CHARACTERS. 



76a 



ture, as stated in the seventh arti- 

 cle of this creed. — London, 1792. 



The general, after printing and 

 distributing this card, bethought 

 himself that a neater and more sa- 

 tisfactory, though not in reality a 

 more comprehensive and complete 

 analysis and arrangement of the 

 human mind, would be " sensations, 

 re-sensations, and co-sensations;" 

 the last called up, whether by sen- 

 sation or re-sensation, by the well- 

 known principle of the association 

 of ideas. Andhewaswonttoaskhis 

 literary friends if they could men- 

 tion any idea or process of think- 

 ing, that might not be reduced to 

 one or other of these heads. One 

 of these, noted for self-sufficiency 

 and briskness of manner, said, 

 without hesitation, and with an 

 air of triumph, "■ Most certainly I 

 do." " What is it? " *« Why, com- 

 parison. " " I grant you, " replied 

 the general, •' we have in compari- 

 son, not one idea of sensation or re- 

 sensation only, but we have two. " 



Another friend, to whom the ge- 

 neral put thesame question, said that 

 neither co7iscious72ess of identity/, nor 

 even o^ existence, could be traced to 

 sensation merely, or quatenus sen- 

 sation ; i. e. to the first sensation, or 

 a few of the first sensations. For 

 both zrfe«<iY?/ and existence were ab- 

 stractions not obtained by mere 

 sensation, quatenus sensation, but 

 by some posterior process. The 

 general listened to this patiently. 

 But he still maintained the justness 

 of his own analysis. Some weeks 

 afterwards, however, he said to the 

 same person, I have been thinking 

 of adding a" fourth limb tomy struc- 

 ture ; " so that the analysis will run 

 thus, " sensation, re-sensation, co- 

 sensation, and pro-sensation ; " 



Vol. LI. 



by which last he seemed to un- 

 destand what is called in the 

 schools, simple apprehension, with- 

 out any consideration either of ac- 

 tual existence, or of any relation 

 to other objects. It was not the 

 conversation just noticed, about 

 existence and identitj', or at least 

 this alone, that drove the general 

 to PRo-SENSATiONS, but professoT 

 Stewart's Elements of the Philo- 

 sophy of the Human Mind, illust- 

 rating and confirming Dr. Reid's 

 theory. — What the doctor calls 

 suggestion^ general Melville called 

 pro-sensation ; and this he contend- 

 ed wasthejustappellative — " For," 

 said he, " what does any thing 

 sujigest? certainlysomethingknown 

 before ; otherwise it could not be 

 suggested. But, if known before, 

 what other could it possibly be 

 than an idea, or notion, if you will? 

 (Some conversation had taken place 

 about a diflPerence between notion 

 and idea), Answer me that ques- 

 tion r 



It ought not to be omitted 

 that general Melville was a com- 

 pletely well-bred gentleman ; unit- 

 ing, with good sense, and a na- 

 tural benevolence and frankness 

 of disposition (which are the 

 grand basis of good manners), 

 a long and great acquaintance 

 with the polite world, and with 

 all ranks of society. He retain- 

 ed as much of the ceremony, or 

 outward demonstrations of respect 

 of the old school, as must ap- 

 pear quite proper in the eye of 

 sound criticism, and no more. In 

 the present age, some fashionable 

 people are so far from overwhelm- 

 ing you with attentions in their 

 own houses, that they take little if 

 any notice of you. They seem to 

 study nothing so much as thdr own 



3 D case 



