INTRODUCTION.

METHOD OF USING THE BOOK

TO BE CAREFULLY STUDIED BY THE PUPILS AS THEIR FIRST LESSON

THE design of the study of Intellectual Philosophy is not merely, as in the case of most other studies, the acquisition of knowledge. Something far more important, and far more difficult to attain, is in view. In the study of Chemistry, History, Geography, and other similar sciences, the main object is to obtain information-to become acquainted with facts. But although the science of Mind does indeed present to view a most valuable and interesting class of facts, it is not merely with reference to these that the study is pursued. This science aims at a higher object. It is intended to introduce the pupil to a new range of thought, and to bring out into action, and consequently into more full development, a new class of faculties. It is its aim to exercise and strengthen the thinking and reasoning powers, to enable the mind to grasp abstruse and perplexing subjects, to think clearly and to reason correctly, in regard to truths that lie in those depths which the senses cannot explore.

Design of the study, what? Compa with other studies. What is its chief aim ?

Of course, the study of Intellectual Philosophy is not intended to be an easy one. Its very difficulty is one source of the benefit to be derived from it; for it is by encountering and overcoming this difficulty, that intellectual strength is acquired. In Gymnastics, the exertion necessary to perform the feats is the very means by which the advantage is secured, and it is to require this exertion that the whole apparatus is contrived. Now mathematical and metaphysical studies are intended as a sort of intellectual gymnastics, in which the tasks ought indeed to be brought fairly within the powers of the pupil, but they ought nearly to equal those powers, so as to call them into active and vigorous exercise, or the end will be lost. If, therefore, the writer of a treatise on such a subject comes down so completely to the level of the young as to make the study mere light reading, he fails entirely of accomplishing what ought to be his highest aim. He destroys the difficulty and the advantage together. It is indeed true that a very useful book may be written for children, with the design of merely giving them information on some subjects connected with the structure of their minds. It might be entertaining, and to a considerable degree instructive, but it would answer none of the important purposes which ought to be in view, in the introduction of such a study into literary institutions. It would develop no new reasoning or thinking powers. It would awaken no new intellectual effort.

Such being the nature of this study, it is plain that it ought not to be commenced by any pupil without a proper understanding of its object and design. Such an understanding is essential. That it may come more distinctly and definitely before the mind, I propose to enumerate the qualifications which each individual should see that he possesses, before he commences the study of this work.

The study difficult. Why? Gymnastics. Difference between reading and study, on this subject.

I. Ability to understand the language of the work. It is not a child's book. It was written by a man, and was intended to be read by men. The editor has made no effort to alter it in this respect, so that the book stands on a level, as to its style and language, with the great mass of books intended to influence and interest the mature. It ought to be so; for to be able to understand such writing is necessary for all, and if the pupil is far enough advanced in his education to study metaphysics, it is high time for him to be habituated to it. Let no pupil therefore, after he is fairly engaged in the study, complain that he cannot understand the lessons. is a point which ought to be settled before he begins. Take for instance the following passage, which may perhaps be considered as a fair specimen. Let the pupil read it attentively, and see whether or not he can fully understand it.

This

"There is a class of intellectual habits directly the reverse of those now referred to; namely, habits of inattention, by which the mind, long unaccustomed to have the attention steadily directed to any important object, becomes frivolous and absent, or lost amid its own waking dreams. A mind in this condition becomes incapable of following a train of reasoning, and even of observing facts with accuracy and tracing their relations. Hence nothing is more opposed to the cultivation of intellectual character; and when such a person attempts to reason, or to follow out a course of investigation, he falls into slight and partial views, unsound deductions, and frivolous arguments. This state of mind, therefore, ought to be carefully guarded against in the young, as, when it is once established, it can be removed only by a long and laborious effort, and after a certain period of life is probably irremediable.

"In rude and savage life remarkable examples occur of the effect of habits of minute attention to those circumstances to which the mind is intensely directed by their relation to the safety or advantage of the observer. The American

First qualification-what? Language of the book. Mode of ascertaining the pupil's ability to understand it. Substance of the passage quoted-what?

hunter finds his way in the trackless forests by attention to minute appearances in the trees, which indicate him the points of the compass. He traces the progress of rs onemies or his friends by the marks of their footsteps; and judges of their numbers, their haltings, their employments, by circumstances which would entirely escape the observation of persons unaccustomed to a mode of life requiring such exercises of attention. Numerous examples of this kind are mentioned by travellers, particularly among the original natives of America."

The pupil may read as attentively as he pleases. He may make use of a dictionary, or any other similar help. He may make occasional inquiries of a friend; but if he cannot, with such assistance, really understand the train of thought presented in such a passage, and give a tolerable account of it to his teacher, he had better for the present postpone the study of Intellectual Philosophy: his mind is too immature.

II. Mental cultivation enough to be interested in the subject of the work. The subjects discussed, and the views presented, are of such a nature, that mere children can take no interest in them. They cannot appreciate them. Unless the mind has made considerable progress in its development, and in its attainments in other branches, and unless it has, in some degree, formed habits of patient attention, it must fail in the attempt to penetrate such a subject as this. The pupil, in such a case, after going a little way, will say the book is dull and dry. He will attribute to the study, or to the mode in which it is treated, a failure, which really results from his own incapacity. He ought to reflect when tempted to make this charge, that it cannot be possible that the study is, in itself, uninteresting. This treatise of Dr. Abercrombie's has been bought and read with avidity by tens of thousands in Great Britain and America, who could have been led to it by no motive

Second qualification. Consequences of commencing the study without it. The study really interesting: how proved to be so.

whatever, but the strong interest which the subject inspires. They, therefore, who are not interested in it, after making faithful efforts, fail of being so because their intellects are yet too feeble to appreciate what they read; and by complaining of the dryness or dullness of the book, they are really exposing their own incompetency to enter into the spirit of it. The teacher ought to take care that his pupils do not commence the work, until they are capable of feeling the interest which it is calculated to awaken.

III. A willingness to give to the subject the severe, patient, and persevering study which it demands. Some will wish to take up such a branch merely for the sake of having something new. Others because their vanity is flattered by the idea that they are studying Philosophy. Others still, because they wish for the honor of being in a class with certain individuals known as good scholars. Beginning with such ideas and motives, will only lead to disappointment and failure. The pupil ought to approach this subject with a distinct understanding that though it is full of interest, it will be full of difficulty; that it will try, to the utmost, his powers; and that the pleasure which he is to seek in the pursuit of it, is the enjoyment of high intellectual effort,-the interest of encountering and overcoming difficulties,-and opening to himself a new field of knowledge, and a new scope for the exercise of his powers.

I come now to describe a method of studying and reciting the lessons in such a work as this. I say a method, because it is only meant to be proposed for adoption in cases where another or a better one is not at hand. Experienced and skilful teachers have their own modes of conducting such studies, and the recitations connected with them, with which there ought to

Complaints of its dullness show what? Third qualification. Wrong motives for Commencing the study. Proper views of it. Method of studying-why proposed.