Recent Discussions Concerning Liberal Education [pp. 585-616]

592 1?ecent r~~~~~~~~~~ concerning [Ocvo~~~
All acts of mind are acts either of knowing, feeling, desiring,
or willing. And the very essence of knowing or thinking is
consciousness of so knowing or thinking. Will it be pretended
that there can be feeling without consciousness? As well may
there be a sphere without roundness, or breathing without
living. And the same may be said of desiring and willing.
And if there were such acts of unconscious intelligence, feeling,
or will, how could we ever know their nature, or in any wise
interpret them? llow, unless in having them, we know, are
conscious, that we have them? Psychological study must
therefore be primarily and fundamentally a study of consciousness. Aside of this, mere external, physioJogical examination
of brain, nerves, cranium, spinal columns, etc., never could
discover to us the first mental fact. All external inspection,
therefore, outside of consciousness, must be subordinate and
ancillary to this in psychological inquiries. They never can
take a leading and dominant place. It is true that much light
may be shed upon the workings and powers of the human mind
by the study of the language, laws, history, literature of our
race. And why? Because these are the exponents and
records of the consciousness of our race. The study of these
is but the study of the collective consciousness of mankind. It
is true also, that when by the study of the phenomena of consciousness, we ascertain and classify the operations of the
human soul, we may investigate conditions, physical or metaphysical, in which they take rise, or to which they give rise, or
which they in any manner imply or presuppose.
-If it appear, as it undeniably does, that any mental exercises
become easier and stronger after successive repetitions, till what
at first was burdensome effort acquires the facility and spontaneity of nature, and at length even a tyrannous mastery,
then it is a just inference from this, that such repeated exercises of any given kind beget and leave behind them a permanent state of the soul, which constitutes an inward aptitude and
facility therefor. But this proves neither materialism, nor
that we can learn the phenomena and properties of mind otherwise than through consciousness. It is simply an implication
of our conscious experience. So, if it be ascertained that
given kinds or degrees of mental actions, whether normal or