180 SENSATION, IDEATION, 



spheres and thence immediately radiate to other percep- 

 tive centres, there to rouse the activities of functionally 

 related cells. This process takes place with such rapidity 

 that the several excitations are practically simultaneous, 

 and the combined effects are fused into one single act 

 of Perception. Thus, I see an orange at .a distance ; 

 this, as an object of visual sense, is simply a rounded 

 yellow area ; but past experience has led me to know what 

 are the tactile and muscular sensations usually associated 

 with the sight impressions-^how it is really a spherical 

 body, with a somewhat rough surface. Then I have 

 learned, also, that these impressions are usually associated 

 with a certain odour, with a certain taste, a degree of 

 succulence, and certain internal visual characters, includ- 

 ing a divisibility into segments and the possible presence 

 of seeds within. A combination of any of these, or of a 

 host of other revivable impressions, may go to constitute 

 my 'perception' of an orange, and may flash into conscious- 

 ness more or less simultaneously, on the presentation of 

 the object to the visual sense. 



If we now turn our attention to another aspect of the 

 question, and look to the notable differences existing 

 between different kinds of Sensations, it will gradually 

 be made plain that these are marked off from simple 

 and complex Perceptions by differences of degree rather 

 than of kind, and also that Emotion and Intellect are, in 

 their rudimentary phases, alike inseparable even from 

 simple Sensations. 



Professor Bain says, " Some sensations are mere 

 pleasures or pains, and little else ; such are the feelings of 

 organic life, and the sweet and bitter tastes and odours. 

 Others stretch away into the regions of pure intellect, and 

 are nothing as regards enjoyment or suffering, as, for 



