Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Comparison Between The Ancients And Moderns In Science And Literature.
indebted for our present knowledge of the human mind , and for a rational system of logic ; a subject which was before involved in all the obscurity of scholastic jargon , and in all the airy speculations and inextricable labyrinths of polemic divinity . In its former state , far from conducting the speculative wanderer , in his progress through the mazy paths of intellectual knowledge , to the porch of truth , its tendency was inevitably to mislead the understanding and pervert-the
judgment . It is now , however , become one of the most important parts of modern education , and cannot be denied to merit , in the highest degree , the attention of every person desirous of thinking with perspicuity and of reasoning with propriety .
. Mr . Locke , in order to prepare the way for further discoveries , begins with clearing away some of the most obnoxious and poisonous weeds . He has in a very masterly manner completely confuted the doctrine of innate ideas , the belief of which was so prevalent , previous to his time , and which had been the source of innumerable errors . By a beautiful chain of reasoning , he has indisputably demonstrated that the mind' in its primeval stateisas it werea total
blankinca-, , , , , pable of receiving any impression , and passive to any influence . Upon this basis , therefore , he has erected a fabric , which has hitherto attracted admiration and applause , and whose durability seems incapable of suffering from the attacks of time . ¦ - . ' . " ' . '• . That sensation and reflection are the primitive sources of all , our ideas , and the only avenues through which they can gain admission
to the sensorium : that secondary qualities exist not in the ' substances themselves , but are in fact nothing more than certain powers which they possess of affecting our senses in the manner we uniformly experience : and that intuition and demonstration are the only means of attaining absolute certainty ; are doctrines which , amongst a variety of others , he has clearly evinced to be founded in reality . . Pie has also pointed out the proper methods of attaining truth , in . all its different degrees of evidence , from certainty to the slightest probability ;¦ ' and
has shewn that syllogisms , and the other scholastic formularies of former ages , are by no means absolutely requisite-to right reasoning , though they have often been adopted as useful assistances ; in abstruse argumentation . In fait , every part of his system is the result of deep investigation , and displays an intimate knowledge of the operations of the human mind . What Newton was in mathematical ; philosophy , the same was Locke in the science of intellect . Both have attained
the pinnacle of fame in their respective spheres ; both have displayed to succeeding ages the wonderful summits of knowledge which humanity is capable of reaching by the exertions of genius . Greatly , however , as we must hold in admiration the powers and discoveries of Locke , still new discoveries were in reserve for future timesand truths then unknown were to be disclosed by succeeding
, talents . Doctrines equally important to the advancement of science , and equally remote from mortal eye , have been brought to light by the penetrating . mind of Hartley , The association of ideas , a subject but
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Comparison Between The Ancients And Moderns In Science And Literature.
indebted for our present knowledge of the human mind , and for a rational system of logic ; a subject which was before involved in all the obscurity of scholastic jargon , and in all the airy speculations and inextricable labyrinths of polemic divinity . In its former state , far from conducting the speculative wanderer , in his progress through the mazy paths of intellectual knowledge , to the porch of truth , its tendency was inevitably to mislead the understanding and pervert-the
judgment . It is now , however , become one of the most important parts of modern education , and cannot be denied to merit , in the highest degree , the attention of every person desirous of thinking with perspicuity and of reasoning with propriety .
. Mr . Locke , in order to prepare the way for further discoveries , begins with clearing away some of the most obnoxious and poisonous weeds . He has in a very masterly manner completely confuted the doctrine of innate ideas , the belief of which was so prevalent , previous to his time , and which had been the source of innumerable errors . By a beautiful chain of reasoning , he has indisputably demonstrated that the mind' in its primeval stateisas it werea total
blankinca-, , , , , pable of receiving any impression , and passive to any influence . Upon this basis , therefore , he has erected a fabric , which has hitherto attracted admiration and applause , and whose durability seems incapable of suffering from the attacks of time . ¦ - . ' . " ' . '• . That sensation and reflection are the primitive sources of all , our ideas , and the only avenues through which they can gain admission
to the sensorium : that secondary qualities exist not in the ' substances themselves , but are in fact nothing more than certain powers which they possess of affecting our senses in the manner we uniformly experience : and that intuition and demonstration are the only means of attaining absolute certainty ; are doctrines which , amongst a variety of others , he has clearly evinced to be founded in reality . . Pie has also pointed out the proper methods of attaining truth , in . all its different degrees of evidence , from certainty to the slightest probability ;¦ ' and
has shewn that syllogisms , and the other scholastic formularies of former ages , are by no means absolutely requisite-to right reasoning , though they have often been adopted as useful assistances ; in abstruse argumentation . In fait , every part of his system is the result of deep investigation , and displays an intimate knowledge of the operations of the human mind . What Newton was in mathematical ; philosophy , the same was Locke in the science of intellect . Both have attained
the pinnacle of fame in their respective spheres ; both have displayed to succeeding ages the wonderful summits of knowledge which humanity is capable of reaching by the exertions of genius . Greatly , however , as we must hold in admiration the powers and discoveries of Locke , still new discoveries were in reserve for future timesand truths then unknown were to be disclosed by succeeding
, talents . Doctrines equally important to the advancement of science , and equally remote from mortal eye , have been brought to light by the penetrating . mind of Hartley , The association of ideas , a subject but