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 ...

-3,7 2 REASON.
CHAPTER VIII
OF REASON.
I. On the vagueness and ambiguity of the common philosophi.
cal language relative to this part of.our constitution. — The
power of Reason, of which I am now to treat, is unquestionably
the most important by far of those which are comprehended
under the general title of intellectual. It is on the right use of
this power, that our success in the pursuit both of knowledge
and of happiness depends; and it is by the exclusive possession
of it, that man is distinguished, in the most essential respects,
from the lower animals. It is, indeed, from their subserviency
to its operations, that the other faculties, which have been
hitherto under our consideration, derive their chief value.
Popular meaning of the word Reason. —Some remarkable
instances of vagueness and ambiguity in the employment of
words, occur in that branch of my subject of which I am now
to treat. The word Reason, itself, is far from being precise in
its meaning. In common and popular discourse, it denotes that
power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right
from wrong; and by which we are enabled to combine means for
the attainment of particular ends. Whether these different
capacities are, with strict logical propriety, referred to the same
power, is a question which I shall examine in another part of
my work; but that they are all included in the idea which is
generally annexed to the word Reason, there can be no doubt;
and the case, so far as I know, is the same with the corresponding term in all languages whatever. The fact probably is, that
this word was first employed to comprehend the principles, whatever'they are, by which man is distinguished from the brutes;
and afterwards came to be someir hat limited in its meaning, by