The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

palate is touched by substances. The effect
produced is a physical effect, and the nerves
of taste receive a peculiar shock or sensation.
That sensation is perhaps caused by the form
of the substance in contact with tho palate, or
perhaps by some chemical agency resulting
from the partial dissolution of the substance.
But whether by one or the other, the primary
effect is merely to cause a slight degree of
irritation to the tongue and throat.. All
the rest results from the constitution of the
organ of taste, and the nervous system there-
with connected.

To our apprehension, the senses resemble
those endowments of magic tales which turn
whatever is touched or seen, how coarse or
valueless soever, to things of worth and
beauty. A barren heath becomes a garden of
delight, stones are turned to brilliant gems,
the air is filled with harmony, and decrepit
old wayfarers appear as celestial visitants to
earth. It is confirmatory of this view that in
proportion as the natural acuteness of the
senses is improved by cultivation, new worlds
are opened to them. Every one has remarked
the exquisite susceptibility to which any one
of the senses may be brought by continual cul-
tivation. Even the perception of natural
beauty, which appears the most obvious of
perceptions, is greatly the effect of cultiva-
tion. When the Duke of Argyle walks with
Jennie Deans in Richmond park, the duke
points to the beauty of the landscape, but
Jennie's reply is, " It's braw rich feeding for
" the cows, and they have a fine breed o' cattle
" here." We know well that a century ago
scarcely any one thought of visiting the most
picturesque part of these islands for the sake
of their beauties. The cultivation of harmony
is more striking still. The difference is hardly
greater in the case of a man who being born
blind has his eyes opened to a sense of vision,
than is the case of one who has his ear culti-
vated to a perception of the ideas of the great
masters of harmony. This inherent faculty of
improvement is common to the other senses.
Blind persons have even been said to have ac-
quired such delicacy of touch as to distinguish
colours by their feel—a striking evidence, if
the fact can be relied on, that different colours
have different forms or substances, which we
may suppose either to act on the ether
or gas, which we term light, and to
modify the combination of its rays. or throw
them with greater or less velocity on the eye.
How far the illuminating property of light
may be the result of the organisation of the
eye can in the present state of our knowledge
be only subject for conjecture.
On the whole question we have no wish to
dogmatise. As one recompense against the
necessarily superficial character of periodical
literature, it belongs to it to throw out those
suggestions which occur to the mind on the
mullifitrious topics which engage the re-
viewer's attention; and it is for minds with more
leisure, to letermine what those suggestions
are worth, and to work lodes of thought which
are really worth the labour of regular and
scientific prosecution.
Should it be said that practically it is the
same thing whether the properties which are
ordinarily ascribed to matter do really reside
in it, or reside in the organs of sense which
aro affected by particles of matter in a peculiar
manner, we reply that for all purposes of phi-
losophical inquiry we can never be too accu-
rate both in our conceptions and our language.
We can fancy that in Galileo's time it might
have been said that it was useless to dispute
whether the sun moved round the earth, or
the earth round the sun, as the effect was the
same ; yet it was not till the true theory of
the Sidereal system was established that great
progress was made in astronomy, and great
practical results obtained. It. is extremely
probable that truths of great importance
might be arrived at by a systematic inquiry of
the extent to which sensation is due to the
constitution of the organs of sense.

In any case, their exquisite delicacy of struc•
ture, and most wonderful acuteness of per-
ception, must move admiration am often as
contemplated. In surveying any great collec-
tion of the triumphs of art, such as was lately
brought together in the Hyde-park Industrial
Palace, the first impression ou the mind is

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of that depressing character which persons
from the country commonly experience at
finding themselves in the throng and tumult
of a great city. How insignificant is one per-
son among so many thousands, and how trifling
one person's acquirements in the midst of the
world's collective skill. But with a just per-
ception of the structure of his own senses,
the humblest member of a community may
survey all the triumphs that human art and
industry have achieved. and glory in the re-
flection that all are as nothing compared with
the instruments which he bears about with
him, to confer on the whole external world of
matter a beauty and utility not its own.
To the other charge that our views
favour materialism, we have only to reply
that it has pleased our Creator to connect in
some way the operations of intellect with
the operations of matter : and that it would
be folly, or worse, to ignore the fact, as
there is at all times a kind of impiety
in rejecting truth. It is the wiser
part to trace this connection as far
as we can.

It is the less necessary for us to critically
examine that portion of Mr. Bain's volume
which relates to the intellect, as we find
nothing in it essentially different from the
teaching of former professors of philosophy.
Much of his reasoning is highly acute ; but on
such a subject the style seems to us not so
close as is desirable. On the general question
of the intellect and its ideas, we retain the
views formerly expressed in these columne.
We regard the intellect as a great capacity or
power, fitted to acquire information (ideas)
from its instruments, the senses, and to incoi-
porate that information with itself. This great
capacity we conceive to act according to hte s
established with its constitution. It must
reason and act in obedience to its constitution.
It perceives things to be so—as, for example,
the trut Its of mathematical science—and cannot
help, by its very constitution, so perceiving
them. But between this obedience to the
laws of its nature, and the doctrine of innate
ideas, there is, we apprehend, a wide distinc-
tion. Certain ideas may be natural to it, from
the fact that when once presented to it they
are received with absolute conviction ; but of
such ideas it may remain for ever ignorant,
through their never having been presented to
it. That the intellect should receive ideas
through its agents, the senses, is a condition
necessary to its activity; its inherent power
might otherwise never be called into exercise ;
but there is nothing whatever to lead us to
believe that when its attainments are united
to its power, they can he disunited or annihi-
lated. There are strong proofs of the immor-
tality of the mind to be derived from its con-
stitution, and those, perhaps, we may take
some other opportunity of bringing forward.
The arguments by which Mr. Bain seeks to
establish inherent muscular activity are in-
genious, and to some extent form the basis of
his system. We may, however conceive evils
human instruments so delicately constructed
as to be perpetually in motion without assign-
ing to them a life of their own The mercury
in the tube of a barometer, for instance, we
imagine to be continually in movement,
though the movement is too slight to be per-
ceptible to observation. In like manner we
may suppose the muscles to be continually
acted on by influences connected with, though
external to, them, and hence their unceasing
activity. Mr. Bain promises another volume.
We hope the encouragement afforded to thi•.;
able dissertation will be sufficient to induce
him to execute his purpose with as little delay
as is expedient , and we would particularly im-
press on him the importance of being copious
in his collection of facts and authorities.