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Remarks
smelling , tasting , and so on . To this conclusion Locicrc came even after long and attentive reflection . And he , with the vigour of expression which characterizes the English writers of his time , compared the human mind in its infant state to a sheet of white paper , which receives impassively the various characters or impressions which may be drawn upon its surface . But even were we to adopt this striking simile as a correct exposition
of the truth , it must be evident that as the characters drawn on the paper depend not entirely on the pen but in a great measure on the qualities ofthe paper , on its powers of imbibition , retention , & c ., so the nature of the impressions on the mind must depend on the nature of the mind itself ; for otherwise the absurdity must arise that an external object , say an ox or a castle , should produce the same effect when painted on the paper by a camera obscuraas it does when painted on
, the retina of the human eye . In tracing , therefore , the composition of our various thoughts , it is requisite to allow that something belongs to external agents and something to our mind , which receives impressions from those agents . This appeared to LEIBNITZ in no obscure light when he wrote " Nihil est in
mtellectu quod non fuit prms in sensu nisi lntellectus ipse . But the profound geometrician did not perceive how deep an observation he had made , and that all which exists in the sense is but little compared with the great and beautiful portion of our knowledge which exists in and forms the " intellectus ipse . " HUME , who followed long the prevalent doctrine of LOCKE , that all we know is derived from the senses , stumbled at last , in one of his arduous and bold flihtson that universally allowed propositionthat
g , , everything must have had a cause . Here he found the sensual theory at fault ; for that the senses could never impress us with the necessity of this law was to him , as to all thinking men , manifest . For however often the senses may be impressed with the coincidence or concurrence of two circumstances , the mind is never compelled to believe their disunion impossible . But an event without a cause is an idea no man can
entertain . Embarrassed with this strange anomaly in his metaphysical code , he adopted a most strange explanation of it . He ascribed this law of the mind , universal as it is amongst all tribes and classes of the human race , to a vagary of the imagination ! We trust we are not misrepresenting the meaning of one so benevolent , and in many respects so powerful , as Hume ; but we believe he thought the notion of an inseparable union between cause and effect a mighty and prevalent error of
the human intellect . That an idea so pregnant with destruction to the relig ous opinions founded on established systems of metaphysics , should meet with violent opposition , was perfectly natural ; and that those who were zealous and warm in a cause of the highest importance to mankind should have misrepresented him as atheistical and immoral , is neither surprising , nor , considering the fallibility of human nature when treading this high
ground , entirely inexcusable . But what embarrassed Hume so much as to force him into an explanation so obscure that he could scarcely have explained that explanation in a volume , and which excited his opponents to so high a pitch of rage , that they consumed themselves in their own fire , furnished KA . NT with a key to open a most rich cabinet of human knowledge ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Remarks
smelling , tasting , and so on . To this conclusion Locicrc came even after long and attentive reflection . And he , with the vigour of expression which characterizes the English writers of his time , compared the human mind in its infant state to a sheet of white paper , which receives impassively the various characters or impressions which may be drawn upon its surface . But even were we to adopt this striking simile as a correct exposition
of the truth , it must be evident that as the characters drawn on the paper depend not entirely on the pen but in a great measure on the qualities ofthe paper , on its powers of imbibition , retention , & c ., so the nature of the impressions on the mind must depend on the nature of the mind itself ; for otherwise the absurdity must arise that an external object , say an ox or a castle , should produce the same effect when painted on the paper by a camera obscuraas it does when painted on
, the retina of the human eye . In tracing , therefore , the composition of our various thoughts , it is requisite to allow that something belongs to external agents and something to our mind , which receives impressions from those agents . This appeared to LEIBNITZ in no obscure light when he wrote " Nihil est in
mtellectu quod non fuit prms in sensu nisi lntellectus ipse . But the profound geometrician did not perceive how deep an observation he had made , and that all which exists in the sense is but little compared with the great and beautiful portion of our knowledge which exists in and forms the " intellectus ipse . " HUME , who followed long the prevalent doctrine of LOCKE , that all we know is derived from the senses , stumbled at last , in one of his arduous and bold flihtson that universally allowed propositionthat
g , , everything must have had a cause . Here he found the sensual theory at fault ; for that the senses could never impress us with the necessity of this law was to him , as to all thinking men , manifest . For however often the senses may be impressed with the coincidence or concurrence of two circumstances , the mind is never compelled to believe their disunion impossible . But an event without a cause is an idea no man can
entertain . Embarrassed with this strange anomaly in his metaphysical code , he adopted a most strange explanation of it . He ascribed this law of the mind , universal as it is amongst all tribes and classes of the human race , to a vagary of the imagination ! We trust we are not misrepresenting the meaning of one so benevolent , and in many respects so powerful , as Hume ; but we believe he thought the notion of an inseparable union between cause and effect a mighty and prevalent error of
the human intellect . That an idea so pregnant with destruction to the relig ous opinions founded on established systems of metaphysics , should meet with violent opposition , was perfectly natural ; and that those who were zealous and warm in a cause of the highest importance to mankind should have misrepresented him as atheistical and immoral , is neither surprising , nor , considering the fallibility of human nature when treading this high
ground , entirely inexcusable . But what embarrassed Hume so much as to force him into an explanation so obscure that he could scarcely have explained that explanation in a volume , and which excited his opponents to so high a pitch of rage , that they consumed themselves in their own fire , furnished KA . NT with a key to open a most rich cabinet of human knowledge ,