Chap. 2.] [ 421 ] 



CHAP. II. 



OF PERCEPTION. 



tf'hc Senjes the great Source of Information. T)iftinlicn letnueen Sen- 

 Jilt ion and Perception. Senfes correct each piker. Whether the fame 

 Qbje&s produce fimilar Perception: in different Men. Id:as. 



THAT the mind is obliged to the fenfes for the 

 great mafs of its information, is now an efta- 

 blimed principle. The proofs of this doctrine I mall 

 decline entering upon for reafons already afligned. I 

 would only cbferve, Firft, That I do not fee why we 

 are furnimed with fenfes by the author of nature, if not, 

 for this purpofe. Secondly, The fenfes feem entirely 

 adequate to all the information we are pofiefied of. 

 Thirdly, Perfons wanting any of the fenfes appear en- 

 tirely deftitute of the ideas of that fenfe. A gentle- 

 man, blind from infancy, affured me, he never re? 

 membered to have experienced in a dream any thing 

 like what the fenfe of feeing is defcribed to be. NaVj 

 thofe who have all the fenfes complete, derive plainly 

 their knowledge from the exercife of them. A child 

 does not fhriflk from a candle till it has felt the pain- 

 ful fenfaticn of burning, or is warned againft it in terms 

 exprcffing pain, of which it forms a judgment from pain 

 already experienced. 



A very proper diftinction is made by Dr. Stuart, 

 between fenfation and perception. Senfation implies 

 <c that change in the ftate of the mind which is pro- 

 duced by an imprelTion upon the organ of fenfe ; of 

 which change we can fuppofe the mind to be confcious 

 \vithout any knowledge of external objects. Percep- 

 E e 3 tiori 



