KNOWLEDGE.

§ 1.

NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE.

HERE is a story somewhere, says Hobbes,

THE

of one that pretended to have been miraculously cured of blindness, wherewith he was born, by St. Albane or other saint at the town of St. Albans; and that the duke of Gloucester, to be satisfied of the truth of the miracle, asked the man what is this? who, by answering it was green, discovered himself and was punished for a counterfeit for, though by his sight newly received, he might distinguish between green and red and all other colours as well as any that might interrogate him, yet he could not possibly know at first sight which of them was called green or red or by any other name.

*

By this we may understand there be two kinds of knowledge.

1st. What are the properties of creatures ; 2nd. How they are called;

* See 2nd part of Henry VI. Act. 2.

or the knowledge of things and the knowledge of words.

With respect to the knowledge of things, inanimate or animate, it consists in understanding their properties, that sugar is a vegetable substance, sweet to the taste, generally beneficial, sometimes injurious; that flame will burn; that prussic acid will occasion immediate death; that fermented liquors and opium produce immediate agreeable sensation, but ultimately disease and misery; that a lamb is innocent, a tiger ferocious, a viper venomous. That men are beings under the influence of various passions, as anger, fear, hope, &c.; and, although resembling in some things, in many things differing from each other. How different are Newton and Bacon from an idiot! how different the benevolent Howard from the heartless Jefferies!—That women share in many of the passions of men, but have a character essentially their own; they are affectionate, variable, fond of ornament.

Such is the nature of the knowledge of things. How things are called, as the meaning of the words sugar, acid, friendship, marriage, gratitude, &c., constitutes the second branch of knowledge, or knowledge of words. Of gratitude, the philosopher does not say, with the politician in his sport, that it is a lively sense of future favours, but that it is a deep sense of past kindness, with

an anxiety and readiness at any and at all times to return it.

"The bridegroom may forget his bride
Was made his wedded wife yestreen;
The monarch may forget his crown

That on his head an hour has been :
The mother may forget her child

That smiles sae sweetly on her knee;
But I'll remember thee, Glencairn,

And all that thou hast done for me."

There is not anything new in this doctrine. It is as old as the Mosaic system. We read in the beginning of the Old Testament that:-The Lord brought every fowl of the air and every beast of the field unto Adam, to see what he would call them ; -and Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowls of the air and to every beast of the field.

Such is the general nature of knowledgewhen examined with accuracy, it will appear that it consists solely in a knowledge of Cause and Effect:-a truth of which the elucidation is not attended with any difficulty.

I.

There is a regular sequence of events in the action of inanimate bodies upon each other.

If ice be exposed to heat it will melt. If a spark be put to gunpowder it will explode. As a needle-grinder at Sheffield was at his work,

a point of steel flew into his eye; he was in the greatest agony; a surgeon was sent for, but, before he could arrive, an ingenious mechanic held a powerful magnet close to the eye. The sufferer was instantly relieved. It is thus we see that certain events regularly succeed each other in the inanimate world.

II.

There is a regular sequence of events in the action of inanimate bodies upon animate bodies, where the vital principle is dormant.

Take a lupin or any other seed, and place it early in the month of May in the ground, the lupin will rise above the surface of the earth, and you will see stalks, and leaves, and flowers. Take a frozen snake with some of the snow around it and place it before a small fire, and you may perceive the snake to move, to open its eyes, and soon to quit the snow in which it was shrouded. It is the custom in Egypt to collect hen's eggs, and put them in large numbers in stoves, heated to a regular heat; in due time they are hatched, and the door of the oven being opened, the little chickens walk forth. Thus we see, that there is a regular sequence of events, by the action of inanimate bodies upon animate bodies, where the vital principle is dormant.