Philosophy of mind, developing new sources of ideas, designating their distinctive classes, and simplifying the faculties and operations of the whole mind.

  • John Stearns
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Philosophy of mind, developing new sources of ideas, designating their distinctive classes, and simplifying the faculties and operations of the whole mind. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    12/30
    other eminent philosophers, who possessed the same evidence, and whose long and untiring investigations were assiduously directed to the same object 1 Is it possible that a text so full of meaning, so plain, intelligible, and expressive, and which will not admit of any other literal interpretation, could have escaped the notice of all philosophical inquirers after truth, from the time it was first recorded, to the present period ] Were not the repetition of soul and mind intended merely as an amplification, to impress the subject deeper and more permanently upon the mind V These and similar reflections induced me for a long time to hesi- tate, and almost to doubt the evidence of my own senses. But the more I reflected and investigated, the stronger were my convictions of the truth of the construction which I had conceived. Regardless, therefore, of consequences to myself, and of the criticisms of a censo- rious world, I resolved to persevere, to sustain and promulge a truth so important to a correct view of the science of mind, and even at the risk of a collision with a system of philosophy sustained by illustrious names, and sanctioned by the experience of ages. I was also aware that I should have to combat that pride of opinion which never yields to innovators — neither principles nor discoveries that have not been sanctioned by time, or by the highest authorities in science ; without which sanction, legitimately conferred, error must be error still. The spirit of truth has pronounced the distinction between soul and mind in a command equally clear and positive, as when he said ' Let there be light.' Both rest on the same immutable basis ; both are equally perspicuous, and unsusceptible of a figurative, or any other construction, than those simple words are intended plainly to convey; and whoever denies the one, may with the same pro- priety reject the other. It is a remarkable fact, in corroboration of the theory I am endeavoring to sustain, that the arrangement of the three entities in this text, is precisely the same which this theory assigns to each in their successive origins. The body is first formed with its five senses, each of which goes into full operation as they successively become matured ; the soul next occupies its destined station in the body, and by its appropriate action on the brain, pro- duces the mind. We have then body, soul, and mind, arranged in the order of their creation, and perfectly corresponding to the arrangement adopted in the mandate of Christ. I was not aware of the reason of this arrangement, till long after this theory had been formed; and now simply make the allusion, to evince the perfect coincidence of every important circumstance in the illustration of truth.