56 NAMES AND PROPOSITION S. 



sensation of white, or The sensation of whiteness ; we must 

 denominate the sensation either from the object, or from the 

 attribute, by which it is excited. Yet the sensation, though it 

 never does, might very well be conceived to exist, without any 

 thing whatever to excite it. We can conceive it as arising 

 spontaneously in the mind. But if it so arose, we should have 

 no name to denote it which would not be a misnomer. In the 

 case of our sensations of hearing we are better provided ; we 

 have the word Sound, and a whole vocabulary of words to denote 

 the various kinds of sounds. For as we are often conscious of 

 these sensations in the absence of any perceptible object, we can 

 more easily conceive having them in the absence of any object 

 whatever. We need only shut our eyes and listen to music, 

 to have a conception of an universe with nothing in it except 

 sounds, and ourselves hearing them : and what is easily con 

 ceived separately, easily obtains a separate name. But in general 

 our names of sensations denote indiscriminately the sensation 

 arid the attribute. Thus, colour stands for the sensations of 

 white, red, &c., but also for the quality in the coloured object. 

 We talk of the colours of things as among their properties. 



4. In the case of sensations r another distinction has also 

 to be kept in view, which is often confounded, and never with 

 out mischievous consequences. This is, the distinction between 

 the sensation itself, and the state of the bodily organs which 

 precedes the sensation, and which constitutes the physical 

 agency by which it is produced. One of the sources of con 

 fusion on this subject is the division commonly made of feelings 

 into Bodily and Mental. Philosophically speaking, there is no 

 foundation at all for this distinction : even sensations are states 

 of the sentient mind, not states of the body, as distinguished 

 from it. What I am conscious of when I see the colour blue, 

 is a feeling of blue colour, which is one thing ; the picture on 

 my retina, or the phenomenon of hitherto mysterious nature 

 which takes place in my optic nerve or in my brain, is another 

 thing, of which I am not at all conscious, and which scientific 

 investigation alone could have apprised me of. These are 

 states of my body ; but the sensation of blue, which is the con- 



