252 SENSATION AND THE SENSIFEROUS ORGANS. [LECT. 



The pure sensation of muskiness is almost sure to 

 be followed by a mental state which is not a sensation, 

 but a belief, that there is somewhere close at hand a 

 something on which the existence of the sensation 

 depends. It may be a musk-deer, or a musk-rat, or a 

 musk -plant, or a grain of dry musk, or simply a 

 scented handkerchief; but former experience leads us 

 to believe that the sensation is due to the presence of 

 one or other of these objects, and that it will vanish 

 if the object is removed. In other words, -there 

 arises a belief in an external cause of the muskiness, 

 which, in common language, is termed an odorous 

 body. 



But the manner in which this belief is usually put 

 into words is strangely misleading. If we are dealing 

 with a musk -plant, for example, we do not confine 

 ourselves to a simple statement of that which we be- 

 lieve, and say that the musk-plant is the cause of the 

 sensation called muskiness ; but we say that the plant 

 has a musky smell, and we speak of the odour as a 

 quality, or property, inherent in the plant. And the 

 inevitable reaction of words upon thought has in this 

 case become so complete, and has penetrated so deeply, 

 that when an accurate statement of the case namely, 

 that muskiness, inasmuch as the term denotes nothing 

 but a sensation, is a mental state, and has no exist- 

 ence except as a mental phenomenon is first brought 

 under the notice of common-sense folks, it is usually 

 regarded by them as what they are pleased to call a 

 mere metaphysical paradox and a patent example of 

 useless subtlety. Yet the slightest reflection must 



