sesses a delicacy of percipience unknown to the inhabitants of a
polished community. Superadded to the conveyance of ordinary sound, the
ear of man is the great inlet of communication, and the vehicle of
articulate intelligence. Through the medium of this sense his knowledge
becomes extended, and his memory improved; for every conversation is
either a review of his stores, or an addition to his stock. As our
thoughts or reflections are conducted by language, great caution is
required that the terms we employ should possess a fixed and determinate
meaning; and this is more especially important, when we employ words
which are not the representatives of the objects of our perceptions, but
of a complex nature, or, as they have been denominated, general terms;
such as those which are used to designate the faculties and operations
of the mind, and such as convey our moral attributes. The perfection of
the process of thought, consists in the attention which the will can
exert on the subjects of[16] consideration. The nature and endurance of
the attention, which the organs of sense can bestow on the objects of
perception, have been already discussed; and it will be found, that the
same influence is directed when we exercise reflection: so that that
mind is to be considered as most efficient, (in proportion to its
natural capacity,) which can dwell on the subjects of its thoughts
without interruption from irrelevant intrusions. The exertion of
voluntary control over our thoughts has been denied; but if we were to
subscribe to such doctrine, it would follow that this noble faculty of
reflection would be merely a spontaneous concurrence of images and terms
accidentally revived,--on rare occasions fortuitously blundering on wit,
and ordinarily revelling in the absurdities of distraction. In
proportion as we have been duly educated, we become enabled to direct
and fix the organs of sense to the objects of perception, to be able at
will to revive our memoranda, or to call on the memory to exhibit the
deposits which have been confided to its custody, and to dwell
pertinaciously on the materials of reflection. It is, however, certain,
that in ordinary minds, the attention is little capable of being fixed
to objects, and still less to the subjects of reflection; but this
incapacity, in both instances, is principally to be attributed to the
defects of education, and to a want of proper discipline of the
intellectual powers. The endurance o