PERCEPTION. 125 



CHAPTER IX. 



Perception. 



At the level marked 18 I represent the rise from Sensa- 

 tion to Perception. By this term I mean, in accordancef 

 with general usage, the faculty of cognition. " The contrast' 

 between Sensation and Perception is the contrast l)etween 

 the sensitive and the cognitive, intellectual, or knowledge- 

 giving functions." (Bain.) " Perception is an establishment 

 of specific relations among states of consciousness ; and this 

 is distinguished from the establishment of these states of 

 consciousness themselves," which constitutes Sensation. 

 (Spencer.) " In Perception the material of Sensation is\ 

 acted on by the mind, wliich embodies in its present attitude | 

 all the results of its past growth." (Sully.) 



Sensation, then, does not involve any of the powers of' 

 the intellect as distinguished from consciousness, but Percep- 

 tion implies the necessary occurrence of an intellectual or 

 cognitive process, even though it be a process of the simplest 

 possible kind. The term Percej)tion, therefore, may be 

 applied to all cases where a process of cognition occurs, 

 whether such process arises directly or indirectly out of sen- 

 sation ; thus it is equally correct to say that we perceive the 

 colour or the scent of a rose, and that we perceive the truth 

 or the probability of a proposition. 



Otherwise phrased we may state the distinction between 

 Sensation and Perception thus. A sensation is an elementary; 

 or uu decomposable state of consciousness, but a perception 

 involves a process of mentally interpreting the sensation in 

 terms of past experience. For instance, there is a closed book 

 lying on the table before me ; my eyes have been resting on 

 its cover for a considerable time while I have been thinking 

 how I should arrange the material of the present chapter. 

 All that time I have been receiving a visual sensation of a 



