828 Mr Carpenter on the Differences of the Laws 



of properties appertaining to matter, of which man, as at pre- 

 sent formed, has no conception. 



3. The properties of matter may be classed in various ways ;* 

 some are umversallij possessed by all matter which comes under 

 our cognisance ; and our most definite notion of matter is 

 therefore compounded of the ideas which they excite : even 

 these, however, do not lead us to the knowledge of the entity 

 or substance to which they belong ; and it is generally allowed 

 that " we are entirely ignorant of the real constitution of mat- 

 ter, the cause from which the most universal and essential of 

 its properties arise." Besides these universal properties, how. 

 ever, there are others partially distributed among material 

 bodies, of whose cause we are equally ignorant, but whose va- 

 rieties (mostly recognisable by the organs of special sense) lead 

 to all our knowledge of the particular forms and qualities of 

 matter.f 



4. Our ideas of the external or evident characters of material 

 bodies, are simply derived from the changes produced by them 

 (whilst themselves inactive) upon the organs of sense. It is pro- 

 bable that these primary impressions are of a material nature ; 

 and that the human mind, in the present stage of its existence, 

 cannot take cognisance of any of the properties of matter, ex- 

 cept by such material changes propagated from the extremities 

 of the nervous system to the central sensorium.J If this be 



" Of the ancient metaphysical distribution of the properties of matter into 

 the primary or essential, and the secondary or accidental, it is scarcely necessary 

 here to treat, since this distribution was not founded on the respective nni. 

 vsrsality or partiality o{ these properties, but on their supposed connection with 

 •what was regarded as the fundamental or jiriniary chai-acter of matter, viz., 

 its occupation of space. (See Adam Smith on the External Senses, and 

 Prichard on the Vital Principle, p. 43.) 



+ The sense of Touch, considered in its simple and passive state, leads only 

 to the idea of resistance ; and hence to the knowledge of the universal pro- 

 perties of matter. When actively employed in combination with other more 

 special sensations, it leads to the appreciation of those external forms and cha- 

 racters of matter which are liable to constant variation. 



$ "The impressions excited in us by external objects are the results of 

 certain actions and processes, in which sensible objects and the material 

 parts of ourselves are directly concerned." Herschel's Preliminary Discourse, 

 p. 118. 



