Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note.

Apparent typographical errors have been corrected; inconsistencies in the use of hyphens have been retained.

One "oe" ligature has been removed.

COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO RELIGION; OR, THE BIBLE AND THE PEOPLE.

BY CATHARINE E. BEECHER.

AUTHOR OF "LETTERS TO THE PEOPLE ON HEALTH AND HAPPINESS," "PHYSIOLOGY AND CALISTHENICS," "DOMESTIC ECONOMY," "DOMESTIC RECEIPT-BOOK," &c., &c.

NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE.

MONTREAL: BENJAMIN DAWSON. 1857.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

TO THE PEOPLE, AS THE SAFEST AND TRUEST INTERPRETERS OF THE BIBLE, AND TO WOMAN, AS THE HEAVEN-APPOINTED EDUCATOR OF MIND, THIS WORK Is respectfully Dedicated.

INDEX.

Page

Introduction ix

CHAP. I. The Grand Questions of Life 9

CHAP. II. The Principles of Reason, or Intuitive Truths 14

CHAP. III. Sources of Human Knowledge 29

CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge gained by Human Experience in regard to the Nature of Mind and of the System of which it is a Part 32

CHAP. V. Knowledge gained by Reason and Experience alone as to a Future State 42

CHAP. VI. Knowledge gained by Reason and Experience alone concerning the Existence, Character, and Designs of the Creator 47

CHAP. VII. Diversities in Systems of Mental Philosophy 52

CHAP. VIII. Classification and Description of the Mental Powers 59

CHAP. IX. Sensation and Perception 64

CHAP. X. Conception and Memory 79

CHAP. XI. Attention and Abstraction 83

CHAP. XII. Association 93

CHAP. XIII. Imagination 102

CHAP. XIV. Judgment 106

CHAP. XV. The Susceptibilities 109

CHAP. XVI. The Susceptibilities. Emotions of Taste 120

CHAP. XVII. The Moral Susceptibilities 139

CHAP. XVIII. The Will 149

CHAP. XIX. Faith or Belief 165

CHAP. XX. Constitutional Varieties of the Human Mind 175

CHAP. XXI. Habit 178

CHAP. XXII. Mind as Proof of its Creator's Designs 190

CHAP. XXIII. Social and Material Proofs of the Creator's Designs 207

CHAP. XXIV. Right Mode of securing the Object for which Mind was created 212

CHAP. XXV. Wrong Action of Mind and its Causes 220

CHAP. XXVI. Wrong Action of Mind and its Results in this Life 224

CHAP. XXVII. Wrong Action of Mind and its Results in a Future State 233

CHAP. XXVIII. Character of the Creator 245

CHAP. XXIX. On Perfect and Imperfect Minds 250

CHAP. XXX. On the probable Existence and Character of Disembodied Spirits 258

CHAP. XXXI. Probabilities in regard to a Revelation from the Creator 261

CHAP. XXXII. Interpretation of Language 265

Addenda to Vol. I. 281

Notes 337