existence but in the mind that perceives it. Never were reason and language more abused than by this extravagant theory; which instead of illustrating any thing, involves a plain fact in utter darkness; and, by teaching that our senses are fallacious faculties, leads, as will appear hereafter, to the final subversion of all human knowledge.—The doctrine already laid down must therefore remain as it is. We perceive outward things themselves, and believe that they exist, and are what they appear to be. This is the language of common sense, and the belief of all mankind. This we must believe whether we will or not: and this even those who deny it must take for granted; otherwise they could not know how to act on any one emergence of life. And that the mind may perceive things at a distance, is as intelligible to us, as that it can perceive its own ideas.

107. The powers, by which the soul, using the body as its instrument, perceives outward things and their qualities, are called senses, and commonly reckoned five. Tastes or relishes are referred to the sense of tasting, and perceived by means of the tongue. Odours are referred to smelling, the organ of which is the inner part of the nose. Sounds are perceived by the sense of hearing, the organ whereof is the inner part of the ear. By means of the eye we perceive light and colours. All other bodily sensations are referred to touch, the organs whereof are diffused over the whole body.

108. Tastes and smells, as perceived by the mind, bear no resemblance to the bodies that produce them; nor is there always a likeness between the tastes and smells of similar bodies; for salt and sugar may be very like in appearance, and yet are very unlike in other respects. The nature, therefore, of any particular taste or smell is known by experience only. Tastes and smells are innumerable; yet we have but few words to express them by, as sour, sweet, bitter, acid, musty, &c.; and some of these words are applied both to tastes and to smells: a proof, that these two senses are kindred faculties, and that the sensations we receive by them are somewhat similar; which also appears from the position of the organs, and from this well-known fact, that those persons who have no smell have never an acute taste.

109. On applying a body to our tongue and nostrils, we discover its taste and smell; the mind being, in consequence of this application, affected in a certain manner, by means of nerves or other minute organs. But what connects these organs with the mind, or why one body thus applied should convey to the mind the sensation of sweetness, and another that of salt or acid, it is impossible for man to explain. These two senses are necessary to life, because they direct us in the choice of what is fit to be eaten and drank; and the form and situation of their organs are the best that can be for this purpose. They are also in

struments of pleasure, in a low degree indeed, but still in some degree. And they enlarge the sphere of our knowledge, by making us acquainted with two copious classes of sensible things discoverable by no other faculty. To many animals smell is necessary to lead them to their prey or food; and to man it sometimes gives notice of fire and wild beasts, and other dangerous things, which could not otherwise have been discovered till it was too late. And it recommends cleanliness, whereby both health of body and delicacy of mind are greatly promoted.

110. The word taste, as the name of an external sense or of a quality of body, has three different significations, which must be carefully distinguished. It means, first, a quality of body which exists in the body whether perceived or not: thus we speak of the taste of an apple. Secondly, it denotes a faculty in the mind, which faculty is exerted by means of the tongue, and which is always in the mind whether it be exerted or not; for no man imagines, that when he tastes nothing he has lost the power or faculty of tasting. In this sense we use the word when we say, I have lost my smell by a cold, and therefore my taste is not so acute as usual. Thirdly, it signifies a sensation as perceived by the mind, and which exists only in the mind that perceives it, and no longer than while it is perceived: in this sense we sometimes use the word when we speak of a sweet or bitter

taste, a pleasant or unpleasant taste, an agreeable or disagreeable taste. The same threefold signification belongs to the words smell, sight, and several others; which are used to denote an external thing, the faculty which perceives that thing, and the perception itself as it affects the mind.

111. Natural philosophy teaches, that all sounding bodies are tremulous, and convey to the air an undulatory motion, which, if continued till it enter the inner part of the ear, raises in the mind a sensation called sound; which bears no resemblance either to body or to motion; which is not perceived by any other sense; and which, being a simple feeling, cannot be defined or described, and is known by experience only. By experience also we learn, that all sounds proceed from bodies: and by attending to different sounds, as proceeding from bodies different in kind or differently situated, we are, in many cases, enabled to judge, on hearing a sound, what the sounding body is, and whether it be near or distant, on the right hand or on the left, before or behind us, above or under.

112. Sounds may be variously divided; into soft and loud; acute and grave; agreeable, disagreeable, and indifferent. And each of these sorts may be subdivided into articulate and inarticulate. Articulate sounds constitute speech, whereof, we have treated already. Inarticulate sounds may be divided into musical sound and

noise. Of musical sounds and their effects upon the mind, I shall speak hereafter; observing only, at present, that their intervals are determined by the natural risings and fallings of the human voice in singing; and that, when we call some of them high and others low, it seems to be with a view to the high or low situation of their correspondent symbols in our musical scale.* Indeed most of the epithets, which we apply to sound, are in that application figurative. High and low, soft, acute, grave, and deep, in their original and proper signification refer to objects, not of hearing, but of touch.

113. The ear is the great inlet to knowledge. Deaf men must always be very ignorant: but a man born blind, who hears, may learn many languages, and understand all sciences except those that relate to light and colours; and even of these he may in some measure comprehend the theory. The importance of this sense to our preservation

* It has been said, that in forming a grave tone our breath or voice seems to rise from the lower part of the throat, and from the upper part in forming an acute tone. This is no improbable account of the origin of the terms high and low as applied to musical sound. It may, however, be remarked, that the more ancient Greek writers considered grave tones as high, and acute tones as low. See Smith's Harmonics, § 1. The ancient Latin writers probably did the same. May not this have been owing to the situation of the strings on some of their musical instruments?