this he would add Sir William Hamilton's metaphysical works, especially his edition of the works of Dr. Reid, with notes. The author's aim has been to provide a book intelligible to the educated public generally; (not without hope of its being intelligible to the youth of both sexes, engaged in the higher classes of our best conducted schools,) conveying a distinct conception of the wonderful organism of the human soul in its connection with the body. The models which he has set before him have been such books as Sir John Herschell's popular work on Astronomy; and Paley's View of the Evidences of Christianity. The author explicitly repudiates all claims to originality in any of his statements. Any person who has read Sir William Hamilton's historical notices of several metaphysical topics, will hesitate long before he even hint at such a claim on any subject. For himself, the author avows that not unfrequently, when he imagined that he had arrived at certain conclusions by his own excogitations, he has not only found them anticipated in other books, but in books which he had read, and from which he had, in all probability, but altogether unconsciously, derived both the conclusions and the reasonings on which they were established. Similar considerations have deterred him from stating from what sources he has derived his views. Such references are not required as authority; for a work of this nature is an almost incessant appeal to the reader's own consciousness; and Sir William Hamilton has again taught him, that in quoting authorities, he might be quoting only authorities at second hand. But while the author lays no claim to originality, the reader will find that the work is not a mere abridgment of any other book, nor a compilation from other books. The author has availed himself of all the information to which he has had access, but has not given himself up to the guidance of any one who has preceded him; and his work is an attempt to convey that view of the human mind, which he has been led to adopt by his inquiries, considerably modified by his own observations and reflections. An The work was suggested to the author in the course, of preparing a few essays on the Interpretation and Application of the Old Testament Scriptures. attempt to ascertain in what the image of God in the soul consisted, suggested the necessity of comparing what we know of the soul, by our own consciousness, with what is revealed of God in the Scriptures; and the author soon found the train of thought, into which he was then led, pass beyond the bounds of an essay fitted to hold a subordinate place in such a work as he contemplated-and he resolved to prepare a separate work on the Mind, to which he could afterwards refer. He has not in this volume entered on the consideration of the moral nature or state of man: but if this volume be favourably received, and if it should please God to prolong his life, and spare to him his faculties for some time longer, he may issue another volume, containing his views on these still more important topics. The author trusts that his only desire is, that he may glorify God, by directing the attention of his fellow-men to His most wonderful work of creation-the immortal spirit of man-and prepare them for the better understanding of His Revealed Word. That his work may effect this object is his prayer and his hope through the kindness of God in Christ Jesus. CONTENTS. THE HIGH RANK WHICH THE HUMAN MIND HOLDS IN CREATION ESSENCE OR SUBSTANCE OF THE MIND ALTOGETHER UNKNOWN THE MIND HAS NO INNATE IDEAS. ITS FIRST MOVEMENTS 14 Page 3. Sensations form the elements of all thought 4. Most or all of the classes of sensation, capable of being excited otherwise than through the organs of sense 15 5. When different external objects are affecting the organs of sense at the same time, only one occupies the thoughts, the rest passing unheeded. This attraction of the thoughts to one sensation is called attention, and is not directed by the mind, but by certain qualities in the sensation that arrests its attention 6. Many, perhaps all, sensations originally pleasant or painful. The qualities that render them so. The pleasure and pain fade by repetition, and they become 7. None of our sensations nor all of them would of them- selves convey to the mind any notice of the material world, or of anything external to the mind itself or different from it. A mind supposed to be destitute of all power over the body, and the effects traced. That the senses give of themselves no notion of Sensations so retained in the mind that they may be recalled, or be again present to the mind. These Cases mentioned by Abercrombie and others Sensations are recalled with the pleasure or pain which originally belonged to them, but modified |