540 ON THE BELIEF ATTENDING THE EXERCISE OF THE SENSES. 
sources of fallacy, especially by that extraordinary propensity to deception which 
medical men so continually encounter in this part of their studies,—it would be 
wrong in me, not having had sufficient opportunities for making such observa- 
tions, to pronounce any decided opinion; but I think it only due to the memory 
of Dr Rem to point out, that in one part of his writings he has distinctly asserted, , 
—and indeed, consistently with his principles, could not fail to perceive,—the 
possibility of such a modification of the exercise of the senses, as has been ex- 
pressed by the term Clairvoyance; and left it, therefore, as a question to be de- 
cided simply by experience, whether or not such modification may occur. 
“Our power of perceiving external objects is limited in various ways, and 
particularly in this, that without the organs of the several senses, we perceive no 
external object. We cannot see without eyes, nor hear without ears; and it is 
not only necessary that we should have these organs, but that they should be in 
a sound and natural state. 
* All this is so well known from experience, that it needs no proof; but it 
ought to be observed, that we know it from experience only. We can give no 
reason for it, but that such is the will of our Maker. No man can shew it to be 
impossible for the Supreme Being to have given us the power of perceiving exter- 
nal objects without such organs. 
“If a man were shut up in a dark room, so that he could see nothing but 
through one small hole in the shutter of a window, would he conclude that the 
hole was the cause of his seeing, and that it is impossible to see in any other 
way? Perhaps, if he had never in his life seen but in this way, he might be apt 
to think so; but the conclusion is rash and groundless. He sees, because Gop has 
given him the power of seeing; and he sees only through this small hole, because 
his power of seeing is circumscribed by impediments on all other hands.”— 
(Rerv’s Collected Works, p. 246.) 
On this passage we have the following note by Sir Witn1am Hamiiron:— 
** However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all rational doubt that, in certain 
abnormal states of the nervous organism, perceptions are possible through other 
than the ordinary channels of the senses.” 
This is expressing a decided opinion on the question, on which I have said that 
I do not think myself qualified to judge; but I beg to express my perfect concur- 
rence with Sir Witt1AM Hamiuron in thinking, that, consistently with the prin- 
ciples of Dr Rerp, it is a question on which no 4 priort opinion is admissible, and 
which observation and experiment alone can decide. 
