impudence to deny. For the most
that can be said of it is, that it is possible the soul may always
think, but not always retain it in memory. And I say, it is as possible
that the soul may not always think; and much more probable that it
should sometimes not think, than that it should often think, and that
a long while together, and not be conscious to itself, the next moment
after, that it had thought.

19. That a Man should be busy in Thinking, and yet not retain it the
next moment, very improbable.

To suppose the soul to think, and the man not to perceive it, is, as has
been said, to make two persons in one man. And if one considers well
these men's way of speaking, one should be led into a suspicion that
they do so. For those who tell us that the SOUL always thinks, do never,
that I remember, say that a MAN always thinks. Can the soul think, and
not the man? Or a man think, and not be conscious of it? This, perhaps,
would be suspected of jargon in others. If they say the man thinks
always, but is not always conscious of it, they may as well say his body
is extended without having parts. For it is altogether as intelligible
to say that a body is extended without parts, as that anything thinks
without being conscious of it, or perceiving that it does so. They
who talk thus may, with as much reason, if it be necessary to their
hypothesis, say that a man is always hungry, but that he does not always
feel it; whereas hunger consists in that very sensation, as thinking
consists in being conscious that one thinks. If they say that a man
is always conscious to himself of thinking, I ask, How they know it?
Consciousness is the perception of what passes in a man's own mind. Can
another man perceive that I am conscious of anything, when I perceive it
not myself? No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. Wake a
man out of a sound sleep, and ask him what he was that moment thinking
of. If he himself be conscious of nothing he then thought on, he must be
a notable diviner of thoughts that can assure him that he was thinking.
May he not, with more reason, assure him he was not asleep? This is
something beyond philosophy; and it cannot be less than revelation, that
discovers to another thoughts in my mind, when I can find none there
myself. And they must needs have a penetrating sight who can certainly
see that I think, when I cannot perceive it myself, and when I declare
that I do not; and yet can see that dogs or