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 ...

470 REASONINKG AND DEDUCTIVE EVIDENC'E.
gether subjected, like mere matter, to the influence of regular
and assignable causes. It is, moreover, extremely worthy of
observation, concerning these two departments of the universe,
that the unifformity in the phenomena of the latter [the brutes]
presupposes a corresponding regularity in the phenomena of the
former [inanimate matter]; insomuch that, if the established
order of the material world were to be essentially disturbed
(the instincts of the brutes remaining the same) all their various
tribes would inevitably perish. The uniformity of animal instinct, therefore, bears a reference to the constancy and immutability of physical laws, not less manifest, than that of the fin
of the fish to the properties of the water, or of the wing of the
bird to those of the atmosphere.
3. When fiom the phenomena of inanimate matter and those
of the lower animals, we turn our attention to the history of our
own species, innnuerable lessons present themselves for the
instruction of all who reflect seriously on the great concerns of
human life. These lessons require, indeed, an uncommon degree of acuteness and good sense to collect them, and a still
more uncommon degree of caution to apply them to practice;
not only because it is difficult to find cases in which the combinations of circumstances are exactly the same, but because the
peculiarities of individual character are infinite, and the real
springs of action in our fellow-creatures are objects only of
vague and doubtful conjecture. It is, however, a curious fict,
and one which opens a wide field of interesting speculation,
that, in proportion as we extend our views from particulars to
generals, and from individuals to communities, human caffairs
exhibit more and more, a steady subject of philosophical examination, and furnish a greater number of general conclzsions to
guide our conjectures concerning future contingencies. To
speculate concerning the character or talents of the individual
who shall possess the throne of a particular kingdom a hundred
years hence, would be absurd in the extreme: but to indulge
imagination in anticipating, at the same distance of time, the
condition and character of any great nation, with whose manners and political situation we are well acquainted, (although