On the nature of thought, or the act of thinking, and its connexion with a perspicuous sentence / [John Haslam].

  • John Haslam
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature of thought, or the act of thinking, and its connexion with a perspicuous sentence / [John Haslam]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    live of emolument, has given a more energetic impulse to the mind, and accelerated that march of which we now so justly boast: but it cannot be denied, that in the rapidity of our advancement, and flushed with the ardent hope of arriving at our destination, we have bestowed but little notice on the machinery that urged us forwards, or con¬ templated the scenery through which we passed. Most persons concur that the human mind is the noblest subject of investigation; but few will be at the trouble of undertaking its analysis. With the multitude there is neither leisure nor inclina¬ tion, and the doctrines that have been dictated concerning our intellectual faculties and their ope¬ rations, have tended rather to stifle than to pro¬ mote inquiry. It is therefore unnecessary to enu¬ merate the catalogue of illustrious names whose contradictory systems have created suspicion and distaste in the student. The science that has been improperly termed Metaphysics, ought to be con¬ sidered a branch of human physiology, not abstrac¬ ted from, but in this state of existence, connected with the phenomena of life. The citations on the reverse of the Title-page, to which many more might have been added, clearly shew that the doc¬ trine of words being the elements of Thought, did not originate from my own conjecture or inference, and, consequently, that the endeavour to investi- b 2
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