BOOK III.

RECOGNITION, AND THE PHENOMENA DEPENDENT UPON IT.

our own.

We use the term recognition, to signify our discernment of the existence and presence of other minds than We have considered two sources of mental phenomena -I. SENSATION; II. The PERCEPTION of external material objects. We now proceed to consider a third, namely, III. The RECOGNITION of other minds, and of their phenomena.

We are now, therefore, to elevate the mind to a still higher platform. We have contemplated it first in its solitary abode acted upon from without, and so aroused to life, and feeling, and activity, and exerting its powers on the sensations which external objects had awakened in it, but without the means of forming any conception of external objects, or of any being different from itself. We then contemplated it as endowed with a certain power over the body, through the organs of which it received its sensations, and thus as enabled to acquire the knowledge of external objects and of self; thus, also, as having the will called into exercise, and the notion of cause and effect acquired by it, with those emotions and intellectual operations that depend on its perception of external objects. We have now to introduce it to the world of kindred minds formed in the same image with itself, and to observe the new emotional and intellectual states to which this new knowledge gives rise.

CHAPTER I.

CONSCIOUSNESS.

THE step by which the mind ascends to this higher platform is CONSCIOUSNESS. The word consciousness when used respecting a mere sensation, is the attention directed to the sensation and nothing more. When used of sensations as known to be excited by external objects, it includes the knowledge of the external objects that excite them. It extends also to the notion of self, to the notion of cause and effect, and to the exercise of the will, implying the attention directed to these mental phenomena. It is applied to present or former emotions, implying attention not only to the emotions, but to the occasions or causes of them, and to all present or past intellectual operations. Its application also extends hypothetically to the future, as when we say we are conscious, that if a near friend were to die, we should be overwhelmed with grief; or that if we were deprived of our property or our income, we should be brought into great perplexity. In short, we can say we are conscious of a present sensation, or of the remembrance of one, we are conscious that it was caused by such or such an external object, we are conscious that it gave us pain or pleasure, that it excited in us grief or joy, that we could distinguish it from other sensations, and the object that caused it from other objects, and that we discovered certain resemblances between that object and other objects. When we apply it hypothetically to the future, it is more than merely prognosticating how we should be affected by certain events, because it includes the experimental knowledge of what those feelings are, which we can foresee the supposed events would awaken in us. It may be generally described as the notice which the mind takes of its own sensations and perceptions, the

causes of them, its own intellectual operations upon them, and the emotions excited by them.

CHAPTER II.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE PRESENCE AND EMOTIONS OF OTHER MINDS.

THE manner in which the mind discovers the existence, presence, and states of other minds is as follows:

1. It discovers that there are other bodies similar to that with which it is connected, which we shall call its own, with countenance, head, trunk, limbs, like its own. It is conscious that it is itself, by its own will, the cause of the movements of its own body, and in consequence of that intuitive persuasion which we have so often noticed, namely, that like antecedents are followed by like consequents; or, as it is now sometimes modified, that like causes produce like effects, and that like effects proceed from like causes; it naturally infers that these other living bodies, which it perceives to be like its own, and to exhibit similar motions to its own, are animated with and moved by minds similar to itself.

2. Besides this general inference, it is conscious that it exhibits certain states or movements within itself, by certain movements of the muscles of the body. The mouth, the eyes, and eyebrows, are particularly the means of expressing internal emotions. An infant draws the muscles of his mouth in a certain manner when he is pleased, and in a different manner when he is displeased, or in pain. In giving earnest attention to any object the mouth is open, and the eyes open, and directed steadily towards the object that engages the attention. If the object excite pleasure, the eyebrows and the sides of the mouth are somewhat elevated; if it give pain, the eyebrows are drawn down and forward; if the pleasure be new, the eyebrows are elevated; if the pain be new, the eyebrows

are drawn forward and elevated; and by the combining of these movements in various ways a vast variety of emotions is expressed. We are conscious that shame causes the blood to rush into the countenance, and creates heat and redness, or blushing; it also inclines us to bend down the head, and to look towards the ground. Anger disposes us to set the teeth and expose them, clench the fist, and stretch out the arm, as if we intended to strike. We also indicate various emotions by various tones of voice. Strong emotions, pleasant or painful, are naturally expressed by loud tones, accompanied with violent gesticulations; and gentle emotions by soft tones; while the nature of the emotion, whether pleasant or painful, is indicated by the peculiar modulation of the voice. Some strong emotions, such as rage and indignation, or violent grief, swell the throat and produce a choking sound, and render the articulation indistinct.

Every man is conscious from his childhood, till the restraints of society may have taught him to keep under the expression of his emotions, that he indicates his emotions by these and similar movements in the muscles of the face and attitudes and gestures of the body, and tones of the voice. They are common to all children and to all savages; and when he sees such movements in other countenances, such attitudes in other bodies, and hears such tones of other voices, he infers that there is a mind within the body, directing its movements, and expressing, by its command of the muscles of the countenance, the gestures of the body, and the tones of the voice, its own emotions; still founding his inference on his persuasion that like effects must be produced by like causes. Thus the mind, provided with the means of discovering the presence of other minds constituted like itself, and of discerning their emotions and the means by which these are excited, takes its place in the intellectual and moral world-the world of mind.

CHAPTER III.

THE ATTENTION DRAWN OFF FROM THE MERE BODIES OF MEN, AND DIRECTED CHIEFLY TO THEIR MENTAL CHARACTER.

ONE important change that immediately takes place in the view which we take of the persons of other men in consequence of our recognising in them minds similar to our own, possessing the same control over their bodies which we possess over our bodies, is, that, instead of regarding their bodies merely as external objects, exciting in us certain sensations, pleasant.or painful; and as mere material machines, that may have been the means of conveying to us sources of pleasure or pain; we learn speedily to view them as intimations of the presence of the mind that controls them. We learn from our own consciousness that the body cạn exert no power but as the mind directs. Our attention, therefore, is diverted from the body, as it would be from a mere slave or drudge, to the master who can command the acts of the slave; because we have found that the effect which the body of another person may produce on our own pleasure or pain depends on the mind that governs it.

Our chief attention, therefore, comes to be directed to the mental character of those with whom we come into communication. The character of other minds, so far as it is fitted to affect us, consists of two elements,-namely, their power to do us good or evil, and their disposition or inclination to do us good or evil. In our very infancy, the study of the characters of others commences. Children soon discover that their parents possess full power over them, to deal with them as they think fit. This at once gives to the parents the highest importance in their eyes. As the parents are the sources

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