THE SENSES. 41 



appreciates the pleasures of fragrance : the touch, or 

 Consciousness in it, only the pleasures of warmth or cool- 

 ness: and the taste, only the pleasures of sweetness, 

 pungency, &c. 



All these rest on the bare testimony of each respective 

 sense so completely that, though we may test by the 

 other senses to some degree how these sensations arise, 

 we cannot so prove them as to show that they are necessary 

 consequences of the causes from which they spring, or 

 indeed that they are consequences at all, save to the re- 

 spective senses which alone perceive them to be so. But 

 though thus resting only on the single testimony of each 

 respective sense, these impressions of pleasure or pain 

 so powerfully impress the Consciousness as to bring it 

 vividly into positive contact with them, and therefore 

 enable it, without other evidence, to judge in the most 

 positive manner for itself. Such strong impressions may 

 be said to compel the conviction of our Consciousness 

 by their self-demonstrative power. And while ordinarily 

 our Consciousness controls our faculties, here the strength 

 of the impression in the faculty controls for the moment 

 and commands the full recognition of the Consciousness, 

 just as in cases of sudden start or alarm. Besides, such 

 impressions are so allied to the ordinary, but neither 

 pleasurable nor painful impressions of the same faculties, 

 that they are all capable of proof by relation or analogy. 

 There are many instances, however, in which the Conscious- 

 ness is semi-dormant, or so passive as to be controlled 

 by the faculties. The current of ideas and impressions 

 continually passing through the mind and senses when we 

 are quietly led by, rather than directing the powers 

 of thought, is to a large degree, if not altogether, 

 occasioned by the continuous progress of time and change, 

 and the external actions and influences of reality around us ; 

 and the continual succession of impressions occasioned in 



