THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 149 



tain vivid manifestations which we call the acts of closing 

 the eyes and adjusting ourselves so as to enfeeble the 

 vivid manifestations of pressure, sound, &c, the mani- 

 festations of the faint order become relatively predominant. 

 The ever-varying heterogeneous current of them, no longer 

 obscured by the vivid current, grows more distinct, and 

 seems almost to exclude the vivid current. But while what 

 Ave call consciousness continues, the current of vivid mani- 

 festations, however small the dimensions to which it is 

 reduced, still continues: pressure and touch do not wholly 

 disappear. It is only on lapsing into the unconsciousness 

 termed sleep, that manifestations of the vivid order cease 

 to be distinguishable as such, and those of the faint order 

 come to be mistaken for them. And even of this we remain 

 unaware till the recurrence of manifestations of the vivid 

 order on awaking: we can never infer that manifestations 

 of the vivid order have been absent, until they are again 

 present; and can therefore never directly know them to be 

 absent. Thus, of the two concurrent compound 



series of manifestations, each preserves its continuity. 

 As they flow side by side, each trenches on the other, 

 but there never comes a moment at which it can be 

 said that the one has, then and there, broken through the 

 other. 



Besides this longitudinal cohesion there is a lateral cohe- 

 sion, both of the vivid to the vivid and of the faint to the 

 faint. The components of the vivid series are bound to- 

 gether by ties of co-existence as well as by ties of succes- 

 sion; and the components of the faint series are similarly 

 bound together. Between the degrees of union in the two 

 cases there are, however, marked and very significant dif- 

 ferences. Let us observe them. Over an area 

 occupying part of the so-called field of view, lights and 

 shades and colours and outlines constitute a group to which, 

 as the signs of an object, we give a certain name; and while 

 they continue present, these united vivid manifestations 



