PREFACE. 
XIX 
human mind must have frequently seen exem- 
plified, that the strongest powers of reasoning 
are an insufficient security against gross error, 
if unaccompanied by that incessant analysis of 
terms and propositions, and that intense con- 
sciousness of intellectual operations, which 
are the properties of a metaphysical genius, 
Of this cast of intellect, the most striking 
instance perhaps which our own times af. 
ford is to be found in the writings of the late 
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the univer- 
sity of Edinburgh, Dr. Thomas Brown; a man 
who possessed, in an almost unrivalled degree, 
the capacity of looking into the mechanism of 
his own mind, and seeing the impalpable phe- 
nomena of thought and feeling, as well as the 
power of flinging to a distance the embarrassing 
influence. of words, and fixing his eye with 
keen penetration on the things which they re- 
Presented, stripped of the covering of language,