that reason is the true light to light us on our way; that rites and ceremonies, except so far as they are related to it, are useless and vain; that obedience to it is the only real moral obligation-an obligation better than sacrifice or the blood of rams-it supplies at once a standard and a measure of duty. While strengthening the obligation of doing right by referring it to its true principle, it at the same time recognises the claim of every man to have the conditions requisite for the operation of this principle furnished him; and thus by enlarging men's ideas of justice, it multiplies the bonds of sympathy which unite them. It also, while fully recognising the imperfection of human nature, vindicates it from the aspersions that have been so freely cast upon it. It offers the highest motives to exertion. It tells us that man is a problem to be solved by the intellect, just as other problems are that on the solution or not of this problem depends psychical happiness and misery-just as on the right solution of physical problems, physical happiness depends: that there is therefore a science called psychology, and that by the mastering and right application of the laws of this science moral happiness can be ensured-just as, by the right understanding of the laws of physiology and the practical applications of the deductions therefrom, physical well-being is to be obtained and that we have no more reason to despair of success on account of failure hitherto in the one science than in the other. Old as the world is, physiology is but a science of yesterday it is still imperfect, yet men see now that a knowledge of its laws lie within their reach, and seeing this, their intellects and energies are put forth in the right direction. Let them be once awakened universally to the fact that mind as well as body is governed by laws comprehensible by the understanding, they will advance in this highest department of knowledge as certainly as in the other; with practical results more important still.

K

The importance of rightly understanding this question of the will, and the vast issues which depend upon it, will, it is hoped, excuse, and perhaps justify, this long digression. In the next chapter the subject of inquiry will be resumed, and man, viewed hitherto as an individual, will be considered in his social aspects.

CHAPTER IV.

SOCIAL.

§ LI. OUR conception of self is now complete. Through the agency of the physical world, man is revealed to himself as a being endowed with perception, understanding, sensation, sentiment, imagination, desire, judgment, will, and power; and thus, in the analysis of the phenomena of consciousness, a considerable advance has been made. It has been shown how, through the instrumentality of the several structures of the brain, into that mysterious sphere of consciousness which constitutes the only datum on which we can found a notion of mind, and which exists originally dark and void, there are introduced, either simultaneously or in connected sequence, phenomena relating, on the one hand, to the physical world, and, on the other hand, to the psyche itself: the former represented either in the form of sensorial perceptions and intellectual notions which, more or less imperfect, constitute our revelation of physical reality, or as ideal conceptions of beauty, goodness, and truth, based on such imperfect notions; the latter presented to us as a being sensuous, æsthetic, emotional, contemplative; also as subjected to the action of forces, attractive and repulsive, occasioned by conceptions present to its

consciousness; and, lastly, endowed with a power of self-inspection and a conscience, or sense of duty. It is now time to turn our attention to another and more important class of phenomena-to the great psychical Cosmos which is inseparably connected with the physical Cosmos, by the phenomena of which it is hidden, and, as it were, masqued—a Cosmos of which our individual psyche is a unitand to consider its facts and laws, how they are to be comprehended, and what their import and relations are to us. Unless these can be learnt, a knowledge of the physical Cosmos, however complete, even with a knowledge of self combined, would be to each individual psyche of little avail. For man is a social animal. Pre-eminently is he dependent on his kind. Whether to obtain the necessaries of existence, or to ward off danger, co-operation is requisite for his unassisted powers are inadequate for either purpose; and in proportion to the degree of his civilisation and development do his necessities multiply, and the disproportion between his requirements and his capabilities increase.

During a large part of his life-in youth, in sickness, and in old age-he is altogether dependent on the good offices of his fellow-man, both for the food that strengthens and develops his bodily powers, and for the mental food that enables him to use and direct them rightly. And even in his maturity and vigour the same rule holds good: for his food, clothing, and habitation have severally to be elaborated out of materials supplied by nature in the crude state only; and to provide for himself completely

either of these necessaries, the powers and knowledge of the most ably-endowed man-in his civilised condition at any rate-would by themselves be altogether inadequate. Nor, were it otherwise, would the case be altered much. Man resembles the plant of the field so far that, like it, his existence is incomplete unless his life be crowned with some result. Just as the plant extracts from the crude realities around it materials which it elaborates within itself, and expresses, in the forms of flowers and fruit, physical conceptions of beauty and goodness; so does the mind of man extract from his surrounding realities elements which it forms within self into mental conceptions of beauty and goodness, and seeks to give utterance to in language or some other form of expression, pleasing, or useful and instructive to, other minds. But they differ in that, while the plant or flower seems to be content "to blush unseen," man requires some other mind or minds to receive and entertain his thoughts, and share his sentiments. Of necessity, therefore, man must have intercourse with his fellows: their co-operation is essential to the supply of his wants and the completion of his happiness; and to establish this co-operation, mutual understanding is requisite. Until this is effected, and effected thoroughly, there must be misunderstanding and moral disorder, and the moral disorder will be in proportion to the misunderstanding.

§ LII. Now this class of the mental phenomena is one of which we have no direct perception. One man cannot penetrate directly into the sphere of