ted.
2. Another objector may ask, Can the motion of an organ of sense resemble
an odour or a colour? To which I can only answer, that it has not been
demonstrated that any of our ideas resemble the objects that excite them;
it has generally been believed that they do not; but this shall be
discussed at large in Sect. XIV.
3. There is another objection that at first view would seem less easy to
surmount. After the amputation, of a foot or a finger, it has frequently
happened, that an injury being offered to the stump of the amputated limb,
whether from cold air, too great pressure, or other accidents, the patient
has complained, of a sensation of pain in the foot or finger, that was cut
off. Does not this evince that all our ideas are excited in the brain, and
not in the organs of sense? This objection is answered, by observing that
our ideas of the shape, place, and solidity of our limbs, are acquired by
our organs of touch and of sight, which are situated in our fingers and
eyes, and not by any sensations in the limb itself.
In this case the pain or sensation, which formerly has arisen in the foot
or toes, and been propagated along the nerves to the central part of the
sensorium, was at the same time accompanied with a visible idea of the
shape and place, and with a tangible idea of the solidity of the affected
limb: now when these nerves are afterwards affected by any injury done to
the remaining stump with a similar degree or kind of pain, the ideas of the
shape, place, or solidity of the lost limb, return by association; as these
ideas belong to the organs of sight and touch, on which they were first
excited.
4. If you wonder what organs of sense can be excited into motion, when you
call up the ideas of wisdom or benevolence, which Mr. Locke has termed
abstracted ideas; I ask you by what organs of sense you first became
acquainted with these ideas? And the answer will be reciprocal; for it is
certain that all our ideas were originally acquired by our organs of sense;
for whatever excites our perception must be external to the organ that
perceives it, and we have no other inlets to knowledge but by our
perceptions: as will be further explained in Section XIV. and XV. on the
Productions and Classes of Ideas.
VII. If our recollection or imagination be not a repetition of animal
movements, I ask, in my turn, What is it? You tell me it consists of images
or pictures of things. Where is this extensive canvas hung
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