itself in endless obscurities, but is liable to practical mistakes, in matters of opinion, which are easily avoided if the distinction be kept in view.

Without attributing a paramount importance to the cultivation of Intellectual Science-physical or abstract—it may fairly be affirmed, that a well conducted and early initiation in this branch of philosophy secures a mental advantage of great practical value; and which, if it were generally possessed, would go far in accelerating the universal diffusion of the highest Truths.

November, 1833.

SYNTHESIS,

OR

SYSTEMATIC VIEW OF THE TERMS EXPLAINED IN THIS VOLUME.

THE terms employed in the several departments of abstract and mental science are readily separable into Three Classes :

The FIRST CLASS, containing those which belong to the Physiology of the human Mind; and which designate its several faculties, and modes of feeling, and acting; such, for example, as sensation, emotion, imagination, &c.

The SECOND CLASS comprehends those terms which represent purely abstract notions, such as essence, extension, space, power, substance, mode, &c., and which belong to METAPHYSICS.

The THIRD CLASS are those that express the operations of the Mind, its methods, and its artificial processes, in acquiring and in communicating knowledge. These terms belong to LOGIC.

B

We have therefore before us

1st. Mental Philosophy, which treats of the nature of the Mind;

2d. Metaphysics, or the science of Abstraction; 3d. Logic, or the method of gaining knowledge for ourselves, and of conveying it to others.

CLASS I.

TERMS BELONGING TO THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND.

The MIND is that which feels, and knows, and thinks; or which is conscious of existence; and is distinguished from MATTER, which affects the mind through the senses; and is moved by the voluntary effort of the mind, exerted through the muscles.

That CONSCIOUSNESS of existence which belongs to the mind, and which extends without interruption from one period of life to another, imparts the notion and conviction of personal IDENTITY.

The human Mind is distinguished from the brute mind, not only by the greater extent of its faculties, and especially of the faculty of abstraction; but by its being guided, in almost all its operations, by its knowledge of the connexion of cause and effect whereas, animals are more often guided by

an unknown influence, called Instinct, than by any calculation of means, as conducing to an end; or by a knowledge of consequences. The words

REASON and INSTINCT are used to express this important difference between man and animals.

Whenever the state of the mind is changed by some cause exterior to itself it is said to be the subject of an IMPRESSION.

The Mind is conscious of impressions from the external world through the organs of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch: changes in its feelings, so produced, are called SENSATIONS; and when two or more sensations, coming from the same object, through different senses, lead the Mind to think of that object as an external cause of its feelings, it is said to perceive, or to have a PERCEPTION. The recalling of a former perception, or sensation, is CONCEPTION. The mental image, so recalled, is an IDEA; and is distinguished from a NOTION, which is a thought, purely mental or abstract.

Independently of any act or effort of the Mind, there is incessantly going on within it a SUCCESSION OF IDEAS or emotions; and these ideas follow each other in consequence of some circumstance of real connexion, or of accidental relationship. This is called the ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. In other words, there is a something in each thought which