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 ...

REASON. 373
the more obvious conclusions concerning the nature of that distinction, which present themselves to the common sense of mankind. It is in this enlarged meaning that it is opposed to
instinct by Pope:"And reason raise o'er instinct as you can;
In this'tis God directs, in that'tis man."
It was thus, too, that Milton plainly understood the term,
when lie remarked, that smiles imply the exercise of Reason:" Smiles from Reason flow,
To brutes denied:"
and still more explicitly in these noble lines: —
"There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of Reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence,
Magnanimous, to correspond with heaven;
But, grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart, and voice, and eyes,
Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works."
Among the various characteristics of humanity, the power of
devising means to accomplish ends, together with the power
of distinguishing truth from falsehood, and right from wrong,
are obviously the most conspicuous and important; and accordingly it is to these that the word Reason, even in its most
comprehensive acceptation, is now exclusively restricted.*' This, I think, is the meaning which most naturally presents itself to
common reacders, when the word Reason occurs in authors not affecting to
aim at any nice logical distinctions; and it is certainly the meaning which
must be annexed to it, in some of the most serious and important argumerits in which it has ever been employed. In the following passage, for
example, where Mr. Locke contrasts the light of Reason with that of
IRevelation, he plainly proceeds on the supposition, that it is competent to
appeal to the former, as affording a standard of right and vwrolg, not less
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