Second Pupil. There are several modes; one is by repeating the thing several times to other persons: another is, by writing an account of it, especially if it is done systematically; a third, endeavoring to explain it to others.

Teacher. How is it these methods produce the ef- " fect?

Second Pupil. They help us to obtain clear and distinct ideas, and they fix the attention for some time on the subject.

Teacher. What does he say of differences in memory?

Third Pupil. There is a great difference in different individuals; in some cases it is natural, and in others acquired.

Teacher. A story is told here to illustrate this sub

Ject.

Fourth Pupil. An actor was obliged to learn a part once at a very short notice, and by making a great effort he succeeded, and went through it once, but he forgot it immediately afterwards.

Teacher. What is the precise point which this fact is intended to illustrate?

Fourth Pupil. I did not clearly understand.

6. After the class has, in this thorough manner, gone through with one of the divisions of the book, they should pause, to review it; and the best, as well as the pleasantest mode of conducting a review, is to assign to the class some written exercises on the portion to be thus re-examined. These exercises may be of various kinds; I shall, however, mention only two.

(1.) An abstract of the chapter to be reviewed; that is, a brief exposition, in writing, of the plan of the chapter, with the substance of the writer's views on each head. Such an abstract, though it will require some labor at first, will be, with a little practice, a pleasant

Sixth direction. Review-how to be conducted. First method-what? Its uses.

exercise; and perhaps there is nothing which so effectually assists in digesting the knowledge which the pupil has obtained, and in fixing it indelibly upon the mind, and nothing is so conducive to accurate logical habits of thought, as this writing an analysis of a scientific work. It may be very brief, and elliptical in its style; its logical accuracy is the main point to be secured. By devoting a single exercise at the end of each section to such an exercise, a class can go on regularly through the book, and, with very little delay, make an abstract of the whole.

(2.) Writing additional illustrations of the principles brought to view,-illustrations furnished either by the experience or observation of the pupil, or by what he has read in books. For example, in the chapter on dreaming, the author enumerates four or five sources of the ideas which come to the mind in dreams. Now the teacher might, after finishing that chapter, require each one of the class, for the next exercise, to write an account of a dream, and to state at the end of it to which of the classes it is to be referred. Nothing could more efféctually familiarize the mind of the pupil with the principles which the chapter contains than such an exercise. In many cases, perhaps in nearly all, the dreams would be complex, and must be analyzed, and the several parts separately assigned. The effect of such an effort is obvious.

There are multitudes of other subjects discussed in the work, equally suitable for this purpose. Wherever anecdotes are told, illustrating the laws of the human mind, the pupil can add others; for these laws are the same in all minds, and are constantly in operation. Writing these additional illustrations, especially if they are derived from your own experience, will have another most powerful effect. They will turn your attention within, and accustom you to watch the operations, and

Style and manner. Second mode. Example. Advantages of it. Common misunderstanding in regard to the nature of this study,"

study the laws of your own minds. Many pupils do not seem to understand that it is the powers and movements of the immaterial principle within their own bosoms, which are the objects of investigation in such a science. Because illustrations are drawn from the histories of men with strange names, who lived in other countries, and a half a century ago, they seem insensibly to imbibe the idea, that it is the philosophy of these men's minds which they are studying, not their own. Now the fact is, that appeals are made to the history and experience of these individuals, simply because they are more accessible to the writers of books. A perfect system of Intellectual Philosophy might be written, with all its illustrations drawn from the thoughts and feelings of any single pupil in the class. The mind is in its essential laws everywhere the same; and of course you can find the evidence of the existence and operation of all these laws in your own breasts, if you will look there. What you cannot, by proper research, find confirmed by your own experience, or your observations upon those around you, is not a law of mind.

Such is substantially the course which is recommended to those who shall commence the study of this work. It will be perceived that the object of it is to make the study of it, if possible, not what it too often is, the mere mechanical repetition of answers marked and committed to memory, but an intellectual and thorough investigation of a science. If the book is studied in this way, it must have a most powerful influence in cultivating accurate and discriminating habits, in developing intellectual power, and in storing the mind with facts of the most direct and practical importance, in all the connections of society, and in all the business of life.

Its true design. General object of this introduction.

INQUIRIES

CONCERNING THE

INTELLECTUAL POWERS, &c

PART I.

OF THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF MIND.

THE mind is that part of our being which thinks and wills, remembers and reasons: we know nothing of it except from these functions. By means of the corporeal senses it holds intercourse with the things of the external world, and receives impressions from them. But of this connection also we know nothing but the facts; when we attempt to speculate upon its nature and cause, we wander at once from the path of philosophical inquiry into conjectures which are as far beyond the proper sphere as they are beyond the reach of the human faculties. The object of true science on such a subject, therefore, is simply to investigate the facts, or the relations of phenomena, respecting the operations of mind itself, and the intercourse which it carries on with the things of the external world.

This important rule in the philosophy of mind has been fully recognised in very modern times only, so that the science, as a faithful interpretation of nature, may be considered as of recent origin. Before the period now referred to, the investigation was encumbered by the most fruitless speculations respecting the essence of mind, and other discussions which led to no discovery of truth. It was contended, for example, that the mind cannot act where it is

The mind-what? Its connection with the material world? Object of true science ? In what sense is the science recent? Nature of former speculations.

not present, and that consequently it cannot be said to perceive external objects themselves, but only their images, forms, or sensible species, which were said to be conveyed through the senses, and represented to the mind in the same manner in which images are formed in a camera obscura. By the internal functions of mind these sensible species were then supposed to be refined into phantasms, the objects of memory and imagination; and these, after undergoing a further process, became intelligible species, the objects of pure intellect. By a very natural application of this doctrine, it was maintained by bishop Berkeley and the philosophers of his school, that as the mind can perceive nothing but its own impressions or images, we can derive no evidence from our senses of the existence of the external world; and Mr. Hume carried the argument a little further, by maintaining that we have as little proof of the existence of mind, and that nothing exists in the universe except impressions and ideas. Of another sect of philosophers who arose out of the same system, each individual professed to believe his own existence, but would not admit the existence of any other being; hence they received the appropriate name of Egotists,

The various eminent individuals by whom the fallacy of these speculations was exposed, combated them upon the principle that the doctrine of ideas is entirely a fiction of philosophers; and that a confidence in the information conveyed to us by our sense's must be considered as a first truth, or a fundamental law of our nature, susceptible of no explanation, and admitting of no other evidence than that which is derived from the universal conviction of mankind. Nor does it, to common minds, appear a slight indication of the validity of this mode of reasoning, that the philosophers who supported this theory do not appear to have acted upon their own system; but in every thing which concerned their personal accommodation or personal safety, showed the same confidence in the evidence of their senses as other

men.

The deductions made from the ideal theory by Berkeley and Hume seem to have been applications of it which its for

Supposed process by which we become acquainted with external objects. Errors resulting. Berkeley's opinion? Hume's opinion? How refuted. Did these philosophers really believe their own system?