i 4 o THE CREATION OF MATTER 



and hues. To the eye they are distinct. They are en- 

 tirely different sensations. They are easily discriminated. 

 A perceptive power capable of perceiving the constituents 

 might have heen incapable of seeing a distinctive hue 

 resulting from their combination. By the ear we perceive 

 a variety of sounds. Every object struck has, we have 

 seen, its own clang- tint. The human voice and instruments 

 yield a myriad differences in speech and song and musi- 

 cal compositions. And every variety, every different 

 impression made, requires differences in the motions for- 

 warded, and a distinct feature in the perceptive power, a 

 distinct measure of capacity of being acted on, in order 

 to the impression being made. We might have had a 

 nature capable of being affected by, and such as should 

 distinguish impressions made by, two or three varieties 

 and combinations of sound, and not necessarily by more, 

 but the number is very great. Great also is the variety 

 of tastes. It is said that if one were to taste five hundred 

 wines, no two would be found exactly alike. And so 

 the number of distinguishable tastes must be very great. 

 Many also are the different odours. 



Sensations differ in intensity. In the case of any colour 

 it may begin at the faintest and rise to the deepest dye. 

 It is in one object so feeble that we can with diffi- 

 culty recognise it. In another it is glaring or dazzling. 

 Between the extremes there are many degrees. Our 

 perceptive power thus operates within a certain range. 

 It might have been much smaller or much larger. It 

 might have been limited to its present medium and a few 

 degrees on each side. Or it might have occupied the 

 same range as at present, but with a discriminating power 

 so coarse as only to distinguish between two or three 

 degrees. Each degree therefore of the perceptive power, 

 and of the intensity of colour perceived, is a separate 



