Volume 1
A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work.
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Date:
- 1847
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![derive from matter, sensible species, images, and vibrations, obscure rather than explain this mys- terious subject. A certain state of mind follows a certain impression upon an external organ. We refer the cause of the sensation to some external object. This con?,iii\xiQS perception; and the mind is said to form an idea of the object. By a necessary law involved in the constitution of the mind, all the ideas of material objects are in time and in space. When an impression has once been made through the medullary masses upon the mind, it possesses the poAver of recalling the impression after the exciting cause has been removed. This is memory, a faculty which varies much Avith the age and health of the individual. During childhood, and in youth, the memory is very vivid. Accordingly, this period of life is most favourable to the acquisition of knowledge, especially of those subjects involving a great extent of detail, such as languages, geography, civil history, and natural history. The memory fails with increasing years. Vivid perceptions and sensations are easily conceived; but the memory of a former mental im- pression is in general more faint. Certain diseases, such as apoplexy, destroy the memory, either entirely or partially. A disordered state of the stomach will deprive the mind of the power of following a continued train of deep thought. This is also the case in the first stages of fevers. Blows and other injuries of the head will often affect the memory in a manner altogether incredible and surprising; and similar effects are sometimes produced by a high degree of nervous excitement. Ideas Avhich resemble [Avbicli contrast], or which were produced at the same time [or in the same place], have the poAver of recalling each other. This is termed the association of ideas. The order, the extent, and the quickness in Avhich this poAver is exercised, constitutes the perfection of the memory. Every object presents itself to the memory Avith all its qualities, and all the ideas associated thereAvith. The understanding possesses the poAver of separating these associated ideas from the objects, and of combining all the properties resembling each other in different objects under one general idea. This poAver of generalization, by which an object is imagined to be divested of certain properties, which in reality are never found separate, is termed Abstraction. The power of abstraction appears to belong exclusively to Man ; who, by the invention of general terms, is enabled to reason concerning entire classes of objects and events, and to arrive at general conclusions, comprehending a multitude of particular truths. Every sensation being more or less agreeable, or disagreeable, experience and re- peated trials readily point out the movements necessary to procure the one, or to avoid the other. The understanding thence deduces general rules for the direction of the will relatively to pleasure and pain. An agreeable sensation may produce unpleasant consequences; and the foresight of these consequences may react upon the first sensation, and thus produce certain modifications of the abstract rules framed by the understanding. This is prudence or self-lore. The lower animals seem influenced only by their present or very recent sensations, and they in- variably yield to the impulse of the moment. Man alone appears able to form the general idea of happiness, and, by taking a comprehensive view of things, to lay down a plan for the regulation of his future conduct, and the attainment of his favourite objects. But an inseparable barrier is placed between man and inferior intelligences, by the power of per- ceiving those qualities of actions which are termed right and wrong, and the emotions which attend their perception. The supremacy of conscience, and its claim to be considered an original faculty of the mind, are clearly pointed out by Bishop Butler. “ Virtue,” he elsewhere observes, “ is that Avhich all ages and all countries have made profession of in public—it is that which every man you meet puts on the show of—it is that which the primary and fundamental laws of aU civil constitu- tions over the face of the earth make it their business and endeavour to enforce the practice of upon mankind, such as justice, veracity, or a regard for the common good.” By applying terms to express our general ideas, Ave obtain certain formula or rules, wliicli are easily adapted to particular cases. This is judgment or reasoning [which may be either intuitive or deductive\ When original sensations and associations forcibly recur to the memory [the mind](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22014457_0001_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
