materialism, and the worship of the heavens, in that he resolved the strain upon the heavens, and all the derived force in the universe, into the expansion caused by the motions of the solar triad. And he regarded the world as a machine, originally constructed and set in motion by its Creator, and thereafter left as a self-acting and independent combination, whose powers were concentred in the sun; instead of reversing the hypothesis, and resolving the motions of the solar triad, and of all the mundane operations, into the force upon the plenum, originally impressed, and still maintained by, and dependent upon, its Creator. The system of Hutchinson has long since passed into oblivion; or is remembered only as an ingenious speculation. The discovery of the bases and component gases of the air overthrew its fundamental tenet, that the Fire, Light, and Air, were only different appearances of the same etherial substance. Yet, from the resemblance

of the Sun to common fire, and the discovery of the chemical union of the bases of the air with those of the consumed fuel, in the process of combustion, evolving water, and carbonic acid gas, accounting accurately for all the materials, except the ether of the gases lost or destroyed, and the light generated or thrown off, leaving these as residual phenomena, perhaps convertible into one another, I conceive that the substitution of the word Caloric or Latent Heat or Ether, for Air in that hypothesis, or it may be only the converging force converted at the centre into that diverging motion which may be light, would suggest a modification right well worthy of attention. Many, however, are the steps, which must be proved, before this part of the subject can even be legitimately approached. By all such speculations we are only tacking one supposition to another, and weaving but an hypothetic system; using analogy not in its legiti

mate province, but, as Lord Bacon calls it, for the purpose of anticipating nature; and running into the common error of the ancients, of proceeding from one step to another without stopping to prove our progress.

Upon the Metaphysical triad of the ancients, most probably derived, at least in part, by analogical reasoning from the contemplation of the human mind; and upon the divisions of the mental powers which have obtained among philosophers, I would make some few observations.

Metaphysicians have at length approximated to a truth, which, in the Metaphysics of Christianity, is laid down with as much perspicuity and decision, as is the Immortality of the Soul, or any other of those points which have been so continually agitated among philosophers, modern as well as ancient. The distinction between the Intellect, and the Emotions or Affections, to which, simple

as it may appear, such laborious approaches have been made through the mazy paths of Metaphysics, is clearly drawn in the Scriptures; and the respective seats of them are assigned, it may be figuratively, but most naturally, to the Head and Heart:* and to the heart the Scriptures most constantly appeal, as Religion is rather directed to the Feelings than to the Understanding.

The old division of the Mental Powers into those of the Will and the Understanding, has long been superseded by the division of the school of Reid, into the Intellectual and Active Powers. But, under the name of the Active Powers, are comprehended the Will and some

* The Faith mentioned by St. James is evidently the mere opinion or belief, which arises upon the conviction of the Intellect alone. Nor does it become the justifying faith, insisted upon by St. Paul, till this belief is enlivened by the Affections of the heart. When the Head and Heart concur, the Works of the whole man must of course tend to one and the same object.

part of the Emotions: while the more refined Emotions, and the complex Intellectual and Emotional Feelings have been confounded with the Intellect; an error, which likewise runs through the writings of Kant, Plato, and many of the ancients. Metaphysical science is greatly indebted to Brown, for having so forcibly directed attention to the distinction between the Intellect and the Emotions; but, in common with later writers, he appears generally to regard the Will as a subordinate appendage to the Emotions, connected perhaps with the material structure of the animal.

There is an ambiguity in the words Will and Volition. The Will may be divided into the general capability of Wishing, and into the general Power of acting; the Volition into the particular Wish, and into the particular exertion of the Power. The Soul thinks, wishes, acts;

*

* Dr. Clarke draws a distinction somewhat similar. "But it plainly appears to me, that there