I now proceed to the objects that
are more or less factitious. We are here on delicate ground, and run the
risk of discrediting our pursuit, as regards the very things that in the
eyes of many people make its value.
First, then, as psychology involves all our sensibilities, pleasures,
affections, aspirations, capacities, it is thought on that ground to
have a special nobility and greatness, and a special power of evoking in
the student the feelings themselves. The mathematician, dealing with
conic sections, spirals, and differential equations, is in danger of
being ultimately resolved into a function or a co-efficient; the
metaphysician, by investigating conscience, must become conscientious;
driving fat oxen is the way to grow fat.
[MAN'S RELATIONS TO THE INFINITE.]
But to pass to a far graver application. It has usually been supposed
that metaphysical theory is more especially akin to the speculation that
mounts to the supernatural and the transcendental world. "Man's
relations to the infinite" is a frequent phrase in the mouth of the
metaphysician. Metaphysics is supposed to be "philosophy" by way of
eminence; and philosophy in the large sense has not merely to satisfy
the curiosity of the human mind, it has to provide scope for its
emotions and aspirations; in fact, to play the part of theology.
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