Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

INTRODUCTION. I3
faculties and principles of the mind, are every moment soliciting
our notice, and open to our examination a field of discovery as
inexhaustible as the phenomena of the material world, and exhibiting not less striking marks of divine wisdom.
While all the sciences and all the pursuits of life have this
common tendency to lead our inquiries to the philosophy of human nature, this last branch of knowledge borrows its principles
from no other science whatever. Hence there is something in
the study of it which is peculiarly gratifying to a reflecting and
inquisitive mind, and something in the conclusions to which it
leads on which the mind rests with peculiar satisfaction. Till
once our opinions are in some degree fixed with respect to it,
we abandon ourselves, with reluctance, to particular scientific
investigations; and, on the other hand, a general knowledge of
such of its principles as are most fitted to excite the curiosity,
not only prepares us for engaging in other pursuits with more
liberal and comprehensive views, but leaves us at liberty to
prosecute them with a more undivided and concentrated attention.
Direct advantages of a study of tle phenomena of mind. - It
is not, however, merely as a subject of speculative curiosity that
the principles of the human mind deserve a careful examination. The advantages to be expected from a successful analysis
of it are various; and some of them of such importance, as to
render it astonishing, that, amidst all the success with which the
subordinate sciences have been cultivated, this, which comprehends the principles of all of them, should be still suffered to
remain in its infancy.
I shall endeavor to illustrate a few of these advantages, beginning with what appears to me to be the most important of
may extend our conquests over all those sciences which more intimately
concern human life, and may afterward proceed at leisure to discover more
fully those which are the objects of pure curiosity. There is no question
of importance whose decision is not comprised in the science of man; and
there is none which can be decided with any certainty, before we become
acquainted with that science."]
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