Thomas Cogswell Upham
Published: 2017-11-20
Total Pages: 472
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Excerpt from Elements of Mental Philosophy, Vol. 2 of 2: Embracing the Two Departments of the Intellect and the Sensibilities The department of the mind, on which we now propose to enter, is not only distinct from the other great divisions, hav ing a nature and characteristics of its own, but possesses, we may venture to assert, equal importance and interest. If man had been formed of intellect only, of cold and unimpassioned perceptivity; if he could merely have perceived, compared, associated, and reasoned, without a solitary emotion or desire, without any of the various affections of our nature, without sorrow for suffering or sympathy in joy in a word, if he had been all head and no heart, the human soul would have shown not only a different, but a depressed and inferior as pect, compared with what it does at present. But happi ly and wisely, it is far otherwise. We find him constituted with a sensitive, as well as an intellectual nature with pow ers of feeling, as well as of thought. It is the sensitive part of human nature, (including in the term the moral as well as the natural affections, ) which Socrates, if we may rely on the doctrines and conversations that are handed down to us, particularly turned his attention to and on account of which he was pronounced by the Oracle the wisest of all men liv ing. It is here that we are let into the secrets of men's ac tions. It is in this department of the mind we find the can ses, which render them restless and inquisitive, which prompt to efforts both good and evil, and make the wide world a theatre, where vice and virtue, hope and fear, and joy and suffering mingle in perpetual conflict. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.