The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-02-28

teria,stic theories to devote few letters to the
'principle OF vitality" and "rhe soup but feared
l had already wearIed the patience OF your readers
and dropped the matter. Let me now answer
briefly and In order the questions of your CORE
spondent.
FirSt-rhe mind is the soul considered with re-
gard to power or thinking and knowing; 1t Is the
soul apprehending, judging, reasoning remember
ing. The soul is one simple spiritual substance,
found by experience and sef-consciousness TO be
endowed with various capacities or powers gen.
orally designated faculties" These. though not
really distinct from the soul, as one independent
or separable substance Is from another. are dis
tnguished in the soul from each other. That is 20
say, the acts OF one faculty are found to be exer
cised independently OF another and some
times in spite OF another. Thus TO re.
member Is quite different thing from under
standing; we remember and repeat in childhood
and in more advanced years many things which
we do not then, and, perhaps, may never after
ward understand. Yet am conscious that 1t is
the same principle within me, the ego or l., which
remembered as q sch0olbOy many things OF which
had not then the Intelligence and which only
came TO understand in maturer years. Thus the
faculty OF memory Is quite distinct from that OF
intelligence, and the acts of the one found to
be quite distinct from those OF the other. So with
the intellect or understanding and the imagina-
often helpful to those OF the former, but in very
many instances they are anything but helpful.
Thus the intellect in It's conception OF pure ideas
and abstract mathematical truths Is not unlre-
quently led astray by the imagination, which OBJ
trudes It's sensible representations and fancies
upon the mind bent on the apprehension OF in
corporal truths. Yet 1t 1t the same intellectual
and sentient soul which corrects the vagaries OF
her fancy and puts away the images thrust upon
her meditations by the interior senses. My intel.
lect apprehends In the conception Of God pure
spirit, infinitely perfect in every conceivable way
but my imagi:ation is forever clothing this notion
OF the Deity with some human form
or sensible Limitation. and this my
MIND corrects as contrary to Its clear
apprehension Of the truth. In like manner my
intellect apprehends with necessary dIsuinctness
this mathematical truth that the asymptotes in
the parabola must forever approach each other
and yet never touch; while my Imagination sees
in this a contradiction. Again. on the Infinite d.
visibility OF space: 1t Is admitted that the mole.
cules OF matter are never in real contact. else
they could never be separated or divided. Now
pure mathematics teach that while in the censest
metal no two molecules can be in real contact. yet
In the real space which separates them an Infinite
number OF parallel lines can be drawn none OF
which can touch the other. This, once more, Is
another OF those admitted mathematical theOrems
the truth OF which is clearly apprehendei by the
mathematician's intellect, while it is a puzzle Tor
the mathematician's Imagination. And these
Illustrations permit myself III order to show that
the pure intellect Is a distinct faculty from the
fancy, the imagination or the senslbiIlty.
last instance OF the real dlstlnctness OF the
faculties in the soul from each other Is evident in
the difference all are conscious OF between the
viii or the faculty or choosing, determining ana
entering upon course OF action, and all Ina
other powers OF the soul Thus there Is essen
t1al difference between memory, understanding,
will
There are many things we all cannot hep re-
membering, ana the thought OF which we would
lain put tar away from us; many lmaginatiOns
which disturb the astronomer In his calculations,
the lawyer IN his concentrated endeavor to anal
we the evidence VI a case and thoroughly remem.
Der and understand the complex leg Station that
bears upon 1t; many ianctes mat make bedam
OF the hermits cell and he'll on earth OF the great
man the wealthy mans guilty soul. and ali TINS
is sorey against the WILL 1t equally clear that
to Will. one thing to Ieel ana another to assert,
one thing to understand and another 10 act upon
the truth understood; therefore t6e WIN. the ex.
distinct IN the soul from the other faculties or
powers though not really ana substantially dls-
tlnct from the soul itself.
Second-These faculties, powers or capacities of
the soul have received different names In different
schools; but, provided philosophers are agreed as
to the nature OF the thing ITSELF one may deem
the mere names or signs OF things as Of secondary
been dlversely classified by tue ancients as well
as by the moderns. The casslncations most ger
orally admitted are, nrst the division Vi the
faculties OF the soul into memory intellect, ina
glnation or sensibility and VIII; second, the
division into intellect. sensiblilty and will;
and third, that into mind and will. This last
be admissible only on the supposit.on that under
mind we group or include all the perceptive facial
and subsidiary powers, absolutely necessary to the
exercise OF thought In IT'S fullest sense, while the
will comprises tne power OF celebrating choosing
1 should object to the term element Of the
sou peng applied to tue nnd Only because =
body that 1t Is made up o, elements which are
really IN themselves separate and in1ependent
substances. fitted oy nature, 1t Is true, to enter
into composition. but none the less capable OF oe.
coming integral parts OF another body or com
pound at any moment. 1t Is, indeed. true that
In speaking OF mental operations, and their re.
suits, as summed up IN consciousness we say
oners here quite different sense rom that which
would present itself to the understanding II one,
the wa as % sns cal sou ms
When, alter having applied myself Tor hours
to the study OF some great question, reflect,
my mind has ranged every principle, reasoning,
conclusion. generalization and Illustration, may
be called, and Is called, ny logiclans an element of
thought. Because they are successive ana dis
tinct stages in one mental process; and several
distinct elements OF a mental analysis OF great
subject. Tnese are IN themselves separable and
and in time; but not so when enter into myself
and CONSIDER my soul as employing her powers
upon some mighty theme Of abstract or pi ac.lcal
truth. feel that the acts OF each OF my faculties
while thus employed are to the eye oil conscious
ness or reelection many distinct thugs or cle-
ments to be remembered reviewed, anaIy zed and
Chased. But know perfectly that II is the soul
herself, the indlvisbe and Identical ego, when
remembers, thinks, reasons, celebrates, chooses
and acts. it Is the same one elementary prnotple
which displays her activity In elic1t1ng, Dy her
faculties acting together or separately, THESE va
riOus results OF memory, reasoning fancy and final
determination.
TO De sure. there were found philosophers in
ancient Greece in the medI9val schools aad In
our own times, VINO taught that the mind, or nous,
considered as the principle OF pure tnteilectiOn,
was q different substance from the senslbility and
the Will. But this distinction was founded, IN
their notions, on what they tnOught the lrrecon-
cllable antagOnism OF dsordered Imagination
and Will prone to Ill, on the one hand, and y
spiritual faculty capabls OF knowing the loitlest
trut his and yearning to contemplate them, on the
other. All men. however, are conscious that 1t Is
the same soul which experiences IN her own IN
most being, these apparently opposite tendencies,
and when has It In her power, by the exercise OF
a strong and resOlute Will, TO reconcile the claims
OF the pure intellect with the tendencies OF tue
sensipility and so to control and regulate the