MENTAL. 85^ 



of other people, because they are communicated to 

 us in the very same way as we get all our experi- 

 ence, that is, all our knowledge ; and so, if the 

 thought which is communicated to us is in accord- 

 ance with that knowledge, we cannot help believ- 

 ing that it is just and true ; but if it is not in accord- 

 ance with that knowledge, we can as little help 

 believing that it is absurd or false. It is altogether 

 impossible for us to judge of that which we learn 

 from without, by any other standard than that which 

 we have ; and as Tightness and readiness in those 

 judgments are that which gives perfection to our 

 character, we cannot be too constant or too careful 

 in our observation. 



But every sensation, however fleeting it may be, 

 and through whatever material organs it may appear 

 to come, is really an act of the mind, and an act of 

 the whole mind ; because the mind is one, and it is 

 utterly impossible that one can be in two states at 

 the same moment, how short soever that moment 

 may be. Hence it follows, that if we are to apply 

 our minds to observation by means of any sense, the 

 other senses must be kept still, so as to leave that 

 one to work to the utmost bent of its power ; for if 

 that is not the case, as they all have a resemblance 

 to each other, and perhaps are all only the general 

 muscular sense of resistance modified by organiza- 

 tions, one will be constantly breaking in upon another, 

 and we shall start from sight to hearing, and from 

 hearing to touch, until we become perfectly inca- 

 pable of knowing what sense is affected, or indeed 

 whether the sense is affected at all. That is the 

 state of momentary or periodical non-existence, with 

 which the lives of the heedless are so much spotted, 

 and by which even the most careful of us sometimes 

 waste our time and mar our plans. It is what Milton 

 calls the " brute unconscious gaze>" and the Scottish 

 peasantry very appropriately call "looking from 

 them ;" and it is literally from us in these cases, for 

 H 



