ed with respect to it coincides exactly with that which it is now my object to establish by a more ample discussion. At that time, I did not imagine that it differed so widely from the current maxims of the learned, as I have since found from various later publications; and accordingly, (as the point in dispute is intimately connected with almost every other question relating to the human mind) I have availed myself of the present opportunity to throw upon it some additional light, before resuming my analysis of the Intellectual Powers. With this view, I have been led to canvass, pretty freely, the doctrines not only of my predecessors, but of several of my contemporaries; and to engage in various arguments, which, however unconnected they may appear in a table of contents, will be all found, upon examination, to bear upon the same conclusion. I flatter myself, therefore, that those who may take the trouble to follow the train of thought which has led me from one Essay to another, will discover in this part of my book a greater degree of unity, than its title-page seems at first to promise.

The Essays which fill up the rest of the volume have no necessary dependence on the disquisitions to which they are subjoined; and may perhaps be read with some interest by readers who have little relish for scholastic controversy. The choice, however, even of these, was not altogether arbitrary; as, I trust, will appear evident to such as may honor the whole series with an attentive perusal.

Of the speculations with respect to the origin of our ideas, the greater part were committed to writing, for the first time, during the course of the last summer and winter; the materials of some of them being supplied by very imperfect hints, noted down at different periods of my life. The business of composition was begun at a time when I had recourse to it occasionally as a refuge from other thoughts; and has been carried on under circumstances, which, I doubt not, will incline those to whom they are known, to judge of the execution with some degree of indulgence.

PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS.

VOL. IV.

7

PART FIRST.

༞ ་་༞༞,

ON LOCKE'S ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE DOCTRINES OF SOME OF HIS SUCCESSORS.

CHAPTER FIRST.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

IN speculating concerning any of the intellectual phenomena, it is of essential importance for us constantly to recollect, that, as our knowledge of the material world is derived entirely from our external senses, so all our knowledge of the human mind is derived from consciousness. As to the blind or the deaf, no words can convey the notions of particular colors, or of particular sounds; so to a being who had never been conscious of sensation, memory, imagination, pleasure, pain, hope, fear, love, hatred, no intelligible description could be given of the import of these terms. They all express simple ideas or notions, which are perfectly familiar to every person who is able to turn his thoughts inwards, and which we never fail to involve in obscurity when we attempt to define them.*

The habits of inattention which all men contract, in their early years, to the operations of their own minds, have been pointed out, by various writers, as the most powerful of all obstacles to the progress of our inquiries concerning the theory of human nature. These

• See Note (A.)

habits, it has also been remarked, are to be conquered only by the most persevering industry in accustoming the thoughts to turn themselves at pleasure to the phenomena of this internal world; an effort by no means easy to any individual, and, to a large proportion of mankind, almost impracticable. "Magni est ingenii," says Cicero, "revocare mentem a sensibus, et cogitationem a consuetudine abducere." The observation, as thus expressed, is perhaps somewhat exceptionable; inasmuch as the power which Cicero describes has but little connexion with Genius in the ordinary acceptation of that word; but it cannot be denied, that it implies a capacity of patient and abstracted meditation, which does not fall to the lot of many.

To this power of directing the attention steadily and accurately to the phenomena of thought, Mr. Locke and his followers have very properly given the name of Reflection. It bears precisely the same relation to Consciousness which Observation does to Perception; the former supplying us with the facts which form the only solid basis of the science of mind, as we are indebted to the latter for i ground-work of the whole fabric of

natural philosophy.*

With respect to the exercise of reflection, the following precept of an old-fashioned writer is so judicious, and the caution it suggests of so great moment to us in the inquiries on which we are about to enter that I shall make no apology for introducing it here, although not more immediately connected with the subject of the present essay, than with those of all the others contained in this volume.

"When I speak,” says Crousáz, in his Art of Think

sense.

The French language affords no single word to express consciousness, but conscience; a word which is also frequently employed as synonymous with the moral Thus it is equally agreeable to the usage of the most correct writers to say, T'homme a la conscience de sa liberté; and to speak of un homme de conscience, in the English acceptation of that phrase. Hence an occasional indistinctness in the reasonings of some of the best French metaphysicians. It has probably been with a view to its correction, that so much use has been made lately of the circumlocutions, le sens intime, le sentiment intérieur; phrases which appear to me to be still more exceptionable than the word for which they have been substituted.

In general, the English language has a decided superiority over the French in the precision of its metaphysical phraseology. A few exceptions to this remark might perhaps be mentioned, but I do not recollect any of much importance.