The modern metaphysical system assumes as its basis that the operations of the intellect are only a continuation of the impulses existing in matter; or that all the thoughts and conceptions of the mind are nothing more than various modifications of the original impressions of things on a being endued with sensation or simple perception. This system considers ideas merely as they are caused by outward impressions acting on the organs of sense, and excludes the understanding as a distinct faculty or power from all share in its own operations. The following is a summary of the general principles of this philosophy as they are expressly laid down by Hobbes, and by the latest writers of the French school. 1. That our _ideas_ are copies of the impressions made by external objects on the senses. 2. That as nothing exists out of the mind but matter and motion, so it is itself with all its operations nothing but matter and motion. 3. That thoughts are single, or that we can think of only one object at a time. 4. That we have no general nor abstract ideas. 5. That the only principle of connection between one thought and another is association, or their previous connection in sense. 6. That reason and understanding depend entirely on the mechanism of language. 7 and 8. That the sense of pleasure and pain is the sole spring of action, and self-interest the source and centre of all our affections. 9. That the mind acts from a mechanical or physical necessity, over which it has no controul, and consequently is not a moral or accountable agent.—_The manner of reasoning upon this last question is the only circumstance of importance in which Hobbes differs decidedly from modern writers._ 10. That there is no difference in the natural capacities of men, the mind being originally passive to all impressions alike, and becoming whatever it is from circumstances. Except the first, all of these positions are either denied or doubtfully admitted by Mr. Locke. It is, however, his admission of the first principle, which has opened a door directly or indirectly to all the rest. The system of Kant is a formal and elaborate antithesis to that which bears the name of Locke, and it is built on ‘the _sublime_ restriction (as Madame de Staël expresses it) added by Leibnitz to the well-known axiom _nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu_—NISI INTELLECTUS IPSE.’ It is in the manner of proving this restriction, and of explaining this word, _the intellect_, that the whole question depends, and to this I shall devote another letter. AN ENGLISH METAPHYSICIAN. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED _The Morning Chronicle._] [_Feb. 17, 1814._