1805.] 
down carpets to the floor, a practice 
which fhould never be fuffered in rooms 
where there is any danger of accidents of 
this kind happening; nor fhould heavy 
tables or other furniire be fo placed on 
the carpet as to hinder it from being ealily 
rolled up. ‘ 
If a woollen cloth were conftantly kept 
in nurferies and fitting reoms, elpecially 
when there are fires, laid loofe upon the 
table or other piece of furniture, this 
being always at hand, might be eafily re- 
forted to in cafe of accident, and being 
wrapped tight round the flames, or ftrongly 
prefled againit them, would, by excluding 
the air, no doubt, in~ mapy infances, 
foon extinguifh the fire. A green baize 
cloth, being very pliable, and like- 
wile a neat cover to furniture, is recom- 
mended for this purpof; and if fuch 
were known in the family by the name of 
ihe Stifling Cloth, it probably would as 
readily be ufed when there was occafion 
for it, as fire-engines or buckets now are.’ 
Care muft be taken fo procure baize of a 
clofe texture. Where the convenience of 
a baize cloth cannot be eafily procured,as 
in cottages, &c. a cloth cloak, or ablanket, 
will anfwer much the fame purpofe. 
May we not attribute many of the me- 
lancholy events which have happened of 
late, to the modern praétice of fixing fire- 
grates more forward than formerly, and 
to the prevailing cuftom of wearing muflin 
drefles ?~ 
a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ENQUIRER, No. XXV. 
Are ideas of fenfation or ideas of abftrac- 
tion the moft fimple ?>— iis 
OCKE is a perfpicucus, not a pre- 
cife writer: he pafles for clear, be- 
caule he is fimple; but he often makes af- 
fertions that are unproved, and fometimes 
that are unintelligible. 
In his Introduétion to the Effay on Ha- 
man Underftanding, he propofes to inquire 
how ideas come into the mind. He then 
fhifts his term, and endeavours to prove 
that there are no innate principles. He 
next claims to have proved that there are 
no innate ideas. 
There are, however, innate fenfations; 
for inftance, that of the blood circulating. 
Every fenfation excites a correfponding 
idea. Such idea is in fact a part of the 
fenfation, or perception, that part which 
takes place at the internal, or cerebral, 
extremity of the organ of fenfe ; it 1s there- 
fore abfolutely coeval with the connected 
fenfation. Ideas then are no lefs innate 
than ienfations, 
Enquirer, No. X XV. 
219 
Mr. Locke proceeds (Book II. c. 1.) 
to clafs ideas in tworanks, © Thofe which. 
take place in the prefence of the external 
object by which they are excited, he pro- 
pofes to cail ideas of fenfation. Thole 
which take place im the abfence of the ex- 
ternal object by which they were originally 
excited, he propofes to cail ideas of reflec. 
tion. This term Reflection is ill-chofen. 
There is no reafon to believe that the 
brain throws back, like a looking-glafs, 
the images of the objects which it recalls : 
it rather causes the original organic mo- 
tion to be re-performed, with more or lefs 
omiffion, according to the power or *: 
with for recollection. We do not think 
by reflecting, but by reviewing the ime 
preflions that are gone by. Reflection, ap- 
plied to ideology, is an unintelligible word. - 
The only agreed fa&t between Locke 
and his reader being, that fome ideas 
occur in the prefence, and {ome in the ab- 
fence of the correfponding objects, he 
ought to have confined himielf to the pre- 
cife expreffion of this fact; and to have 
divided ideas into ideas of fenfation, and 
ideas of reminifcence, into thofe excited 
by the prefence, and thofe excited without 
the prefence, of external objects. 
Of ali.ideas of reminiicence it may be 
obferved, that they confit of fomething 
Jefs than the original impreffion. The 
affection of the internal extremity of the 
organ is revived with nearly equal dii- 
tinctnefs; but that of the external ex- 
tremity with far feebler deteétability. 
The affection of the internal extremity is 
fo like the original one, that when the 
body is ina flate of repofe, as in dream, 
and inattentive to external impreffions, an 
idea of reminifcence is often miftaken for 
an idea of fenfation. But the affection of 
the external extremity is fo unlike the 
original one, that, as Diderot obferves, 
unlefs in the cafe of violent emotions, it 
is not detected at al]. There is a diffec- 
ence not only in the extent, but in the 
duration. All ideas of reminifcence are 
meres fpeedily completed than the corre- 
{ponding ideas of fenfation: a land{cape, 
* Diderot, in his Letter on. the Blind, 
makes an obfervation which perfonal ex- 
perience confirms. ‘Il Yet cependant 
arrivé a moil-méme, dans les agitations d’une 
paflion violente, d’eprouver un friffonrement 
dans toute une main, de fentir limpreffion 
des corps que j’avais touché, il ya long-| 
temps,.s’y reveiller aufli vivement que s’ils ‘ 
eufient encore été prefens 4 mon attouche- 
ment, et de m’appercevoir trés dilin@emect 
gue les limites de la fenfation coincidaiear 
avec celles de ces corps abfens.”” 
a fymphony, 
