RELATION OF THE INTELLECT TO THE SENSIBILITIES. 17

doctrines of mental philosophy. The following passage of Southey, in addition to those already quoted, will illustrate what we mean; involving, like the others, not only a distinction between the Understanding and the Heart, but separating both from the Will. "Believing in them [the Prophets and the Evangelists] with a calm and settled faith, with that consent of the wILL, and HEART, and UNDERSTANDING which constitutes religious belief, I find in them the clear annunciation of the kingdom of God upon earth.”*

But on a question of this kind we must rest ultimately, and it is presumed we can do it in this case with entire confidence, on the testimony of Consciousness. In a multitude of cases we are obliged to rely upon knowledge from this source; and certainly, on no subject whatever, is its testimony more clear than in respect to the acts of the intellect and the acts of the heart. When we have perceptions, when we think, we know the existence of such perceptions or thought to be one thing; when we have emotions and desires, we know the existence of such emotions and desires to be another thing; and we have an internal conviction, strong as any conviction can well be, that there is no possibility in ordinary cases of confounding them together.

3. Action of the sensibilities implies that of the intellect.

As a general thing, there is and can be no movement of the sensibilities, no such thing as an emotion, desire, or feeling of moral obligation, without an antecedent action of the intellect. If we are pleased or displeased, there is necessarily before the mind some object of pleasure or displeasure; if we exercise the feeling of desire, there must necessarily be some object desired, which is made known to us by an action of the intellect. So that if there were no intellect, or if the intellectual powers were entirely dormant and inactive, there would be no action of the emotive part of our nature and of the passions. -And we may not only say in general terms that the action of the sensibilities implies the antecedent action of the intellect, but may even assert more specifically (ma* Southey's Progress of Society, Colloquy ii.

king allowance for those constitutional differences which pervade every part of the mental structure), that the activity of the sensibilities will be nearly in proportion to that of the intellect. In other words, on all subjects which are calculated to excite any interest at all, those who have the broadest and most satisfactory views will be likely to feel more intensely than others; the sensibilities expanding and exerting themselves in conformity with the expanded and energetic action of the perceptive and cognitive powers.

4. Importance of the study of the sensibilities.

The department of the mind on which we now propose to enter is not only distinct from the other great divisions, having a nature and characteristics of its own, but possesses, we may venture to assert, equal importance and interest. If man had been formed of intellect only, of cold and unimpassioned perceptivity; if he could merely have perceived, compared, associated, and reasoned, without a solitary emotion or desire, without any of the various affections of our nature, without sorrow for suffering or sympathy in joy; in a word, if he had been all head and no heart, the human soul would have shown not only a different, but a depressed and inferior aspect, compared with what it does at present. But, happily and wisely, it is far otherwise. We find him constituted with a sensitive as well as an intellectual nature; with powers of feeling as well as of thought. It is the sensitive part of human nature (including in the term the moral as well as the natural affections) which Socrates, if we may rely on the doctrines and conversations that are handed down to us, particularly turned his attention to, and on account of which he was pronounced by the Oracle the wisest of all men living. It is here that we are let into the secrets of men's actions. It is in this department of the mind we find the causes which render them restless and inquisitive, which prompt to efforts both good and evil, and make the wide world a theatre, where vice and virtue, hope and fear, and joy and suffering, mingle in perpetual conflict.

Much is said, and with a good deal of truth, of the

RELATION OF THE INTELLECT TO THE SENSIBILITIES. 19

value of a knowledge of human nature; a species of knowledge which is useful to all persons, and in many situations is clearly indispensable; but this knowledge, to any available extent, can never be supposed to exist separate from an acquaintance with that portion of our nature which we now propose to investigate. A knowledge of human nature, in the common apprehension of the phrase, does not so much imply a knowledge of the powers of perception and reasoning as a knowledge of the springs of action, back of the intellect, which, in the shape of the emotions and passions, give an impulse and a character to the conduct both of individuals and communities. In other words, a knowledge of human nature is essentially a knowledge of the HEART; a term by which men commonly distinguish the sensitive from the intellectual nature; and, consequently, all the value, and it is by no means inconsiderable, which pertains to the study of human nature, attaches equally to the interesting inquiries now before us.

5. Difficulties attending the prosecution of this study.

But while we may properly and very justly maintain that no series of topics in the whole range of mental philosophy is either more fitted or more worthy to secure and interest the attention than those now before us, it cannot be denied that the discussion of them is attended with some difficulties, which do not perplex, certainly not in an equal degree, the examination of other parts of the mind. The perplexity to which we now refer will be better understood if we reflect a moment on the distinctive nature of the sensibilities. It is well known that the sensibilities, in their more decided action, are characterized by a sort of excitement, a stirring and breaking up of the inward depths, an agitation of the otherwise calm surface of the soul. It is this trait, so familiar to our consciousness, though difficult to be imbodied in language, to which we refer, and which undoubtedly characterizes the action of some portion of the sensibilities more than of others. The term PASSIONS is frequently employed to express that portion in particular.

Now it is the business of philosophy to give an accurate

view of the passions, to dissect them, and to show precisely what they are. But that excitement which has been mentioned is the appropriate element of the passions; the very breath of their existence is dependant on tumult and agitation. Such a state of things seems to be, and is in fact, inconsistent, to no inconsiderable extent, with that calm and critical examination which is desirable. We are obliged to wait till the excitement which exists has greatly subsided. In the interval of this delay, which cannot well be avoided, the true and important moment of examination has departed; and we are accordingly under the necessity of relying upon memory rather than upon direct consciousness for those intimations which are involved in a full knowledge of the subject of inquiry. It is different with the intellectual powers; their progress is calm and unruffled; we can mark them distinctly and accurately at every step, and in the very moment of their movement. But if it be otherwise in the Sensibilities, particularly in that portion of them known as the AFFECTIONS or PASSIONS, the only remedy is to use the greater caution, and to compare and combine our own internal experience, so far as we can ascertain what it is, with what we can gather from the outward observation of others. The difficulty is, indeed, considerable; but not so great as to discourage efforts to examine a portion of the mind, which has been less accurately surveyed than the intellect, but which promises, as the result of its examination, an equally ample reward.

CHAPTER II.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE SENSIBILITIES.

6. Natural or pathematic sensibilities and moral.

As we pass onward from the percipient and cognitive nature to the distinct and more remote region of the emotions and passions, it seems proper, before we enter more minutely into the various inquiries which may be expect

ed to present themselves, to consider whether the department of the Sensibilities itself is not susceptible of being resolved into some subordinate yet important divisions. In accordance with this suggestion, our first remark is, that the Sensibilities, when subjected to a careful examination, will clearly be found to separate themselves into the great divisions of the Natural or Pathematic, and the Moral. These leading departments will be found to run, if we may be allowed the expression, in two separate channels, which, although they are for the most part parallel with each other, are nevertheless essentially and sufficiently distinct; each being characterized by its own attributes and by its appropriate results. Our examination of the Sensibilities will accordingly proceed upon the basis of this division.

In reference to the use of the term Pathematic, as applicable to the states of mind embraced in one of these great divisions, it is proper to observe, that it appears to have been formed from its Greek original, and first used by Sir James Mackintosh. He repeatedly speaks of that part of our nature which includes the emotions and passions as unnamed; and in the progress of his discussions, appears at times to be embarrassed for the want of suitable English words to express it. And under these circumstances he proposes the term in question, which, in its etymological import, appears to involve the ideas of emotion and desire (the feelings that are particularly characteristic of the natural sensibilities), and adds the remark, which we are not aware is in the process of being realized, “until some more convenient and agreeable name shall be hit on by some luckier or more skilful adventurer in such new terms as seem to be absolutely necessary."* The term, in the present state of our philosophic language, is certainly convenient; and such is the great weight deservedly attached to the name of its proposer, that we shall at least be pardoned for using it.

7. Relation of the natural to the moral sensibilities in time.

When we use the term HEART as expressive of a part of our mental nature, we commonly have reference to the * Progress of Ethical Philosophy. Remarks on Hartley.