Some Names which require a particular Explanation 1
SECTION 1. Names of Names 3
2. Relative Terms 6
Abstract Relative Terms 72
3. Numbers 89
4. Privative Terms 99
5. Time 116
6. Motion 142
7. Identity 164
CHAPTER XV.
Reflection 176
CHAPTER XVI.
The Distinction between the Intellectual and Active Powers of
the Human Mind 181
CHAPTER XVII.
Pleasurable and Painful Sensations 184
CHAPTER XVIII.
Causes of the Pleasurable and Painful Sensations 187
CHAPTER XIX.
Ideas of the Pleasurable and Painful Sensations, and of the
Causes of them 189
CHAPTER XX.
The Pleasurable and Painful Sensations, contemplated as passed,
or future 196
{vi} CHAPTER XXI.
The Causes of Pleasurable and Painful Sensations, contemplated
as passed, or future 201
SECTION 1. The immediate Causes of Pleasurable and Painful
Sensations, contemplated as passed, or as future 201
2. The Remote Causes of Pleasurable and Painful
Sensations contemplated as passed, or future 206
SUB-SECT. 1. Wealth, Power, and Dignity, and their
Contraries, contemplated as Causes of our
Pleasures and Pains 207
2. Our Fellow-Creatures contemplated as Causes of
our Pleasures and Pains 214
1.--Friendship 216
2.--Kindness 216
3.--Family 218
4.--Country 226
5.--Party; Class 227
6.--Mankind 229
3. The Objects called Sublime and Beautiful, and
their Contraries, contemplated as Causes of our
Pleasures and Pains 230
CHAPTER XXII.
Motives 256
SECTION 1. Pleasurable or Painful States, contemplated as the
Consequents of our own Acts 256
2. Causes of our Pleasurable and Painful States,
contemplated as the Consequents of our own Acts 265
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Acts of our Fellow-creatures, which are Causes of our Pains
and Pleasures, contemplated as Consequents of our own Acts 280
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Will 327
CHAPTER XXV.
Intention *396
ANALYSIS
ETC.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
"I shall inquire into the original of those ideas, notions, or
whatever else you please to call them, which a man observes and is
conscious to himself he has in his mind; and the ways whereby the
understanding comes to be furnished with them." _Locke_, i. 1, 3.
PHILOSOPHICAL inquiries into the human mind have for their main, and
ultimate object, the exposition of its more complex phenomena.
It is necessary, however, that the simple should be premised;
because they are the elements of which the complex are formed; and
because a distinct knowledge of the elements is indispensable to an
accurate conception of that which is compounded of them.
The feelings which we have through the external senses are the most
simple, at least the most familiar, of the mental phenomena. Hence
the propriety of commencing with this class of our feelings. {2}
CHAPTER I.
SENSATION.
"I shall not at present meddle with the physical consideration of
the mind, or trouble myself to examine wherein its essence consists;
or by what motions of our spirits, or alterations of our bodies, we
come to have any Sensation by our organs, or any Ideas in our
understandings; and whether those ideas do in their formation, any
or all of them, depend on matter or no. These are speculations
which, however curious and entertaining, I shall decline, as lying
out of my way in the design I am now upon."--_Locke_, i. 1, 2.
MY object, in what I shall say respecting the phenomena classed
under the head of SENSATION, is, to lead such of my readers as are
new to this species of inquiry to conceive the feelings distinctly.
All men are familiar with them; but this very familiarity, as the
mind runs easily from one well known object to another, is a reason
why the boundary between them and other feelings is not always
observed. It is necessary, therefore, that the learner should by
practice acquire the habit of reflecting upon his Sensations, as a
distinct class of feelings; and should be hence prepared to mark
well the distinction between them and other states of mind, when he
{3} advances to the analysis of the more mysterious phenomena.
What we commonly mean, when we use the terms Sensation or phenomena
of Sensation, are the feelings which we have by the five
senses,--SMELL, TASTE, HEARING, TOUCH, and SIGHT. These are the
feelings from which we derive our notions of what we denominate the
external world;--the things by which we are surrounded: that is, the
antecedents of the most interesting consequents, in the whole series
of feelings, which constitute our mental train, or existence.
The feelings, however, which belong to the five external Senses are
not a full enumeration of the feelings which it seems proper to rank
under the head of Sensations, and which must be considered as
bearing an important part in those complicated phenomena, which it
is our principal business, in this inquiry, to separate into their
principal elements, and explain. Of these unnamed, and generally
unregarded, Sensations, two principal classes may be
distinguished:--first, Those which accompany the action of the
several muscles of the body; and, secondly, Those which have their
place in the Alimentary Canal.[1]
[Bain's footnote 1: Important points of Psychology are raised in
classifying the senses, and in assigning the order of their
exposition. The author justly animadverts on the insufficiency of
the common enumeration of the Five Senses, and indicates two grand
omissions--the Muscular Sensibilities, and the feelings associated
with Digestion.
With regard to the first omission--the Muscular Feelings,--a further
advance has been found requisite. Instead of adding these to the
list, as a sixth sense, they are made a genus apart {4} and put in
contrast to the Sensations as commonly understood. They are the
feelings of our ACTIVITY, of the Active side of our nature, and are
in relation to the Motor or Outcarrying nerves of the body. The
Sensations proper, such as Smell and Hearing, are the feelings of
our RECEPTIVITY, or Passivity, and arise in connection with the
Sentient, or Incarrying nerves. In the exercise of the senses,
however, a muscular element is almost always combined. This is
conspicuous in Touch, which is most frequently accompanied with
movements of the hand, or other parts touched; it is also the case
with Sight, there being six muscles constantly engaged in moving the
eye-ball. There is least muscularity in Hearing and Smell, but in
neither is it wholly absent. Thus in Hearing, there are certain
small muscles for adjusting the tightness of the membrane of the
tympanum; apart from which, there are movements of the head in
conjunction with hearing. So in Smell; the sniffing action with the
breath is muscular. Nevertheless, it is easy to separate, in all the
senses, the passive and proper sensibility of the sense, (called by
Hamilton the _idiopathic_ sensibility) from the active
accompaniment. We can make experiments upon passive touch, or pure
contact; we can isolate in our consciousness the optical sensibility
of the eye; we can eliminate activity from the ear; and we can
attend to the sensations of smell in their pure passivity.
The best course of proceeding is to deal with Muscularity apart, in
the first instance, and to give it the priority in the order of
exposition. Chronologically it is an earlier fact of our being; we
move before we feel; there is an inborn energy of action in the
animal system, which goes out, as it were, and meets the objects of
sensation. This is one reason of priority. Another is the fact just
stated that movement accompanies all the senses, or is a common
factor in sensation. To discuss its peculiar sensibility is thus a
preparation for treating of the senses.
The importance of drawing a broad line between the active and the
passive branches of our primary sensibilities is seen in various
applications, but most especially in the problem of {5} External
Perception. The great distinction that this problem requires us to
draw between the external and the internal sides of our being (so
described by an imperfect metaphor) has its deepest foundation in
the distinction between the sense of expended muscular energy and
the feelings that are neither energy in themselves, nor vary
definitely according to our energies. The qualities of things
admitted on all hands to be qualities of the external (or object)
world--called the Primary Qualities, Resistance and Extension,--are
modes of our muscular energies; the qualities that do not of
themselves suggest externality, or objectivity,--the secondary
qualities, as Heat, Colour, &c.--are our passive sensibilities, and
do not contain muscular energy. When these secondary qualities enter
into definite connections with our movements, they are then referred
to the external, or object world. Light and colour, when varying
definitely with our various movements, as postures and actions, are
from that circumstance referred to the external, or _non-ego_;
without such connections they would be called internal or subjective
states.
The contrasted terms 'Object' and 'Subject' are the least
exceptionable for expressing the fundamental antithesis of
consciousness and of existence. Matter and Mind, External and
Internal, are the popular synonyms, but are less free from
misleading suggestions. Extension is the Object fact by
pre-eminence; Pleasure and Pain are the most marked phases of pure
Subjectivity. Between the consciousness of extension and the
consciousness of a pleasure there is the broadest line that can be
drawn within the human experience; the broadest distinction in the
whole universe of being. These then are the Object and Subject
extremes; and, in the final analysis, the object extreme appears to
be grounded on the feeling of expended muscular energy.
The second omission alluded to is the Digestive Sensibility, which
ought undoubtedly to be included among sensations, having all the
constituents of a sense; an object--the food; a sensitive organ--the
stomach; and a characteristic form of sensibility or feeling. The
author farther takes notice of {6} 'Sensations of Disorganization,
or of the approach to Disorganization, in any part of the body,'
which too deserve to be reckoned among mental facts. He might
farther have adverted to the acute and depressing feelings of the
Lungs, in case of partial suffocation, with the exhilaration
attending the relief from such a state, and the change from a close
to a fresh atmosphere. Moreover, there are states of purely physical
comfort, associated with a vigorous circulation, with healthy
innervation, with the proper action of the skin; and feelings of
discomfort and depression from the opposite states. A slight
allusion to these various feelings occurs in chapter second towards
the close.
These various modes of sensibility seem to be fitly grouped together
under the common head of Sensations of Organic Life: their detail
being arranged according to the several organs--viz.--the Alimentary
Canal, Lungs, Circulation, Nervous System, &c. These would make a
sixth Sense properly so called, or a department of passive
sensibility.--_B._] {7}
SECTION I.
SMELL.
It is not material to the present purpose in what order we survey
the subdivisions of this elementary class of the mental phenomena.
It will be convenient to take those first, which can be most easily
thought of by themselves; that is, of which a conception, free from
the mixture of any extraneous ingredient, can be most certainly
formed. For this reason we begin with SMELL.[2]
[Bain's footnote 2: The order of exposition of the senses is not a
matter of indifference. The author, like Condillac, selected Smell
to begin with, as being a remarkably simple and characteristic
feeling; he has found another expository advantage in it, by
disturbing our routine mode of regarding the intellect as
principally made up of sensations of sight. It has a startling
effect on the reader, to suggest a mental life consisting wholly of
smells and ideas of smell.
There are two principles of arrangement of the senses, each good for
its own purpose; it being understood that the active or muscular
sensibility is taken apart from, and prior to, sensation proper.
The first is to take them in the order of Intellectual development.
Some of the senses are evidently intellectual in a high degree, as
Sight and Hearing, others are intellectual in a much smaller degree,
as Smell and Taste. The organic sensations are still less connected
with the operations of the intellect. Many of the least intellectual
sensations are remarkably intense, as pleasure and pain; perhaps
more so than the intellectually higher class. The organic pains are
more unendurable than the worst pains of hearing or of sight, unless
these are assimilated to the other class, by injury of the organs.
The intellectual superiority of the higher senses shows itself in
two ways, the one strictly in the domain of Intellect, the other in
the domain of Feeling. As regards Intellect, it is shown in the
predominance of the ideas of the higher senses. Our intellectual or
ideal trains, the materials of thought and knowledge, are made up
most of all of ideas of sight, next of ideas of hearing, to a less
degree of ideas of touch or skin contact, and, least of all, of
ideas of stomach and lung sensations or other organic states. The
trains of the scientific man, of the man of business, and even of
the handicraft worker, are almost entirely made up of ideas of sight
and of hearing (with active or muscular ideas). Our understanding of
the order of nature, our very notion of the material universe, is a
vast and complex scheme of ideas of sight.
The intellectual superiority of the higher senses in the domain of
Feeling is connected with the remembrance or ideal persistence of
pleasures and pains. The pleasures of Digestion are weakly and
ineffectively remembered, in the absence of the actuality. The
pleasures of Smell are remembered better. The pleasures and pains of
Hearing and Sight are remembered best of any. This gives them a
higher value in life; the addition made to the actual, by the ideal,
is, in their case, the greatest of all. They are said, for this
among other reasons, to be more refined.
The arrangement dictated by the gradation of intellectuality would
be as follows:--1. Sensations of Organic Life. 2. Taste. 3. Smell.
4. Touch. 5. Hearing. 6. Sight.
The second principle of arrangement starts with Touch, as the most
simple in its mode of action, and the most diffused in its
operation. Touch consists in mere mechanical pressure on a sensitive
surface; this is the most simple and elementary of all stimuli. The
other senses are regarded as specialised modifications of Touch.
In Hearing, the mode of action is touch or mechanical contact. In
the remaining senses, the contact is accompanied with other forces.
Taste and Smell involve chemical change, as well as contact. The
action of Light on the eye is probably some species of molecular
disturbance involving chemical action. This mode of viewing the
order and dependence of the senses belongs more especially to the
theory of the development of the organic system, which is made
prominent in the Psychology of Mr. Herbert Spencer. The arrangement
might be variously expressed:--it might be Touch, Hearing, Sight,
Taste, Smell, Organic Sensibility; or Touch, Hearing, Taste, Smell,
Organic Sensibility, Sight.--_B._]
{8} In the Smell three things are commonly distinguished. There is
the ORGAN, there is the SENSATION, and there is the antecedent of
the Sensation, the {9} external OBJECT, as it is commonly
denominated,[1*] to which the Sensation is referred as an effect to
its cause.
[Mill's footnote 1: It is necessary here to observe, that I use,
throughout this Inquiry, the language most commonly in use. This is
attended with its disadvantages; for on the subject of mind the
ordinary language almost always involves more or less of theory,
which may or may not appear to me to correspond with the true
exposition of the phenomena. The advantages, however, of not
departing from familiar terms still appeared to me to preponderate;
and I am willing to hope, that such erroneous suggestions, as are
sometimes inseparable from the language I have thought it best upon
the whole to employ, will be corrected, without any particular
notice, by the analysis which I shall present.--(_Author's Note_.)]
These three distinguishable particulars are common to all the five
Senses. With regard to the ORGAN, which is a physical rather than a
mental subject of inquiry, I shall have occasion to say little more
than is required to make my reader distinguish, with sufficient
accuracy, the part of his body to which the {10} separate feelings
of his five Senses belong. And with regard to the antecedent of the
Sensation, or OBJECT of the Senses, the proper place for explaining
what is capable of being known of it is at a subsequent part of this
inquiry. My desire at present is, to fix the attention of the reader
upon the SENSATION; that he may mark it as a mental state of a
particular kind, distinct from every other feeling of his nature.
The ORGAN of Smell, as every body knows, is situated in the mouth
and nostrils, or in the nerves, appropriated to smelling, which are
found in the passage between the mouth and nostrils, and in the
vicinity of that passage.
Though it appears to be ascertained that the nerves are necessary to
sensation, it is by no means ascertained in what way they become
necessary. It is a mystery how the nerves, similar in all parts of
the body, afford us, in one place, the sensation of sound; in
another, the sensations of light and colours; in another, those of
odours, in another those of flavours, and tastes, and so on.
With respect to the external OBJECT, as it is usually denominated,
of this particular sense; in other words, the antecedent, of which
the Sensation Smell is the consequent; it is, in vulgar
apprehension, the visible, tangible object, from which the odour
proceeds. Thus, we are said to smell a rose, when we have the
sensation derived from the odour of the rose. It is more correct
language, however, to say, that we smell the odorous particles which
proceed from the visible, tangible object, than that we smell the
object itself; for, if any thing prevents the odorous particles,
which the body emits, from reaching the organ of smell, the {11}
sensation is not obtained. The object of the sense of smelling then
are odorous particles, which only operate, or produce the sensation,
when they reach the organ of smell.
But what is meant by odorous particles we are still in ignorance.
Something, neither visible nor tangible, is conveyed, through the
air, to the olfactory nerves; but of this something we know no more
than that it is the antecedent of that nervous change, or variety of
consciousness, which we denote by the word smell.
Still farther, When we say that the odorous particles, of which we
are thus ignorant, reach the nerves which constitute the organ of
smell, we attach hardly any meaning to the word reach. We know not
whether the particles in question produce their effect, by contact,
or without contact. As the nerves in every part of the body are
covered, we know not how any external particles can reach them. We
know not whether such particles operate upon the nerves, by their
own, or by any other influence; the galvanic, for example, or
electrical, influence.
These observations, with regard to the organ of smell, and the
object of smell, are of importance, chiefly as they show us how
imperfect our knowledge still is of all that is merely corporeal in
sensation, and enable us to fix our attention more exclusively upon
that which alone is material to our subsequent inquiries--that point
of consciousness which we *denominate the sensation of smell, the
mere feeling, detached from every thing else.
When we smell a rose, there is a particular feeling, a particular
consciousness, distinct from all others, which we mean to denote,
when we call it the smell {12} of the rose. In like manner we speak
of the smell of hay, the smell of turpentine, and the smell of a
fox. We also speak of good smells, and bad smells; meaning by the
one, those which are agreeable to us; by the other, those which are
offensive. In all these cases what we speak of is a point of
consciousness, a thing which we can describe no otherwise than by
calling it a feeling; a part of that series, that succession, that
flow of something, on account of which we call ourselves living or
sensitive creatures.
We can distinguish this feeling, this consciousness, the sensation
of smell, from every other sensation. Smell and Sound are two very
different things; so are smell and sight. The smell of a rose is
different from the colour of the rose; it is also different from the
smoothness of the rose, or the sensation we have by touching the
rose.
We not only distinguish the sensations of smell from those of the
other senses, but we distinguish the sensations of smell from one
another. The smell of a rose is one sensation; the smell of a violet
is another. The difference we find between one smell and another is
in some cases very great; between the smell of a rose, for example,
and that of carrion or assafoetida.
The number of distinguishable smells is very great. Almost every
object in nature has a peculiar smell; every animal, every plant,
and almost every mineral. Not only have the different classes of
objects different smells, but probably different individuals in the
same class. The different smells of different individuals are
perceptible, to a certain extent, even by the human organs, and to a
much greater extent by those of the {13} dog, and other animals,
whose sense of smelling is more acute.
We can conceive ourselves, as endowed with smelling, and not
enjoying any other faculty. In that case, we should have no idea of
objects as seeable, as hearable, as touchable, or tasteable. We
should have a train of smells; the smell at one time of the rose, at
another of the violet, at another of carrion, and so on. The
successive points of consciousness, composing our sentient being,
would be mere smells. Our life would be a train of smells, and
nothing more. Smell, and Life, would be two names for the same
thing.
The terms which our language supplies, for speaking of this sense,
are exceedingly imperfect. It would obviously be desirable to have,
at any rate, distinct names for the ORGAN, for the OBJECT, and for
the SENSATION; and that these names should never be confounded. It
happens, unfortunately, that the word SMELL is applicable to all the
three. That the word smell expresses, both the quality, as we
vulgarly say, of the object smelt; and also the feeling of him by
whom it is smelt, every one is aware. If you ask whether the smell,
when I hold a violet to my nostrils, is in me or in the violet, it
would be perfectly proper to say, in both. The same thing, however,
is not in both, though the two things have the same name. What is in
me is the sensation, the feeling, the point of consciousness; and
that can be in nothing but a sentient being. What is in the rose, is
what I call a quality of the rose; in fact, the antecedent of my
sensation; of which, beside its being the antecedent of my
sensation, I know nothing. If I were speaking of a place in which my
senses had been {14} variously affected, and should say, that, along
with other pleasures, I had enjoyed a succession of the most
delightful smells, I should be understood to speak of my
_sensations_. If I were speaking of a number of unknown objects, and
should say of one, that it had a smell like that of honey; of
another, that it had a smell like that of garlick; I should be
understood as speaking of the _object_ of each sensation, a quality
of the thing smelt.
The word smell, beside denoting the _sensation_ and the _object_,
denotes also the _organ_, in such phrases as the following; "Sight
and Hearing are two of the inlets of my knowledge, and Smell is a
third;" "The faculty by which I become sensible of odour is my
Smell."[3]
[Editor's footnote 3: It may be questioned whether, in the phrases
here cited, the word Smell stands for the olfactory organ. It would
perhaps be most correct to say, that in these cases it denotes the
abstract capacity of smelling, rather than the concrete physical
instrument. Even when smell is said to be one of the five senses,
it may fairly be doubted whether a part of the meaning intended is,
that it is one of the five _organs_ of sensation. Nothing more seems
to be meant, than that it is one of five distinguishable _modes_ of
having sensations, whatever the intrinsic difference between those
modes may be.
In the author's footnote he recognises that the abstract power of
smelling enters into this particular application of the word Smell;
and refers to a subsequent part of the treatise for the meaning of
Power. But he thinks that along with the power, or as part of the
conception of Power, the material organ is also signified. It seems
to me that the organ does not enter in either of these modes, into
the signification of the word. We can imagine ourselves ignorant
that we possess physical organs; or aware that we possess them, but
not aware that our sensations of smell are connected with them. Yet
on either of these suppositions the "power of smelling" would be
perfectly intelligible, and would have the same meaning to us which
it has now.--_Ed._]
{15} In the phrases in which smell is called a SENSE, as when we
say, that smell is one of the five senses, there is considerable
complexity. The term here imports the _organ_, it imports the
_sensation_, and, in a certain way, it imports also the _object_.
It imports the organ as existing continuously, the sensation as
existing only under a certain condition, and that condition the
presence of the object.[2*]
[Mill's footnote 2: It will naturally occur to some of my readers,
that, in the term sense of smelling, the idea of power is also
included. They will say, that when we speak of the sense of
smelling, we mean not only the organ, but the function of the organ,
or its power of producing a certain effect. This is undoubtedly
true; but when the real meaning of the language is evolved, it only
amounts to that which is delivered in the text. For what does any
person mean when he says that, in the sense of smelling, he has the
power of smelling? Only this, that he has an organ, and that when
the object of that organ is presented to it, sensation is the
consequence. In all this, there is nothing but the organ, the
object, and the sensation, conceived in a certain order. This will
more fully appear when the meaning of the relative terms, cause and
effect, has been explained.--(_Author's Note_.)]
{16} SECTION II.
HEARING.
In Hearing, the same three particulars, the ORGAN, the OBJECT, and
the FEELING, require to be distinguished.
The name of the organ is the Ear; and its nice and complicated
structure has been described with minuteness and admiration by
anatomists and physiologists.
In vulgar discourse, the object of our Sense of Hearing is a
sounding body. We say that we hear the bell, the trumpet, the
cannon. This language, however, is not correct. That which precedes
the feeling received through the ear, is the approach of vibrating
air to the ear. Certain bodies, made to vibrate in a certain way,
communicate vibrations to the air, and the vibrating air, admitted
into the ear, is followed by the sensation of hearing. If the air
which the body makes to vibrate does not enter the ear, however the
body itself may vibrate, sensation does not follow; hearing does not
take place. There is, in fact, no sound. Of the circumstances in
which sound is generated, part only were present. There was the
organ, and there was the object, but not that juxta-position which
is needed to make the antecedent of the sensation complete. Air
vibrating in juxta-position to the organ, is the object of Hearing.
How air in vibration should produce the {17} remarkable effect,
called hearing, in the nerves of the ear, and no effect in those of
the eye, in those of smelling, or those of taste, our knowledge does
not enable us to tell.
It is not very difficult to think of the sensation of hearing, apart
from the organ, and from the object, as well as from every other
feeling. I hear the hum of bees. The feeling to which I give this
name is a point of my own consciousness; it is an elementary part of
my sensitive being; of that thread of consciousness, drawn out in
succession, which I call myself. I have the hearing; it is a
sensation of my own; it is my feeling, and no other man's feeling;
it is a very different feeling from taste, and a very different
feeling from smell, and from all my other feelings.
I hear the song of birds, I hear the lowing of oxen, I hear the
sighing of the wind, I hear the roaring of the sea. I have a
feeling, in each of these cases; a consciousness, which I can
distinguish not only from the feelings of my other senses, but from
the other feelings of the same sense. If I am asked, what takes
place in me, when a trumpet is unexpectedly sounded in the next
room, I answer, a sensation, a particular feeling. I become
conscious in a particular way.
The number of those feelings which we are able to distinguish is
very great. In this respect, the organ of hearing in man, is much
more perfect than the organ of smell. The organ of hearing can
distinguish, not only the voices of different classes, but of
different individuals in the same class. There never, probably, {18}
was a man whose voice was not distinguishable from that of every
other man, by those who were familiarly acquainted with it.
The most simple case of sound is that perhaps of a single note on a
musical instrument. This note may be sounded on an endless number of
instruments, and by an endless number of human voices, from no two
of which will the same sound exactly be returned.
We can think of ourselves as having the feelings of this class, and
having no other. In that case, our whole being would be a series of
Hearings. It would be one sensation of hearing, another sensation of
hearing, and nothing more. Our thread of consciousness would be the
sensation, which we denominate sound. Life and sound would be two
names for the same thing.
The language by which we speak of the "sense of hearing," is also
imperfect. We have, indeed, the term Ear, to express the ORGAN, but
we have no appropriate name for the SENSATION, nor for the OBJECT.
The term sound is a name both of the sensation and the object. If I
were asked, when the bell rings, whether the sound is in me, or in
the bell, I might answer, in both; not that the same thing is in
both; the things are different; having the same name. The sensation
called a sound is in me, the vibration called a sound is in the
bell. Hearing is equally ambiguous; a name both of the organ and the
feeling. If asked, by which of my organs I have the knowledge of
sound, I should answer, my hearing. And if asked what feeling it is
I have by the ear, I still should say, hearing. Hearing is rarely
made use of to denote {19} the object of hearing, and hardly at all
except by figure.
Noise is a name which denotes the object, in certain cases. There is
a certain class of sounds, to which we give the name noise. In those
cases, however, noise is also the name of the sensation. In fact, it
is the name of the sensation first, and only by transference that of
the object.
In the phrase, sense of hearing, the word has the same complexity of
meaning, which we found in the word smelling, in the corresponding
application of that term. When I say that I have the sense of
hearing, I mean to say, that I have an organ, which organ has an
appropriate object; and that when the organ and the object are in
the appropriate position, the sensation of hearing is the
consequent. In the term, sense of hearing, then, is included, the
organ, the object, and the sensation, with the idea of a synchronous
order of the two first, and a successive order of the third. "Sense
of hearing" is thus seen to be the name of a very complex idea,
including five distinguishable ingredients, the idea of the organ of
hearing, the idea of the sensation, the idea of the object of
hearing, the idea of a synchronous order, and the idea of a
successive order.[4]
[Editor's footnote 4: In the case of hearing, as of smell, one of
the ambiguities brought to notice by the author is of questionable
reality. It is doubtful if "hearing" is ever used as a name of the
organ. To the question supposed in the text, "by which of my organs
do I have the knowledge of sound" the correct answer would surely
be, not "my hearing"--an expression which, so {20} applied, could
only be accepted as elliptical,--but "my organ of hearing," or
(still better) "my ear." Again, the phrase "I have the sense of
hearing" signifies that I have a capacity of hearing, and that this
capacity is classed as one of sense, or in other words, that the
feelings to which it has reference belong to the class Sensations:
but the organ, though a necessary condition of my having the
sensations, does not seem to be implied in the name.--_Ed._]
{21} SECTION III.
SIGHT.
In SIGHT, the organ is very conspicuous, and has an appropriate
name, the Eye.
In ordinary language, the object of sight is the body which is said
to be seen. This is a similar error to those which we have detected
in the vulgar language relating to the senses of smell and hearing.
It is Light alone which enters the eye; and Light, with its numerous
modifications, is the sole object on sight.
How the particles of light affect the nerves of the eye, in the
peculiar manner in which they are affected in sight, without
affecting the other nerves of the body, in any similar manner, we
can render no account.
That the feeling we have in sight, is very different from the
feeling we have in hearing, in smelling, in tasting, or touching,
every man knows. It is difficult, however, to detach the feeling we
have in sight from every other feeling; because there are other
feelings which we are constantly in the habit of connecting with it;
and the passage in the mind from the one to the other is so rapid,
that they run together, and can not easily be distinguished. The
different modifications of light we call colour. But we cannot think
of the sensation of colour, without at the same time {22} thinking
of something coloured, of surface or extension, a notion derived
from another sense.
That the feelings of sight which we are capable of distinguishing
from one another, are exceedingly numerous, is obvious from this,
that it is by them we distinguish the infinite variety of visible
objects. We have the sensation; the sensation suggests the object;
and it is only by the difference of sensation, that the difference
of object can be indicated.
Some of the things suggested by the sensations of sight, as
extension and figure, are suggested so instantaneously, that they
appear to be objects of sight, things actually seen. But this
important law of our nature, by which so many things appear to be
seen, which are only suggested by the feelings of sight, it requires
the knowledge of other elements of the mental phenomena to explain.
The imperfections of the language, by which we have to speak of the
phenomena of sight, deserve the greatest attention.
We have an appropriate name for the organ; it is the Eye. And we
have an appropriate name for the Object; it is light. But we have no
appropriate name for the Sensation. From confusion of names,
proceeds confusion of ideas. And from misnaming, on this one point,
not a little unprofitable discourse on the subject of the human mind
has been derived.
The word sight, in certain phrases, denotes the sensation. If I am
asked, what is the feeling which I have by the eye? I answer, sight.
But sight is also a name of the object. The light of day is said to
be a beautiful sight. And sight is sometimes employed as a name of
the organ. An old man informs us, {23} that his sight is failing,
meaning that his eyes are failing.[5]
[Editor's footnote 5: The example given does not seem to me to prove
that sight is ever employed as a name of the organ. When an old man
says that his sight is failing, he means only that he is less
capable of seeing. His eyes might be failing in some other respect,
when he would not say that his sight was failing. The term "sense of
sight," like sense of hearing or of smell, stands, as it seems to
me, for the capability, without reference to the organ.--_Ed._]
Colour is a name, as well of the object, as of the sensation. It is
most commonly a name of the object. Colour is, properly speaking, a
modification of light, though it is never conceived but as something
spread over a surface; it is, therefore, not the name of light
simply, but the name of three things united, light, surface, and a
certain position of the two. In many cases, however, we have no
other name for the sensation. If I am asked, what feeling I have
when a red light is presented to my eyes, I can only say, the colour
of red; and so of other visual feelings, the colour of green, the
colour of white, and so on.
In the term sense of sight, the same complexity of meaning is
involved which we have observed in the terms sense of smell, and
sense of hearing. When I speak of my sense of sight, as when I speak
of the attraction of the load-stone, I mean to denote an antecedent,
and a consequent; the organ with its object in appropriate position,
the antecedent; the sensation, the consequent. This is merely the
philosophical statement of the fact, that, when light is received
into the eye, the sensation of sight is the consequence.
Vision, a word expressive of the phenomena of {24} sight, is
ambiguous in the same manner. It is sometimes used to denote the
sense of seeing; that is, the antecedent and consequent, as
explained in the preceding paragraph. Thus we say, the phenomena of
vision, with the same propriety as we say the phenomena of sight. It
is sometimes employed to denote the sensation. If we ask what
feeling a blind man is deprived of, it would be perfectly proper to
say, vision is the feeling of which he is deprived. It is, also,
employed to denote the object. What vision was that? would be a very
intelligible question, on the sudden appearance and disappearance of
something which attracted the eye.[6]
[Editor's footnote 6: Vision, I believe, is used to denote the
object of sight, only when it is supposed that this object is
something unreal, _i.e._, that it has not any extended and resisting
substance behind it: or rhetorically, to signify that the object
looks more like a phantom than a reality; as when Burke calls Marie
Antoinette, as once seen by him, a delightful vision.--_Ed._]
{25} SECTION IV.
TASTE.
The ORGAN of TASTE is in the mouth and fauces.
In ordinary language, the OBJECT of taste is any thing, which, taken
into the mouth, and tasted, as it is called, produces the peculiar
SENSATION of this sense. Nor has philosophy as yet enabled us to
state the object of taste more correctly. There are experiments
which show, that galvanism is concerned in the phenomena, but not in
what way.
The SENSATION, in this case, is distinguished by every body. The
taste of sugar, the taste of an apple, are words which immediately
recall the ideas of distinct feelings. It is to be observed,
however, that the feelings of this sense are very often united with
those of the sense of smell; the two organs being often affected by
the same thing, at the same time. In that case, though we have two
sensations, they are so intimately blended as to seem but one; and
the flavour of the apple, the flavour of the wine, appears to be a
simple sensation, though compounded of taste and smell.[7]
[Editor's footnote 7: Some physiologists have been of opinion that a
large proportion of what are classed as tastes, including all
flavours, as distinguished from the generic tastes of sweet, sour,
bitter, &c., are really affections of the nerves of smell, and are
mistaken for tastes only because they are experienced along with
tastes, as a consequence of taking food into the mouth.--_Ed._]
{26} It is not so easy, in the case of this, as of some of the other
senses, to conceive ourselves as having this class of feelings and
no other. Antecedent to the sensation of taste, there is generally
some motion of the mouth, by which the object and the organ are
brought into the proper position and state. The sensation can hardly
be thought of without thinking of this motion, that is, of other
feelings. Besides, the organ of taste is also the organ of another
sense. The organ of taste has the sense of touch, and most objects
of taste are objects of touch. Sensations of touch, therefore, are
intimately blended with those of taste.
By a little pains, however, any one may conceive the sensations of
tasting, while he conceives his other organs to remain in a
perfectly inactive state, and himself as nothing but a passive
recipient of one taste after another. If he conceives a mere train
of those sensations, perfectly unmixed with any other feeling, he
will have the conception of a being made up of tastes; a thread of
consciousness, which maybe called mere taste; a life which is merely
taste.
The language employed about this sense is not less faulty, than that
employed about the other senses, which we have already surveyed.
There is no proper name for the organ. The word Mouth, which we are
often obliged to employ for that purpose, is the name of this organ
and a great deal more.
There is no proper name for the object. We are obliged to call it,
that which has taste. The word flavour is used to denote that
quality, which is more peculiarly the object of taste, in certain
articles of food; and sometimes we borrow the word sapidity, {27}
from the Latin, to answer the same purpose more extensively.
The word taste is a name for the sensation. We generally call the
feeling, which is the point of consciousness in this case, by the
name taste. Thus we say one taste is pleasant, another unpleasant;
and nothing is pleasant or unpleasant but a feeling.
The word taste is also a name for the object, as when we say, that
any thing has taste.
It is further employed as a name of the organ. As we are said to
perceive qualities by the eye, the ear, and the touch; so we are
said to perceive them by the taste.
In the phrase, sense of taste, there is the same complexity of
meaning as we have observed in the corresponding phrase in the case
of the other senses. In this phrase, taste expresses all the leading
particulars; the organ, the object, and the sensation, together with
the order of position in the two first, and the order of constant
sequence in the last.[8]
[Editor's footnote 8: The statement that "taste" is sometimes
employed as a name of the organ, seems to me, like the similar
statements respecting the names of our other senses,
disputable.--_Ed._]
{28} SECTION V.
TOUCH.
In discoursing about the ORGAN, the SENSATIONS, and the OBJECTS, of
touch, more vagueness has been admitted, than in the case of any of
the other senses.
In fact, every sensation which could not properly be assigned to any
other of the senses, has been allotted to the touch. The sensations
classed, or rather jumbled together, under this head, form a kind of
miscellany, wherein are included feelings totally unlike.
The ORGAN of TOUCH is diffused over the whole surface of the body,
and reaches a certain way into the alimentary canal. Of food, as
merely tangible, there is seldom a distinct sensation in the
stomach, or any lower part of the channel, except towards the
extremity. The stomach, however, is sensible to heat, and so is the
whole of the alimentary canal, as far at least as any experiment is
capable of being made. It may, indeed, be inferred, that we are
insensible to the feelings of touch, throughout the intestinal
canal, only from the habit of not attending to them.[9]
[Bain's footnote 9: The surface of the sense of Touch properly so
called is the skin, or common integument of the body, the interior
of the mouth and the tongue, and the interior of the nose. There are
common anatomical peculiarities in these organs; which distinguish
them from the alimentary canal and all the other interior surfaces
of the body. Moreover, although, in the alimentary canal, there is
solid or liquid contact with a sensitive surface, the mode of
exciting the sensitive nerves, and the resulting sensibility, are
peculiar and distinct. The mode of action in touch is mechanical
contact or pressure, mainly of solid and resisting bodies; in
digestion, the nerves are affected through chemical and other
processes--solution, absorption, assimilation, &c. In touch, there
is the peculiar feeling known as hard contact, together with the
varying discrimination of plurality of points. In digestion, when
healthy, the feeling of contact is entirely absent.--_B._]
{29} We have next to consider the OBJECT of TOUCH. Whatever yields
resistance, and whatever is extended, figured, hot, or cold, we set
down, in ordinary language, as objects of touch.
I shall show, when the necessary explanations have been afforded,
that the idea of resistance, the idea of extension, and the idea of
figure, include more than can be referred to the touch, as the ideas
of visible figure and magnitude include more than can be referred to
the eye. It has been long known, that many of the things, which the
feeling by the eye seems to include, it only suggests. It is not
less important to know, that the same is the case with the tactual
feeling; that this also suggests various particulars which it has
been supposed to comprehend.
In the present stage of our investigation, it is not expedient to
push very far the inquiry, what it is, or is not, proper, to class
as sensations of touch, because that can be settled with much
greater advantage hereafter.
The sensations of heat and cold offer this advantage,--that being
often felt without the accompaniment of {30} any thing visible or
extended, which can be called an object, they can be more distinctly
conceived as simple feelings, than most of our other sensations.[10]
They are feelings very different from the ordinary sensations of
touch; and possibly the only reason for classing them with those
sensations was, that the organ of them, like that of touch, is
diffused over the whole body. We know not that the nerves
appropriated to the sensations of heat and cold are the same with
those which have the sensation of touch. If they be the same, they
must at any rate be affected in a very different manner.
[Bain's footnote 10: The sensations of heat and cold are, of all
sensations, the most _subjective_. The reason is that they are least
connected with definite muscular energies. The rise and fall of the
temperature of the surrounding air may induce sensations wholly
independent of our own movements; and to whatever extent such
independence exists, there is a corresponding absence of
objectivity. This independence, however, is still only partial, even
in the case of heat and cold; in a great number, perhaps a majority,
of instances, they depend upon our movements; as in changing our
position with reference to a fire, in our clothing, and so on. It is
the possibility of conceiving them in the pure subject character,
and apart from object relations, that constitutes them simple
feelings, in the acceptation of the text. Although not in an equal
degree, the same is true of sensations of hearing, on which the
author made a similar remark.--_B_].
To whatever class we may refer the sensations of heat and cold, in
their moderate degrees, it seems that good reasons may be given for
not ranking them with the sensations of touch, when they rise to the
degree of pain. All those acute feelings which attend the
disorganization, or tendency toward disorganization, {31} of the
several parts of our frame, seem entirely distinct from the feelings
of touch. Even in the case of cutting, or laceration, the mere touch
of the knife or other instrument is one feeling, the pain of the
cut, or laceration, another feeling, as much as, in the mouth, the
touch of the sugar is one feeling, the sweetness of it another.
As we shall offer reasons hereafter to show, that the feelings of
resistance, extension, and figure, are not feelings of touch, we
should endeavour to conceive what feeling it is which remains when
those feelings are taken away.
When we detach the feeling of resistance, we, of course, detach
those of hardness and softness, roughness and smoothness, which are
but different modifications of resistance. And when these, and the
feelings of extension and figure, are detached, a very simple
sensation seems to remain, the feeling which we have when something,
without being seen, comes gently in contact with our skin, in such a
way, that we cannot say whether it is hard or soft, rough or smooth,
of what figure it is, or of what size. A sense of something present
on the skin, and perhaps also on the interior parts of the body,
taken purely by itself, seems alone the feeling of touch.
The feelings of this sense are mostly moderate, partaking very
little of either pain or pleasure. This is the reason why the
stronger feelings, which are connected with them, those of
resistance, and extension, predominate in the groupe, and prevent
attention to the sensations of touch. The sensations of touch
operate as signs to introduce the ideas of resistance and extension,
and are no more regarded.
{32} The imperfection of the language which we employ, in speaking
of this sense, deserves not less of our regard, than that of the
language we employ, in speaking of our other senses.
We need distinct and appropriate names, for the organ, for the
object, and for the sensation. We have no such name for any of them.
The word touch is made to stand for all the three. I speak of my
touch, when I mean to denote my organ of touch. I speak also of my
touch, when I mean to denote my sensation. And in some cases,
speaking of the object, I call it touch. If I were to call a piece
of fine and brilliant velvet a fine sight, another person might say,
it is a fine touch as well as fine sight.[11]
[Editor's footnote 11: It is more true of the word touch, than of
the names of our other senses, that it is occasionally employed to
denote the organ of touch; because that organ, being the whole
surface of the body, has not, like the organs of the special senses,
a compact distinctive name. But it may be doubted if the word touch
ever stands for the object of touch. If a person made use of the
phrase in the text, "it is a fine touch as well as a fine sight," he
would probably be regarded as purchasing an epigrammatic turn of
expression at the expense of some violence to language.--_Ed._]
In ordinary language, the word feeling is appropriated to this
sense; though it has been found convenient, in philosophical
discourse, to make the term generical, so as to include every
modification of consciousness.[3*]
[Mill's footnote 3: "The word _feeling_, though in many cases we use
it as synonymous to _touching_, has, however, a much more extensive
signification, and is frequently employed to denote our internal, as
well as our external, affections. We feel hunger and thirst, we feel
joy and sorrow, we feel love and hatred."--_Ad. Smith_, _on the
External Senses_.--(_Author's Note_.)]
When I say that I feel the table, there is a considerable complexity
of meaning. Dr. Reid, and his followers, maintain, that I have not
one point of {33} consciousness only, but two; that I feel the
sensation, and that I feel the table; that the sensation is one
thing, the feeling of the table another. Expositions which will be
given hereafter are necessary to the complete elucidation of what
takes place. But the explanations which have been already afforded
will enable us to state the facts with considerable clearness. In
what is called feeling the table, my organ of touch, and an object
of touch, in the appropriate position, are the antecedent; of this
antecedent, sensation is the consequent. The expression, "I feel the
table," includes both the antecedent and the consequent. It does not
mark the sensation alone; it marks the sensation, and, along with
the sensation, its antecedent, namely, the organ, and its object in
conjunction.
The phrase, sense of touch, or the word feeling, often synonymous,
has the same complexity of meaning, which we have observed in the
phrases, sense of hearing, sense of sight, and the rest of the
senses.
When I say that I touch, or have the sense of touch, I mean to say,
that I have a certain feeling, consequent upon a certain antecedent.
The phrase, therefore, _notes_ the sensation, and at the same time
_connotes_[4*] the following things: 1st, the organ; 2dly, {34} the
object of the organ; 3dly, the synchronous order of the organ and
object; 4thly, the successive order of the sensation; the
synchronous order being, as usual, the antecedent of the successive
order.[5*] [12]
[Mill's footnote 4: The use, which I shall make, of the term
_connotation_, needs to be explained. There is a large class of
words, which denote two things, both together; but the one perfectly
distinguishable from the other. Of these two things, also, it is
observable, that such words express the one, _primarily_, as it
were; the other, in a way which may be called _secondary_. Thus,
_white_, in the phrase _white horse_, denotes two things, the
colour, and the horse; but it denotes the colour _primarily_, the
horse _secondarily_. We shall find it very convenient, to say,
therefore, that it _notes_ the primary, _connotes_ the secondary,
signification.--(_Author's Note_.) [Reasons will be assigned further
on, why the words _to connote_ and _connotation_ had better be
employed, not as here indicated, but in a different and more special
sense.--ED.]]
[Mill's footnote 5: The terms _synchronous_ order, and _successive_
order, will be fully explained hereafter, when any obscurity which
may now seem to rest upon them will be removed; it may be useful at
present to say, that, by synchronous order, is meant order in space,
by successive order, order in time; the first, or order in space,
being nothing but the placing or position of the objects at any
given time; the second, or order in time, being nothing but the
antecedence of the one, and the consequence of the
other.--(_Author's Note_.)]
[Bain's footnote 12: _Additional Observations on the Sense of
Touch_.--The author is right in drawing a distinction between Touch
proper and the sensibility to Heat and Cold, which, though
principally found in the skin, extends beyond the seat of tactile
sensibility, as, for example, to the alimentary canal, and to the
lungs. It is a debated point, whether the nerves of Touch are also
the nerves of Heat and Cold; some persons contending for special
nerves of Temperature. Such special nerves, however, have not been
proved to exist.
The remark is also correct, that the feelings of temperature can be
more easily attended to, as simple feelings, than the {35} feelings
of touch proper. The reason is not precisely stated. It is that
radiant heat may affect the surface of the body without occasioning
resistance or movement, and is thus a purely passive sensibility; a
subject-state without an object-accompaniment. When the degree of
the sensation varies definitely with definite movements, it is
treated as an object sensibility, or as pointing to the object
world. Thus when we grow warmer as we move in one direction, and
colder as we move in another, we no longer think of the feeling as a
purely subject fact, but as having an object, or external
embodiment.
It is also justly remarked in the text, that the severe sensations
of heat, and cold, as well as those from laceration of the skin, may
be properly classed with feelings of disorganization generally. At
the same time, these painful feelings have a character varying with
the organ affected; the fact of injury of tissue may be the same,
but the feeling will not be the same, in the skin, the nostrils, the
ear, the eye, the alimentary canal.
The description above given of the feeling that remains, when the
different modifications of resistance are deducted, is scarcely
adequate to represent the reality. Frequently it is true of them,
that they 'are mostly moderate, partaking very little of either pain
or pleasure,' but there are occasions when they rise into prominence
and power. We may refer to the contact of the bedclothes at night,
when the body is relieved from the tight and deadening embrace of
the ordinary clothing. The case of greatest moment, however, is the
contact of one human being or animal with another; such contact
being the physical element in the tender as well as in the sexual
affections. There is a combination of tactile sensibility and warmth
in this instance, each counting for a part of the pleasure. The
influence is well enough known as experienced among human beings;
but the sphere of its operation in animals has been but imperfectly
explored.
If we observe carefully the first movements of a new-born animal, a
mammal for example, we find that the guiding and {36} controlling
sensation of its first moments, is the contact with the mother. In
that contact, it finds satisfaction and repose; in separation, it is
in discomfort and disquiet. Its earliest volitions are to retain and
to recover the soft warm touch of the maternal body. When it
commences sucking, and has the sensation of nourishment, a new
interest springs up, perhaps still more powerful in its attractions,
and able to supersede the first, or at least to put it into a second
place; yet, during the whole period of maternal dependence, the
feeling of touch is a source of powerful sensibility both to the
mother and to the offspring. Among animals born in litter, as pigs,
kittens, &c., the embrace is equally acceptable between the
fellow-progeny themselves. The sensual pleasure of this contact is
the essence, the fact, of animal affection, parental and fraternal;
and it is the germ, or foundation, and concomitant of tender
affection in human beings. It is the experience of this agreeable
contact that prepares the way for a still closer conjunction after
the animal reaches puberty. Independent of, and antecedent to, that
still more acute sensibility, there is a pleasure in the warm
embrace of two animals, and they are ready to enter upon it, at all
times when the other interests, as nourishment, exercise and repose,
are not engrossing. The play of animals with one another clearly
involves the pleasure of the embrace, even without sexuality; and it
leads to the sexual encounter at the ripe moment.--_B._]
{37} SECTION VI.
SENSATIONS OF DISORGANIZATION, OR OF THE APPROACH TO
DISORGANIZATION, IN ANY PART OF THE BODY.
That we have sensations in parts of the body suffering, or
approaching to, disorganization, does not require illustration. The
disorganizations of which we speak proceed sometimes from external,
sometimes from internal, causes. Lacerations, cuts, bruises,
burnings, poisonings, are of the former kind; inflammation, and
other diseases in the parts, are the latter.
These sensations are specifically different from those classed under
the several heads of sense. The feelings themselves, if attended to,
are evidence of this. In the next place, they have neither organ,
nor object, in the sense in which those latter feelings have them.
We do not talk of an organ of burning; an organ of pain; nor do we
talk of an object of any of them; we do not say the object of a cut,
the object of an ache, the object of a sore.
Most of those sensations are of the painful kind; though some are
otherwise. Some slight, or locally minute inflammations, produce a
sensation called itching, which is far from disagreeable, as appears
from the desire to scratch, which excites it.[13]
[Editor's footnote 13: The author, in this passage, uses the word
itching out of its ordinary sense; making it denote the pleasant
sensation accompanying the relief by scratching, instead of the
slightly painful, and sometimes highly irritating, sensation which
the scratching relieves.--_Ed._]
{38} The scratching, which excites the pleasure of itching, is a
species of friction, and friction, in most parts of the body,
excites a sensation very different from the mere sense of touching
or the simple feeling of the object. The tickling of the feather in
the nose, for example, is very different from the mere feeling of
the feather in touch. In some parts of the body the most intense
sensations are produced by friction.
There is difficulty in classing those sensations. They are not the
same with those of any of the five senses: and they are not the same
with those which rise from any tendency to disorganization in the
parts of the body to which they are referred. Great accuracy,
however, in the classification of the sensations, is not essential
to that acquaintance with them, which is requisite for the
subsequent parts of this inquiry. It will suffice for our purpose,
if the reader so far attend to them, as to be secure from the danger
of overlooking or mistaking them, where a distinct consideration of
them is necessary for developing any of the complicated phenomena in
which they are concerned.[14]
[Bain's footnote 14: _Organic Sensibilities_.--The author did well
to signalize these sensibilities, so powerful in their influence on
human life. They are not confined to the side of pain. The same
organs whose disorganization is connected with pain, are, in their
healthy and vigorous working, more or less connected with pleasure.
This is true not merely of the digestive functions, but of the
respiration, the circulation, and others.
Nor is it difficult in their case to make up the full analogy {39}
of a sense, as having an Object, an Organ, and a characteristic
Sensation. In digestion, the object is the food, the organ is the
alimentary canal; in respiration, the object is the air, and the
organ the lungs. If it be said that the air is an impalpable agent
and not discovered to the mind by its mode of operating, so is heat,
the object of an admitted sense.
The accurate classification of these feelings may not have much
speculative interest, in Psychology, but it has a great practical
interest in the diagnosis of disease. For want of subjective
knowledge on the part of the patient, and of a well understood
nomenclature of subjective symptoms, the discrimination of disease
by the feelings is usually very rough.
The best mode of arranging these sensibilities seems to be to
connect them with their organs, or seats--Muscular Tissue, Bones and
Ligaments, Nerves, Heart and Circulation, Lungs, Alimentary Canal.
The sensations of itching and tickling are modes of skin
sensibility. Tickling is an effect not well understood, although
some interesting observations have been made upon it.--_B._]
{40} SECTION VII.
MUSCULAR SENSATIONS, OR THOSE FEELINGS WHICH ACCOMPANY THE ACTION OF
THE MUSCLES.
There is no part of our Consciousness, which deserves greater
attention than this; though, till lately, it has been miserably
overlooked. Hartley, Darwin, and Brown, are the only philosophical
inquirers into Mind, at least in our own country, who seem to have
been aware that it fell within the province of their speculations.
The muscles are bundles of fibres, which, by their contraction and
relaxation, produce all the motions of the body. The nerves, with
which they are supplied, seem to be the immediate instruments of the
muscular action.
That these muscles have the power of acute sensation, we know, by
what happens, when they are diseased, when they suffer any external
injury, or even when, the integuments being removed, they can be
touched, though ever so gently.
It has been said,[6*] that if we had but one sensation, {41} and
that uninterrupted, it would be as if we had no sensation at all;
and, to the justice of this observation, some very striking facts
appear to bear evidence. We know that the air is continually
pressing upon our bodies. But, the sensation being continual,
without any call to attend to it, we lose, from habit, the power of
doing so. The sensation is as if it did not exist. We feel the air
when it is in motion, or when it is hotter or colder, to a certain
degree, than our bodies; but it is because we have the habit of
attending to it in those states. As the muscles are always in
contact with the same things, the sensations of the muscles must be
almost constantly the same. This is one reason why they are very
little attended to, and, amid the crowd of other feelings, are, in
general, wholly forgotten. They are of that class of feelings which
occur as antecedents to other more interesting feelings. To these
the attention is immediately called off, and those which preceded
and introduced them are forgotten. In such cases the thought of the
less interesting sensations is merged in that of the more
interesting.
[Mill's footnote 6: Itaque et sensioni adhæret, proprie dictæ, ut ei
aliqua insita sit perpetuo phantasmatum varietas, ita ut aliud ab
alio discerni posset. Si supponeremus, enim, esse hominem, oculis
quidem claris cæterisque videndi organis recte se habentibus
compositum, nullo autem alio sensu præditum, eumque ad eandem rem
eodem semper colore et specie sine ulla vel minima varietate
apparentem obversum esse, mihi certe, quicquid dicant alii, non
magis videre videretur, quam ego videor mihi per tactûs organa
sentire lacertorum meorum ossa. Ea tamen perpetuo et undequaque
sensibilissima membrana continguntur.--Adeo sentire semper idem, et
non sentire, ad idem recidunt. _Hobbes_, _Elem. Philos._ Pars IV. c.
xxv. § 5.--(_Author's Note_.)]
If we had not direct proof, analogy would lead us to conclude, that
no change could take place, in parts of so much sensibility as the
muscles, without a change of feeling; in particular, that a {42}
distinguishable feeling must attend every contraction, and
relaxation. We have proof that there is such a feeling, because
intimation is conveyed to the mind that the relaxation or
contraction is made. I will, to move my arm; and though I observe
the motion by none of my senses, I know that the motion is made. The
feeling that attends the motion has existed. Yet so complete is my
habit of attending only to the motion, and not to the feeling, that
no attention can make me distinctly sensible that I have it. Nay,
there are some muscles of the body in constant and vehement action,
as the heart, of the feelings attendant upon the action of which we
seem to have no cognisance at all. That this is no argument against
the existence of those feelings, will be made apparent, by the
subsequent explanation of other phenomena, in which the existence of
certain feelings, and an acquired incapacity of attending to them,
are out of dispute.[15]
[Editor's footnote 15: The paradox, of feelings which we have no
cognisance of--feelings which are not felt--will be discussed at
large in a future note.--_Ed._]
In most cases of the muscular feelings, there is not only that
obscurity, of which we have immediately spoken, but great
complexity; as several muscles almost always act together; in many
of the common actions of the body, a great number.
The result of these complex feelings is often sufficiently
perceptible, though the feelings, separately, can hardly be made
objects of attention. The unpleasant feeling of fatigue, in part at
least a muscular feeling, is one of those results. The pleasure
which almost all the more perfect animals, especially the {43}
young, appear to feel, in even violent exercise, may be regarded as
another. The restlessness of a healthy child; the uneasiness in
confinement, the delight in the activity of freedom, which so
strongly distinguish the vigorous schoolboy; seem to indicate, both
a painful state of the muscular system in rest, and a pleasurable
state of it in action. Who has not remarked the playful activity of
the kitten and the puppy? The delight of the dog, on being permitted
to take exercise with his master, extends through the greater part
of his life.
One of the cases in which the feeling of muscular action seems the
most capable of being attended to, is the pleasure accompanying the
act of stretching, which most animals perform in drowsiness, or
after sleep.
A very slight degree of reflection is sufficient to evince, that we
could not have had the idea of resistance, which forms so great a
part of what we call our idea of matter, without the feelings which
attend muscular action. Resistance means a force opposed to a force;
the force of the object, opposed to the force which we apply to it.
The force which we apply is the action of our muscles, which is only
known to us by the feelings which accompany it. Our idea of
resistance, then, is the idea of our own feelings in applying
muscular force. It is true, that the mere feeling of the muscles in
action is not the only feeling concerned in the case. The muscles
move in consequence of the Will; and what the Will is, we are not as
yet prepared to explain. What is necessary at present is, not to
shew all the simple feelings which enter into the feeling of
resistance; but to shew {44} that the simple feeling of muscular
action is one of them.
The feeling of resistance admits of great varieties. The feeling of
a plate of iron is one thing, the feeling of a blown bladder is
another, the feeling of quicksilver is a third, the feeling of water
a fourth, and so on. The feeling of weight, or attraction, is also a
feeling of resistance.
{45} SECTION VIII.
SENSATIONS IN THE ALIMENTARY CANAL.
When the sensations in the alimentary canal become acutely painful,
they are precise objects of attention to every body.
There is reason to believe that a perpetual train of sensations is
going on in every part of it. The food stimulates the stomach. It
undergoes important changes, and, mixed with some very
stimulating ingredients, passes into the lower intestines; in every
part of which it is still farther changed. The degree, and even the
nature, of some of the changes, are different, according as the
passage through the canal is slower, or quicker; they are different,
according to the state of the organs, and according to the nature of
the food.
Of the multitude of sensations, which must attend this process, very
few become objects of attention; and, in time, an incapacity is
generated, of making them objects of attention. They are not,
however, as we shall afterwards perceive, feeble agents, or
insignificant elements, in the trains of thought. They are of that
class of feelings, to which we have already been under the necessity
of alluding; a class, which serve as antecedents, to feelings more
interesting than themselves; and from which the attention is so
instantaneously drawn, to the more interesting feelings by which
they are succeeded, that we are as little sensible of their
existence, as we often are of the {46} sound of the clock, which may
strike in the room beside us, and of course affect our ear in the
usual manner, and yet leave no trace of the sensations behind.
The complicated sensations in the intestinal canal, like those in
the muscles, though obscure, and even unknown, as individual
sensations, often constitute a general state of feeling, which is
sometimes exhilarating, and sometimes depressing. The effects of
opium, and of inebriating liquors, in producing exhilaration, are
well known; and though much of the pleasure in these states is owing
to association, as we shall afterwards explain, yet the agreeable
feelings in the stomach, are the origin and cause of the joyous
associations.[16] The state of feeling in the stomach in
seasickness, or under the operation of an emetic, is, on the
contrary, one of the most distressing within our experience; though
we can neither call it a pain, nor have any more distinct conception
of it, than as a state of general uneasiness.
[Bain's footnote 16: The exact mode of operation of opium and
alcohol is still unknown; but the part affected is probably the
nervous substance and not the stomach. It can hardly be said with
propriety that any part of the pleasure of these stimulants is due
to association. No doubt the exhilarated tone of the mind is
favourable to the flow of joyful ideas, which serve to heighten the
pleasure; but that pleasure could not be arrested or subdued through
the absence of any supposable associations.--_B._]
The general effects of indigestion are well known. When the organs
of digestion become disordered, and indigestion becomes habitual, a
sense of wretchedness is the consequence; a general state of feeling
composed of a multitude of minor feelings, none of {47} which
individually can be made an object of attention.
In the sense of wretchedness, which accompanies indigestion, and
which sometimes proceeds to the dreadful state of melancholy
madness, it is difficult to say, how much is sensation, and how much
association. One thing is certain; that sensations which are the
origin of so much misery are of high importance to us; whether they,
or the associations they introduce, are the principal ingredient in
the afflicting state which they contribute to create.
The effects of indigestion in producing painful associations, is
strikingly exemplified by the horrible dreams which it produces in
sleep; not only in those whose organs are diseased; but in the most
healthy state of the stomach, when it has received what, in ordinary
language, is said, whether from quantity or quality, to have
disagreed with it.
The general states of feeling composed of the multitude of obscure
and unnoticed feelings in the alimentary canal, though most apt to
be noticed when they are of the painful kind, are not less
frequently of the pleasurable kind. That particular sorts of foods,
as well as liquors, have an exhilarating effect, needs hardly to be
stated. And it is only necessary to revive the recollection of the
feeling of general comfort, the elasticity, as it seems, of the
whole frame, the feeling of strength, the disposition to activity
and enjoyment, which every man must have experienced, when his
digestion was vigorous and sound.[17]
[Bain's footnote 17: These effects pass beyond the influence of mere
digestion. All the viscera contribute to the condition of high
general {48} vigour and comfort here supposed. If one were to
venture upon a scale of relative importance of the different organs,
one would place the nervous centres first, and the digestion second.
The present section is open to several remarks. Some qualification
must be given to the author's surmise 'that a perpetual train of
sensations is going on in every part of the alimentary canal.' It
is hardly correct to say that there are perpetual sensations in
_any_ part of it: during a great part of our time we are in a state
of indifference as to stomachic changes; and not merely because we
are not disposed to attend to them, but because they scarcely exist.
The sensibility of the organ is shown, on anatomical grounds, to be
mainly in the stomach, and in the rectum; these parts are supplied
by the nervus vagus; and very few nerves, besides those of the
sympathetic system, are found in the smaller, or in the larger
intestine, so that the sensitiveness of those parts is manifested
only in case of violent disorganization, as cramp, stoppage, or
inflammation. Hence the feelings are principally attendant on the
changes in the stomach, as when food has just been taken, and after
long privation, when the state called hunger shows itself.
It is not correct to class the sensations of the alimentary canal,
as a whole, with those that lose their hold of the attention, that
become unheeded in themselves, and are valued only as the
antecedents of other more pleasurable feelings. The remark is
inapplicable to the sensations mainly characterized as pleasure or
pain; nothing can be more interesting than a pleasure, except a
still greater pleasure. It applies only to those slight irritations
that are in themselves nothing, but may be the symptoms or
precursors of ill health, or of returning good health.
The author's doctrine as to our acquiring artificially the habit of
not attending to alimentary states, demands a fuller explanation.
The usual cause of inattention to impressions is unbroken
continuance; in accordance with the universal law {49} of Relativity
or Change, we are usually insensible to the contact of our clothing
with the skin, except at the moments when we put on or take off any
part of it. In walking, and in standing, for a length of time, we
are insensible to the body's weight; on rising from the recumbent
position we are rendered in some degree conscious of it. Now as the
alimentary sensations--Hunger and Repletion--are intermitted and
alternated with other states, they fulfil the chief condition of
wakeful consciousness.
The example of the striking of the clock, adduced in the text,
brings into operation a different power of the mind, which may go
far to counteract the influence of change. Under a very engrossing
sensation, or occupation, we become insensible to the stimulation of
the senses by other agents. The strain of the mind in some one
direction causes a sort of incapacity for going out in any other
direction while the strain lasts. This is the explanation of the
indifference to the striking of the clock. By the farther influence
of habit, inattention to a certain class of impressions may become
habitual; as in the power of carrying on mental work in the midst of
distracting noises.
The same effect may arise in connection with the alimentary
feelings. A person very much engrossed with a subject is unconscious
of hunger, and does not feel the pleasures of eating. Should any one
be absorbed habitually with some occupation or pursuit, such an one
may contract a settled indifference to the recurring phases of
alimentary sensation; but this is an extreme and unusual case. Any
ordinary degree of interest in the avocations and pursuits of
business is compatible with full attention to the feelings of
hunger, and of repletion, as well as to the occasional pains and
discomforts of indigestion. We do not often choose to contract an
indifference to pleasures, and we seldom succeed in acquiring an
indifference to pains, although we may have moments of such
indifference, under some special engrossment of mind by other
things.
It is over-rating the influence of association to make it a {50}
chief element in the pleasure of intoxicating stimulants, or in the
wretched feelings of diseased digestion. These states are direct
results of physical agency, and are the same throughout all stages
of life, with many or with few opportunities of being associated
with other feelings. They are not the cases favourable for
illustrating the power of association, in the important department
of the feelings.--_B._]
{51} CHAPTER II.
IDEAS.
"Hæc in genere sors esse solet humana, ut quid in quovis genere
recte aut cogitari aut effici possit sentiant prius quam
perspiciant. Laborem autem haud ita levem illum veriti, qui in eo
impendendus erat ut, ideas operatione analytica penitus evolventes,
quid tandem velint, aut quænam res agatur, sibi ipsis rationem
sufficientem reddant, confusis, aut saltem haud satia explicatis
rationibus, ratiocinia, et scientiarum adeo systemata superstruere
solent communiter, eoque confidentius, quo ejus quam tractant
scientiæ fundamentum solidum magis ignorant."--_Schmidt-Phiseldek_,
_Philos. Criticæ Expositio Systematica_, t. i. p. 561.
"Pour systematiser une science, c'est-à-dire, pour ramener une suite
de phénomènes à leur principe, à un phénomène élémentaire qui
engendre successivement tous les autres, il faut saisir leurs
rapports, le rapport de génération qui les lie; et pour cela, il est
clair qu'il faut commencer par examiner ces différens phénomènes
séparément."--_Cousin_, _Fragm. Philos._, p. 8.
THE sensations which we have through the medium of the senses exist
only by the presence of the object, and cease upon its absence;
nothing being here meant by the presence of the object, but that
position of it with respect to the organ, which is the antecedent of
the sensation; or by its absence, but any other position.
It is a known part of our constitution, that when our sensations
cease, by the absence of their objects, something remains. After I
have seen the sun, and {52} by shutting my eyes see him no longer, I
can still think of him. I have still a feeling, the consequence of
the sensation, which, though I can distinguish it from the
sensation, and treat it as not the sensation, but something
different from the sensation, is yet more like the sensation, than
anything else can be; so like, that I call it a copy, an image, of
the sensation; sometimes, a representation, or trace, of the
sensation.
Another name, by which we denote this trace, this copy, of the
sensation, which remains after the sensation ceases, is IDEA. This
is a very convenient name, and it is that by which the copies of the
sensation thus described will be commonly denominated in the present
work. The word IDEA, in this sense, will express no theory
whatsoever; nothing but the bare fact, which is indisputable. We
have two classes of feelings; one, that which exists when the object
of sense is present; another, that which exists after the object of
sense has ceased to be present. The one class of feelings I call
SENSATIONS; the other class of feelings I call IDEAS.
It is an inconvenience, that the word IDEA is used with great
latitude of meaning, both in ordinary, and in philosophical
discourse; and it will not be always expedient that I should avoid
using it in senses different from that which I have now assigned. I
trust, however, I shall in no case leave it doubtful, in what sense
it is to be understood.
The term Sensation has a double meaning. It signifies not only an
individual sensation; as when I say, I smell this rose, or I look at
my hand: but it also signifies the general faculty of sensation;
that is, {53} the complex notion of all the phenomena together, as a
part of our nature.
The word Idea has only the meaning which corresponds to the first of
those significations; it denotes an individual idea; and we have not
a name for that complex notion which embraces, as one whole, all the
different phenomena to which the term Idea relates. As we say
Sensation, we might say also, Ideation; it would be a very useful
word; and there is no objection to it, except the pedantic habit of
decrying a new term. Sensation would in that case be the general
name for one part of our constitution, Ideation for another.
It is of great importance, before the learner proceeds any farther,
that he should not only have an accurate conception of this part of
his constitution; but should acquire, by repetition, by complete
familiarity, a ready habit of marking those immediate copies of his
sensations, and of distinguishing them from every other phenomenon
of his mind.
It has been represented, that the sensations of sight and hearing
leave the most vivid traces; in other words, that the ideas
corresponding to those sensations, are clearer than others. But what
is meant by clearer and more vivid in this case, is not very
apparent.
If I have a very clear idea of the colour of the trumpet which I
have seen, and a very clear idea of its sound which I have heard, I
have no less clear ideas of its shape, and of its size; ideas of the
sensations, neither of the eye, nor of the ear.
It is not easy, in a subject like this, to determine what degree of
illustration is needful. To those who are in the habit of
distinguishing their mental {54} phenomena, the subject will appear
too simple to require illustration. To those who are new to this
important operation, a greater number of illustrations would be
useful, than I shall deem it advisable to present.
It is necessary to take notice, that, as each of our senses has its
separate class of sensations, so each has its separate class of
ideas. We have ideas of Sight, ideas of Touch, ideas of Hearing,
ideas of Taste, and ideas of Smell.
1. By Sight, as we have sensations of red, yellow, blue, &c., and of
the innumerable modifications of them, so have we ideas of those
colours. We can think of those colours in the dark; that is, we have
a feeling or consciousness, which is not the same with the
sensation, but which we contemplate as a copy of the sensation, an
image of it; something more like it, than any thing else can be;
something which remains with us, after the sensation is gone, and
which, in the train of thought, we can use as its representative.
2. The sensations of Touch, according to the limitation under which
they should be understood, are not greatly varied. The gentle
feeling, which we derive from the mere contact of an object, when we
consider it apart from the feeling of resistance, and apart from the
sensation of heat or cold, is not very different, as derived from
different objects. The idea of this tactual feeling, therefore, is
not vivid, nor susceptible of many modifications. On the other hand,
our ideas of heat and cold, the feelings which we call the thought
of them, existing when the sensations no longer exist, are among the
most distinct of the feelings which we distinguish by the name of
ideas.
{55} 3. I hear the Sound of thunder; and I can think of it after it
is gone. This feeling, the representative of the mere sound, this
thinking, or having the thought of the sound, this state of
consciousness, is the idea. The hearing of the sound is the primary
state of consciousness; the idea of the sound is the secondary state
of consciousness; which exists only when the first has previously
existed.
The number of sounds, of which we can have distinct ideas, as well
as distinct sensations, is immense. We can distinguish all animals
by their voices. When I hear the horse neigh, I know it is not the
voice of the ox. Why? Because I have the idea of the voice of the
ox, so distinct, that I know the sensation I have, is different from
the sensation of which that is the copy or representative. We can
distinguish the sounds of a great number of different musical
instruments, by the same process. The men, women, and children, of
our intimate acquaintance, we can distinguish, and name, by their
voices; that is, we have an idea of the past sensation, which
enables us to declare, that the present is the voice of the same
person.
4. That the sensations of Taste recur in thought, when the sensation
no longer exists, is a point of every man's experience. This
recurring, in thought, of the feeling which we have by the sense,
when the feeling by the sense is gone, is the idea of that feeling,
the secondary state of consciousness, as we named it above.[18] That
we can distinguish a very {56} great number of tastes, and
distinguish them accurately, is proof that we have a vast number of
distinct ideas of taste; because, for the purpose of making such
distinction, we have just seen that there must be a sensation and an
idea; the sensation of the present object, and the idea of the
sensation of each of the other objects from which we distinguish it.
You have tasted port wine, and you have tasted claret; when you
taste claret again, you can distinguish it from port wine; that is,
you have the idea of the taste of port wine, in conjunction with the
sensation of claret. You call it bad claret. Why? Because, along
with the present taste, you have the idea of another, which, when it
was sensation, was more agreeable than the present sensation.
[Bain's footnote 18: Discrimination and Retentiveness (the having of
Ideas as the produce of Sensations) are different functions,
although mutually involved, and, in all likelihood, developed in
proportionate degrees in the same organ. We begin by discriminating
changes of impression; this process is necessary in order to our
having even a sensation; the more delicate the discriminating power,
the greater the number of our primary sensations. He that can
discriminate twenty shades of yellow has twenty sensations of
yellow; the two statements express the same fact. These various
sensations being often repeated, acquire at last an ideal
persistence; they can be maintained as ideas, without the originals.
The function or power of the Intellect whereby they are thus
rendered self-subsisting as ideas, is not the same function as
discrimination; we call it Memory, Retentiveness, Adhesiveness,
Association, and so on. What may be affirmed about it, on the
evidence of induction, is, that where discrimination is good, memory
or retentiveness is also good. The discriminative eye for colour is
accompanied with a good memory for colour; the musical ear is both
discriminative and retentive.--_B._]
5. Since we distinguish smells, as well as tastes, {57} we have the
same proof of the number and distinctness of the ideas of this class
of sensations. There is none of the numerous smells to which we have
been accustomed, which we do not immediately recognise. But for that
recognition the idea of the past sensation must be conjoined with
the present sensation.
6. Of that class of sensations, which I have called sensations of
disorganization, we have also ideas. We are capable of having the
thought of them when the sensation is gone; and that thought is the
idea. A spark from the candle flew upon my hand: I had the sensation
of burning. I at this moment think of that sensation; that is, I
have the idea of that sensation; and I can think of it, as different
from ten thousand other painful sensations: that is, I have ideas of
as many other sensations of this class.
7. The ideas of the sensations which attend the action of the
muscles are among the most important of the elements which
constitute our being. From these we have the ideas of resistance, of
compressibility, of hardness, of softness, of roughness, of
smoothness, of solidity, of liquidity, of weight, of levity, of
extension, of figure, of magnitude, of whole and of parts, of
motion, of rest. It is, indeed, to be observed, that these are all
complex ideas, and that other feelings than the mere muscular
feeling are concerned in their composition. In almost all the ideas
referrible to the muscular feelings, of sufficient importance to
have names, the Will is included. The muscular action is the
consequent, the Will the antecedent; and the name of the idea,
includes both. Thus the idea of resistance is the thought, or idea,
of {58} the feelings we have, when we will to contract certain
muscles, and feel the contraction impeded.[19] [20]
[Editor's footnote 19: Rather, when we will to contract certain
muscles, and the contraction takes place, but is not followed by the
accustomed movement of the limb; what follows, instead, being a
sensation of pressure, proportioned to the degree of the
contraction. It is not the muscular contraction itself which is
impeded by the resisting object: that contraction takes place: but
the outward effect which it was the tendency, and perhaps the
purpose, of the muscular contraction to produce, fails to be
produced.--_Ed._]
[Bain's footnote 20: It is unnecessary to advert to the operation of
the Will, (in the first instance at least,) in considering the
feelings of muscular action. The will is the principal, but not the
only, source of our activity. The mere spontaneous vigour of the
system may put the muscles in motion. Likewise the muscular pleasure
itself operates, by the fundamental law of the will, for its own
continuance; a process not commonly called voluntary. In these
circumstances, it seems advisable to consider and describe the
consciousness of muscular exertion by itself, and without reference
to the will.--_B._]
There is no feeling of our nature of more importance to us, than
that of resistance. Of all our sensations, it is the most
unintermitted; for, whether we sit, or lie, or stand, or walk, still
the feeling of resistance is present to us. Every thing we touch, at
the same time resists; and every thing we hear, see, taste, or
smell, suggests the idea of something that resists. It is through
the medium of resistance, that every act by which we subject to our
use the objects and laws of nature, is performed. And, of the
complex states of consciousness, which the philosophy of mind is
called upon to explain, there is hardly one, in which the feeling or
idea of resistance is not included.
It is partly owing to this combination of something {59} else with
the muscular feeling, in all the states of consciousness to which we
have given names, that it is so difficult to think of the mere
muscular feeling by itself; that our notion of the muscular
sensations is so indistinct and obscure; and that we can rather be
said to have ideas of certain general states of muscular feeling, as
of fatigue, or activity, composed of a great number of individual
feelings, than of the individual feelings themselves.
8. As the feelings, or sensations which we have in the intestinal
canal, are almost always mixed up indistinctly with other feelings,
and, except in the cases of acute pain, are seldom taken notice of
but as constituting general states, we hardly have the power of
thinking of those sensations one by one; and, in consequence, can
hardly be said to have ideas of them. They are important, as forming
component parts of many complex ideas, which have great influence on
our happiness. But to unfold the mystery of complex ideas, other
parts of our mental process have yet to be explained.
There is a certain distressful feeling, called the feeling of bad
health, which is considerably different in different cases, but in
which sensations of the intestinal canal are almost always a
material part.
Indigestion is the name of an idea, in which the feelings of the
intestinal canal are mainly concerned.
Hunger, and thirst, are also names of ideas, which chiefly refer to
sensations in the same part of our system.[21] [22]
[Bain's footnote 21: Thirst is a sensation of the fauces and of the
stomach; it is also a feeling of the body generally, due to a
deficiency of water in the blood. It is also caused by an excess of
saline ingredients in the system. In like manner, a distinction is to
be drawn between Inanition, from deficiency of nutritive material in
the body, and Hunger, or the state of the stomach preparatory to the
act of eating. The two states must in a great measure concur: yet
they may be distinct.
The account of the organic states given in this chapter would have
come in appropriately under Sensation--_B._]
[Editor's footnote 22: I venture to think that it is not a
philosophically correct mode of expression, to speak of indigestion,
or of hunger and thirst, as names of ideas. Hunger and thirst are
names of definite sensations; and indigestion is a name of a large
group of sensations, held together by very complicated laws of
causation. If it be objected, that the word indigestion, and even
the words hunger and thirst, comprehend in their meaning other
elements than the immediate sensations; that the meaning, for
instance, of hunger, includes a deficiency of food, the meaning of
indigestion a derangement of the functions of the digestive organs;
it still remains true that these additional portions of meaning are
physical phenomena, and are not our thoughts or ideas of physical
phenomena; and must, therefore, in the general partition of human
consciousness between sensations and ideas, take their place with
the former, and not with the latter.--_Ed._]
{60} It is proper to remark, that, beside the internal feelings to
which I have hitherto directed the reader's attention, there are
others, which might be classed, and considered apart. The
blood-vessels, for example, and motion of the blood, constitute an
important part of our System, not without feelings of its own;
feelings sometimes amounting to states which seriously command our
attention. Of the feelings which accompany fever, a portion may
reasonably be assigned to the change of action in the blood-vessels.
There are states of feeling, very distinguishable, {61} accompanying
diseased states of the heart, and of the nervous and arterial
systems.
Beside the blood and its vessels, the glandular system is an
important part of the active organs of the body; not without
sensibility, and of course, not without habitual sensations. The
same may be said of the system of the absorbents, of the lymphatics,
and of the vascular system in general.
The state of the nerves and brain, the most wonderful part of our
system, is susceptible of changes, and these changes are accompanied
with known changes of feeling. There is a class of diseases which go
by the name of nervous diseases: and though they are not a very
definite class; though it is not even very well ascertained how far
any morbid state of the nerves has to do with them; it is not
doubtful that in some of those diseases there are peculiar feelings,
which ought to be referred to the nerves. The nerves and brain may
thus be, not only the organs of sensations, derived from other
senses, but organs of sensations, derived from themselves. On this
subject we cannot speak otherwise than obscurely, because we have
not distinct names for the things which are to be expressed.
It is not, however, necessary, in tracing the simple feelings which
enter into the more complex states of consciousness, to dwell upon
the obscurer classes of our inward sensations; because it is only in
a very general way that we can make use of them, in expounding the
more mysterious phenomena. Having never acquired the habit of
attending to them, and having, by the habit of inattention, lost the
power of remarking them, except in their general results, we {62}
can do little more than satisfy ourselves of the cases in which they
enter for more or less of the effect.
We have now considered what it is to have sensations, in the simple,
uncompounded cases; and what it is to have the secondary feelings,
which are the consequences of those sensations, and which we
consider as their copies, images, or representatives. If the
illustrations I have employed have enabled my reader to familiarize
himself with this part of his constitution, he has made great
progress towards the solution of all that appears intricate in the
phenomena of the human mind. He has acquainted himself with the two
primary states of consciousness; the varieties of which are very
numerous; and the possible combinations of which are capable of
composing a train of states of consciousness, the diversities of
which transcend the limits of computation.[23] [24]
[Bain's footnote 23: _The Sensation and the Idea compared_.--Great
importance, in every way, attaches to the points of agreement and of
difference of the Sensation and of the Idea. By the Sensation, we
mean the whole state of consciousness, under an actual or present
impression of sense, as in looking at the moon, in listening to
music, in tasting wine. By the Idea is meant the state of mind that
remains after the sensible agent is withdrawn, or that may be
afterwards recovered by the force of recollection.
1. For many purposes the sensation and the idea are identical. They
are compared to original and copy, which, although not in all
respects of equal value, can often answer the same ends. A perfect
recollection of a process that we wish to repeat, is as good as
actually seeing it. For all purposes of knowledge, and of practical
guidance, a faithful remembrance is equal to the real presence. So,
as regards the emotional ideas, or the recollection of states of
pleasure and of pain, which {63} prompt our voluntary actions, in
pursuit and in avoidance, the memory operates in the same way as the
original fact, allowance being made for difference of degree. A
pleasing melody induces us to listen to it, and to crave for its
repetition; the after recollection of it, also moves us to hear it
again. If we find ourselves in the midst of distracting noises, we
are impelled to escape; the mere remembrance, at an after time, has
the same influence on the will.
2. It is highly probable, if not certain, that the same nervous
tracks of the brain are actuated during the sensation, and during
the idea, with difference of degree corresponding to the difference
of vivacity or intensity of the actual and remembered states.
Of the points wherein the Sensation and the Idea are found to
differ, the most obvious is their degree of intensity. We are able
to maintain in idea, the state of mind corresponding to the sight of
the sun, the sound of a bell, or the smell of a rose, but we are
conscious of a great inferiority in the degree or vividness of the
state. The bright luminosity of the original sun turns into a feeble
effect, without dazzle or excitement. The thrill of a fine musical
air cannot be sustained by the mere memory of it, even in the
freshness of the immediately succeeding moment. A certain pleasing
remembrance attaches to a good dinner, but how far below the
original! Moreover, in a complicated object of sense, a great many
of the parts and lineaments drop entirely out of view. Memory is
unequal to retaining, without long familiarity and practice, the
exact picture of a landscape, a building, or an interior. The
difference in the fulness of the idea, as compared with the
sensation, is no less remarkable than the difference of vivacity or
intensity. This inferiority in the idea as compared with the
actuality is of very various amount; being in some cases very great,
and in others very slight. The difference is in proportion to the
mind's power of retentiveness, a power varying according to several
circumstances or conditions, which have to be distinctly enunciated
by the Psychologist. For example, it is well known, that frequency
of repetition enables the idea to {64} grow in vivacity and in
fulness, and to approximate in those respects to the original. It is
also known, that some minds are by nature retentive, and, by a small
number of repetitions, gain the point that others reach only by a
greater number.
Now, that the vivacity and fulness of a remembered idea should
constitute the exact measure of the mind's retentiveness in that
particular instance, is a thing of course. There is no other measure
of retentiveness but the power of reproducing in idea, what has been
before us, in actuality, or as sensation; and the greater the
approach of the idea to the original sensation, the better is the
retaining faculty.
There is an apparent exception to this general principle. The memory
of the same idea, or the same feeling, in the same person, may be at
one time full and vivid, and at another time meagre and faint. In
particular moments, we may recall former experiences with especial
force, as if there were something that co-operated with the proper
force of retentiveness. What, then, are these additional or
concurring forces? Hume recognises the influence of disease in
giving preternatural intensity to ideas.
The answer is that some other recollection concurs with, and adds
its quota to the support of, the one in question. When, in the view
of one natural prospect, we recall another with great fulness, the
present sensation supplies or fills in the parts of the remembered
scene; which scene, therefore, does not exist in the mind by memory
alone, but as a compound of memory and actuality. So while listening
with pleasure to a band of music, we remember strongly the pleasure
of some previous musical performance; yet, the vivid consciousness
of the past is not dependent upon the memory of the past, but upon
the stimulus of the present; we are more properly under sensation,
than under idea. In all mental resuscitation, there is a degree of
vividness and of fulness, due to the proper retentiveness of the
mind for each particular thing, according to natural power,
repetition, &c. Whatever is beyond this, must be ascribed to the
accidental concurrence of other stimulants, either of present
sensation, or of remembered impressions.
{65} In recollection, there is an influence designated by the term
"excitement," which means that portions of the brain are in a state
of exalted activity. Any ideas embodied in the parts so excited, if
in operation at all, are more than ordinarily vivid. Thus in fever,
faded memories brighten up into vivacity and clearness. To this case
the same remark applies; the result is partly memory, or the proper
retentiveness of the system, and partly an excitation of the brain,
through present influences. The proper power of memory is a constant
quantity, varying only with repetition, and the strict conditions of
memory; the intensity or fulness of a resuscitated idea is a complex
result of memory proper and present stimulants, or sensations.
Difference of vividness was the only distinction adverted to by Hume
in his Psychology, which resolved all our intellectual elements into
Impressions and Ideas. His opening words are:--"All the perceptions
of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which
I shall call _impressions_ and _ideas_. The difference between these
consists in the degrees of force and liveliness, with which they
strike upon the mind, and make their way into our thought or
consciousness." He afterwards allows that in particular
circumstances, as in sleep, in fever, or in madness, our ideas may
approach in vividness to our sensations.
Another distinction between the Sensation and the Idea, is of the
most vital importance. To the Sensation belongs Objective Reality;
the Idea is purely Subjective. This distinction lies at the root of
the question of an External World; but on every view of that
question, objectivity is connected with the Sensation; in contrast
to which the Idea is an element exclusively mental or subjective.
_Meanings of Sensation_.--The word Sensation has several meanings,
not always clearly distinguished, and causing serious embroilments
in philosophical controversy.
1. There being, in Sensation, the concurrence of a series of
physical or physiological facts with a mental fact, the name may be
inadvertently employed to express the physical, as well {66} as the
mental element, or at all events to include the physical part as
well as the mental.
The change made on the retina by light, and the nervous influences
traversing the brain, may very readily be considered as entering
into the phenomenon of sensation. This, however, is an impropriety.
The proper use of "Sensation" is to signify the mental fact, to the
exclusion of all the physical processes essential to its production.