PERCEIVING & PERCEIVED NATURES 139 



tate to acknowledge the possibility of their existence. 

 And, a priori, there was as much probability that any 

 other possibles should exist as that they should. There 

 might therefore have been perceptive powers, and none of 

 our present system among them. There might have been 

 innumerable conjunctions of twos, or threes, or fives, and 

 all different. And in like manner there might have been 

 as great variety of differences in the qualities of matter. 

 There might have been a perceiving nature possessed of 

 one sense, and nothing to produce any impression upon 

 it, or many senses and nothing to affect them. There 

 might have been countless systems of perceptive powers 

 and countless systems of material properties, and no 

 correspondence of any kind, or anywhere between them 

 the perceptive powers and material properties being 

 at an immeasurable distance from each other's range. 

 And yet the system existing has five perceptive powers, 

 and the material elements have properties suited to them 

 all. They are so far apart from each other, the possi- 

 bilities of existence of different senses are so countless, 

 the range of possibility in material motions is so unlimited, 

 that for the latter to be capable of producing a single 

 sensation in one sense involved chances against it above 

 all numbers. That there should be two senses and 

 motions of one kind corresponding to each was much 

 farther from probability, but that in the same perceiving 

 nature there should be five senses and motions in the 

 same matter corresponding to each and all, was absolutely 

 impossible as the result of chance. 



But for each sense there is not only one sensation but 

 many. Those afforded by the power of vision and colour 

 are multitudinous. By the eye we perceive red, orange, 

 yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. There are also of 

 these a great many combinations, a vast variety of tints 



