Knowledge, Theory of; Mind and body; Perception; Senses and sensation
Herein is a wide hiatus between man and the most sagacious of brutes.
The brute gains all from personal experience; no generation can build
upon the foundation left by a preceding generation--but man can; and
it is no objection to allege, that some races remain in a savage
state for ages; they possess the power, the capability, the mental
constitution, which the brute does not. Besides, they do improve under
favourable circumstances. What were the Anglo-Saxon marauders, our
own ancestors? Savages. Is England now a savage country? What were
the Celtic British in Cæsar's time? Savages. Were they savages when
the Romans had held possession of the island for three hundred years?
No; they had adopted the arts, the manners, the civilization of their
conquerors. How this very fact of the capability of man to give and
receive knowledge demonstrates his superiority in creation! It is true
that the human intellect is limited, and that there are mysteries into
which he cannot penetrate; nor is it needful for his welfare, his
improvement, his happiness, his hopes of a joyful immortality, that he
should be able to do so. Let him rely on the oracles of God. Mysteries,
indeed, surround him. How fluently does he talk about matter, yet he
knows nothing about it, excepting what he gains through his senses; and
this knowledge is limited to certain qualities, which may be termed
primary and secondary. The primary qualities of material bodies are
in themselves essentials, namely, solidity and extension. We cannot
conceive of matter, without an involvement of these two properties. The
secondary qualities of matter are colour, texture, temperature, smell,
taste, etc., properties which differ in different bodies, and which are
fluctuating, changeable, uncertain. Of these, and other properties of
matter, as motion, sound, lightness, or heaviness, etc., our senses are
the external tests, though mind is, in reality, the discriminator.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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