Some are so hardened in wickedness as to have no sense of the most
friendly offices.
L' Estrange.
8. (Geom.) One of two opposite directions in which a line, surface, or
volume, may be supposed to be described by the motion of a point, line,
or surface.
Common sense, according to Sir W. Hamilton: (a) "The complement of
those cognitions or convictions which we receive from nature, which all
men possess in common, and by which they test the truth of knowledge
and the morality of actions." (b) "The faculty of first principles."
These two are the philosophical significations. (c) "Such ordinary
complement of intelligence, that,if a person be deficient therein, he
is accounted mad or foolish." (d) When the substantive is emphasized:
"Native practical intelligence, natural prudence, mother wit, tact in
behavior, acuteness in the observation of character, in contrast to
habits of acquired learning or of speculation." -- Moral sense. See
under Moral, (a). -- The inner, or internal, sense, capacity of the
mind to be aware of its own states; consciousness; reflection. "This
source of ideas every man has wholly in himself, and though it be not
sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it is very
like it, and might properly enough be called internal sense." Locke. --
Sense capsule (Anat.), one of the cartilaginous or bony cavities which
inclose, more or less completely, the organs of smell, sight, and
hearing. -- Sense organ (Physiol.), a specially irritable mechanism by
which some one natural force or form of energy is enabled to excite
sensory nerves; as the eye, ear, an end bulb or tactile corpuscle, etc.
- - Sense organule (Anat.), one of the modified epithelial cells in or
near which the fibers of the sensory nerves terminate.
Syn. -- Understanding; reason. -- Sense, Understanding, Reason. Some
philosophers have given a technical signification to these terms, which
may here be stated. Sense is the mind's acting in the direct cognition
either of material objects or of its own mental states. In the first
case it is called the outer, in the second the inner, sense.
Understanding is the logical faculty, i. e., the power of apprehending
under general conceptions, or the power of classifying, arranging, and
making deductions. Reason is the power of apprehending those first or
fundamental truths or principles which are the conditions of all real
and scientific knowledge, and which control the mind in all its
processes of investigation and deduction. These distinctions are given,
not as established, but simply because they often occur in writers of
the present day.
Sense (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sensed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sensing.] To
perceive by the senses; to recognize. [Obs. or Colloq.]
Is he sure that objects are not otherwise sensed by others than
they are by him?
Glanvill.
Sense"ful (?), a. Full of sense, meaning, or reason; reasonable;
judicious. [R.] "Senseful speech." Spenser. "Men, otherwise senseful
and ingenious." Norris.
Sense"less, a. Destitute of, deficient in, or contrary to, sense;
without sensibility or feeling; unconscious; stupid; foolish; unwise;
unreasonable.
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things.
Shak.
The ears are senseless that should give us hearing.
Shak.
The senseless grave feels not your pious sorrows.
Rowe.
They were a senseless, stupid race.
Swift.
They would repent this their senseless perverseness when it would
be too late.
Clarendon.
--- Sense"less*ly, adv. -- Sense"less*ness, n.
Sen`si*bil"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Sensibilities (#). [Cf. F. sensibilité,
LL. sensibilitas.] 1. (Physiol.) The quality or state of being
sensible, or capable of sensation; capacity to feel or perceive.
2. The capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the
intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression,
pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy;
as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise;
exquisite sensibility; - - often used in the plural. "Sensibilities so
fine!" Cowper.
The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility.
Burke.
His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than
of wounded pride.
Marshall.