Law in the physical operations of the universe. I want to know why it is not possible for us to pursue the same process in regard to Mental Philosophy;why we are to take for granted that the two regions of science are so unlike, that the same principle of inquiry is not applicable to both;—and if so, what we are to do next; for we cannot remain for ever as hopelessly adrift on the sea of conjecture about the truths of Mental Science as we are now. I do not ask you, however, to make an express reply to every thing I may put in the form of a question,―as above. If you will tell me how you would set to work to ascertain the powers of Man, in order to understand his position and destiny in the Universe, that will include an answer to my speculations on past methods of inquiry.

Your ideas will descend upon this locality in curious contrast with some which are to be found here. I like to talk with the gardener, and the cowherd'swife, and any workman who may relish a bit of talk on Sundays, on their notions of how body and mind should be treated, and what they are living for, and what is wrong and right in morals. There is much amusement and instruction in hearing them lay down the law about health and duty. And then, when I meet a poet here, and a scholar there, and a Quaker or Swedenborgian religionist somewhere else, it seems to me that I have been carried back some thousands of years, to the time when science was composed of dreaming, and when men's instincts constituted the mythology under which they lived.

It is all very interesting, however, and all worthy of respect. To us, who are in search of facts, there is no dream of any intellect, no dogmatic assurance, no stirring of any instinct, which is not full of interest and instruction. But I shall be glad of your answer to my question, as guidance in using the material furnished by my neighbours.

II.

H. G. A To H. M.

My dear Friend,

By all means let us go into this inquiry and explanation. Nothing will give me greater pleasure ; for certainly it is most important that we should form a true estimate of man's nature, and ascertain the real basis of a science of Mind. Men have been wandering amidst poesies, theologies, and metaphysics, and have been caught in the web of ideal creations, and have to be brought back again to particulars and material conditions; to investigate the real world, and those laws of being and action which ‹re the form and nature of things, and the phenomen which they present, as they are here, within us and about us in reality and in truth, and not as we would fancy them to be.

sophies, one for Mind and

There are not two philoanother for Matter. Na

"There

ture is one, and to be studied as a whole. is nothing in nature," says Bacon, "but individual bodies, exhibiting clear individual effects, according to particular laws." Instinct, passion, thought, &c., are effects of organised substances: but men have sought to make out a philosophy of mind, by studying these effects apart from causes, and have even asserted that mind was entirely independent of body, and having some unintelligible nature of its own, called free will,-not subject to law, or dependent on material conditions; though a man has no more power to determine his own will than he has wings to fly. Of course, I need not say to you that these popular notions are mere delusion. I cannot tell you how odd it seems to me to have to assert such a self-evident fact. All the conditions of man and mental peculiarities are now traced to physical causes and conditions, exhibiting clear determining laws. The instinct of animals and the mental condition of men are all phenomena exhibited as a consequence of the bodily condition, and the influences which have been acting upon it. This is now as clearly understood as the physical conditions and cause of the rainbow and of the thunder storm. What men are for the most part believing now is a kind of insanity; but, as Bacon says truly, "those who resolve not to conjecture and divine, but to discover and know; not to invent buffooneries and fables about worlds, but

* Novum Organor, II. Aph. 2,

to inspect, and, as it were, dissect the nature of this real world, must derive all from things themselves."

We know nothing fundamental of nature, nor can we conceive any thing of the nature of the primary cause. We know not, nor can we know, what things really are, but only what they appear to us; and the relations of their appearances. The form of these relations we term Law. Whatever is must have a form of being and action. It cannot be what it is not; but must be subject to the form or law of its constitution. Even supposing the mind was an entity separable from the body, and acting independently of body, it must still have a nature of its own, and be determined by the form of that nature; and this form of being and action we term Law. Nothing can be of itself, or change its condition, unless it be acted upon by something else. A man cannot of himself, or by his will, become a tree, any more than a triangle can by any means become a circle: nor are more causes to be admitted than are sufficient to produce any particular change or effect. Hence we require no supernatural causes when we can recognise adequate natural causes inherent in the constitution of nature. The phenomena of instinct and reason are no exception or anomaly in nature. The different characters of men arise from the differences in the substance and form of their being; just as it is with other animals, and with plants and stones. For every effect, there is a sufficient cause; and all causes are material causes, influenced by surround

ing circumstances; which is nothing more than matter being influenced by matter. I observe that drunkenness and madness, idiotcy, genius, sleep, dreams, murder, charity, are effects, the consequence of material conditions; absolutely and wholly so. If I pour a bottle of wine down a man's throat, he becomes drunk. If I press a splinter of bone into the brain, madness ensues. I want no devil to account for these effects. Again, if I place a naturally good disposition under favourable circumstances, goodness is invariably the result. If I place a naturally ill-disposed person under unfavourable circumstances, evil is necessarily the result. I want no good spirit in the one case, nor evil spirit in the other, to account for these facts, any more than to account for geese being geese, and green gooseberries being acid, and those which have ripened by exposure to the sun being of a delicious flavour. We now can perceive precisely why men think as they do; how they are deceived by their own thoughts and feelings: otherwise, their seeming total apathy, their inability to comprehend the nature of science, and the necessity of universal law, would make us despair of progress.

The reason why you are interested in my thoughts and opinions is, not that I have more ability than others, but that I have endeavoured, under favourable circumstances, to renounce all idols and superstitions, and have drawn close to nature, to examine into causes. In material conditions I find the origin of all religions, all philosophies, all opinions, all virtues, and