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VOLUME I.
OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
GROWTH OF TIIE MIND.
BY SAMPSON REED.
Nothing is a more common subject of remark
than the changed condition of the world. There
is a more extensive intercourse of thought, and a
more powerful action of mind upon mind, than
formerly. The good and the wise of all nations
are brought nearer together, and begin to exert a
power, which, though yet feeble as infancy, is
felt throughout the globe. Public opinion, that
helm which directs the progress o events by
which the world is guided to its ultimate destina
tion, has received anew direction. The mind has
attained an upward and onward look, and is sha
king oil’ the errors and predjudices of the past.
The structure of the feudal ages, the ornament of
the desert, has been exposed to the light of heav
en, andconun gazed at for its ugliness,
as it ceases to be admired for its antiquity. The
world is deriving vigor, not from that which has
gone by, but from that which is coming ; not from
the unhealthy moisture of the evening, but from
the nameless intluences of the morning. The
loud call on the past to instruct us, as it falls on
the rock of ages, comes back in echo from the
future. Both mankind, and the laws and princi
ples by which they are governed, seem about to
be redeemed from slavery. The moral and in
tellectual character of man has undergone, and is
undergoing, a change ; and as this is effected, it
must change the aspect of all things, as when
the position-point is altered from which a land
scape is viewed. We appear to be approaching
an age which will be the silent pause of merely
physical force before the powers of the mind :
the timid, subdued, awed condition oi the brute,
gazing on the erect and godlike form of man.
These remarks with respect to the present
era are believed to be just, when it is viewed on
the bright side. They are not made by one who
is insensible to its evils. Least of all, are they
intended to countenance that feeling ot self-ad ini
ration, which carries with it the seeds ot prema
ture disease and deformity; for to be proud of
the truth is to cease to possess it. Since the fall
oi man, nothing has been more difficult for him
than to know his real condition, since every de
parture trom divine order is attended with a loss
°1 the knowledge of what it is. When our first
parents left the garden of Eden, they took with
them no means by which they might measure the
depths ol degradation to which they fell ; no
jdiai t by which they might determine their moral
ongitude. Most of our knowledge implies rela
tion and comparison. It is not difficult for one
age, or one individual, to be compared with anoth
er ; but this determines only their relative condi-
Uon. H ie actual condition of man can be seen
on y from the relation in which he stands to his
immutable Creator ; and this relation is discov
ered from the light of revelation, so far as, by
con aiming to the precepts of revelation, it is
permitted to exist according to the laws of divine
TrVr* • * s not sufficient that the letter of the
lie is m the world. This may be, and still
mankind continue in ignorance of themselves. —
;,’, mu k st he obeyed from the heart to the hand.—
fi / i r must be eat, and constitute the living
w n * ™ len onl y the relative condition of the
‘°r o is regarded, we are apt to exult over other
(Thu and other men, as if we ourselves were a
1 icrcnt order of beings, till at length we are en-
jn the very mists from which we are
state f being cleared. But when the relative
state °f theworld ls justly viewed from the real
°. me individual, the scene is lighted from
- point of the beholder with the chaste light of
humility which never deceives ; it is not forgotten
that the way lies forward ; the cries of exulta
tion cease to lie heard in die IMl'tll <)[ mm
I p
sion, andtlie mmJ, in whatever it learns of the
past and tlie present, finds food for improvement,
and not for vain-glory.
O J
As all the changes which are taking place in
the world originate in the mind, it might be natu
rally expected that nothing would change more
than the mind itself, and whatever is connected
with a description of it. While men have been
speculating concerning their own powers, the sure
but secret influence of revelation lias been grad
ually changing the moral and intellectual charac
ter of the world, and the ground on which they
7 O
were standing has passed from under them, al
most while their words were in their mouths-
The powers of the mind are most intimately con
nected with the subjects by which they are occu
pied. We cannot think of the will without feel
ing, of the understanding without thought, or of
the imagination without something like poetry. —
The mind is visible when it is active ; and as the
subjects on which it is engaged are changed, the
powers themselves present a different aspect. —
New classifications arise, and new names are giv
en. W hat was considered simple is thought to
consist of distinct parts, till at length the philoso
pher hardly knows whether the African be of the
same or a dilferent species ; and though the
soul is thought to continue after death, angels are
universally considered a distinct class of intel
lectual beings. Thus it is that there is nothing
lixed in the philosophy of the mind ; it is said
to be a science which is not demonstrative ; and
though now thought to be brought to a state of
great perfection, another century, under the prov
idence of God, and nothing will be found in the
structure which lias cost so much labor, but the
voice “ he is not here, but is risen.”
ls, then, everything that relates to the immor
tal part of man fleeting and evanescent, while
the laws of physical nature remain unaltered ?
Do things become changeable as we approach
the immutable and the eternal ? Far otherwise.
The laws of the mind are in themselves as fixed
and perfect as the laws ol matter; but they are
laws from which we have wandered. There is
a pliik isophy of the mind, founded not on the]
aspect it presents in any part or in any period of
the world, but on its immutable relations to its first
cause ; a philosophy equally applicable to man,
before or after he has passed the valley ol the
shadow of death; not dependent on time or place,
but immortal as its subject. Ihe light ot this
philosophy has begun to beam faintly on the world,
and mankind will yet see their own moral and
intellectual nature by the light, ol revelation,
as it shines through the moral and intellectual
character it shall have itself created. It may
be remarked, also, that the changes in the sci
ences and the arts are entirely the effect of
revelation. To revelation it is to be ascnbed,
that the genius which has taught the laws ol the
heavenly bodies, and analyzed the matciial
world, did not spend itself in drawing the
bow or in throwing the lance, in the chase or
in war ; and that the vast powers of Handel did
not burst forth in the wild notes ol the war-song-
It is the tendency ol revelation to gne a light
direction to every power of every mind ; and
when this is effected, inventions and discoveries
will follow of course, all things assume a different
aspect, and the world itself again becomes a par
adise. . ,
It is the object of the following pages not to be
influenced by views of a temporal or local na
ture, but to look at the mind as far as possible in
its essential revealed character, and, beginning
with its powers of acquiring and retaining truth,
to trace summarily that development which is re
quired, in order “to render it truly useful and
happy, . .
lt. is said, the powers of acquiring ana retaining
truth, because truth is not retained without some
SAVANNAH, GA., MARCH 1, 1849-
continued exertion of the same powers by which
it is acquired. There is the most intimate con
■ iif He iniij fill Hie iiE-
This connect ion is obvious from many familiar
expressions ; such as remember me to any one,
by which is signified a desire to be borne in his
or her affections—do not forget me, by which is
meant do not cease to iovc; me—:et by heart,
winch means to commit to memory. It is also oh
vious from observation of our own minds ; from
the constant recurrence of those objects which we
most love, and the extreme difficulty of detaching
ourown minds or the minds of others from a fa
vorite pursuit. It is obvious from the power) of
attention on which the memory principally de
pends, which, if the subject have a place in our
alfections, requires no effort; if it have not, the
effort consists principally in giving it a real or an
artificial hold of our feelings ; as it is possible, if
we do not love a subject, to attend to it, because
it may add to our fame or our wealth. It is ob
vious from the never-fading freshness retained by
the scenes of childhood, when the feelings are
strong and vivid, through the later period of life.
As the old man looks back on the road of his
pilgrimage, many years of aetive life lie unseen
in the valley, as his eye rests on the rising ground
of his younger days ; presenting a beautiful il
lustration of the manner in which the human
mind, when revelation shall have accomplished
its work, shall no longer regard the scene of sin
and misery behind, but having completed the
circle, shall rest, as next to the present moment,
on the golden age. the infancy of the world.—
The connection of the memory with the affections
is also obvious from the association of ideas;
since the train of thoughts suggested by any
scene or event in any individual, depends on his
own peculiar and prevailing feelings , as whatever
e talers into the animal system, wherever it may
arise, seems first to be recognised a s a part of the
man, when it has found its way to the heart, and
received from that its impulse. It is but a few
years, (how strange to tell !) since man discovered
that the blood circulated through the human
body. We have, perhaps, hardly learned the
true nature of that intellectual circulation, which
inves life and health to the human mind. The
’ -
affections are to the soul, what the heart is to the
bod y. They send forth their treasures with a vigor
not lesapowerful, though not material, throughout
the intellectual man, strengtheningand nourishing ;
and again receive those treasures to themselves
enlarged by the effect of their own operation.
Memory is the effect of learning, through what
ever avenue it may have entered the mind. It
is said, the effect, because the man who has read
a volume, and can perhaps tell you nothing of its
contents, but simply express his own views on
the same subject with more clearness and pre
cision, may as truly be said to have remem
bered, as lie that can repeat the very words. In
the one case, the powers of the mind have receiv
ed anew tone; in the other, they are encum
bered with a useless burden —in the one, they are
made stronger; in the other, they are more op
pressed with weight—in the one, the food is ab
sorbed and becomes a part of the man; in the
other, it lies on the stomach in a state of crude
indigestion.
There is no power more various in different in
dividuals, than the memory. This may be as
cribed to two reasons. First, this partakes of
every power of the mind, since every mental ex
ertion is a subject of memory, and may therefore
be said to indicate all the difference that actually
exists. Secondly, this power varies in its char
acter as it has more or less to do with time.
Simple divine truth has nothing to do with time.
It is the same yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow.
The memory of this is simply the development
of the mind. But we are so surrounded by facts
of a local and temporal nature; the place where,
and the time when, makes so great a part of what
is presented to our consideration, that the attri-
| sometimes appears to have exclusive reference to
ibute is mistaken for the subject; and this power
in, tail, siiinlf spiii it liiwk
to it. There is a power of growth in the spirit al
man, and if in his progress we be able to ma k,
as in the grain of the oak, the number of the yea s,
this is only a circumstance, and all that is gain and
would be as real if no such lines existed. Tie
mind ought not to be limited by the short period
of its own duration in the body, with a beginning
and end comprising a few years; it should be
poised on its own immortality, and what is learn
ed, should be learned with a view to that real
adaption of knowledge to the mind which result*
from the harmony of creation; and whenever or
wherever we exist, it will be useful to us. The
memory has, in reality, nothing to do with time,
any more than the eye has with space. As the
latter learns by experience to measure the dis
tance of objects, so the consciousness of the pres
ent existence of states of mind, is referred to par
ticular periods of the past. But when the soul
has entered on its eternal state, there is reason to
believe that the past and the future will be swal
lowed up in the present; that memory and anti
cipation will be lost in consciousness ; that every
thing of the past will be comprehended in the
present, without any reference to time, and every
thing of the future will exist in the divine effort of
progression.
What is time? There is perhaps no question
that would surest such a variety of answers. It
is represented to us from our infancy as produ
cing such important changes, both in destroying
some, and in healing the wounds it has inflicted
on others, that people generally imagine, if not
an actual person, it is at least a real existence.
We begin with time in the Primer, and end with
reasoning about the foreknowledge of God.
What is time ? The difficulty of answering the
question, (and there are few questions more diffi
cult,) arises principally from our having ascribed
so many important elieets to that which has no
real existence. It is true that all things in the
natural world are subject to change. But how
ever these changes may be connected in our
minds with time, it requires but a moment’s reflec
tion to see that time has no agency in them.
They are the effects of chemical, or more pro
perly, perhaps, of natural decompositions and
reorganizations. Time, or rather our idea of it,
so far from having produced any thing, is itself
the effect of changes. There are certain opera
tions in nature, which, depending on fixed laws,
are in themselves perfectly regular; if all things
were equally so, the question how long ? might
never be asked. We should never speak of a
late season, or of premature old age ; but every
thing passing on in an invariable order, all the
idea of time that would remain with respect to
any object, would be a sort of instinctive sense
of its condition, its progress or decay, But most
of the phenomena in the natural world are exceed
ingly irregular; for though the same combina
tion of causes would invariably produce ihe same
effect, the same combination very rarely occurs.
Hence, in almost every change, and we are con
versant with nothing but changes, we are assisted
in ascertaining its nature and extent, by referring
it to something in itself perfectly regular. We
find this regularity in the apparent motions of
the sun and moon. It is difficult to tell how
much our idea of time is the effect of artificial
means of keeping it, and what would be our feel
ings on the subject, if left to the simple operation*
of nature —but they would probably be little else
than a reference of all natural phenomena to
that on which they principally depend, the rela
tive situation of the sun and earth; and the idea
of an actual succession of moments would be, in
a measure, resolved into that of cause and effect.
Eternity is to the mind what time is to nature.
We attain a perception of it, by regarding all the
operations in the world within us, as they exist in
Continued on forth page.
NUMBER 1.