Mental science : a compendium of psychology, and the history of philosophy : designed as a text-book for high-schools and colleges / by Alexander Bain.

  • Bain, Alexander, 1818-1903.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mental science : a compendium of psychology, and the history of philosophy : designed as a text-book for high-schools and colleges / by Alexander Bain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    no longer to be dealt with by the student in fragments, but as a vital whole. In place of the abstraction mind, is substituted the living being, compounded of mind and body, to be contemplated, like any other object of science, as actually presented to our observation and in our expe- rience. This enlargement of the domain of mental studies, while it is but a part of the general evolution of knowl- edge, relieves the subject of the reproach of emptiness, and places it at the head of all the sciences in the scale of di- rect and comprehensive utility. The study of Mind has always ranked as the noblest and most elevating of intel- -lectual pursuits ; but its questions can certainly lose noth- mg in interest or dignity, as it is more and more clearly perceived that they involve the highest concernments of humanity. IN'or are the benefits here claimed by any means still prospective; much has already been done. The labors of various eminent men of the present and past generation, such as Sir Charles Bell, Marshall Hall, Sir Benjamin Bro- die, Drs. Laycock and Carpenter, Sir Henry Holland, Her- bert Spencer, and others, have resulted in the establish- ment of a body* of facts and principles in mental physiol- og)-'which has variously influenced the popular works upon mental philosophy from Abercrombie to the present time. But while the authors here enumerated have been mainly occupied with the physiological elucidations, there was still wanting the thinker who, taking up the whole subject in an impartial spirit, and giving due weight to what is valuable in both the old statement and the new, should in- corporate all the needed elements into a harmonious, com- prehensive, and unitary scheme of Mental Science. Professor Bain has proved to be the man for this under- taking. He has a distinguished place among the original cultivators of mental science in the aspect here consid- ered. Thirteen years ago he brought out an elaborate work on ''' The Senses and the Intellect, of which the third edition is now in press. This was followed by Tlie