The author's doctrine as to our acquiring artificially the habit of
not attending to alimentary states, demands a fuller explanation.
The usual cause of inattention to impressions is unbroken
continuance; in accordance with the universal law {49} of Relativity
or Change, we are usually insensible to the contact of our clothing
with the skin, except at the moments when we put on or take off any
part of it. In walking, and in standing, for a length of time, we
are insensible to the body's weight; on rising from the recumbent
position we are rendered in some degree conscious of it. Now as the
alimentary sensations--Hunger and Repletion--are intermitted and
alternated with other states, they fulfil the chief condition of
wakeful consciousness.
The example of the striking of the clock, adduced in the text,
brings into operation a different power of the mind, which may go
far to counteract the influence of change. Under a very engrossing
sensation, or occupation, we become insensible to the stimulation of
the senses by other agents. The strain of the mind in some one
direction causes a sort of incapacity for going out in any other
direction while the strain lasts. This is the explanation of the
indifference to the striking of the clock. By the farther influence
of habit, inattention to a certain class of impressions may become
habitual; as in the power of carrying on mental work in the midst of
distracting noises.
The same effect may arise in connection with the alimentary
feelings. A person very much engrossed with a subject is unconscious
of hunger, and does not feel the pleasures of eating. Should any one
be absorbed habitually with some occupation or pursuit, such an one
may contract a settled indifference to the recurring phases of
alimentary sensation; but this is an extreme and unusual case. Any
ordinary degree of interest in the avocations and pursuits of
business is compatible with full attention to the feelings of
hunger, and of repletion, as well as to the occasional pains and
discomforts of indigestion. We do not often choose to contract an
indifference to pleasures, and we seldom succeed in acquiring an
indifference to pains, although we may have moments of such
indifference, under some special engrossment of mind by other
things.
It is over-rating the influence of association to make it a {50}
chief element in the pleasure of intoxicating stimulants, or in the
wretched feelings of diseased digestion. These states are direct
results of physical agency, and are the same throughout all stages
of life, with many or with few opportunities of being associated
with other feelings. They are not the cases favourable for
illustrating the power of association, in the important department
of the feelings.--_B._]
{51} CHAPTER II.
IDEAS.