LESSON X 



THE COALESCENCE OF SENSATIONS WITH ONE • 



ANOTHER AND WITH OTHER STATES OF 



CONSCIOUSNESS 



1 Sensations may be Simple or Composite.-In 



explaining the functions of the sensory organs, we have 

 hitherto confined ourselves to describing the means by 

 which the physical agent of a sensation is enabled to 

 irritate a given sensory nerve; and to giving some 

 account of the simple sensations which are thus evolved 



Simple sensations of this kind are such as might be 

 produced by the irritation of a single nerve-fibre, or ot 

 several nerve-fibres by the same agent. Such are the 

 sensations of contact, of warmth, of sweetness, of an odour, 

 of a musical note, of whiteness, or redness. 



But very few of our sensations are thus simple. Most 

 of even those which we are in the habit of regarding as 

 simple are really compounds of different simultaneous 

 sensations, or of present sensations with past sensations 

 or with those feelings of relation which form the basis ot 

 iudcrments. For example, in the preceding cases it is very 

 diffi'cult to separate the sensation of contact from the 

 iud-ment that something is touching us ; of sweetness, 

 from the idea of something in the mouth ; of sound or 

 light, from the judgment that something outside us is 

 shining or sounding. 



The sensations of smell are. those which are least 

 complicated by accessories of this sort. Thus, particles 



