OF MENTAL PHILOSOPHY; CONTAINING A CRITICAL EXPOSITION OF THE PRINCIPAL PHENOMENA AND POWERS OF THE HUMAN MIND. BY LEICESTER AMB BOSE SAWYER, A. M. NEW-YORK: PAINE & BURGESS, No. 60 John-Strect. 1846. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, BY LEICESTER AMBROSE SAWYER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. TO REV. SAMUEL HANSON COX, D.D., Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. DEAR SIR, HAVING been encouraged by yourself and others, to complete and present to the public, the following work on Mental Philosophy, I beg leave to inscribe it to you, and through you to all who interest themselves in works of this description. You will recognize among its conclusions principles of which you have been a studious disciple and resolute champion during the last thirty years, and in the defence of which you have allied yourself intimately and honorably with the wise and good of both hemispheres, and of all ages. Some may regard any attempt at improvement in this science and any deviation from established and traditionary opinions as an offense deserving the severest rebuke; but you, Dear Sir, and others with whom the Christian spirit is something more than a name, will find in these pages matter for calm and deliberate consideration; and will judge in regard to things supposed to be questionable or new, with candor and impartiality. The nature of the human mind has not been so fully developed that there remains no demand for farther labor in this department of extensive and elevated science; in regard to which, it must be conceded that its utility, its difficulty, and its sublimity are unsurpassed by those of any other science; while it is superior to all others, by embracing, qualifying, and controlling the entire field of rational ideas; since the mind is at once the agent and instrument of all investigation, and without an accurate knowledge of its powers and modes of operation, we are not competent in any of its fields of inquiry, to conduct its processes to the greatest advantage, or prosecute them to their most useful and sublime results. There is a progression in human affairs. Truth is rising in her full orbed splendor, and shedding reviving light on the world. Much of the darkness of past ages is dissipated, and discoveries are daily made which are rapidly changing the entire face and current of human affairs. We are not what we have been, nor are we what we shall be. Our career is onward and upward, and is destined to be onward and upward still, till knowledge, holiness, and happiness shall fill the entire world, and cover it with one vast flood of glory. There are two principles in science, some apprehensions of which have been common to all ages and nations, which are imperfectly developed as yet, but which are destined to a continual and increasing development, till they shall fill the world with light and love. The first of these is the principle that holiness is the means of happiness; |