THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CONDITIONED
Reprinted, with Additions, from “The Contemporary Review.”
Comprising some Remarks on Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy
and on Mr. J.S. Mill’s Examination of that Philosophy
BY H.L. MANSEL, B.D.
WAYNFLETE PROFESSOR OF MORAL AND METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER
LONDON AND NEW YORK
1866
MUIR AND PATERSON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
PREFACE
The circumstance that the following remarkswere originally published as an anonymousarticle in a Review, will best explain thestyle in which they are written. Absencefrom England prevented me from becomingacquainted with Mr. Mill’s Examination ofSir William Hamilton’s Philosophy till sometime after its publication; and when I wasrequested to undertake the task of reviewingit, I was still ignorant of its contents. Onproceeding to fulfil my engagement, I soondiscovered, not only that the character ofthe book was very different from what theauthor’s reputation had led me to expect,but also that my task would be one, notmerely of criticism, but, in some degree, ofself-defence. The remarks on myself, comingfrom a writer of Mr. Mill’s ability and reputation,were such as I could not pass overwithout notice; while, at the same time, Ifelt that my principal duty in this instancewas the defence of one who was no longerliving to defend himself. Under these circumstances,the best course appeared to be,to devote the greater portion of my articleto an exposition and vindication of Sir W.Hamilton’s teaching; and, in the additionalremarks which it was necessary to make onthe more personal part of the controversy,to speak of myself in the third person, asI should have spoken of any other writer.The form thus adopted has been retained inthe present republication, though the articlenow appears with the name of its author.
My original intention of writing a reviewof the entire book was necessarily abandonedas soon as I became acquainted with itscontents. To have done justice to the wholesubject, or to Mr. Mill’s treatment of it,would have required a volume nearly aslarge as his own. I therefore determinedto confine myself to the Philosophy of theConditioned, both as the most original andimportant portion of Sir W. Hamilton’steaching, and as that which occupies thefirst place in Mr. Mill’s Examination.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CONDITIONED.
The reader of Plato’s Republic willreadily recall to mind that wonderfulpassage at the end of the sixth book, inwhich the philosopher, under the image ofgeometrical lines, exhibits the various relationsof the intelligible to the sensibleworld; especial