So PRODUCTION Sect. XIV. 2. / 



fpirit of animation would appear to be capable of exifling as well 

 feparately from the body as with it. 



I beg to be underftood, that I do not wifh to difpute about 

 words, and am ready to allow, that the powers of gravity, fpe- 

 cific attraction, electricity, magnetifm, and even the fpirit of 

 animation, may confift of matter of a finer kind ; and to believe, 

 with St. Psul and Malbranch, that the ultimate caufe only of all 

 motion is immaterial, that is God. St. Paul fays, " in him wc 

 live and move, and have our being ;" and, in the 15th chapter 

 to the Corinthian:^, diftinguiflies between the pfyche or living 

 fpirit, and the pneuma or reviving fpirit. By the words fpirit 

 of animation or fenforial power, I mean only that animal life, 

 which mankind porTefles in common with brutes, and in fome 

 degree even with vegetables, and leave the confideration of the 

 immortal part of us, which is the object of religion, to thofe 

 who treat of revelation. 



II. I . Of the Senfe of Touch, 



The firll ideas wc become acquainted with, are thofe of the 

 fenfe of touch ; for the foetus mull experience fome varieties of 

 agitation, and exert fome mufcular action, in the womb ; and 

 rruy with great probability be fuppofed thus to gain fome ideas 

 of its own figure, of that of the uterus, and of the tenacity of 

 the fluid, that furrounds it, (as appears from the facts mention- 

 ed in the fucceeding Seclion upon Inflincl.) 



Many of the organs of fenfe are confined to a fmall part of 

 the body, as the noftrils, ear, or eye, whilft the fenfe of touch is 

 ctiifufed over the whole fkin, but exifts with a more exquifite 

 degree of delicacy at the extremities of the fingers and thumbs, 

 and in the lips. The fenfe of touch is thus very commodioufly 

 difpofed for the purpofe of encompafiing fmaller bodies, and for 

 adapting itfelf to the inequalities of larger ones. The figure of 

 fmall bodies feems to be learnt by children by their lips as much 

 as by their fingers ; on which account they put every new ob- 

 ject to their mouths, when they are fatiated with food, as well 

 as when they are hungry. And puppies feem to learn their 

 ideas of figure principally by the lips in their mode of play* 



We acquire our tangible ideas of objects either by the firnple 

 preiTure of this organ of touch againft a folid body, or by 

 moving our organ of touch along the furface of it. In the former 

 cafe we learn the length and breadth of the object by the quan- 

 tity of our organ of touch, that is imprcfTed by it : in the latter 

 cafe we learn the length and breadth of objects by the continu- 

 ance of their prefftire on our moving organ of touch- 



