term primary, is the proposition of our Personal Identity. -If the consideration of our personal existence naturally come first in the order of time, that of the truth now before us is not secondary in point of importance. We cannot dispense with either, without unsettling the grounds of inquiry and belief, and barring the access to all knowledge whatever.

IDENTITY is synonymous with sameness, and is the name of a simple state of mind. Although, therefore, its meaning is as clear as that of other simple ideas, and every body is supposed to understand it, it is not susceptible of definition. The term is applied to various objects, and among others to men. The word PERSONAL implies Self, and personal identity is, therefore, the identity of ourselves. But the term self is complex, embracing both mind and matter, and hence we are led to consider the distinct notions of mental and bodily identity.

I. MENTAL IDENTITY ;-By this phrase we express the continuance and oneness of the thinking principle merely. The soul of man is truly an unit. It is not like matter separable into parts; no one being ever conscious of a want of oneness in thought and feeling. It may bring, from time to time, new susceptibilities into action; but its essence is unchangeable. That, which constitutes it a thinking and sentient principle, in distinction from that, which is unthinking and insentient, never deserts it, never ceases to exist, never becomes other than what it originally was.

II. BODILY IDENTITY ;-By these expressions we mean the sameness of the bodily shape and organization. This is the only meaning we can attach to them, since the materials, which compose our bodily systems, are constantly changing. The body is not an unit in the same sense the soul is. It was a saying of Seneca, that no man bathes twice in the same river; and still we call it the same, although the water within its banks is constantly passing away. And in like manner we ascribe identity to the human body, although it is subject to constant changes, mean

ing by the expressions, as just remarked, merely the sameness of shape and organization.

III. PERSONAL IDENTITY;-This form of expression is more general than either of those, which have been mentioned. It has reference to both mind and matter, as we find them combined together in that complex existence, which we term man or person. It is equivalent to what is conveyed by the two phrases of mental identity, and bodily identity. But it is evident we cannot easily separate the two, when speaking of men. And accordingly,

when it is said, that any one is conscious of, knows, or has a certainty of his personal identity, it is meant to be asserted, that he is conscious of having formerly possessed the powers of an organized, animated, and rational being, and that he still possesses those powers. He knows, that he is a human being now, and that he was a human being yesterday, or last week, or last year.-There is no mystery in this. It is so plain, no one is likely to misunderstand it, although we admit our inability to give a definition of identity.

§. 20. Reasons for regarding this a primary truth.

If personal identity be a primary truth, it is antecedent to argument, and is independent of it.-What grounds are there, then, for regarding it as such?

In the FIRST place, the mere fact, that it is constantly implied in those conclusions, which we form in respect to the future from the past, and universally in our daily actions, is of itself a decisive reason for reckoning it among the original and essential intimations of the human intellect. On any other hypothesis we are quite unable to account for that practical recognition of it in the pursuits of men, which is at once so early, so evident, and so universal.

The farmer, for instance, who looks abroad on his cultivated fields, knows that he is the same person, who twenty years before entered the forest with an axe on his shoulder, and felled the first tree. The aged soldier, who recounts at his fireside the battles of his youth, never once

doubts that he was himself the witness of those sanguinary scenes, which he delights to relate. It is altogether useless to attempt either to disprove or to confirm to them a proposition which they believe and know, not from the testimony of other's or from reasoning, but from the interiour and authoritative suggestion of their very nature; and which, it is sufficiently evident, can never be eradicated from their belief and knowledge, until that nature is changed.

A SECOND circumstance in favour of regarding the notion of personal identity, as an admitted or primary truth, is, that men cannot prove it by argument if they would; and if they do not take it for granted, must forever be without it. The propriety of this remark will appear on examination.There evidently can be no argument, properly so called, unless there be a succession. of distinct propositions. From such a succession of propositions, no conclusion can be drawn by any one, unless he be willing to trust to the evidence of memory. But memory involves a notion of the time past, and whoever admits, that he has the power of memory, in however small a degree, virtually admits, that he has existed the same at some former period, as at present.

The considerations, which we have now particularly in view, and which are greatly worthy of attention in connection with the principle under examination, may with a little variation of terms be stated thus.

Remembrance, without the admission of our personal identity, is clearly an impossibility. But there can be no process of reasoning without memory. This is evident, because arguments are made up of propositions, which are successive to each other, not only in order, but in point of time. It follows, then, that there can be no argument whatever, or on any subject, without the admission of our identity, as a point from which to start. What then will it avail to attempt to reason either for or against the views, which are here maintained, since in every argument which is employed, there is necessarily an admission of the very thing, which is the subject of inquiry.

§. 21. Of the existence of matter.

In assuming the truth of self existence and of personal identity, it will be observed, that there has necessarily been an admission of the existence both of mind and matter. As both are employed in the formation or constitution of man in his present state, it is not easy to admit the existence of one, and deny that of the other. We naturally and necessarily think of ourselves not as mind only, but as material.

And accordingly, in whatever follows, the true and actual existence of both is nowhere doubted. But this admission, it should be added, does not preclude inquiries hereafter into the grounds of our belief in both cases. The evidence of consciousness and of the senses in particular will afford occasion for such inquiries.

Evidently some elementary principles must be granted; otherwise we can never advance. But when we have once started, and have made progress, we may then return; examine, under new points of view, the successive steps, . which have been taken; and inspect and try the soundness of those primary propositions at the foundation of the whole.

§. 22. There are original and authoritative grounds of belief.

Supposing men actually to exist, and to be conscious of the continuance and sameness of their existence, we are next to enter into the interiour of their constitution, and to inquire after such elements of intelligence, and action, as are to be found there. The next proposition, therefore, which is to be laid down as fundamental and as preliminary to all reasoning, is, that there are in men

CERTAIN ORIGINAL AND AUTHORITATIVE GROUNDS OF BELIEF.

Nothing is better known, than that there is a certain state of the mind, which is expressed by the term, BELIEF. As we find all men acting in reference to it, it is not necessary to enter into any verbal explanation. Nor would it be possible by such explanation to increase the clearness

of that notion, which every 'one is already supposed to entertain. Of this belief, we take it for granted, and hold it to be in the strictest sense true, that there are original and authoritative grounds or sources; meaning by the term original, that these grounds or sources are involved in the nature of the mind itself, and meaning by the term, authoritative, that this belief is not a mere matter of chance or choice, but naturally and necessarily results from our mental constitution, and is binding upon us.

Sometimes we can trace the state of the mind, which we term belief, to an affection of the senses; sometimes to consciousness, sometimes to that quick,internal perception, which is termed intuition, and at others to human testimony. In all these cases, however, the explanation, which we attempt to give, is limited to a statement of the circumstances, in which the belief arises. But the fact, that belief arises under these circumstances, is ultimate, is a primary law; and being such, it no more admits of explanation, than does the mere feeling itself. And further, this belief may exist as really, and may control us as strongly, when we are unable to give a particular and an accurate account of the circumstances, in which it may arise, as at other times. We find ourselves continually compelled to act upon it, when the only possible answer we can give, is that we are human beings, or that we believe, because we find it impossible to do otherwise.

Many writers have clearly seen, and defended the necessity of the assumption, which has now been made. Mr. Stewart among others has expressed the opinion, (HIST. DISSER. PT. I. §. II,) that there is involved in every appeal to the intellectual powers in proof of their own credibility, the sophism of reasoning in a circle or PETITIO PRINCIPII; and expressly adds, that, unless this credibility be assumed as unquestionable, the further exercise of human reason is altogether nugatory.

§. 23. Primary truths having relation to the reasoning power.

Man may be sure of the fact of his existence and of its