my life. During the whole evening I spent with him, his head was continually wool-gathering after rhomboids and parallelograms. He assures me that if I do not study mathematics very diligently, I shall have no chance for honours. I told him a mediocrity of applause would content me. He observed that seven hours a day studying mathematics would be sufficient for that." "How much reason," exclaims the pious Buchanan, "is there for that double-guard prayer and close walking with God, in order that I may be enabled to pass through the fire unhurt."

of

How necessary indeed that in the cultivation. of our mental powers, we seek to do all for the glory of Him who bestowed them. This singleness of purpose will keep us from such unmeasured ardour in any one intellectual pursuit as will at last tend to throw the mind from its balance and disorder the Reason. With the precepts and example of our blessed Redeemer in view, we shall feel, that to love the Lord with all the heart, does not at all accord with an inordinate desire after the glory of holding ourselves in the ranks of the learned and the great. Though science may be delightful, it will keep its proper, that is its secondary place in our It will be the servant through whose means we may be the better enabled to bestow

esteem.

the cup of cold water upon the poor and despised one; to win by affection the wayward and perverse; to carry the little children in our arms, while we communicate to the ignorant in the most simple manner, truths the most momentous.

CHAPTER X.

REASON AND UNDERSTANDING.

Of all the creatures of this earth, man is the only being endowed with reason. Brutes have instinct and in them it is perfect, for it suffices to give them all the knowledge their situation requires. Created for this earth, and as we arè told in Scripture, for the service of man, they fulfil their brief destiny and perish. In them we perceive no developement of intellect, no signs of self-knowledge, no taste for mental enjoyment, no understanding of moral relations, no knowledge of necessary truth. They have

no reason.

Reason, according to the definition of Coleridge, is "the power of universal and necessary convictions, the source and substance of truths above sense, and having their evidence in themselves." According to Hooker, it is an "inward beholding," having the same relation to

the intelligible as sense has to the material." Cousin says, "All light comes from Reason; it is reason which perceives itself; and the sensibility which envelopes it."

The mind believes whatever is necessarily true. That beings or material objects exist, is a truth to which the reason immediately assents, there can be no doubt respecting it; the senses are the testimony, and reason believes. That the soul or mind exists independently of the body is a truth, attested by Consciousness, or the internal Perception, and believed by Reason. The person who is conscious that he thinks and feels, calls himself I, and firmly believes that he is; doubt would be absurdity. He also has an irresistible conviction, that he, the person who now exercises thought and feeling, is the same, who, on a certain subject exercised thought and feeling, some weeks, or months or years ago; which thoughts and feelings are brought back to him by memory. His reason assents to the facts brought before it by memory, as well as to those exhibited by perception external, or internal. It is reason which attests personal identity, which discovers or rather believes the me and the not me.

Cold and heat are sensations felt by the body, but the senses do not seek the cause; it is the Reason which enquires why do I feel cold, or

heat? It is reason which discovers body and its qualities causing sensation. I move my hand. What causes the motion? was it any thing in the hand itself? not at all; the cause is in the mind. But what makes the enquiry? Is it the hand which performs the movement? is it the eye which sees it, or the lips which utter the words? no, the enquiry arises in the mind. It is reason which perceives the relation of cause and effect. A watch is presented for the first time to the examination of a child; he notices the movement of the hands, and enquires, what causes the motion? You open the watch and shew him the wheels, but he is not satisfied. How do the wheels move the hands, what relation is there between them? and then comes another enquiry, momentous indeed, how was this relation formed? who made the watch? A looking-glass was placed before a newly arrived African; he saw his own face, but knew not that the image represented himself, for quick as thought he turned the mirror to see from whence it came. Here is untutored reason seeking for cause, for reason exists in all minds, the child and savage have it as well as the aged and the enlightened. Reason naturally seeks for truth, but the Will often dissolves the court, and waits not for the answer.* * Note M.

It is difficult to look at reason in the abstract. Cousin says, "in itself it is impersonal; it belongs to no one individual more than to another within the compass of humanity: it belongs not even to humanity itself. Its laws consequently depend only on themselves; they preside over and govern humanity, which perceives them, as well as nature which represents them, but they neither belong to the one nor to the other."*

By reason, in the above passage, we must understand Truth or reality in material things which are the objects of sensation, or truth in intellectual and moral things which do not come under the observation of the senses. Reason in the human mind is the power it has of discovering truth. In the Divine Mind it is Truth, itself, necessary and Eternal.t

Coleridge distinguishes between Reason and Understanding in man, in the following manner :

1. There is an intuition and immediate beholding, accompanied by a conviction of the necessity and universality of the truth so beholden, not derived from the senses; which intuition, when it is construed by pure sense, gives birth to the science of mathematics; and when applied to objects supersensuous or spiritual, is the organ of theology and philosophy.

2. There is likewise a reflective and discusPsychology: translated by Dr. Henry. † Note N.