THE PRESENTATIVE POWER. SENSE, OR PERCEPTION BY THE SENSES. SL-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. This Faculty the Foundation of our Knowledge. — Of the cognitive powers of the mind, the first to be noticed, according to the analysis and distribution already given, is the Presentative Power-the power of cognizing external objects through the senses. This claims our first attention, inasmuch as it lies, chronologically at least, at the foundation of all our cognitive powers, and in truth, of our entire mental activity. We can, perhaps, conceive of a being so constituted as to be independent of sense, and yet possess mental activity; and we can even conceive such a mind as taking cognizance, in some mysterious way, of objects external to itself. But not such a being is man— not such the nature of the human mind. Its activity is first awak ened through sense; from sense it derives its knowledge of the external world, of whatever lies without and beyond the charmed circle of self; and whether all our knowledge is, strictly speaking, derived from sense, or not - a question so much disputed, and which we will not here stay to discuss — there can be no doubt that the activity of sense, and the knowledge thus acquired, is at least the beginning and foundation of all our mental acquisitions. We are constantly receiving impressions from without through the senses. In this way the mind is first awakened to activity, - and from this source we derive our knowledge of the exter nal world. General Character of this Faculty. In its general chaiacter the faculty now under consideration, as the name indi. cates, is presentative and intuitive. It presents rather than represents objects, and what the mind thus perceives it perceives intuitively, rather than as the result of reflection. The knowledge which it gives is immediate knowledge, the knowledge of that which is now and here present, in time and space. Involves a twofold Element.-Looking more closely at the character of this faculty, we find it to involve a twofold element, which we cannot better indicate than by the terms subjective and objective. There is, in the first place, the knowledge or consciousness of our own sentient organism as affected, and there is also the knowledge of something external to, and independent of the mind itself, or the me, as the producing cause of this affection of the organism, We know, by one and the same act, ourselves as affected, and the existence and presence of an external something affecting us. This presupposes, of course, the distinct independent existence of the me and the not-me - of ourselves as thinking and sentient beings, and of objects external to ourselves, and material,—a distinction which lies at the foundation of all sense-perception. All perception by the senses involves, and presupposes, the existence of a sentient being capable of perceiving, and of an object capable of being perceived. It supposes, also, such a relation between the two, that the former is affected by the presence of the latter. From this results perception in its twofold aspect, or the knowledge, on the part of the sentient mind, at once of itself as affected, and of the object as affecting it. According as one or the other of these elements is more directly the object of attention, so the subjective and the objective character predominate in the act of perception. If the former, then we think chiefly of the me as affected, and are scarcely conscious of the external object as the source or the producing cause; if the latter, the reverse is true Simple Sensation. The nature of the presentative power may be better understood by observing closely the different teps of the process. As we come into contact with the external world, the first thing of which we are conscious, the first step in the process of cognition, is doubtless simple sensation. Something touches me, my bodily organism is thereby affected, and I am conscious, at once, of a certain feeling or sensation. I do not know as yet what has produced the sensation, or whether any thing produced it. I do not as yet recognize it as the result of an affection of the bodily organism, or even as pertaining to that organism in distinction from the spiritual principle. I am conscious only of a certain feeling. This is simple sensation — a purely subjective process. Recognition of it as such. - We do not, however, stop here. The mind is at once aroused by the occurrence of the phenomenon supposed, the attention is directed to it. I cognize it as sensation, as feeling. If it be not the first instance of the kind in my experience, I distinguish it from other sensations which I have felt. Distribution of it to the Parts affected.-More than this; I am conscious not only of the given sensation, but of its being an affection of my bodily organism, and of this or that part of the organism; I distinguish the body as the seat of the sensation, and this or that part of the body as the part affected. The organism as thus affected becomes itself an object of thought as distinct from the thinking mind that animates and pervades it. It becomes to me an externality, having extension and parts out of and distinct from each other. As thus viewed, and brought now for the first time under the eye of consciousness, it becomes known |