each of them recessarily has its distinctive nature, each of them is an entity by itself; and it is impossible to conceive of them as identical or interchangeable with each other. They are as truly unlike as our conceptions of unity and time, or of space and power. And if this is true of our ideas of right and wrong, it is not less so of right and wrong themselves. In other words, right can never become wrong, nor wrong right; they are placed for ever apart, each cccupying its own sphere; and thus we have a foundation laid for the important doctrine of the immutability of moral distinctions." The distinction between right and wrong," says Cousin, (Psychology, ch. v.,)" may be incorrectly applied, may vary in regard to particular objects, and may become clearer and more correct in time, without ceasing to be with all men the same thing at the bottom. It is a universal conception of Reason, and hence it is found in all languages, those products and faithful images of the mind. Not only is this distinction universal, but it is a necessary conception. In vain does the reason, after having once received, attempt to deny it, or call in question its truth. It cannot. One cannot at will regard the same action as just and unjust. These two ideas baffle every attempt to commute them, the one for the other. Their objects may change, but never their nature."

§ 120. Origin of the ideas of moral merit and demerit.

Closely connected with the ideas of right and wrong are the ideas of moral MERIT and DEMERIT. In the order of nature, (what is sometimes called the logical order,) the ideas of right and wrong come first. Without possessing the antecedent notions of right, and wrong, it would be impossible for us to frame the ideas of moral merit and demerit. For what merit can we possibly attach to him in whom we discover no rectitude? or what demerit in him in whom we discover no want of it? Merit always implies virtue as its antecedent and necessary condition, while demerit as certainly implies the want of it, or vice. Although the ideas of merit and demerit, in consequence of being simple, are undefinable, there can be no doubt of their existence, and of their

Deing entirely clear to our mental perception; and that they furnish a well-founded and satisfactory basis for many of our judgments in respect to the moral character and conduct of mankind.

121. Of other elements of knowledge developed in suggestion..

In giving an account of the ideas from this source, we have preferred as designative of their origin the term SUGGESTION, proposed and employed by Reid and Stewart, to the word REASON, proposed by Kant, and adopted by Cousin and some other writers, as, on the whole, more conformable to the prevalent usage of the English language. In common parlance, and by the established usage of the language, the word REASON is expressive of the deductive rather than of the suggestive faculty; and if we annul or perplex the present use of that word by a novel application of it, we must introduce a new word to express the process of deduction. Whether we are correct in this or not, we shall probably find no disagreement or opposition in asserting, not only the existence, but the great importance of the intellectual capability which we have been considering. The thing, and the nature of the thing, is undoubtedly of more consequence than the mere name.

In leaving this interesting topic, we would not be un derstood to intimate that the notions of existence, mind, personal identity, unity, succession, duration, power, and the others which have been mentioned, are all which Suggestion furnishes. It might not be easy to make a complete enumeration; but, in giving an account of the genesis of human knowledge, we may probably ascribe the ideas of truth, freedom, design or intelligence, necessity, fitness or congruity, reality, order, plurality, totality, immensity, possibility, infinity, happiness, reward, punishment, and perhaps many others, to this source.

122. Suggestion a source of principles as well as of ideas.

One more remark remains to be made. Original Suggestion is not only the source of ideas, (and particularly of ideas fundamental and unalterable,) but also of principles. The reasoning faculty, which in its nature is essen

tially comparative and deductive, must have something to rest upon back of itself, and of still higher authority than itself, with which, as a first link in the chain, the proces of deduction begins. It is the suggestive intellect which is the basis of the action of the comparative and deductive intellect. Of these elementary or transcendental propositions which are generally acknowledged to be prerequisites and conditions of the exercise of the deductive faculty, there are some particularly worthy of notice, such as the following.-There is no beginning or change of existence without a cause.-Matter and mind have

uniform and permanent laws.-Every quality supposes a subject, a real existence, of which it is a quality.-Means, conspiring together to produce a certain end, imply intelligence.

CHAPTER III.

261

CONSCIOUSNESS.

123. Consciousness the 2d source of internal knowledge; its nature. THE second source of that knowledge which, in distinction from sensations and external perceptions, is denominated Internal, is CONSCIOUSNESS. By the common usage of the language, the term Consciousness is appropriated to express the way or method in which we obtain the knowledge of those objects which belong to the mind itself, and which do not, and cannot exist independently of some mind. Imagining and reasoning are terms expressive of real objects of thought; but evidently they cannot be supposed to exist, independently of some mind which imagines and reasons. Hence every instance of consciousness may be regarded as embracing in itself the three following distinct notions at least; viz., (1.) The idea of self or of personal existence, which we possess, not by direct consciousness, but by suggestion, expressed in English by the words SELF, MYSELF, and the personal pronoun I; (2.) Some quality, state, or opera tion of the mind, whatever it may be; and (3.) A relative

perception of possession, appropriation, or belonging to. For instance, a person says, I AM CONSCIOUS OF LOVE, OR OF ANGER, OR OF PENITENCE. Here the idea of SELF, or of personal existence, is expressed by the pronoun I; there is a different mental state, and expressed by its appropriate term, that of the affection of ANGER, &c.; the phrase, CONSCIOUS OF, expresses the feeling of relation, which instantaneously and necessarily recognises the passion of anger as the attribute or property of the subject of the proposition. And in this case, as in all others where we apply the term under consideration, consciousness does not properly extend to anything which has an existence extraneous to the conscious object or soul itself.

124. Further remarks on the proper objects of consciousness. As there are some things to which Consciousness, as the term is usually employed, relates; and others to which it does not, it is proper to consider it in this respect more fully. (1.) As to those thoughts which may have arisen, or those emotions which may have agitated us in times past, we cannot with propriety be said to be conscious of them at the present moment, although we may be conscious of that present state of mind which we term the recollection of them.-(2.) Again, Consciousness has no direct connexion' with such objects, whether material or immaterial, as exist at the present time, but are external to the mind, or, in other words, have an existence independent of it.

For instance, we are not, strictly speaking, consciou of any material existence whatever; of the earth which we tread, of the food which nourishes us, of the clothes that protect, or of anything else of the like nature with which we are conversant; but are conscious merely of the effects they produce within us, of the sensations of taste, of heat and cold, of resistance and extension, of hardness and softness, and the like.

(3.) This view holds also in respect to immaterial things, even the mind itself. We are not directly conscious, using the term in the manner which has been explained, of the existence even of our own mind, but merely of its qualities and operations, and of that firm

belief or knowledge of its existence, necessarily attend. ant on those operations.

125. Consciousness a ground or law of belief.

Consciousness, it may be remarked here, is to be regarded as a ground or law of belief; and the belief attendant on the exercise of it, like that which accompanies the exercise of Original Suggestion, is of the highest kind. It appears to be utterly out of our power to avoid believing, beyond a doubt, that the mind experiences certain sensations, or has certain thoughts, or puts forth particular intellectual operations, whenever, in point of fact, that is the case. We may be asked for the reason of this belief, but we have none to give, except that it is the result of an ultimate and controlling principle of our nature; and hence that nothing can ever prevent the convictions resulting from this source, and nothing can divest us of them.

Nor has the history of the human mind made known any instances that have even the appearance of being at variance with this view, except a few cases of undoubted insanity. A man may reason against Consciousness as a ground and law of belief, either for the sake of amusing himself or perplexing others; but when he not only reasons against it as such, but seriously and sincerely rejects it, it becomes quite another concern; and such a one has, by common consent, broken loose from the authority of his nature, and is truly and emphatically beside himself. It will be impossible to find a resting-place where such

mind can fix itself and repose; the best established truths, and the wildest and most extravagant notions, will stand nearly an equal chance of being either rejected or received; fancy and fact will be confounded and mingled together, and the whole mind will exhibit a scene of chaotic and irretrievable confusion.

§ 126. Instances of knowledge developed in consciousness.

It would be no easy task to point out the numerous states of mind, the ideas, and emotions, and desires, and volitions, which come within the range and cognizance Di Consciousness; nor is there any special reason, connect