THE SENSES. 629 



in disease is felt as if the sound came from some distance : 

 the mind referring it to the outer world from which it is in 

 the habit of receiving the like impression. 



Moreover, the mind not only perceives the sensations, 

 and interprets them according to ideas previously obtained, 

 but it has a direct influence upon them, imparting to them 

 intensity by its faculty of attention. Without simultaneous 

 attention, all sensations are only obscurely, if at all, per- 

 ceived. If the mind be torpid in indolence, or if the 

 attention be withdrawn from the nerves of sense in in- 

 tellectual contemplation, deep speculations, or an intense 

 passion, the sensations of the nerves make no impres- 

 sion upon the mind ; they are not perceived, that is to 

 say, they are not communicated to the conscious " self," or 

 with so little intensity, that the mind is unable to retain the 

 impression, or only recollects it some time after, when it is 

 freed from the preponderating influence of the idea which 

 Iiad occupied it. 



This power of attention to the sensations derived from a 

 single organ, may also be exercised in a single portion of 

 a sentient organ, and thus enable one to discern the detail 

 of what would otherwise be a single sensation. For 

 example, by well-directed attention, one can distinguish 

 each of the many tones simultaneously emitted by an 

 orchestra, and can even follow the weaker tones of one in- 

 strument apart from the other sounds, of which the impres- 

 sions being not attended to are less vividly perceived. So, 

 also, if one endeavours to direct attention to the whole field 

 of vision at the same time, nothing is seen distinctly ; but 

 when the attention is directed first to this, then to that part, 

 and analyses the detail of the sensation, the part to which 

 the mind is directed is perceived with more distinctness than 

 the rest of the same sensation. 



