492 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



at or near the centre of space as I apprehend it. So, also, with 

 the sensation of warmth, which seems to me to be on the surface 

 of my hands when I hold them to the fire. Now, [definition of 

 the term perception] sensations which thus appear to occupy 

 positions in space are perceptions. 



In such cases the perception is far from being a mere co-existence 

 of sensations. It is the result of a very subtile synthesis, a syn- 

 thesis usually of many sensations, and of the mind's present and 

 past experience, with probably other materials. My mind assisted 

 by its synergos 1 could not have effected this synthesis in its present 

 complex form but for their inherited tendency to make it and their 

 inherited capacity for doing so. 



By the synthesis which results in my visual perceptions, a very 

 remarkable co-ordination has been effected between the muscular, 

 the tactual, and the visual sensations produced in me by sense- 

 compelling auta ; an equally remarkable co-ordination between 

 the perceptions of my own mind and the perceptions of my fellow- 

 men and of other animals ; above all, a co-ordination between my 

 own perceptions, past, present and future : which co-ordinations 

 enable me promptly to form correct predictions, and are of the greatest 

 service to me in regulating my acts. Natural Selection has pro- 

 bably helped to develop them. Of all the syntheses by which 

 my mind assisted by its synergos succeeds in translating sensations 

 into perceptions, this one appears to accomplish the greatest and 

 most useful transformation. The intense tendency to make this 

 particular synthesis and the extraordinary facility with which I 



1 Without anticipating too much what would more naturally be dealt with further 

 on, it may be observed here that my onto-brain (that real existence, that body of 

 closely-related and inter-acting auta, which is the autic antitheton of the phenomenal 

 object commonly called my brain) may be distinguished into two parts, the my- 

 thought part, and the part not directly concerned when I am conscious. These two 

 parts act on each other; so that the thoughts that are my mind are affected from out. 

 side themselves in two ways, viz. : — 1°. By sense-compelling auta acting directly on 

 the first part of the onto-brain (i. e. on my mind) through my senses; and 2°. By the 

 second part of the onto-brain acting on the first, whether when stimulated thereto by 

 sense-compelling auta operating on it through my organs of sense, or at other times. 

 (See Diagram II., p. 485.) As the second part of the onto-brain behaves as associate 

 and helpmate to the first, it may he called the synergos? and the whole onto-brain 

 of a man while he is alive and awake will then consist of two parts — the mind and the 

 synergos. If the rest of the onto-body requires to be spoken of it will be convenient 

 to call it the doulos. (See § 6, p. 478). 



