Sullivan, Richard Joseph, Sir (1752-1806)

A View of Nature, in Letters to a Traveller Among the Alps. With Reflections on Atheistical Philosophy, Now Exemplified in France.

London

Printed for T. Becket

1794

"The mind is not a rasa tabula, though, at the same time, it must be allowed, we gain no actual knowledge of the latent ideas which it possesses, but as they are awakened by reflection and experience."

The mind is not a rasa tabula, though, at the same time, it must be allowed, we gain no actual knowledge of the latent ideas which it possesses, but as they are awakened by reflection and experience. In the human frame, sensibility is first unfolded, next instinct, then memory; after these, the understanding; and last of all, the [illegible: will?]. All the faculties are rendered active, a short time after birth; but a considerable space of time passes, before they are perfectly developed. The infant at first has only particular sensations; objects appear unconnected: when the number of these sensations, however, are multiplied, the child compares them; perceives their identity or difference; begins to range them in certain classes, according to analogy, and to form ideas. From this instant, the innate desire of happiness has its determinate object, and the will pursues some known good. Is not an animal, also, in general brought forth with every one of its external members? And does it not complete its growth, not by the pro- [end page 143] duction of any new member, but by addition of matter to those already formed? The same holds true with respect to internal members: these are coeval with the individual, and are as gradually unfolded.
(III, Letter LV, pp. 143-4)

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Sulivan, Richard Joseph, Sie. A View of Nature, in Letters to a Traveller Among the Alps. With Reflections on Atheistical Philosophy, Now Exemplified in France. By Richard Joseph Sulivan. 6 vols. (London: Printed for T. Becket, 1794).

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10/14/2006