SEN 



philofophers in general have denominated thofe faculties, in 

 confequence of which we are liable to feelings relatively to 

 ourfelves only, and from which they have not pretended to 

 draw any conclufions concerning the nature of thmgs ; 

 whereas truth is a thing not relative, but abfolute and real, 

 independent of any relatioH to this or that particular being, 

 or this or that order of beings. Befides, if the determi- 

 nations of this new principle of common fenfe befo initanta- 

 neous, irrefillible, and mfallible, as Dr. Reid, Dr. Beattie, 

 and Dr. Ofwald reprefent, how can we account for all- the 

 error there is in the world ? Not to add, that this fyltem, 

 in its pradical influence, tends to prevent the exercife of 

 fi-ee and unreftrifted enquiry, with regard either to truth or 

 duty ; and to promote, in many cafes, the extravagancies of 

 credulity, enthufiafm, and myfticifm. Dr. PrielHey alfo 

 obferves, that Dr. Price (in his Review of the Principal 

 QueRions and Difficulties in Morals, 8vo.) though un- 

 noticed by the writers above cited, by maintaining that the 

 underitanding is the fource of many of our meil important 

 fimple ideas (fee Idea), has fecured all the flattering ad- 

 rantages of the new doArine of common fenfe, without the 

 capital inconveniences attending it. Like this fyllem, his 

 fcbeme cuts off, if it be admitted, all objections to primary 

 moral truths, reding them on a Umple appeal to the faculty 

 of intuition ; and refufing to reafon upon a fubjeft, which is 

 maintained to be as evident as the truth of the geometrical 

 axiom, that if equal things be taken from equal things, the 

 remainders will be equal. 



If the ideas of moral right and wrong, &c. be perceived 

 by a fenfe, it depends upon our arbitrary conftitution, that 

 we conceive of them as we do, or whether we perceive them 

 at all ; and we have no method whatever of inveftigating, 

 whether they have any foundation in the abfolute nature of 

 things ; whereas by making moral ideas the objeft of the 

 underftanding as fuch, the principles of morality become 

 part of this fyftem of neceflary, eternal, and unalterable 

 truth, perceived by the divine Being as by ourfelves, but 

 altogether independent of his will, as well as of all other 

 beings and things whatfoever ; as much fo as the truth of 

 the axiom above-mentioned, or of the propofition, that two 

 and two make four. 



It is added, that thefe writers feem even to have bor- 

 rowed their language, as well as their ideas, from Dr. Price, 

 who alfo ufes the term common fenfe, though applied in a 

 different manner. Reid's Enquiry into the Human Mind 

 on the Principles of Common Senfe, 8vo. ed. 2. 1765. 

 Reid's Efl'ays, above cited. Beattie's Eflay on the Nature 

 and Immutability of Truth, 8vo. cd. 2. 1771. Ofvvald's 

 Appeal to Common Senfe in behalf of Religion, 8vo. ed. 2. 

 1768. Campbell's Philofophy of Rhetoric, 8vo. 1776, 

 vol. i. p. 109, &c. Prieltley's Examination of Reid, 

 Beattie, and Ofwald, Sec. 8vo. 1774. For a farther ac- 

 count of this fyftem, fee Abstraction and Idea. 



SENSEN, in Geography. See Sengen. 



SENSIBILITY, in Phjjiolagy, the power of receiving 

 an imprefiion, and tranfmitting it to the brain, fo as to caufe 

 fenfation or feeling. The queftion whether any part be fen- 

 fible is, therefore, whether by afting on it in any way, feel. 

 ing can be excited. SenfibJity in this, its common accepta- 

 tion, obvioufly refers to the internal feeling or aft of con- 

 fcioufnefs relultliig from its exercife. Some phyfiologifts 

 have ufed the word in a more extenfive fenfe, Vj denote all 

 impreflions produced on our organs, even thofe which are 

 not felt ; as that of the blood on the heart, the food on the 

 alimentary canal, &c. They call the former animal fen- 

 fibility, becaufe it is peculiar to living beings ; and they dif- 

 tinguilh the latter by the name erguiiic, as it belongs to thofe 



SEN 



parts where motions are involuntary, and which conltitute 

 the automatic or organic life. See Life. 



Rouffeau has given the word fenfibility a place among 

 French mnfical technica. The foul of the compofer Ihould 

 furnifh ideas, the perfomier (hould be gifted with feehng in 

 their expreflion, and the audience (hould be capable of being 

 imprefled with the beauties and defeAs of the mufic which is 

 executed for their amufement. 



SENSIBLE Horizon, Point, and Qualitleu See the 

 fubftantives. 



Sensible Note. See Note, Senftble. 



SENSITIVE Fluid. Some have imagined a feniitiYe 

 fluid as the principle that preferves animals from corruption, 

 and to which we owe our fenfation and motion. This animal 

 fluid, pafles in the proper nervous tubes to the organs of 

 motion ; but is contained in the fibrous coats of the nerves to 

 become an organ of fenfation. This fenfitive fluid is, ac- 

 cording to M. Le Cat, capable of thinking, and is fo mo- 

 dified by the ganglions, that what is lodged in each part, is 

 capable of being impreffed by the objeA proper to each 

 organ. And from tlie doctrine concerning this animal fluid, 

 he endeavours to account for moft operations, which are 

 generally faid to depend on the foul. (Med. Elf. Edinb. 

 Abridg. vol. ii. p. 481.) But all thefe attempts to account 

 for fenfation and thoughi, from the properties of matter, 

 feem to be very defperatc undertakings, not to fay abfurd. 



Sensitive Plant, in Botany. See Mimosa. 



The lenfitive plant is fufliciently known to the world for 

 its remarkable property of recediiig from the touch, and 

 giving figns, as it were, of animal Lfe. Philafophers in 

 general have, however, contented ihemfelves with admiring 

 the fact, without giving themfelvet any trouble about the 

 caufe. See Leaf. 



Mr. Hook, iodced, has made fome conjectures about it ; 

 but the greateft liglit that has been given into the thing, is 

 from the inquiries which Meffrs. Du Fay and Du Hamel, 

 gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, concerted 

 together, and afterwards made feparately on different Ihrubs, 

 or at different times, that each might be able to correA the 

 errors of the other. 



Botanic writers mention many kinds of fenfitive plants, 

 fome of which contraA at a touch, others with heat, others 

 with cold. The truth is, many, if not moft, vegetables ex- 

 pand their flowers, down, &c. in warm fun-fhiny weather, 

 and again clofe them towards evening, or in rain, &c. efpe- 

 cially at the beginning of flowering, or after the flowers are 

 fallen, whilft the feed is yet young and tender ; as is very 

 evident in the down of dandelion, &c. and in the flower of 

 the pimpernel, the opening and Ihuiting of which are the 

 countryman's weatherwifer ; by which, Gerarde fays he 

 foretels what weather (hall follow the next day ; for if the 

 flowers be clofe fhut up, it betokens rain and foul weather ; 

 if they be fpread abroad, fair weather. 



The ftiuAure of the fenfitive plant is this ; from the large 

 Items, or main branches of the whole, there part off fevcral 

 other lefler ones, and from thefe there go off others (till lefs, 

 which, by way of diftinAion, may be called the ribs of the 

 leaves, as they ferve to fupport a number of leaves arranged 

 on each fide, and (landing on (hort pedicles in pairs, over 

 againil one another. Several other plants have this fort of 

 compound leaves, as the caflia, colutea, and the hke ; and 

 all thefe (hut their leaves together at night, and open them 

 again in the morninj,, in the fame manner as the fenfitive 

 plant does. This periodical opening and (hutting of the 

 leaves are therefore common to many plants, not peculiar to 

 the fenfitive plant; but the wonder in this is, that beCde 

 having this motion periodical aad regular, it is to be brought 



