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    8Q4 TJte Saturday Analyst and Leader. [O...

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    Inductive Psychology.* "V^Te Usl; The ' ...

    animals , but they ai'C the properties or characteristics of things that do not belong to the animal kingdom , and therefore vrc do not call them perception and feeling . In the lower orders-of sentient being , perception and fooling may bo restricted to little if anything 1 else than the cognition and desire of food . Iiut to say that " any creature , however humble , tliat is capable of seeking and discerning its food , and eating when hungry , arid declining to eat when full , does iiot possess feeling- and perception , does not cognise and desire , is simplv an abuse of terms . Doubtless the particular sensation with " which the hungry turtle contemplates its food is connected with very different associations from that with which an alderman contemplates the turtle himself . But that the terms perception and feeling are as much applicable in the one case as m the other cannot be denied by any one who understands the meaning of words : just as applicable as the word seeing is to the wolf that bays at the moon , and to the astronomer who , with his artificial . eves , examines objects on its . surfm .-o no bigger thun-J-jt . Paul's . v What « rc called the intellectual faculties are simply the ways in which the capacity of perceiving manifests itself as applied to an t-ver extending number of' " things . " / . c . external objects , internal states , ami relations between external objects , ' relations . between ' internal states , relations between external objects and internal states , and relations of relations , dec . For example , the ••' things " within cur knowledge now , in the most civilised European Siates . . ire far greater than they are'among savages ; which is only saying , iii .. other words , that . intelligence , intellectual developement . is far higher . All the- so-calledfaeul ties of comparison , judgment , easuality , eventuality , reasoning , Sec . of which we find ' . such ajargon-in the old systems so ludicrously dignified with the title -of" JL- 'hilosophies , " and which are treated as it' they were distinct ingredients of the mind , and could be taken , out of it one by one , and the rest left , just tin we could draw sticks out of a fagot , or pick plums out of a pudding- ; all these pretended distinct faculties are simpl y the different ways in which the capacity of perceiving- acts—different phases or manifestations of the same characteristic . The difference between these two ways of viewing the matter is as great as thatbetween regarding the ' individual . Caesar or Kapoleon in the twofold capacity of general and legislator on the one hand , and on the other , insisting , that there weie two JNapoleoiis rolled up into a single individual , bne of whom attended to military matters , the other to political . We have hitherto employed the ordinary and familiar forms of expression as best suited ibr introducing-the . -more scientific treatment of the present subject . The Rev . Dr . Watts , author of the . Ilyinns which go under his name , Treatises on Logic , and on the Mind , & c , remarks in one of his works , that when / we think we are conscious of setting * something to work inside the skull . Indeed the conviction that we think and feel with our bruins seems to have been intuitively and instinctively known from a very early age . The popular vocabulary of all languages teems with such < phrases as clear head ,- " athick head , " " a sound head , "'' a blockhead , " the French way of expressing the loss of presenqe of mind is by saying- a man has lost his head . " " 3 S " o brains , " is everywhere equivalent to " fool ; " and ages upon ages before it was found that the races of rnost highly developed intelligence have considerably more brain than the lower types , the possession of " brains , " and the possession , of intellectual power , were convertible terms . In proportion as you injure the brain you interfere with the mind . In short , no intelligent well-Iiiformod person in these days has anymore doubt that we think and feel with our brains , than that we breutho with , our lungs ; and circulate puv blood with the heart . We xi . se the word brain for brevity and convenience ; strictly speaking- it is the brain and nerves tluit ibrm the great psychical npparatus in which all psychical phononma have their source . If we take the extremes of the psychical world , we find at one end man , with his enormously developed and complipluiutcd cerebral and nervous system ; at the other , a humble creature , with a sqrtjpf knotted cord for its bruin and nerves . If wo twee the intermedia to Hnlcm of the vawt chum of being that stretches : hetwoon , wo ahull Hud , an we ascend , this simple cord becoming . move , and more complex and developed , the still rudimentary bruin ; gradually expanding and projecting itself upwards and forwards , til ) ( both culininuto in tho ruirulicutions of the hunwin nerves and the immense expansion of the human forehead . And it is curious t- > i observe how as tho bruin increases in yi » o , and the intelligence in j power and degree , tho . structure ) o ; ' tho physical organism becomes I uioro and more fitted for rendering tho external world subservient to its purposes , till wo reach tho human form , tho best suited for that purpose that exists . This is one of tho cases of tho law of adaptability which runs through tho " \ vholo material and psychical universe , Wo oun put man in tho laboratory and resolve him into him constituent elements of oxygon , hydrogen , nitrogen , phosphorus , carbon , and lirno . fchippotio that through soiuo accident (/ . c , nn undiscovered case oi-causation ) tho combination of those elements in tho | embryo is such that tho quality or quantity ( or both ) of tho brain i * i of a nature to evolve extraordinary mental power— directly thin I brain comes into tho world mid nonius to not , it will , inul ' er tho j rtolicitntion of external circum > itnnceM , begin toinvont , diHCovcr , combine , contrive , u . nd display nil thoso qualities which wo cull elevcrnow , ability , & c , for tho piirpoHo of rendering tho external world ' ' » iibisevviowt to its purposefi , " undg ' rntiiyinK \ vhut t » ooms to Lohithci to tho strong-cat ol'all tho de . sii-p :- !— Ihut which wo may call iiolf-udvunocmont , or solt-bot'tormont . If thU bruin were coupled with tho form of n iiwh or a home , instead of with tho himum organism , it would bo . criuplod ond ( iti-ophiud , ho to spi'tiU . Tho uoheltalkm of oxtonml civoumatanoGS could rr . ot not upon It ta tho uumo ox tout , ueithov would it have the organs for cni'ryinj . r out itn desires iu » d intontiouB . Uivti possessing ? human limbs , tho exooutivo pvooonsoa it ist tiblo tp ! perform by moiins o (' tho' ; c organ ? , ro-uot upou nud lAivlher dovelopc ¦

    the brain and intelligence , by the acquisition of experience and skill This illustration , and one is as good as a million , forms the key , fo all who are capable of generalising , to the . enigma of-natural selectioi and variability of species , which arc . simply cases of that univeral lav which , to usu ' a familiar and intelligible word , we call the law of adap tabiiity . These filets bring us to the " division of hibouv '' question u applied to the brain and nerves . That there is speciality of function an < organ in the human being is n truth without which physiology ant anatomy would be words " void , of meaning . What , then , is it tha primarily distinguishes man from the quadrupeds ? Unquestionabl ; it is the * degree of his intelligence , that is in his capacity for pur ceiving relations . That the inferior animals can remember , and ii their rudimentary wav reason , iudge , distinguish , acquire a limitei

    experience , no one wlio is acquainted with them doubts . Theii passions , affections , what arc called instincts , are as powerful a : inans . The dillerenec , psychically considered , is in the degree o intelligence : in other words , in the number of relations cognised What part . of the brain , then , is it in which man surpasses the brute Clearly ' in the forehead . Tin ; brain of the inferior types , as we ]) vo covA upwards in the scale , goes on expanding and advancing jbrwards . tiil it reaches the frontal developments of the rJuropean . Tin conclu .-iju is , that the forepart of the brain is that with which tin inlelloctual proiv . s ^ cs ' , the perceptions of relations , arc performed ; with which we th'i uk , ' reason , judge , c ' om-pure , trace . cut causes , calculate- future . event ' . ? , Sec . fcb far we may be tolerably sure oi cer bral " divisiou of labour . " Eevond this the " n ' vajjpiiio' out " ol

    the brain in tho ordinary phreiiologieal charts cannot w received , as e-hibiisiu 1 . ¥ t hiive . ' . n < jt room here iUr . an unaly .-is of all the various psychical powers . We may , howey-cr , instance one or two difficult . cases . Take what is cr . lled the moral sense , for example . We perceive that a . certain action is productive of harm ; our general belief , either systematically , taught us , or acquired through the teachings of experience , is that harmful things should not be done ; we desire ( at least- when impartial imd when there are no strong adverse considerations producing in ris an nil opposite desire ) to see that , and that only done , which we believe ought to be clone ,- thus , when we see one man cheating and robbing 1 another , it is said to ' ¦ ' shock our moral sense j" that is ,, the conduct in question is repugnant to us by reason of a certain combination of conviction

    and desire existent in our mind . Explained , sis above , the - ' moral sense "is intelligible enough ; but in the vulgar . signification which treats'it as-a . distinct simple iaculty , like the sense of siyht , only infinitely more infallible , it is sheer nonsense . Benevolence is simply the desire of others' good ; it may in its genesis have arisen through the fact , that to witness suffering in . others puts us in minflVii" suffering ourselves , which being painful , to us , we vrouid relieve them , to g-et rid of the disagreeable feeling thus produced ; and in this way ' benevolence may have grown out of wliat is considered its exact opposite—namely , selfishness ; or it may . gradually have been evolved by the intellectual conviction that happiness is good , and that wo oug-ht to promote it , or by both combined ; but . let it be what it may in its inception , either in the infant ' s mind at

    the present day , or in the infancy of the human mind thousands ot years ago , it is neither more nor less in its mature development than a desire for the good of others . There is no doubt , however , that the intcHtu ' lt / of this characteristic of humanity will he inji . nii . ehi increased in the future . Amour / the elite of the race . ei-cn ¦ univ ike ro : isc-i < Mtsncs $ of other ' s winery in intolerable sujferiug . It must never ho lo : > t sight of , that where benevolence would be most gratified , there seli-lovo would bo most gratiikd ; because everyone would bo onjoyinjr tho greatest , possible . happiness himself , while he would have the consciousness that everybody else was equally happy ; so that enlightened self-love and benevolence both combine to bring about a social system iri which the greatest possible hai » pinestt of all will bo secured . Take * ' conscience " ible lan

    us another illustration : conscience , in intellig g-uago , menus our belief regarding : what wo ou ^ lxt to do and avoid doing ; a belief gradually formed by our experiences , or systematically imparted entire by the tonchprri of our youth . It is as much tho ' eoiwtieneo of the Thug- which tells him to wtmngl . e everybody he can catch of a dillbrcnt faith , as it was that of . Simon Stylites which umdo him take up hi « abode on the top of a pillnr , mid load there u life of ponuneo o . \ posed to nil weathers . Conscientiousness means tho degree of strictness or scrupulosity with which that particular kind of belief wo call tho conscience is acted up to . As to tho nature of belief itwolf , which has occupied so much attention with psychologists , it is only requisite to explain hero that it is merely a particular way in which tho capacity of perceiving manifests itself . And iso with rossni ' d to memory ; remomborina is simply a piirticulur

    inoduot '/ JorceitHiiff in tho enlarged sonse of that word denned above ; boliof and moinoiy are particulur wtatos of eonsciousnosH , in other words , particular ' kinds , so to spoak , of tho capacity ot \ perceiving particular modes in which thub capacity uafc ? i . Tui . i i « the ltHt iiuulytiiH to which tho phenomena in question nro resolvable . J ho wiU ' iucnns tho cupiu'ity of being determined to do n tUinj £ by considerations which wo call motives . All motives uiny , in ^ the lunt nnulyois , ha rosolvocl into desires ; oven whore oonviotiims , " ! ' « apparently t'ho dotorinining nK > tivo it will bo found upon investigatoth

    tion that tho actual motive was tho deairo of acting up 'o convictions in question . Wo filuill conclude this brief mitllno with a stutoiuont of somo of the grout pi'iictionl hnva of tho inind . ' tnoso are : that . \» o caunut . nuiko that uppeur true which impenrn i ' lilm 1 ; or Unit jipiMir lulse whioli nppeuivi . true j or to employ tho vuJjnU ' exnvoMsion- so extvunicly inucounvto , wo cannot " o . \ wi \ out Leliot by our will ; the logical tendency of uknowledge of tln ' : 3 gront linv i * to do u \ yay with all povBoention i ' ov opinions wulco , na it show ** tl » ut belivfiu » n Snvolmitury » tutc ol ' ujlncl . Wo v \ m , If we choosy oi' wiU

    8q4 Tjte Saturday Analyst And Leader. [O...

    8 Q 4 TJte Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Oct .. 13 , I 860

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13101860/page/8/