In regard to the kinds of knowledge to be gained from each of these sources, it is clear that the experience of ourselves and others furnishes us with nothing but facts, as it regards matter and mind, as they are developed in this world only. As it respects the Creator, his character and designs, the immortality of the soul, and the future destiny of our race, we gain nothing by our own personal observation or experience. "No man hath seen God at any time." No one has gone to "the silent land" to learn by inspection the secrets of that dim shore, or the destiny of the soul when it passes from earth.
Neither have we any resource in the experience of others who can go to the invisible world and transmit to us the knowledge there gained. There is not a man upon earth that can furnish any reliable information on these subjects from any personal knowledge.
It becomes, then, a most interesting inquiry as to the amount and kind of knowledge to be gained by means of the intuitive truths, experience, and reasoning, independently of revelation. In what follows this inquiry will be pursued.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE KNOWLEDGE GAINED BY HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN REGARD TO THE NATURE OF MIND AND THE LAWS OF THE SYSTEM OF WHICH IT IS A PART.
We have seen that there are only these sources of human knowledge, viz., the intuitive truths, human experience, reasoning, and revelation. We have alluded to the nature of intuitive knowledge; we will now inquire as to the nature of the knowledge gained by human experience, firstly, in regard to the constitution of mind and the laws of that system in which it is placed. We restrict our inquiries to those points which have the most direct bearing on the great questions to be discussed.
As it respects the nature of mind, then, as exhibited by experience, we learn, in the first place, that it is constituted with desires and propensities for various kinds of enjoyment. These are the gratifications secured by the senses, the pleasures of taste, the happiness of giving and receiving affection, the various intellectual pleasures, and the still higher enjoyment resulting from our moral nature. All these are common to the race, though in varied degrees and combinations. The mind is also constituted with susceptibilities to pain and suffering from all the sources from which enjoyment may spring.
With these susceptibilities are combined an all-pervading and constant desire to gain enjoyment and to escape suffering. This desire is the grand motive power to the mind, as the main-spring is to a watch. For this reason, awakened desires to gain any particular enjoyment or escape any pain are called motives. And so, also, all those things that cause these desires are called motives.
Next, it is seen that the mind is endowed with intellect, or the intellectual powers, by which it can perceive the nature and relative value of various kinds of enjoyment, compare the present with the future, and judge both of what is most valuable and of the proper modes of securing it.
To this add the power of choice or volition, by which, in view of any two or more kinds of enjoyment, the mind decides which shall be secured and which be denied.