perceptions are distinct and individual, and of themselves can possess
no elective attraction to _associate_ and combine: they may however, by
repetition or habit, become so allied, that the occurrence of one will
excite the sequence of the other. We ordinarily recollect them very much
in the order and succession of their occurrence; but we are also able
to arrange and class them, and by such means, of recollecting them
according to the artificial order of their distribution. This may be
exemplified in the various expedients that have been devised for the
acquirement and retention of knowledge: thus, chronology records events
according to the order of their occurrence; an encyclopaedia arranges
according to alphabet or subject; and the most perfect of this kind,
like the index to a book, consists in their mutual reference.
This wonderful faculty of thought or reflection, so far as we possess
the means of detecting, appears to be peculiar to man; and if it be
admitted to consist of our recollected perceptions, by the contrivances
of language, we shall find that animals are not in possession of the
necessary materials.
The ear transmits sounds to animals possessing this sense; and in some
species it is so exquisitely susceptible, as to surpass, by many
degrees, the acuteness of the same organ in the human subject. It is
also recorded, that in some of the wilder tribes of man, the hearing
possesses a delicacy of percipience unknown to the inhabitants of a
polished community. Superadded to the conveyance of ordinary sound, the
ear of man is the great inlet of communication, and the vehicle of
articulate intelligence. Through the medium of this sense his knowledge
becomes extended, and his memory improved; for every conversation is
either a review of his stores, or an addition to his stock. As our
thoughts or reflections are conducted by language, great caution is
required that the terms we employ should possess a fixed and determinate
meaning; and this is more especially important, when we employ words
which are not the representatives of the objects of our perceptions, but
of a complex nature, or, as they have been denominated, general terms;
such as those which are used to designate the faculties and operations
of the mind, and such as convey our moral attributes. The perfection of
the process of thought, consists in the attention which the will can
exert on the subjects of[16] consideration. The nature and endurance of
the attention, which the organs of sense can bestow on the objects of
perception, have been already discussed; and it will be found, that the
same influence is directed when we exercise reflection: so that that
mind is to be considered as most efficient, (in proportion to its
natural capacity,) which can dwell on the subjects of its thoughts
without interruption from irrelevant intrusions. The exertion of
voluntary control over our thoughts has been denied; but if we were to
subscribe to such doctrine, it would follow that this noble faculty of
reflection would be merely a spontaneous concurrence of images and terms
accidentally revived,--on rare occasions fortuitously blundering on wit,
and ordinarily revelling in the absurdities of distraction. In
proportion as we have been duly educated, we become enabled to direct
and fix the organs of sense to the objects of perception, to be able at
will to revive our memoranda, or to call on the memory to exhibit the
deposits which have been confided to its custody, and to dwell
pertinaciously on the materials of reflection. It is, however, certain,
that in ordinary minds, the attention is little capable of being fixed
to objects, and still less to the subjects of reflection; but this
incapacity, in both instances, is principally to be attributed to the
defects of education, and to a want of proper discipline of the
intellectual powers. The endurance of attention in minds of the highest
order, by a wise law of our constitution, is limited; and if it be
attempted to continue the exertion beyond the natural power, the effort
is infructuous. As straining the muscles produces fatigue, stiffness,
and tremor;--as ocula spectra intrude on the forced and protracted
attention of the visual organs,--so confusion ensues, when thought is
racked and goaded to exhaustion.
As the staple of the human intellect is vastly superior to that of
animals, so we find among our own species a considerable range of
capacity; but however we may estimate mental excellence, it should be
recollected, that its possession has seldom contributed to the happiness
of the individual; so that experience would lead us to prefer the sober
medium, which is included by a parenthesis, between the extremes of
genius and dulness, and which appears to be the unenvied lot of the mass
of society. The two great distinctions which mark the intellects of our
species, seem to consist in the difference of character, which is
established by those who excel in the exercise of their perceptions and
consequent recollection, and those who cultivate and discipline the
energies of thought. The former are distinguished by a vigorous
activity, a penetrating and unwearied observation; their curiosity
seems rather to be attracted by the object itself than directed by the
mind. This incessant occupation and restless inquiry furnishes the
memory with an abundant vocabulary: they recollect each object they have
seen, and can retrace every path they have trodden; the ear greedily
imbibes the conversations to which they are anxiously disposed to
listen; that which they read, they verbally retain; they excel in
quickness of perception and promptitude of memory, and appear to have
every thing by heart; they are "the gay motes that people the sun-beams"
of the intellectual world:--thus we find them, as inclination may sway,
accurate chronologists, biographers pregnant with anecdote, expert
nomenclators, botanists, topographers, practical linguists, and
bibliographers; in short, the opulent possessors of whatever perception
can detect, and memory preserve. The other order of men, (and they are
comparatively few,) are the creatures of reflection:--with them the
senses are little on the alert; they do not fatigue the wing by
excursions through the field of nature; but that which the recollection
retains becomes the subject of mental examination. An event is not
registered from having merely occurred; but the causes which produced it
are investigated, and a calculation is instituted concerning its
probable tendency. Words are not simply regarded as the floating
currency or medium of exchange, but they are severely subjected to
analysis to establish their standard, or to detect the excess of their
alloy; their senses are little awake to external impressions; the
objects which a change of scene presents are slightly noticed, and
feebly remembered; their curiosity is not attracted from without, but
excited from within; they are strangers to the haunts of gay and
mirthful intercourse, and are rather consulted as oracles, than selected
as companions. This constant occupation of thought produces the
philosophical historian, profound critic, physiologist, mathematician,
general grammarian, etymologist, and metaphysician. After long exertion
they become disposed to melancholic disquietude, and often turn in
disgust from a world, the beauties of which they want an incentive to
examine, and taste to admire. Both of these intellectual orders of our
species contribute, but in different manners, to the stores of
knowledge. The sound, efficient, and useful mind consists in a due
balance and regular exercise of its different faculties.
How great soever the pains which an individual may bestow, to fix his
thoughts to the examination of a particular subject, he will find that
the effective duration of his attention is very limited, and that other
thoughts, often wholly unconnected with the subject, will intrude and
occupy his mind; on some occasions they are so prevailing and
importunate, that he loses the original subject altogether. It is
acknowledged, that the soundest and most efficient mind, is
distinguished by the control it is capable of exerting on its immediate
thoughts; which consist, as has before been observed, of terms, and the
phantasmata of visible recollection:--this wandering of the thoughts to
other subjects, or this intrusion of irrelevant words and pictures,
whichever may be the case, appears to bear a very strong resemblance to
a morbid state. It is usually the attendant on indolence, and has
probably its source in a want of the proper occupation of mind, and, by
indulgence, may become an incurable habit. Yet this rumination of mind
has its votaries: by some it is courted as a delightful amusement, and
eulogies are bestowed on the incoherent tissue of these reveries and
day-dreams. Although these illegitimate offsprings of "retired leisure"
may be considered as a perversion of the noblest attribute of man; yet
they serve, in some degree, to recruit our recollection of past
transactions, which might otherwise have faded in obscurity, or perished
from natural decay. In the soundest and most refreshing sleep we seldom
dream; so, in those wholesome exercises of the intellect where the mind
is fully occupied, and, more especially, when such pursuit is combined
with bodily exertion, these masterless associates do not intrude. By
continuance, this habit may be so formidably increased, more especially
under the guidance of malignant or depressing passions, that these
shadows become embodied, and assume a form so potent and terrible, that
the will is unable to bind them down, and the understanding attempts to
exorcise them in vain.
The act of thought or reflection, therefore, appears to consist, not in
the operation of an exclusive and particular faculty, but in the
voluntary recollection of pictures, as far as visible perception is
involved, and of terms or words which are the types or representatives
of our perceptions, together with those general terms, which are to be
considered as abbreviations of meaning or intelligence. All this would,
however, only amount to an act of memory, of such pictures and terms,
particular and general; and would not comprehend or include their
analysis, estimate, admeasurement, or _ratio_, with inquiries into their
source and tendency, which is denominated _reason_, and which will
compose the materials of the following chapter. Suffice it to observe
that our thoughts on any subject can only be according to the extent of
our knowledge of things and opinions; and, therefore, that our thoughts
or reflections necessarily involve our reasonings, as they are only
recollections without them.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] In this capability animals will never rival us, as they are
deficient of the _hand_, the operative instrument by which it is
effected.
[16] It may be proper to explain the origin and meaning of this word,
and of another usually employed in a similar sense, namely,
contemplation. The former is compounded of _cum_ and _sidus_, and
presumes a fixity of mind adequate to the survey of the heavenly bodies;
the latter is derived from _cum_ and _templum_, and imports the same
gravity and concentration of thought which we carry to the fane of
devotion.
ON REASON.
The opinions of the thinking part of mankind have been much divided
concerning the signification of the term Reason. Every person, conceives
himself privileged to reason upon all the subjects of human
intelligence; and whatever he may chuse to offer on any side of a
question, he denominates his reasons for or against it. By some, this
power is held to be the exclusive possession of man; and such persons
naturally conclude that an offence is offered to his intellectual
dignity, if the smallest portion be conceded to the most docile animals.
This is, however, a question for future examination, and will be
discussed when their faculties are more particularly investigated. Those
who have affirmed that our own species is exclusively gifted with
reason, have not in any manner defined the nature of this faculty, or
enumerated the steps of the process by which reasoning is performed:
indeed, so ambiguous has been the signification annexed to this term,
that it is not uncommon to meet, in the best authors, with the
expressions of right reason, false or inconclusive reasonings, absurd
reasons, &c. These epithets are, however, perfectly correct, as will be
demonstrated in the course of this enquiry.
If this capacity of reasoning be peculiar to man, it would not appear
difficult to trace the gradations of the process when he employs it:
every act of intellectual exertion, deliberately performed, is attended
with consciousness; he must therefore be aware of the successive steps
of his march: but as this effort might be perplexing to minds
unaccustomed to such deliberate and minute investigation, a readier
method presents itself in order to attain the object. There are writers
in all the departments of human knowledge, who are deservedly held in
the highest estimation, and who have reasoned on the subjects they have
treated, with the utmost correctness and ability:--let the best
specimens of that, which, in these authors, is allowed to be reasoning,
be selected and analysed, which will readily demonstrate the means they
have pursued to arrive at their conclusion. The whole of this process
being conducted by significant sounds conveyed to the ear, or in the
signs of these sounds presented to the eye, the inquirer would be
immediately impressed, that intelligent sound, or its character, that
is, language, must be the vehicle by which this process is performed. In
the next place, he would be sensible that these sounds, or their signs,
were the substitutes or intended representatives of the objects in
nature, either individually or collectively; for he would find that men,
by the instrument of speech, had contrived, by a term, equally to
express collections as well as individuals; as a man, or an army, which
latter might consist of many thousands of the same beings. When he had
arrived at this knowledge, he would be persuaded of the importance of
these terms, and feel the necessity of their precise and uniform
signification, as the representatives of the particular objects or
collections they professed to describe:--because, if different
significations were affixed to the same term, those who employed it
could not mean the same thing. These prefatory observations appear to be
proper, and it is important that the reader should bear them in mind;
but it will be evident that the most correct description of objects does
not constitute the process of reasoning, however indispensable it may be
as its foundation.
Reason, as the term itself shows, implies _ratio_, estimate, proportion,
or admeasurement; and in all the instances of reasoning that can be
adduced, this interpretation will apply in the strictest sense. But
_ratio_, estimate, &c. involve numbers, by which they can alone be
characterised or defined. Thus, by way of illustration, the estimate for
a building implies the number of the different materials, with their
_cost_, which is the number of pounds, shillings, and pence; also the
number of requisite workmen to be employed for such time, or number of
weeks, days, &c. at a certain stipend: admeasurement also consists of
numbers, whether it be employed on solids, fluids, or designate the
succession of our perceptions, called time[17]: and ratio or proportion
is equally the creature of numbers. In a preceding part of these
contributions, the importance of numbers has been considered, and a
confident belief expressed that no animal is capable of numeration; and
that the comprehension of addition and subtraction, the basis of all
calculation is exclusively the province of the human intellect. This
subject, however, requires a more extended investigation; and the
research would doubtless reward the toil of the inquirer.
It is generally acknowledged, that arithmetic, or the combination and
separation of numbers, is the purest and most certain system of
reasoning, and liable, when properly conducted, to no difference of
opinion; because the meaning of number is definite and universally
agreed on, there being no nation that affixes a different value to the
units, which are the elements of all ulterior numerative progression;
and although, in different languages, they are called by different
names, as [Greek: Deka], _decem_, _dieci_, _dix_,--_taihun_, _tyn_,
_zehn_, _tien_, _ten_, yet they have an identical meaning, and
denominate the same thing; and notwithstanding the Roman and Arabic
symbols are of different character, they represent the same number,
whether we employ X or 10. It is owing to this identity of meaning, that
the reasoning in numbers is subject to no diversity of opinion.
The names of those things which have an actual existence, and can be
submitted to the inquisition of our senses, or are capable of being
analysed, are subject to comparatively little error, when we reason
concerning them, because their character is defined by observation and
experiment: but we have terms to designate that which cannot immediately
be submitted to the analytic operations of our senses, and which has no
palpable existence; and from the undefined nature of these, the greatest
discord and confusion have prevailed when we reason concerning them; as
the terms, humanity, charity, benevolence, living principle,
organisation, materialism, political expediency, taste, liberty,
legitimacy, and a thousand besides.
In order to proceed regularly with this subject, it appears that our
reasonings may be employed concerning things, or the objects in nature,
and on terms which are not the immediate representatives of natural
phenomena, but as they have been denominated general or abstract; and
which are intended to be the verbal representatives of multitudes of
objects arbitrarily classed, or of opinions comprised under such term.
That reason is not an inherent, peculiar, and independent faculty of the
human mind, receives a strong confirmation from considering, that it
cannot be voluntarily exerted on subjects of discussion, but requires,
as the indispensable condition of its operation, the basis of knowledge,
which is to be understood to mean, the result of observation and
experiment: for the mere employment of language, on a subject with which
we are unacquainted, is but idle prating and a lavishment of words. To
reason, is to adapt our means, that is, our knowledge, for the
attainment of the end or object proposed: it is the estimate or
admeasurement of these means. If, for example, a military commander
intended effectually to bombard a city;--such being the object proposed,
he would immediately proceed to estimate, admeasure, or calculate his
means to produce the effect, and his success would depend on the
knowledge he possessed of the nature and properties of the materials
employed: he must calculate the distance, elevation, proportionate
quantity of powder, and the time the fuzee should burn previously to the
explosion of the shell; with various other necessary circumstances. This
is an example of a very pure process of reasoning as applied to things,
and accords with the definition that has been attempted. If it were
necessary to multiply instances of the reasoning on things, perhaps the
construction of a thermometer would be a well-adapted illustration; and
it would likewise exhibit that which I am very anxious to impress,
namely, the very gradual manner in which knowledge, by the operation of
reasoning has been applied to the purposes of utility. That many
substances, and particularly metallic bodies, augmented in magnitude by
being heated, or, as we now term it, expanded by heat, was known many
centuries ago, and was a fact of hourly occurrence to the artificers in
metals. A similar increment of bulk was also observed in fluids; and it
was likewise known, that their dimensions contracted as they cooled.
This fact appeared to obtain so generally, that it became an aphorism,
that bodies expanded by heat and contracted by cold. Of the precise
gradations of heat they were, however, ignorant. Most of the senses
became tests, although they were inaccurate criteria. The sight conveyed
some distinctive marks; so that when some metallic bodies were heated
to a high degree, they were observed to become red, and as the heat was
increased, they were rendered white. By the touch, a variety of
discriminations of temperature was obtained, to which appropriate terms
were annexed, explanatory of its effects, or according with the
feelings; as burning, scorching, scalding, blistering hot;--descending
to blood, loo, gently, or agreeably warm. The ear was not exempted from
its share of information, by detecting the boiling of water, or by
discovering when a heated metal was immersed in that fluid, that it was
hissing-hot: even the smell detected some obscure traces, sufficient to
discourage or invite an approach. These tests, although they might serve
for ordinary purposes, were still wholly inadequate for philosophical
accuracy. To ascertain quantity, it was necessary to associate number as
the index of precision. Notwithstanding the construction of this
instrument now appears so simple and easy of contrivance, it is only
within a few years that it occurred to fill a tube, having a bulb, with
a fluid; and to note the points at which snow dissolved, and water
boiled: when these were fixed, the intermediate space might form a scale
according to any subdivisions, so as to endow it with precision by the
adjunct of numbers. On many occasions, our sensations deceive us,
especially in a morbid state of the body: a person in the cold stage of
an ague shivers at the temperature that oppresses his attendant with
heat; but the instrument described is subject to no variations, by
marking the gradations of warmth with the definite character of number.
It will now be seen, that man possesses materials for conducting his
reasonings, which animals do not enjoy;--by language, and from his
capacity of numerating. Speech, of course, involves its record, whereby
he can recall the transactions of former ages, and preserve the fruit of
experience for his intellectual nurture, when the tree that produced it
has perished. This record is the elaboration of the hand,--that
wonderful instrument, the register of thought,--that active and and
skilful agent that "turns to shape" the contrivances of the mind.
It is perhaps impossible, in a few words, to describe precisely the
nature of the operation termed reasoning. In general terms it may be
defined, _the means we employ for the attainment of the end proposed;
the employment of knowledge for the discovery of truth_; or _the process
of demonstration_; whether the object be an arithmetical sum, a
geometrical problem, or a discourse on taste. A part of the process of
reasoning, according to received opinion, consists in comparison, either
of things, or of general terms; and this comparison implies not merely
their exterior similitude, but likewise their internal structure and
composition: because two mineral substances may resemble each other in
external appearance, and may wholly differ in their intrinsic
properties. The process of ascertaining wherein they agree, and the
circumstances which discriminate them, is an instance of reasoning, or
the means we employ for the proposed end, and which means necessarily
imply the previous possession of knowledge. It will also be seen that in
the instance adduced, and indeed in most others, where we reason on
things, that precision can only be attained through the medium of
number; for these mineral substances, although similar in external
character, may contain very different proportions of the precious
metals, and their actual value can only be estimated by comparison; that
is, by an analysis, founded in knowledge, to ascertain the per centage
of gold or silver, which must be expressed in numbers: and the
comparison that is instituted concerning general or abstract terms,
must have for its basis the establishment of their legitimate force and
meaning.