So far as it is injudicious and hurtful, it proceeds upon speculative errors and prejudices, which juster views of the Philosophy of the Mind can alone correct. Would it not necessarily be rendered more systematical and enlightened, if the powers and faculties on which it operates, were more scientifically examined, and better understood? The medical art, it must be remembered, had made no inconsiderable progress, before anatomy was regarded as a necessary preparation for the study. It is disputed, whether Hippocrates himself ever dissected a human subject; and Galen is said to have undertaken a journey to Alexandria, merely to gratify his curiosity by the sight of a

skeleton.

It is curious, that the objection which we are now considering to the Philosophy of the Mind, is the very same in substance with that which Socrates urged against the speculations of natural philosophers in his age. "He "would ask," (says Xenophon) "concerning these busy "inquirers into the nature of such things as are only to "be produced by a divine power,-whether, as those "artists who have been instructed in some art, believe

they are able to practise it at pleasure, so they, having "found out the immediate cause, believe they shall be "able, for their own benefit, or that of others, to pro"duce winds and rain, the vicissitudes of time, or the "change of seasons? or if, indeed, altogether destitute of "this hope, they could content themselves with such "fruitless knowledge?

"As for himself, Man, and what related to Man, were "the only subjects on which he chose to employ his inquiries and his conversation."*

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I have quoted these sentences, chiefly as they afford me an opportunity of remarking, that, whereas the scepticism of modern Europe has been confined, in a great measure, to the Philosophy of Mind, that of antiquity was directed more particularly to the theories which pretended to explain the phenomena of the Material Universe. That Socrates, with all his zeal for the advancement of Moral Science, was a complete sceptic in what is now called Physics, appears sufficiently from the account given of his studies in the first chapter of the Memorabilia. Nor will this seem at all surprising to those who reflect on the unprofitable questions, about which (as we learn from the same authority) the inquiries of Natural Philosophers were then employed. After the physical discoveries, indeed, which have distinguished the two last centuries, the scepticism of this truly wise man is apt to strike us, at first sight, as altogether weak and puerile; but does not this very consideration afford to those, who now cultivate the inductive Philosophy of Mind, some

* Translation of the Memorabilia, by Mrs. Fielding. For the rest of the passage (to which no version can do justice) I must refer to the originak