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 af 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 before. 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 powers 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 it 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 Xenophen, "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 produce 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." *

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 dis

•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 original.

tinguished 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 ground of hope, that the day may yet come, when a juster estimate will be formed of the value of their labors?

It is not, however, on future contingencies that I will rest my present argument. Notwithstanding the obscurity and uncertainty which continue to involve various important questions connected with the theory of our internal frame, I do not scruple to contrast, as an organ of Human Power and of Human Happiness, the Science of Mind, even in its present state of infancy, with the discoveries which have immortalized the names of Boyle and of Newton. Nor will this assertion seem extravagant or paradoxical, if the following profound observations of Bacon be compared with the value of that gift which he himself bequeathed to posterity.

"Non abs re fuerit, tria hominum ambitionis genera et quasi gradus distinguere. Primum eorum, qui propriam potentiam in patriâ suâ amplificare cupiunt; quod genus vulgare est et degener. Secundum eorum, qui patriæ potentiam et imperium inter humanum genus amplificare nituntur: illud plus certe habet dignitatis, cupiditatis haud minus. Quod si quis humani generis ipsius potentiam et imperium in rerum universitatem instaurare et amplificare conetur; ea proculdubio ambitio (si modo ita vocanda sit) reliquis et sanior est et augustior. Hominis autem imperium in res, in solis artibus et scientiis ponitur. NATURE ENIM NON IMPERATUR, NISI PARENDO."

"Præterea, si unius alicujus particularis inventi utilitas ita homines affecerit, ut eum, qui genus humanum universum beneficio aliquo devincire potuerit, homine majorem putaverint, quanto celsius videbitur, tale aliquid invenire, per quod alia omnia expedite inveniri possint."

In order to depreciate the philosopical merits of Bacon, I have sometimes heard an enumeration attempted, of important discoveries which have been made, since

the publication of the Novum Organum, by individuals who never read that work; nor, in all probability, were aware of its existence. The alleged fact, on which this argument proceeds, I am not disposed to controvert; for, granting it in its fullest extent, little stress will be laid on it by those who have duly attended to the slow and indirect process by which the influence of such writings as those of Bacon must necessarily descend, from the higher to the lower classes of intellectual workmen. Their immediate operation cannot possibly extend beyond the narrow circle of inquirers, who, to an enlarged and unprejudiced understanding, add the rare capacity of entering into abstract and general reasonings. In the investigations of this small and select class of readers, the logical rules to which these reasonings lead, are, in the first instance, exemplified; and when the example has once been set, it may be successfully copied by thousands who never heard of the rules, nor are capable of comprehending the principles on which they are founded. It is in this manner that the paramount influence of the Philosophy of Mind, on the subordinate sciences and arts, escapes the notice of those who are unable to look beyond palpable and proximate causes; and who forget that, in the intellectual as well as in the material world, whatever is accomplished by the division and distribution of labor, must be ultimately referred to the comprehensive design of the mechanist, who planned and combined the whole.

Of this disposition to detract from Bacon's fame, I certainly do not mean to accuse the learned and ingenious writer who has given occasion to these strictures, and who acknowledges fairly, the mighty influence which Bacon's works have had on the subsequent progress of experimental science. I must own, however, that, in my opinion, he would have reasoned more consistently, if he had asserted the contrary; for, after this admission, how is it possible that he should dispute the practical utility of the Philosophy of the Mind; the improvement of which is manifestly the great object of Bacon, from the beginning to the end of his work? If, in reply to this, it should be argued, that the Philosophy

VOL. IV.

5

of the Mind means something different from what is commonly called Metaphysics; I have only to express my complete assent to the justness of the distinction; and my regret, that, after the repeated attempts I have made to illustrate it, an advantage should, in one or two passages of this article, have been taken of the vagueness of popular language, to discredit, by means of an obnoxious appellation, one of the most important, and, at the same time, one of the most neglected departments of human knowledge.

To what branch of science Lord Bacon himself conceived the speculations in the Novum Organum to belong, appears from various passages which it contains. One of these is more particularly remarkable, as it explicitly guards the readers of that work against inferring, from the multiplicity of physical illustrations with which it abounds, that his object is to instruct them with respect to the phenomena of matter, when his real aim is to deduce, from the laws of the Human Mind, such logical rules as may guide them in the search of truth.

"Illud vero monendum, nos in hoc nostro organo tractare logicam, non philosophiam. Sed cum logica nostra doceat intellectum et erudiat ad hoc, ut non tenuibus mentis quasi claviculis, rerum abstracta captet et prenset (ut logica vulgaris); sed naturam revera persecet, et corporum virtutes et actus, eorumque leges in materiâ determinatas inveniat; ita ut non solum ex naturâ mentis, sed ex naturâ rerum quoque hæc scientia emanet: mirari non est, si ubique naturalibus contemplationibus et experimentis, ad exempla artis nostræ, conspersa fuerit et illustrata."

It is perfectly manifest from the context, that by philosophy Lord Bacon here means the particular branches of the study of Nature, in opposition to that science (one of the most important departments of the philosophy of the mind) which professes to comprehend them all in its survey, and to furnish the means of their advancement. To this science he elsewhere gives the name of Philosophia Prima; pointing out, by a happy and beautiful allusion, its pre-eminence among the rest, both in dignity and in practical importance.