THE SENSES AND THE INTELLECT. BY ALEXANDER BAIN, M. A., PROFESSOR OF LOGIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. THIRD EDITION. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 1872. THE object of this treatise is to give a full and systematic account of two principal divisions of the science of mind,-the Senses and the Intellect. The remaining two divisions, comprising the Emotions and the Will, will be the subject of a future treatise. While endeavouring to present in a methodical form all the important facts and doctrines bearing upon mind, considered as a branch of science, I have seen reason to adopt some new views, and to depart, in a few instances, from the most usual arrangement of the topics. Conceiving that the time has now come when many of the striking discoveries of Physiologists relative to the nervous system should find a recognized place in the Science of Mind, I have devoted a separate chapter to the Physiology of the Brain and Nerves. In treating of the Senses, besides recognizing the so-called muscular sense as distinct from the five senses, I have thought proper to assign to Movement and the feelings of Movement a position preceding the Sensations of the senses; and have endeavoured to prove that the exercise of active energy, originating in purely internal impulses, independent of the stimulus produced by outward impressions, is a primary fact of our constitution. Among the Senses have been here enrolled and described with some degree of minuteness, the feelings connected with the various processes of organic life,Digestion, Respiration, &c.—which make up so large a part of individual happiness and misery. A systematic plan has been introduced into the description of the conscious states in general, so as to enable them to be compared and classified with more precision than heretofore. However imperfect may be the first attempt to construct a Natural History of the Feelings, upon the basis of a uniform descriptive method, the subject of Mind cannot attain a high scientific character until some progress has been made towards the accomplishment of this object. In the department of the Senses, the Instincts, or primitive endowments of our mental constitution, are fully considered; and in endeavouring to arrive at the original foundation, or first rudiments, of Volition, a theory of this portion of the mind has been suggested. In treating of the Intellect, the subdivision into faculties is abandoned. The exposition proceeds entirely on the Laws of Association, which are exexemplified with minute detail, and followed out into a variety of applications. LONDON, June, 1855. |