AUTHOR OF PHILOSOPHICAL TRACTS, SOCIAL AND CIVIL DUTIES, YOUNG MAN'S AID, Φιλοσοφια Βιου Κυβερνήτης. BOSTON: CROCKER AND BREWSTER, 47 Washington Street. 1850. From the Library of Prof. A. P. PEABODY HARVAT Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, BY CROCKER & BREWSTER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. INTRODUCTION. A BOOK ON INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY, should not only furnish lessons, but elicit inquiry, excite the reasoning powers, enkindle original thought, and guide to well-formed independent conclusions. Dogmatism, always odious, is particularly so upon a subject of this nature. He who sets our minds upon a track of successful inquiry, does a more valuable service than he who puts authoritatively forth the stereotype lessons of the schools. All who have had valuable experience in teaching, will agree, also, that a great book is ordinarily a great evil. A text-book, especially, should be mostly filled with "the seeds of things." These thoughts have been much in my mind, while preparing the following pages;—to what effect, others must judge. Briefly to exhibit the most important principles of Intellectual Philosophy, as acknowledged by the best authorities, in language as plain and free from technicalities as possible; to elicit free inquiry, and give reasons for differing from others, in cases of dissent; to show wherein the human powers transcend those of the animal, and to point out their relations to Christianity; to trace the mental phenomena, so far as present science conducts, to their physical source; finally, to adapt the subject both to the popular and the educated mind, leading objects of this volume. are the This subject encounters several popular objections, of which the following are the most prominent : :- Want of confidence in it, resulting from differences of opinion among its professed teachers; the abstruse and scholastic manner in which it has been often discussed; the violence which it has sometimes offered to common sense; and the absence of any perceived connection between it and the practical interests of life. These objections can here receive but a passing notice. Differences of opinion cannot impair the value of the truths to which they relate. Indeed, the most valuable truths often come to light. amidst the conflict of opinions. But many of the differences now in question, are more apparent than real. Some of them are resolvable into mere logomachies. Such terms as "innate," "idea," "original," |