The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_dreams_ there is commonly _no coherence_, and when there is, it is
by chance, which must needs proceed from this, that the _brain_ in
dreams is _not restored_ to its motion in every part alike; whereby
it cometh to pass, that our thoughts appear like the stars between
the flying clouds, not in the order which a man would choose to
observe them, but as the uncertain flight of broken clouds permits.
[Sidenote: Fiction defined.]
4. As when the _water_, or any liquid thing moved at once by
_divers_ movents, receiveth _one_ motion compounded of them all; so
also the _brain_ or spirit therein, having been stirred by _divers_
objects, composeth an imagination of _divers_ conceptions that
appeared single to the sense. As for example, the sense sheweth at
one time the figure of a _mountain_, and at another time the colour
of _gold_; but the imagination afterwards hath them both at once in
a _golden mountain_. From the same cause it is, there appear unto us
_castles_ in the _air_, _chimeras_, and other monsters which are
_not_ in _rerum natura_, _but_ have been conceived by the sense in
pieces at several times. And this composition is that which we
commonly call _fiction_ of the mind.
[Sidenote: Phantasms defined.]
5. There is yet another kind of imagination, which for _clearness
contendeth_ with _sense_, as well as a _dream_; and that is, when
the _action_ of sense hath been _long_ or _vehement_: and the
experience thereof is more frequent in the sense of seeing, than the
rest. An example whereof is, the _image_ remaining before the _eye_
after looking upon the _sun_. Also, those little images that appear
before the eyes in the _dark_ (whereof I think every man hath
experience, but they most of all, who are _timorous_ or
superstitious) are examples of the same. And these, for
distinction-sake, may be called _phantasms_.
[Sidenote: Remembrance defined.]
6. By the _senses_, which are numbered according to the _organs_ to
be _five_, we take notice (as hath been said already) of the objects
_without_ us; and that _notice_ is our _conception_ thereof: but we
take _notice_ also some way or other _of our conceptions_: for when
the conception of the same thing cometh _again_, we take notice that
it is _again_; that is to say, that we have had the same conception
_before_; which is as much as to imagine a thing _past_; which is
impossible to the _sense_, which is only of things _present_. This
therefore may be accounted a _sixth sense_, but _internal_, (not
_external_, as the rest) and is commonly called _remembrance_.
[Sidenote: Wherein remembrance consisteth.]