This  unfortunate  result  was  due  to  the  defective  psychological
analysis  which  neglected  elements  because  they  were  not  readily
associated  with  particular  objects  in  the  external  world.  On  the
other  hand,  the  error  of  rationalism  was  the  fact  that  it  substan-
tialized the  soul  itself.  A  system  was  built  on  the  idea  of  con-
sciousness made  absolute.  With  Descartes  the  beginning  was
mind  substance  and  its  correlate  material  substance  instead  of  the
actual  effort  and  resistance  of  psychological  analysis.  Leibnitz
came  nearer  to  an  adequate  statement  by  his  emphasis  of  inde-
pendent activity  as  the  essential  characteristic  of  substance ;  yet
he  also  made  the  force  absolute,  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  in-
trospection. In  the  primitive  fact  of  our  volitional  activity  Maine
de  Biran  believes  that  he  finds  a  datum  that  is  at  once  dependent
upon  experience  and  yet  can  serve  as  a  real  basis  for  the  expla-
nation of  consciousness.  Experience,  according  to  him,  when
accurately  analyzed,  yields  a  fact  which  has  all  the  advantages  of
an  a  priori  principle.  The  unitary  and  unchangeable  character
of  effort  is  due  to  the  circumstance  that  the  two  terms  of  the
relation,  the  self,  and  the  resistance  remain  constant.  The  re-
sistance is  primarily  our  own  body.  The  general  criticism  of  the
empiricists  and  the  rationalists  is  that  the  former  did  not  carry
their  analysis  far  enough,  while  the  latter  carried  it  too  far,  and
that  each  school  substituted  abstractions  for  facts.
