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Recent Metaphysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Henry Maudsley*
Affiliation:
West London Hospital, &c

Extract

As it appears that man is created in the image of the ape, it can not but be counted creditable to him that he strives so perseveringly to transcend his apehood.† Certainly, Transcendentalists, who, like Mr. Disraeli, are “on the side of the angels,” are not willing to acknowledge their humble parentage; but Transcendentalists like Mr. Disraeli are men of mystery, and not indisposed, consciously or unconsciously, to ingenious tricks of conjuring: one cannot always be sure whether they are acting or are in earnest. To those who do know themselves to be idealised monkeys it must be a matter

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1866 

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References

(1.) ‘An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, and of the principal Philosophical Questions discussed in his Writings,’ by MillJohn Stuart, pp. 561. Longmans and Co., 1865. (2.) ‘Recent British Philosophy: a Review, with Criticisms,’ by David Masson, pp. 414. Macmillan and Co., 1865.Google Scholar

“If man was made in the image of God, he was also made in the image of an ape. The framework of the body of him who has weighed the stars and made the lightning his slave approaches to that of a speechless brute, who wanders in the forests of Sumatra. Thus standing on the frontier land between animal and angelic natures, what wonder that he should partake of both.”–Hallam, ‘Int. to Hist, of Europe,’ vol. iv.Google Scholar

Because of the ill meaning commonly attached to this word, Mr. Mill proposes the term Experimentalism in his article on Comte in the ‘Westminster Review.’Google Scholar

The so-called hectocotylus of the argonaut has been discovered by some to be an apparatus which the creature has for impregnating itself.Google Scholar

Did he run away from Hector? Certainly, Homer does not mention the fact; but the probabilities in favour of it are-first, that if he had not, Hector would have slain him long before he slew Hector; and, secondly, that the true cause of his sulking in his tent was the loud laughter with which the Greeks greeted his fear-winged flight.Google Scholar

‘Chapters on Mental Physiology,’ by Sir H. Holland.Google Scholar

“To direct consciousness inwardly to the observation of a particular state of mind is to isolate that activity for the time, to cut it off from its relations, and, therefore, to render it unnatural. In order to observe its own action, it is necessary that the mind pause from activity; and yet it is the train of activity that is to be observed. As long as you cannot effect the pause necessary for self-contemplation, there can be no observation of the current of activity: if the pause is effected, then there can be nothing to observe. This cannot be accounted a vain and theoretical objection, for the results of introspection too surely confirm its validity: what was a question once is a question still, and instead of being resolved by introspective analysis is only fixed and fed.”-On the ‘Method of the Study of Mind,’ The words are our own, but the substance of them belongs to Comte.Google Scholar

‘On the ‘Method of the Study of Mind,’ p. 10.Google Scholar

An objection to the change of names proposed by Mr. Mill is, that the psychological method is introspective. There are the Transcendental Introspectionists and the Psychological Introspectionists; why, then, libel only the former?Google Scholar

Mr. Stirling, for example, in his recently published ‘Secret of Hegel’ speaks sneeringly of Mr. Mill, and calls the late Mr. Buckle a “ conceited schoolboy.’Google Scholar

At page 502 of the ‘Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy.Google Scholar

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