CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

CONTENTS

[pg 337]

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.

THEREFORE AND BECAUSE.

Return to Table of Contents

A distinguished general-officer being appointed to a command in whichhe would be called on to discharge judicial as well as militaryduties, expressed to Lord Mansfield his apprehensions, that he wouldexecute his office but ill in the former respect, and that hisinexperience and ignorance of technical jurisprudence would prove aserious impediment to his efficient administration of justice. 'Makeyour mind perfectly easy,' said the great judge; 'trust to your nativegood sense in forming your opinions, but beware of attempting to statethe grounds of your judgments. The judgment will probably beright—the argument infallibly wrong.'

This is a common case, especially with practical men, who rarely haveeither leisure or inclination to recall the workings of their ownminds, or observe the intellectual process by which they have beenconducted to any conclusion. By what they are prone to consider as akind of instinct—if by chance they are philosophers, and delight inwhat old Wilson, the essayist, calls 'inkhorn terms,' they designateit 'intuition'—they arrive at a truth, but have no recollectionwhatever of the road they travelled to reach it, and are able neitherto retrace their own steps nor indicate to another the way they came.The poet, in describing and contrasting the intellectualcharacteristics of the two sexes, attributes to the softer somethingof this instinct as a distinguishing mental peculiarity, and seems toconsider it as somewhat analogous in its constitution to those animalsenses by means of which the mind becomes cognisant of externalobjects, of their existence, their qualities, and their relations. Inhis view, the reasoning process is vitally and essentially distinct,as it is exercised by men and by women—