COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



some psychical modification corresponding to 

 each increment of intensity, there would be no 

 state of consciousness answering to the total rise 

 from the minimum to the maximum. Again, 

 while, for simplicity's sake, we have assumed 

 that each of the raps or puffs which occur too 

 slowly to be heard as a single tone of lowest 

 pitch is heard by itself as an elementary sensa- 

 tion, this is not strictly true. For the so-called 

 simple sensation must be either a sensation of 

 musical tone or a sensation of noise. In the 

 former case its composite character has been 

 already shown. In the latter case, in the sensa- 

 tion of noise, rap, or puff, the truly primitive 

 elements are sub-conscious psychical states an- 

 swering to successive waves of unequal lengths. 

 Any one of these waves by itself will not pro- 

 duce a genuine state of consciousness ; it is only 

 by compounding the sub-conscious psychical 

 affections which they severally produce, that we 

 obtain the so - called elementary sensation of 

 noise or rap. 



In every way, therefore, the conclusion is 

 forced upon us that every one of our apparently 

 simple auditory sensations is made up of a vast 

 multitude of psychical affections, of which the 

 really simple ones would never rise into con- 

 sciousness save by being joined with others. 

 Our simplest cognizable sensation of sound is 



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