Some instances, especially late ones, of
success in these enquiries, may give us a juster notion of the
certainty and solidity of this branch of learning. And shall we esteem
it worthy the labour of a philosopher to give us a true system of
the planets, and adjust the position and order of those remote bodies;
while we affect to overlook those, who, with so much success,
delineate the parts of the mind, in which we are so intimately
concerned?
9. But may we not hope, that philosophy, if cultivated with care,
and encouraged by the attention of the public, may carry its
researches still farther, and discover, at least in some degree, the
secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated
in its operations? Astronomers had long contented themselves with
proving, from the phaenomena, the true motions, order, and magnitude
of the heavenly bodies: Till a philosopher, at last, arose, who seems,
from the happiest reasoning, to have also determined the laws and
forces, by which the revolutions of the planets are governed and
directed. The like has been performed with regard to other parts of
nature. And there is no reason to despair of equal success in our
enquiries concerning the mental powers and economy, if prosecuted with
equal capacity and caution.
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