I— The Mind
It is an axiom in mental philosophy, that we can think of nothing which we have not perceived. When I say that we can think of nothing, I mean, we can imagine nothing, we can reason of nothing, we can remember nothing, we can foresee nothing. The most astonishing combinations of poetry, the subtlest deductions1 of logic2 and mathematics, are no other than combinations which the intellect makes of sensations according to its own laws. A catalogue of all the thoughts of the mind, and of all their possible modifications3, is a cyclopedic history of the universe.
But, it will be objected, the inhabitants of the various planets of this and other solar systems; and the existence of a Power bearing the same relation to all that we perceive and are, as what we call a cause does to what we call effect, were never subjects of sensation, and yet the laws of mind almost universally suggest, according to the various disposition4 of each, a conjecture5, a persuasion6, or a conviction of their existence. The reply is simple; these thoughts are also to be included in the catalogue of existence; they are modes in which thoughts are combined; the objection only adds force to the conclusion, that beyond the limits of perception and thought nothing can exist.
Thoughts, or ideas, or notions, call them what you will, differ from each other, not in kind, but in force. It has commonly been supposed that those distinct thoughts which affect a number of persons, at regular intervals7, during the passage of a multitude of other thoughts, which are called REAL or EXTERNAL OBJECTS, are totally different in kind from those which affect only a few persons, and which recur8 at irregular intervals, and are usually more obscure and indistinct, such as hallucinations, dreams, and the ideas of madness. No essential distinction between any one of these ideas, or any class of them, is founded on a correct observation of the nature of things, but merely on a consideration of what thoughts are most invariably subservient10 to the security and happiness of life; and if nothing more were expressed by the distinction, the philosopher might safely accommodate his language to that of the vulgar. But they pretend to assert an essential difference, which has no foundation in truth, and which suggests a narrow and false conception of universal nature, the parent of the most fatal errors in speculation11. A specific difference between every thought of the mind, is, indeed, a necessary consequence of that law by which it perceives diversity and number; but a generic12 and essential difference is wholly arbitrary. The principle of the agreement and similarity of all thoughts, is, that they are all thoughts; the principle of their disagreement consists in the variety and irregularity of the occasions on which they arise in the mind. That in which they agree, to that in which they differ, is as everything to nothing. Important distinctions, of various degrees of force, indeed, are to be established between them, if they were, as they may be, subjects of ethical13 and economical discussion; but that is a question altogether distinct. By considering all knowledge as bounded by perception, whose operations may be indefinitely combined, we arrive at a conception of Nature inexpressibly more magnificent, simple and true, than accords with the ordinary systems of complicated and partial consideration. Nor does a contemplation of the universe, in this comprehensive and synthetical14 view, exclude the subtlest analysis of its modifications and parts.
A scale might be formed, graduated according to the degrees of a combined ratio of intensity15, duration, connexion, periods of recurrence16, and utility, which would be the standard, according to which all ideas might be measured, and an uninterrupted chain of nicely shadowed distinctions would be observed, from the faintest impression on the senses, to the most distinct combination of those impressions; from the simplest of those combinations, to that mass of knowledge which, including our own nature, constitutes what we call the universe.
We are intuitively conscious of our own existence, and of that connexion in the train of our successive ideas, which we term our identity. We are conscious also of the existence of other minds; but not intuitively. Our evidence, with respect to the existence of other minds, is founded upon a very complicated relation of ideas, which it is foreign to the purpose of this treatise17 to anatomize. The basis of this relation is, undoubtedly18, a periodical recurrence of masses of ideas, which our voluntary determinations have, in one peculiar19 direction, no power to circumscribe20 or to arrest, and against the recurrence of which they can only imperfectly provide. The irresistible21 laws of thought constrain22 us to believe that the precise limits of our actual ideas are not the actual limits of possible ideas; the law, according to which these deductions are drawn23, is called analogy; and this is the foundation of all our inferences, from one idea to another, inasmuch as they resemble each other.
We see trees, houses, fields, living beings in our own shape, and in shapes more or less analogous24 to our own. These are perpetually changing the mode of their existence relatively25 to us. To express the varieties of these modes, we say, WE MOVE, THEY MOVE; and as this motion is continual, though not uniform, we express our conception of the diversities of its course by — IT HAS BEEN, IT IS, IT SHALL BE. These diversities are events or objects, and are essential, considered relatively to human identity, for the existence of the human mind. For if the inequalities, produced by what has been termed the operations of the external universe, were levelled by the perception of our being, uniting and filling up their interstices, motion and mensuration, and time, and space; the elements of the human mind being thus abstracted, sensation and imagination cease. Mind cannot be considered pure.
II— What Metaphysics Are. Errors in the Usual Methods of Considering Them
We do not attend sufficiently26 to what passes within ourselves. We combine words, combined a thousand times before. In our minds we assume entire opinions; and in the expression of those opinions, entire phrases, when we would philosophize. Our whole style of expression and sentiment is infected with the tritest plagiarisms27. Our words are dead, our thoughts are cold and borrowed.
Let us contemplate28 facts; let us, in the great study of ourselves, resolutely29 compel the mind to a rigid30 consideration of itself. We are not content with conjecture, and inductions31, and syllogisms, in sciences regarding external objects. As in these, let us also, in considering the phenomena32 of mind, severely33 collect those facts which cannot be disputed. Metaphysics will thus possess this conspicuous34 advantage over every other science, that each student, by attentively35 referring to his own mind, may ascertain36 the authorities upon which any assertions regarding it are supported. There can thus be no deception37, we ourselves being the depositaries of the evidence of the subject which we consider.
Metaphysics may be defined as an inquiry38 concerning those things belonging to, or connected with, the internal nature of man.
It is said that mind produces motion; and it might as well have been said, that motion produces mind.
III— Difficulty of Analysing the Human Mind
If it were possible that a person should give a faithful history of his being, from the earliest epochs of his recollection, a picture would be presented such as the world has never contemplated39 before. A mirror would be held up to all men in which they might behold40 their own recollections, and, in dim perspective, their shadowy hopes and fears, — all that they dare not, or that, daring and desiring, they could not expose to the open eyes of day. But thought can with difficulty visit the intricate and winding41 chambers42 which it inhabits. It is like a river whose rapid and perpetual stream flows outwards43; — like one in dread44 who speeds through the recesses45 of some haunted pile, and dares not look behind. The caverns46 of the mind are obscure, and shadowy; or pervaded47 with a lustre48, beautifully bright indeed, but shining not beyond their portals. If it were possible to be where we have been, vitally and indeed — if, at the moment of our presence there, we could define the results of our experience, — if the passage from sensation to reflection — from a state of passive perception to voluntary contemplation, were not so dizzying and so tumultuous, this attempt would be less difficult.
IV— How the Analysis Should Be Carried on
Most of the errors of philosophers have arisen from considering the human being in a point of view too detailed49 and circumscribed50 He is not a moral, and an intellectual, — but also, and pre-eminently, an imaginative being. His own mind is his law; his own mind is all things to him. If we would arrive at any knowledge which should be serviceable from the practical conclusions to which it leads, we ought to consider the mind of man and the universe as the great whole on which to exercise our speculations51. Here, above all, verbal disputes ought to be laid aside, though this has long been their chosen field of battle. It imports little to inquire whether thought be distinct from the objects of thought. The use of the words EXTERNAL and INTERNAL, as applied52 to the establishment of this distinction, has been the symbol and the source of much dispute. This is merely an affair of words, and as the dispute deserves, to say, that when speaking of the objects of thought, we indeed only describe one of the forms of thought — or that, speaking of thought, we only apprehend53 one of the operations of the universal system of beings.
V— Catalogue of the Phenomena of Dreams, as Connecting Sleeping and Waking
1. Let us reflect on our infancy54, and give as faithfully as possible a relation of the events of sleep.
And first I am bound to present a faithful picture of my own peculiar nature relatively to sleep. I do not doubt that were every individual to imitate me, it would be found that among many circumstances peculiar to their individual nature, a sufficiently general resemblance would be found to prove the connexion existing between those peculiarities55 and the most universal phenomena. I shall employ caution, indeed, as to the facts which I state, that they contain nothing false or exaggerated. But they contain no more than certain elucidations of my own nature; concerning the degree in which it resembles, or differs from, that of others, I am by no means accurately56 aware. It is sufficient, however, to caution the reader against drawing general inferences from particular instances.
I omit the general instances of delusion57 in fever or delirium58, as well as mere9 dreams considered in themselves. A delineation59 of this subject, however inexhaustible and interesting, is to be passed over. What is the connexion of sleeping and of waking?
2. I distinctly remember dreaming three several times, between intervals of two or more years, the same precise dream. It was not so much what is ordinarily called a dream; the single image, unconnected with all other images, of a youth who was educated at the same school with myself, presented itself in sleep. Even now, after the lapse60 of many years, I can never hear the name of this youth, without the three places where I dreamed of him presenting themselves distinctly to my mind.
3. In dreams, images acquire associations peculiar to dreaming; so that the idea of a particular house, when it recurs61 a second time in dreams, will have relation with the idea of the same house, in the first time, of a nature entirely62 different from that which the house excites, when seen or thought of in relation to waking ideas.
4. I have beheld63 scenes, with the intimate and unaccountable connexion of which with the obscure parts of my own nature, I have been irresistibly64 impressed. I have beheld a scene which has produced no unusual effect on my thoughts. After the lapse of many years I have dreamed of this scene. It has hung on my memory, it has haunted my thoughts, at intervals, with the pertinacity65 of an object connected with human affections. I have visited this scene again. Neither the dream could be dissociated from the landscape, nor the landscape from the dream, nor feelings, such as neither singly could have awakened66, from both.
But the most remarkable67 event of this nature, which ever occurred to me, happened five years ago at Oxford68. I was walking with a friend, in the neighbourhood of that city, engaged in earnest and interesting conversation. We suddenly turned the corner of a lane, and the view, which its high banks and hedges had concealed69, presented itself. The view consisted of a wind-mill, standing70 in one among many plashy meadows, inclosed with stone walls; the irregular and broken ground, between the wall and the road on which we stood; a long low hill behind the windmill, and a grey covering of uniform cloud spread over the evening sky. It was that season when the last leaf had just fallen from the scant71 and stunted72 ash. The scene surely was a common scene; the season and the hour little calculated to kindle73 lawless thought; it was a tame uninteresting assemblage of objects, such as would drive the imagination for refuge in serious and sober talk, to the evening fireside, and the dessert of winter fruits and wine. The effect which it produced on me was not such as could have been expected. I suddenly remembered to have seen that exact scene in some dream of long — . [Footnote: Here I was obliged to leave off, overcome by thrilling horror.]
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deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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recur
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| vi.复发，重现，再发生 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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subservient
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| adj.卑屈的，阿谀的 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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generic
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| adj.一般的，普通的，共有的 | |
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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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synthetical
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| adj.综合的，合成的 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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circumscribe
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| v.在...周围划线，限制，约束 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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constrain
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| vt.限制，约束；克制，抑制 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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plagiarisms
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| n.剽窃( plagiarism的名词复数 )；抄袭；剽窃物；抄袭物 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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inductions
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| 归纳（法）( induction的名词复数 )； （电或磁的）感应； 就职； 吸入 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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outwards
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| adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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delineation
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| n.记述；描写 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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recurs
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| 再发生，复发( recur的第三人称单数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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pertinacity
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| n.执拗，顽固 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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