5172. METAPHYSICS, Views on.—
The
relations between the physical and moral faculties
of man have ever been a subject of great
interest to the inquisitive mind * * *
That thought may be a faculty of our material
organization has been believed in the gross;
and though the modus operandi of nature,
in this, as in most other cases, can never be developed
and demonstrated to beings limited as
we are, yet I feel confident you will have conducted
us as far on the road as we can go, and
have lodged us within reconnoitering distance
of the citadel itself.—
To M. Cabanis. Washington ed. iv, 496.
(W.
1803)