CANTO in. PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 95 



44 HENCE in Life's portico starts young Surprise 

 With step retreating, and expanded eyes;. 



the visible figure of the whole in miniature, the various kinds of 

 stimuli from different colours mark the visible figures of the minuter 

 parts; and by habit we instantly recall the tangible figures. 



So that though our visible ideas resemble in miniature the out- 

 line of the figure of coloured bodies, in other respects they serve 

 only as a language, which by acquired associations introduce the 

 tangible ideas of bodies. Hence it is, that this sense is sa readily 

 deceived by the art of the painter to our amusement and instruction. 

 The reader will find much very curious knowledge on this subject in 

 Bishop Berkeley's Fssay on Vision, a work of great ingenuity. 



Start* young Surprise, 1. 145. Surprise is occasioned by the sud- 

 den interruption of the usual trains of our ideas by any violent 

 stimulus from external objects, as from the unexpected discharge of 

 a pistol, and hence does not exist in our dreams, because our external 

 senses are closed or inirritable. The fetus in the womb must expe 1 - 

 rience many sensations, as of resistance, figure, fluidity, warmth, 

 motion, rest, exertion, taste; and must consequently possess trains 

 both of waking and sleeping ideas. Surprise must therefore be 

 strongly excited at its nativity, as those trains of ideas must instantly 

 be dissevered by the sudden and violent sensations occasioned by the 

 dry and cold atmosphere, the hardness of external bodies, light, 

 sound, and odours; which are accompanied with pleasure or pain; 

 according to their quantity or intensity. 



As some of these sensations become, familiar by repetition, other 

 objects not previously attended to present, themselves, and produce 

 the idea of novelty, which is a less degree of surprise, and like that 

 is not perceived in our dreams, though for another reason; because 

 in sleep we possess no voluntary power to compare our trains of ideas 

 with our previous knowledge of nature, and .do not therefore perceive 

 their difference by intuitive analogy from what usually occurs. 



As the novelty of our ideas is generally attended with pleasurable 

 sensation, from this arises Curiosity, or a desire of examining a variety 



