On the sense of touch, or Physiology and philosophy opposed to materialism and atheism / by J. Augustine Smith.

  • Smith, John Augustine, 1782-1865.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the sense of touch, or Physiology and philosophy opposed to materialism and atheism / by J. Augustine Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    In sober truth, however, so feeble in capacity is the human mind, so circumscribed are its operations, that a genuine philosopher has to admit his ignorance a million of times, for once, that he can boast of his know- ledge. {m) Efficient and final causes are not, infact, more broadly distinguished in physical, than they are in moral inquiries. Yet it is by confounding those causes that sceptics, from Mr. Hume downwards, and misanthropes of every age, who have denied the reality of human virtue, have endea- voured to sustain their lamentable error. Take benevolence as an ex- ample, and the question can be settled without the aid of logic or philo- sophy, by every one who will consult his own bosom, and answer the fol- lowing questions. Breathes there a sane, human being, who, on seeing a child fall into the water, and there struggle for its life, would not feel an emotion to relieve that child for its own sake % If so, what is the nature of that emotion 1 My queries, it is to be observed, are propounded upon the supposition, that the spectator performs no act, so that there shall be no blending of sub- sequent considerations arising from having done our duty, with, an- tecedent, and moving states of the mind. (n) Every inquirer into the wonders of creation, has, I presume, his peculiar taste, but to me the application of the doctrine of final causes to moral phenomena, has always been far more agreeable than to physical arrangements. For our faculties are so humble that there must be about the latter a coarseness, and a clumsiness, if words of such apparent irre- verence may be used, to bring them down to the level of our capacities. From these derogatory associations the first are exempt. Thus the me- chanism by which the bones are connected, and the blood propelled, is sufficiently obvious, while the brain, from its infinitely more delicate and curious structure, is to our dull perceptions very nearly a terra incognita. But the gratification is great, and frequently unmingled, when in con- templating human conduct, we observe how each toiling pismire, heed- less of others, and bent upon the attainment of his own little ends, but verifies the words of the poet— Each seeks a separate goal, But Heaven's is one, and that the whole. Whoever wishes to see this on a large scale may consult the Wealth of Nations, and they will be there taught the manner in which the vanity and selfishness of the nobility, broke the chains of the feudal system, and thus conferred upon the world the liberty which we now enjoy, and its