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Show SENSATION 13 "First Fear, h,. hnnd. its_ skil} tot~. Amid the chords hewtldenl huu' Then hack recoil'd, h': knew nodt w~J~" E'en at the souwl lumself ha m . . a great deal further; The same principle car~Ies ts t least part of the and it is worth ~ollown~g 0~0~ected and ready, is way, because, bemg always Now ·ust as we are the very soul of observa~wn. at our ~wn thoughts, never in the lea~t surpnsed ·a-hta earifthey were howeverextraordmary thV, mithe f!ast doubt of the \old to others, and ne~erbs~;~ and practically impos ·truth of even the mos ~ onl so but we stand up sible of them; and no . {with all our might and manfully for them, and ~~~~xternal evidence which, as long as ever w~ can s . that we are wrong ; so, in the end, convmc~s ~ened or alarmed at any one also, we_ are never f~ Igh be its subject or its conseof our smgle sensatwns, The soidier who, in adqnences what they may. eceives his death wound, vancing to the charge,/ t s and falls painless continues to rush on a ew s ep Je can be met with-aonudt adneayd th;.m agnd thi~~h:~u~~~r~~a~~iness, surely all the inferio'r cases rna~. have felt the truth of the mind's Everybody mus . "t 'n th·ouo-hts, from satisfaction at~d confidence ln~!no~ho dr~ams that what occurs m dreams. f St Pau· '3 . fl . standing on the cross o . ' he IS ~mg, or h bottom of the sea, never has at or W?-lkmg on t e d . bt of the fact than he has. of the tune any ~ore. 011 That is the mind actmg th_e fa~t of bemg lnmself.tion of the senses than _sufWith little _more co-o~er~ack in waking suggestwn; fices to bnng the dr~am ntally possible and certain but still the dream IS me h he awake~s and finds, tru th 'up to the mom. entt hwa t ehne is snugly m·' h"I S b e d . by actual observatwn, h t t e and thus The body takes J_>art i~ matters ~t t la s !8 ~o that it the mind loses Its wmgs, antd ~l d offl the thoughts cannot soar. But we are s ar e MENTAL. 85 of other people, because they are communicat~rl to us in the very same way as we get all our experience,- that is, all our knowledge ; and so, if the ~bought which is communicated to us is in accordance with that knowledge, we cannot help believ~ ing that it is just and true ; but if it is not in accord~ ance with that knowledge1 we can as little help believing that it is absurd or falRe. It is altogether impossible for us to judge of that which we learn from without, by any other standard than that wh1ch we have; and as rightne~s and readiness in those judgments are that which gives perfection to our character, we cannot be too constant or too careful in our observation. But every sensation, however fleeting it may be, and through whatever material organs it may appear to come, is really an act of the mind, and an act of th~ whole mind; because the mind is one, and it i11 utterly impossible that one can be in twtJ states a1 the same moment, how short soever that moment may be. Hence it follows, that if we are to apply our minds to observation by means of any sense, the other senses must be kept still, so as to leave that or.e to work to the utmost bent of it& power; for if that is not the case, as they all have a resemblance to each other, and perhaps are all only the general muscular sense of resist(lnce modified by organizations, one will be constantly breaking in upon ano1her, and we shall start from sight to hearing, and from hearing to touch, until we become perfectly incapable of knowing what sense is affected, or indeed whether the sense is affected at all. That is the state of momentary or periodical non-existence, with which the lives of the heedless are so much spotted, , and by which even the most careful of us sometimes waste our time and mar our plans. It is what Milton calls the" brute unconscious gaze.,,, and the Scottish peasantry very appropriately call "looking from them;" and it is literally J1·om us in these ca~es, for II |
