COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



has been aroused to which it can be assimilated. 

 Observe now the position into which we are 

 brought. We are obHged to hold that the first 

 sensation of orange colour cannot, strictly speak- 

 ing, exist as a sensation at all ; while, neverthe- 

 less, a subsequent sensation of orange colour 

 (not, in any actual case, the second, but the 

 twentieth or hundredth) occurring after inter- 

 vening sensations of blue or green, can acquire 

 definite shape as a sensation by being compared 

 with this first sensation which is not strictly 

 a sensation. Obviously then, though the first 

 presentation of orange colour cannot awaken a 

 visual sensation which can be known as such, it 

 must produce some psychical state which is real, 

 though not known. For if no psychical state 

 were produced by the first presentation, then 

 the second, or twentieth, or hundredth presen- 

 tation could no more awaken a definite state of 

 consciousness than the first. We are thus led to 

 the assertion that states of consciousness may be 

 produced by the differential grouping or com- 

 pounding of psychical states which are beneath 

 consciousness. 



Now this conclusion, which, admirably ex- 

 plains the beginnings of conscious intelligence 

 in the young child, is completely confirmed by 

 experiments lately made with reference to the 

 continuous genesis of sensations in the adult. 

 Not only does the infant frame its earliest con- 



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