tars and CHAIRS in one common ruin, to invite to a convocation metaphysicians from all the universities of Europe, for the purpose of deliberating on the subject. This learned, wise, and impartial body, accordingly met; and, after solemn discussion, and much anxious communing, resolved to claim the interposition of a tribunal whose friendly influence and regard they had repeatedly felt in former emergencies, and whose supremacy extends unquestioned over all the regions of transcendentalism and abstraction. Their enlightened appeal was in terms as follows: UNTO the most Profound, Impenetrable, and Mysterious Powers, CHAOS, NIGHT, and DULNESS: The Petition of the PROFESSORS, TEACHERS, and ADMIRERS of the sublime Science of Metaphysics in all the Universities of Europe, Confidently Sheweth; THAT, for two thousand years, your petitioners and their predecessors have been engaged in inventing, explicating, and perfecting the philosophy of mind; and their labours have been crowned with distinguished success. They have, severally and successively, elaborated, erected, and established the most splendid and beautiful systems of metaphysical science, systems exhibiting every diversity of principle and form, and curiously adapted to every variety of the human understanding. Your petitioners, and their predecessors, have dedicated themselves to this highly important and practically useful pursuit,* in virtue of the natural "superiority which men of general views possess over the "It is not, however, merely as a subject of speculative curiosity, that the prin"ciples of the human mind deserve a careful examination. The advantages to be expected from a successful analysis of it are various; and some of them of such "importance, as to render it astonishing, that, amidst all the success with which "the subordinate sciences have been cultivated, this, which comprehends the "principles of all of them, should be still suffered to remain in its infancy."Stewart's Elements, part 2d. sect. 1. Of the Utility of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. "common drudges of business ;" and each of your said petitioners and their said predecessors, being necessarily in himself a quintessence, prototype, and representative of human nature in the abstract, has, by " attentive and patient reflection on the subjects of his own consciousness,"+ given birth to a theory, in which he himself clearly perceives the profoundest truths, combined with the most transcendent beauties;—the whole appearing, in the eyes of the inventor, characterized by the most perfect consistency and philosophical harmony. In this manner the said science has been, during the whole period aforesaid, amplified, improved, decorated, and enriched, until it has attained an extent and a magnificence, utterly unappreciable by the ignorant vulgar; and it has latterly been advancing towards the acmé of sublimity, with a rapidity and force which can only be compared to that of a comet, in approaching its perihelion :-The said science is at this moment actually making the most prodigious progress, under the auspices of your Profundities, and by and through the infinite pains and labour bestowed thereon by your petitioners :-And when the said science shall, by these means, and the continuance of your august influences, be brought to a state of absolute perfection, and shall have "acquired that ascendant in human affairs" to which its superior importance entitles it,—a consummation which your pe * Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, chap. 4. sect. 7. Schiller appears in the following lines to have justly appreciated their superiority. DER METAPHYSIKER, "Wie tief liegt unter mir die Welt, "Kaum seh' ich noch die Menschlein unten wallen! "Wie trägt mich meine Kunst, die HÖCHSTE unter allen, "So nahe an des Himmels Zelt!" So ruft von seines Thurmes Dache Der Schieferdecker,-so der kleine grosse Mann HANS METAPHYSIKUS in seinem Schreibgemache. Sag an, du kleiner grosser Mann, Der Thurm, von dem dein Blick so vornehm niederschauet, Wie kamst du selbst hinauf,-und seine kahlen Höh'n, + Stewart's Elements, Introduction, part 1. Schiller's Gedichte. titioners calculate with the utmost confidence will be realized within the very reasonable period of two thousand years from this time, your petitioners anticipate, as they are well warranted to do, the greatest benefits as its results: Then the sublimity and practical utility of this noble science will be seen in all their lustre; then the whole human race will reap its fruits in unmeasured abundance, and have their "intellectual and moral natures" polished, refined, humanized, strengthened, and adorned, and raised to the most exalted pitch of excellence; men will then be instructed in the true arts of making laws and governing kingdoms,†-a knowledge of which they are at present most lamentably destitute; even the vulgar, though utterly incapable, themselves, of rising to the heights and sublimities of the science, will experience the many great and practical advantages which the various clear and harmonious theories and systems of your petitioners, and their successors, will afford to them,-in training and educating their children;-in dedicating them to the several professions and pursuits for which they are respectively fitted ;-in selecting fit persons for public and official situations;-in discriminating the talents and dispositions of all persons with whom the said vulgar must necessarily be connected, in friendship, family alliance, or business, which "To how great a perfection the intellectual and moral nature of man is ca"pable of being raised by cultivation, it is difficult to conceive. The effects of "early, continued, and systematical education, in the care of those children who are trained, for the sake of gain, to feats of strength and agility, justify, perhaps, the most sanguine views which it is possible for a philosopher to form with respect to the improvement of the species."-Stewart's Elements, p. ii. § 1. 66 66 There is, nevertheless, a science of legislation which the details of office, "and the intrigues of popular assemblies, will never communicate,-a science of "which the principles must be sought for in the constitution of human nature, "and in the general laws which regulate the course of human affairs; and which, "if ever, in consequence of the progress of reason, philosophy should be enabled "to assume that ascendant in the government of the world which has hitherto "been maintained by accident, combined with the passions and caprices of a few “leading individuals, may, perhaps, produce more perfect and happy forms of "society than have yet been realized in the history of mankind."-Stewart's Elements, p. ii. § 2. On the Utility of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. "Education never can be systematically directed to its proper objects till we "have obtained, not only an accurate analysis of the general principles of our na"ture, and an account of the most important laws which regulate their operation, "but an explanation of the various modifications and combinations of these prin"ciples which produce that diversity of talents, genius, and character, we observe “ among men.”—Stewart's Elements, p. ii. § 1. 66 mental qualifications it much concerns the said vulgar to know before forming such connexions and alliances;—in the treatment and cure of fatuous and insane persons ;-in the reclaiming, illuminating, informing, and convincing of their errors, all wrong-headed sceptics, enthusiasts, and fanatics:*—ALL which, and various other advantages, which must ultimately result from a true philosophy of mind, when it shall have acquired the ascendant, as aforesaid, the said vulgar may confidently expect will be reaped by their posterity in the hundredth generation, arising entirely from the labours and discoveries of your petitioners, made and to be made. In the meantime, until the said science is so perfected, as aforesaid, the said vulgar, not being capable of appreciating our said transcendental discoveries, must be contented to go on as heretofore in their own stupid, unsystematic, blundering way, that is to say, appointing persons to fill offices from family connexion and political interest; marrying on account of beauty, wealth, or outward accomplishments, without regard to the abstract qualities of their minds, or the structure of their intellectual faculties; entrusting their children in infancy to the care of nurses and chambermaids, and, in more advanced years, to pragmatical pedants, both equally ignorant of metaphysics; consigning the insane to the care of physicians, by whom the said science of metaphysics is also utterly neglected; and committing the enacting of laws, and governing of kingdoms, to statesmen and politicians, all equally ignorant, or at least neglectful, of the said sublime science of metaphysics;-the which disorders, however deplorable, must be submitted to for the present as what cannot be helped; but all of which will be duly remedied and amended, so soon as your petitioners and "The long reign of error in the world, and the influence it maintains, even "in an age of liberal inquiry, far from being favourable to the supposition, that "human reason is destined to be for ever the sport of prejudice and absurdity, de"monstrates the tendency which there is to permanence in established opinions, "and in established institutions; and promises an eternal stability to true philo"sophy, when it shall once have acquired the ascendant; and when proper means "shall be employed to support it by a more perfect system of education."-Stew"art's Elements, p. 2. § 1. ut supra. their successors have brought their said transcendent theories to perfection, i. e. within the reasonable period aforesaid. While your petitioners, in prosecuting their said tran scendental labours, have been all along satisfied, that "among "the different articles connected with the natural history of the "human species," the laws of union betwixt the "mind and 66 body, and the mutual influence they have on one another," is one of the most important inquiries that ever "engaged the "attention of mankind, and almost equally necessary in the "sciences of morals and of medicine;"* nevertheless, your petitioners have judged it wise, philosophical, and expedient, to omit all reference to the body in their said transcendental speculations, and to leave the subject in that profound mystery which nature, doubtless for the most salutary purposes, has studiously wrapped around it,-a mystery which redounds infinitely to the true dignity of the science of mind, as will be evident to your Profundities from the following clear and concise statement : Although your petitioners admit that the mind is connected with the body, yet this connexion is general, philosophical, and platonic, and by no means of such a real, obvious, and palpable kind, as might be, in any degree, apprehended or understood by the vulgar; and accordingly, in a great variety of instances, the mind and the body are known to manifest their respective faculties and powers, altogether independently of each other. And first, in regard to the body, this is proved, not merely by the phenomena of sleepwalking, but by the familiar and every-day occurrence of the bodies of men and women which are every where met with, going through all the functions of eating and sleeping, rising at certain hours and putting on clothes, walking and talking, attending dinner parties, and frequenting routes, plays, balls, churches, and other places of public amusement and instruction, without ever manifesting, in the whole course of this their varied existence, any mental faculty whatever. The other • Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation, part II. p. 199, 200. |