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can afterward so accelerate those motions, and, of course, so diminish the power (or, what may be regarded as the same thing, the time of attending to them), that they cannot recall the accompanying volitions. This is the rational and obvious supposition, that there is not an exclusion of volitions, but an inability to recollect them, on account of the slight degree of attention. Any other view necessarily implies an inexplicable jumble of voluntary and involuntary actions in the same performance.

(3.) If there be no volitions, the action must be strictly and truly automatic; that is, it must, from the nature of the case, be the motion of a machine. It must always go on invariably in the same track, without turning to the right hand or to the left. If this be the case in playing the harpsichord, which is by no means probable, it is certainly not in some other instances of habits, It must be supposed, that there is as much rapidity of volition put forth by the rope-dancer, the equilibrist, the equestrian actor of the circus, &c., as by the player on the harpsichord. Now if it be admitted that the ordinary steps of the singular and surprising feats they perform are familiar to them, still the process is evidently not an invariable one. It may be pronounced impossible for them to perform experiments which agree in every particular with preceding experiments. They are necessarily governed in their volitions and movements by a variety of circumstances, which arise on every particular occasion, and which could not be foreseen. Hence the muscular movements in these cases, being controlled by the will, are not mechanical; and as we have abundant reason to believe them often not less rapid in the performance than the muscular movements are in playing the harpsichord, why should we consider these last mechanical, and not voluntary?

(4.) If the hypothesis of Reid and Hartley be true, then there is some general tendency or principle in our nature by which actions originally voluntary are converted into mechanical actions. Nor will it be easy to show why this principle should not extend further than mere bodily movements. It will be the result of this tendency to wrest all those powers which it reaches, whether bodVOL. I.-O

ily or mental, from the control of the will. In other words, when we consider the extent of its application, and its wonderful results, wherever it applies, we must conclude that this principle will infallibly make men machines, mere automatons, before they have lived out half their days.-Such are some of the objections to the doctrine that muscular habits are involuntary.

CHAPTER X.

THE CONCEPTIVE POWER.-CONCEPTIONS.

114. Meaning and characteristics of conceptions.

We are now led, as we advance in the general subject of intellectual states of EXTERNAL ORIGIN, to contemplate the mind in another view, viz., as employed in giving rise to what are usually termed CONCEPTIONS. Without professing to propose a definition in all respects unexceptionable, we are entitled to say, in general terms, that this name is given to any re-existing sensations whatever which the mind has felt at some former period, and to the ideas which we frame of absent objects of perception. Whenever we have conceptions, our sensations and perceptions are replaced, as Shakspeare expresses it, in the "mind's eye," without our at all considering at what time or in what place they first originated. In other words, they are revived or recalled, and nothing more. -Using, therefore, the term CONCEPTIONS to express a class of mental states, and, in accordance with the general plan, having particular reference in our remarks here to such as are of external origin, it may aid in the better understanding of their distinctive character, if we mention more particularly how they differ both from sensations and perceptions, and also from remembrances, with which last some may imagine them to be essentially the

same.

(I.) Conceptions differ from the ordinary sensations and perceptions in this respect, that both their causes and their

objects are absent. When the rose, the honeysuckle, or other odoriferous body is presented to us, the effect which follows in the mind is termed a sensation. When we afterward think of that sensation (as we sometimes express it), when the sensation is recalled, even though very imperfectly, without the object which originally caused it being present, it then becomes, by the use of language, a CONCEPTION. And it is the same in any instance of perception. When, in strictness of speech, we are said to perceive anything, as a tree, a building, or a mountain, the objects of our perceptions are in all cases before us. But we may form conceptions of them; they may be recalled and exist in the mind's eye, however remote they may be in fact, both in time and place.

(II.) They differ also from remembrances or ideas of memory. We take no account of the period when those objects which laid the foundation of them were present; whereas in every act of the memory there is combined with the conception a notion of the past. Hence, as those states of mind which we call conceptions possess these distinctive marks, they are well entitled to a sep

arate name.

CONCEPTIONS are regulated in their appearance and disappearance by the principles of association, which will be explained hereafter.-Whenever at any time we may use the phrase " power of conception" or "faculty of conception," nothing more is to be understood by such expressions than this, that there is in the mind a susceptibility of feelings or ideas possessing the marks which we have ascribed to this class. In other words, the Conceptive power is not that power by which we originate things or discover them absolutely for the first time, but that by which we recall or revive in the mind those impressions which we have previously received through the medium of the senses.

115. Of conceptions of objects of sight.

One of the striking facts in regard to our conceptions is, that we can far more easily conceive of the objects of some senses than of others. He who has beheld the pyramids of Egypt and the imposing remains of Grecian

temples, or has visited among nature's still greater works the towering heights of the Alps and the cataract of Niagara, will never afterward be at a loss in forming a vivid conception of those interesting objects. The visual perceptions are so easily and so distinctly recalled, that it is hardly too much to say of them that they seem to exist as permanent pictures in the mind. It is related of Carsten Niebuhr, a well-known traveller in the East, that, in extreme old age, after he had become blind, he entertained his visiters with interesting details of what he had seen many years before at Persepolis; describing the walls, on which the inscriptions and bas-reliefs of which he spoke were found, just as one would describe a building which he had recently visited. His son, who has given an account of his life, remarks, in connexion with this fact, we could not conceal our astonishment. He said to us, that, as he lay blind upon his bed, the images of all that he had seen in the East were ever present to his soul; and it was therefore no wonder that he should speak of them as of yesterday. In like manner, there was vividly reflected to him, in the hours of stillness, the nocturnal view of the deep Asiatic heavens, with their brilliant host of stars, which he had so often contemplated, or else their blue and lofty vault by day; and this was his greatest enjoyment."

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There seems to be less vividness in the conceptions of sound, touch, taste, and smell, particularly the last three. Every one knows that it is difficult in ordinary cases to recall with much distinctness a particular pain which we have formerly experienced, or a particular taste or smell. The fact that the perceptions of sight are more easily and distinctly recalled than others may be thus partially explained.-Visible objects, or, rather, the outlines of them, are complex; that is, they are made up of a great number of points or very small portions. Hence the conception which we form of such an object as a whole is aided by the principles of association. The reason is obvious. every original perception of a visible object is a compound made up of many parts, whenever we subsequently have a conception of it, the process is the same; we have a conception of a part of the object, and the prin

As

ciples of association help us in conceiving of the other parts. Association connects the parts together; it presents them to the mind in their proper arrangement, and helps to sustain them there.

We are not equally aided by the laws of association in forming our conceptions of the objects of the other senses. In the latter case, the Associative power avails itself of the aid of the principle of contiguity in time merely; while, in the former (that is to say, in the restoration of visual sensations and perceptions), it avails itself of the additional principle of contiguity in place.

116. Of the influence of habit on our conceptions.

It is another circumstance worthy of notice in regard to conceptions, that the power of forming them depends in some measure on HABIT.- -A few instances will help to illustrate the statement, that what is termed Habit may extend to the susceptibility of conceptions; and the first to be given will be of conceptions of sound. Our conceptions of sounds are not, in general, remarkably distinct, as was intimated in the last section. It is nevertheless true, that a person may, by practice, acquire the power of amusing himself with merely reading written music. Having frequently associated the sounds with the notes, he has at last such a strong conception of the sounds, that he experiences by merely reading the notes a very sensible pleasure. It is for the same reason, viz., because our conceptions are strengthened by repetition or practice, that readers may enjoy the harmony of poetical numbers without at all articulating the words. In both cases they truly hear nothing; there is no actual sensation of sound, and yet there is a virtual enunciation and melody in the mind. It seems to be on this principle we are enabled to explain the fact, that Beethoven composed some of his most valued musical pieces after he had become entirely deaf; originating harmonic combinations so profound and exquisite as to require the nicest ear as a test, at the very time he was unable to hear anything himself.

§ 117. Influence of habit on conceptions of sight.

That our power of forming conceptions is strengthened

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