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 ...

PREFACE.
THOUGH Dugald Stewart has not added many new
truths to the Philosophy of Mind, and has hardly attempted to solve its more abstruse and intricate problems, he has done much to render it intelligible, popular, and useful. He is a great master of clear, harmonious, and ornate diction, which often rises into
eloquence, and never fails to impart interest and animation to the least promising portions of his subject.
But refined taste and elegant scholarship are among
the least of his merits; the doctrines which he inculcates are those of vigorous common sense and sound
morality, never deformed by a love of paradox, and
never compromising the interests of truth by straining
after novelty, or by unseasonable attempts to appear
ingenious and profound. The principles of social order
and good government, and the great interests of virtue
and religion, were never more impressively taught, or
eloquently defended, than by this professor of Scotch
metaphysics, who had the honor to reckon among his
pupils many who have since attained the highest distinction in the wralks of science, literature, and statesmanship. His writings, though he modestly says of
them that they are " professedly elementary," have been
more generally studied than those of any English
author upon the same subject during the last half century; and it is a striking proof of their merits, and of
the spirit of candor and amiability which is manifested
in them, that they have never been assailed by harsh