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