COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



The other elements in the classification of which 

 the perception consists are ideas or internally 

 revived sensations of position, shape, bulk, 

 texture, juiciness, and so on. And now we dis- 

 cover another point of difference in degree be- 

 tween perception and reasoning. While in per- 

 ception some of the elements classified must be 

 sensations actually present, in reasoning all the 

 elements classified may be ideas or internally 

 revived sensations. The sides and angles of 

 the isosceles triangles which the astronomer 

 compares in estimating the moon's distance are 

 ideal sides and angles ; and the naturalist, in 

 writing about the classification of ruminants, 

 deals solely with internally revived impressions 

 of horns, hoofs, and multiple stomachs, which 

 were previously present to sense. Thus the 

 classification involved in reasoning differs from 

 that involved in perception, not only in heter- 

 ogeneity and definiteness, but also in indirect- 

 ness. Nevertheless the difference is not funda- 

 mental, but is only a difference in degree ; as 

 is proved by the fact that alike in reasoning and 

 in perception there is implied the previous re- 

 ception of the actually present sensations of 

 which the ideas or revived sensations are the 

 copies. Our statement, therefore, will become 

 strictly correct if we say that the fundamental 

 characteristic common to the most refined rea- 

 soning, and the crudest perception, is the pre- 

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