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Show Perception. Book II. §. r4. But yet, I candot. but think, there is fome fmall. dull Perception, whereby they are dlfhngUtfhed from perfect Infe_nfib1hty .. And that this may be fo, we have plam wflances, even m Mankmd 1t felf: Take one,in whomdecrep1d old Age has blotted out the Memory of his pall Knowledge, and clearly wiped out the Ideas Ius Mmd :-vas formerly fiored with ; and has , by deflroymg· Ius ,S1ght, Heanng, and Smell quite, and his Tafle to a great degree, flopp d up almofl all the Palfages for new ones to enter: Or if there be fome of the mlets yet half open , the Impre!lions ltlade are_ fcarce .perceived, o_r not at all retained How far fuch an one ( notw1thfiandwg all that 1s boa fled of innate Principles) is in his Knowledge, and inlelleCl:Ual Faculties, a• bove the Condition of a Cockle, or an Oyfrer , I leave to be tonfi· dered. And if a Mart had ptllTed Sixty Years in fuch a State, as 'tis poOible he might, as well as three Days , I wonder what difference there would have been in ady intellec.lual Perfedions, between lum and the lowefr degrees of Animals. ·Peruption then being the ftrfl jlep and degree towards Knowledge, and the inlet of all the Materials of it,. the fewer Senfes any Man, as well as any other Creature, hath ; and the fewer and duller the Impre!lions are that are made by them; and the duller theFacultiesare, that are employed about them, the more remote are they from that Knowledge, which is to be found in fome Men. But this being in great variety of Degrees, (as may be perceived among!): Men,) cannot certainly be difcovered in the feveral Species of Animals, 'much lefs in their particular Individuals. It fuffices me only to have remarked here, that Perception is the firfi Operation of all our intellectual Faculties, and the inlet of all Knowledge into our Minds. :An'd I am apt too, to imagine, That it. is Perception in the lowefr degree of it, which puts the Boundaries bet.ween Animals, and the inferior ranks of Creatures. But this I mention only as my con· jeCl:ure by the bye, it being indifferent to the Matter in Hand, which way the Learned fuall determine of it. · GHAP. Chap. X. Retention. CHAP. X; bf (]\etentio1i, §. r.THE next Faculty of the Mi!J<:f, whereby it makes a farther . Progrefs towards Knowledf?;e, IS that I call Ret en/ ion ; or the keepmg of thofe fimp!e !Jeas , wluch from Senfation or Reflection it hath rcce1ved, wh1ch ~ do!le two ways_; Firll, either by keeping the Idea, wh1ch 1s brought into tt, for fome nme actually in view, which is . called ContemplatiOn. §. ~- The other, is-the Power to revive agairi in our Minds thofe Ideas, wh1ch after !mpnntmg have d1fappeared, or have been as it were laid 3 • fide out ofS1ght: And thus wedo, when we conceive Heat or Light, 'jell~w or Sweet, the ObjeCl:bemgremoved; and this is Memory, whicb IS as 1t were the Store-houfe of our Ideas. For the narrow Mind of Man not bein1j capable of having many Ideas under View and Confideratio~ at '?nee, It was nccelfary t'? have a Repofitory, to lay up thofe Ideas; wh1ch at another nme It m1ght have ufe of. And thus it is, by the Af.. ftfronce of the Memory, that we are faid to have all thofe Ideas in our Underfiariding :t which though we do not actually contemplate yet we can bring i~ fight, anc;l make appear again, and be the ObjeCts of our Thoughts, Without the help ofthofe feniib!eQ!)alities, which tirftimprinted them there. §. 3· Attention and Repetition help much to the fixing any Ideas iri our Memory : But thofe, which naturally at firfr make the deepeft and mofr lafhng lmpre!lion, are thofe, which are accompanied with Pl;afore or Pain. The great Bufinefs of the Senfes, being to make us take notice of what hurts, or advanta~es the Body~ it is wifely ordered by Nature (>Is has been fhewn) that Pam fhould accompany ~he Reception of (everaJ Ideas ; which fupplying the Place of Confideration and Reafoning in Children; and actmg quicker than Confideration in grown Men makes both the Young and Old av?id painful Objects, with that halle, ~hich is necelfary for thetr Prefervat1on ; and m both fettles in the Memory a cau· lion for the Future. · §. 4· But concerning the feveral degrees of !ailing, wherewith Ideas :ire imprinted on the Memory, we may obferve, Firfr, That fome of them beihg produced in the Undcrfranding, either by the Objects affeCting the Senfes ohce barely, and no more, efpecially if the Mind then otherwife !mployed, took but little n,otice of it, and fct not on the fiamp derp into 1t felf; or clfe, when through the Temper of the Body, or otherwife, the Memory IS very weak, (uch1Ideas qu1ckly fade, ad vamfh quite out of the Underfranding, and leave it as clea• without any Foot·freps, or remaining Cbara,cters, as Shadows do flying over Fields of Corn · and the Mind is as void of them, as if they never had been there. ' · ~- l'· Thus many of thofe Ideas, which were produced in the Minds of Children, in ihe beginning of their Senfation (fome of which perhaps, as offome P!eafures and Pains were before they were born a~d 0 • thers in thei~ lnfancJ-:) if in th~ future CourJC of their Lives, they arc not repeated agam,are qmte.lofl, Without the leafl: glu:npfe remaining of them. ThiS may be obferved m thofe, who by fome M1fchance have loll their K fight, |