A similar train of thinking led the late celebrated M. Turgot to comprehend under the name of Physics, not only Natural Philosophy, (as that phrase is understood by the Newtonians,) but Metaphysics, Logic, and even History.[1]
Notwithstanding all this weight of authority, it is difficult to reconcile one's self to an arrangement which, while it classes with Astronomy, with Mechanics, with Optics, and with Hydrostatics, the strikingly contrasted studies of Natural Theology and of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, disunites from the two last the far more congenial sciences of Ethics and of Logic. The human mind, it is true, as well as the material world which surrounds it, forms a part of the great system of the Universe; but is it possible to conceive two parts of the same whole more completely dissimilar, or rather more diametrically opposite, in all their characteristical attributes? Is not the one the appropriate field and province of observation,—a power habitually awake to all the perceptions and impressions of the bodily organs? and does not the other fall exclusively under the cognizance of reflection,—an operation which inverts all the ordinary habits of the understanding, abstracting the thoughts from every sensible object, and even striving to abstract them from every sensible image? What abuse of language can be greater than to apply a common name to departments of knowledge which invite the curiosity in directions precisely contrary, and which tend to form intellectual talents, which, if not altogether incompatible, are certainly not often found united in the same individual? The word Physics, in particular, which, in our language, long and constant use has restricted to the phe-
- ↑ "Sous le nom de sciences physique je comprends la logique, qui est la connoissauce des opérations de notre esprit et de la génération de nos idées, la métaphysique, qui s'occupe de la nature et de l'origine des êtres, en enfin la physique, proprement dite, qui observe l'action mutuel des corps les uns sur les autres, et les causes at l'enchainement des phénomènes sensibles, On pourrait y ajouter l'histoire."—Œuvres de Turgot, tome ii. pp. 284, 285.
In the year 1795, a quarto volume was published at bath, entitled Intellectual Physics. It consists entirely of speculations concerning the human mind, and is by far no means destitute of merit. The publication was anonymous; but I have reason to believe that the author was the late well-known Governer Pownall.
