Moreover, we must recognize that the image is formed and perceived in
the object, not in the brain, even although it would seem that rays
of light coming from a point P are perceived along the path of the
sensori-motor processes in the brain and are afterwards projected into
P. There is not, however, an unextended image which forms itself in
consciousness and then projects itself into the position P. Really,
the point P, and the rays which it emits, together with the retina
and nervous elements affected in the process of perception, all form a
single whole. The point P is an indispensable factor in this whole and
it is really in P and not anywhere else that the image of P is formed
and perceived.[Footnote: Cf. Matter and Memory, p. 37 (Fr p. 31), also
paper entitled Notre croyance a la loi de causalite in the Revue de
metaphysique et de morale, 1900, p. 658.]
In the field of "pure" perception, that is to say, perception
unadulterated by the addition of memory-images, there can arise no image
without an object. "Sensation is essentially due to what is actually
present." [Footnote: Le Souvenir du present et la fausse reconnaissance,
p. 579 of Revue philosophique, Dec., 1908; also L'Energie spirituelle,
p. 141 (Mind-Energy).] Exactly how external stimuli, such as rays of
a certain speed and length, come to give us a certain image, e.g., the
sensation "red" or the sound of "middle C," we shall never understand.
"No trace of the movements themselves can be actually perceived in the
sensation which translates them." [Footnote: Time and Free Will, pp.
34-35 (Fr. p. 26).] We only make trouble by regarding sensations in an
isolated manner and attempting to construct Perception from them. "Our
sensations are to our perceptions, that which the real action of our
body is to its possible or virtual action." [Footnote: Matter and Memory,
p. 58 (Fr. p. 48).] Thus, everything happens as if the external images
were reflected by our body into surrounding space. This is why the
surface of the body, which forms the common limit of the external and
internal, is the only portion of space which is both perceived and
felt. Just as external objects are perceived by me where they are, in
themselves and not in me, so my affective states (e.g. pains--which are
local, unavailing efforts) are experienced where they occur, in my body.
Consider the system of images which we term the "external world." My
body is one of them and around it is grouped the representation, i.e.,
its eventual influence on others. Within it occurs affection, i.e., its
actual effort upon itself. It is because of this distinction between
images and sensations that we affirm that the totality of perceived
images subsists, even if our body disappears, whereas we cannot
annihilate our body without destroying our sensations. In practice,
our "pure" perception is adulterated with affection, as well as with
memories. To understand Perception, however, we must--as previously
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