COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



group of sensations, of weight, hardness, smooth- 

 ness, and the rest, exist in minimum intensity ; 

 and consciousness is occupied, not with them, 

 but with the presence of the piece of soap : per- 

 ception tends to exclude sensation. 



" What, now," inquires Mr. Spencer, " is 

 the real nature of this mutual exclusion? Is it 

 not an instance of the general fact that con- 

 sciousness cannot be in two equally distinct 

 states at the same time ; and that in proportion 

 as the predominance of one state becomes more 

 marked, the suppression of other states becomes 

 more decided? I cannot know that I have a 

 sensation without, for the moment, having my 

 attention specially occupied with that sensation. 

 I cannot know the external thing causing it, 

 without, for the moment, having my attention 

 specially occupied with that external thing. As 

 either cognition rises, the other ceases." By 

 the " external thing," Mr. Spencer does not 

 here mean the Ding an sichy but the group of 

 phenomena which are referred to an existence 

 outside of the organism. But we have already 

 seen that, when consciousness is so occupied 

 with such a group of phenomena that the result 

 is the perception of an object, the psychical act 

 involved is an automatic classification of sun- 

 dry states of consciousness and of the relations 

 between them, according to their various Kke- 

 nesses and unlikenesses. Thus we arrive at the 

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