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 ...

320 ME iSTORY.
is not essentially necessary for us to possess, in any considerable degree. The power of observation, on the other hand,
which is necessary for the preservation even of our animal existence, discovers itself in infants long before they attain the use
of speech, or rather, I should have said, as soon as'they come
into the world; and where nature is allowed free scope, it continues active and vigorous through life. It was plainly the intention of nature, that in infancy and youth, it should occupy
the mind alnmost exclusively, and that we should acquire all our
necessary information before engaging in speculations which
are less essential; and accordingly, this is the history of the intellectual progress, in by far the greater number of individuals.
In consequence of this, the difficulty of metaphysical researches
is undoubtedly much increased; for the mind, being constantly
occupied in the earlier part of life about the properties and laws
of matter, acquires habits of inattention to the subjects of consciousness, which are not to be surmounted, without a degree of
patience and perseverance of which few men are capable; but
the inconvenience would evidently have been greatly increased,
if the order of nature had, in this respect, been reversed, and if
the curiosity had been excited at as early a period, by the phenomena of the intellectual world, as by those of the material.
Of what would have happened on this supposition, we may form
a judgment from those men who, in consequence of an excessive
indulgence in metaphysical pursuits, have weakened, to an unnatural degree, their capacity of attending to external objects
and occurrences. Few metaphysicians, perhaps, are to be found,
who are not deficient in the power of observation; for, although
a taste for such abstract speculations is far from being common,
it is more apt, perhaps, than any other, when it has once been
formed, to take an exclusive hold of the mind, and to shut up
the other sources of intellectual improvement. As the metaphysician carries within himself the materials of his reasonings,
he is not under a necessity of looking abroad for subjects of
speculation or amusement; and unless he be very careful to
guard against the effects of his favorite pursuits, he is in more
danger than literary men of any other denomination, to lose all