Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

EXTERNAL PERCEPTION. 31
Which sense is alone considered in most theories of perception. - In considering the phenomena of perception, it is natural
to suppose that the attention of philosophers would be directed,
in the first instance, to the sense of seeing. The variety of information and of' enjoyment we receive by it; the rapidity with
which this information and enjoyment are conveyed to us; and
above all, the intercourse it enables us to maintain with the
more distant part of the universe, cannot fail to give it, even in
the apprehension of the most careless observer, a preeminence
over all our other perceptive faculties, Hence it is, that the
various theories, which have been formed to explain the operations of our senses, have a more immediate reference to that of
seeing; and that the greater part of the metaphysical language,
concerning perception in general, appears evidently, from its
etymology, to have been suggested by the phenomena of vision.
Even when applied to this sense, indeed, it can at most amuse
the fancy, without conveying any precise knowledge; but when
applied to the other senses, it is altogether absurd and unintelligible.
Objections to all the hypotheses that have been framed to explain the process of perception. - It would be tedious and;tseless, to consider particularly the different hypotheses which
have been advanced upon this subject. To all of them, I apprehend, the two following remarks will be-found applicable: First,
that, in the formation of them, their authors have been influenced by some general maxims of philosophizing, borrowed
from p2hysics; and secondly, that they have been influenced by
an indistinct, but deep-rooted conviction of the immateriality of
the soul; which, although not precise enough to point out to
them the absurdity of attempting to illustrate its operations by
the analogy of matter, was yet sufficiently strong to induce
them to keep the absurdity of their theories as far as possible
out of view, by allusions to those physical facts in which the
distinctive properties of matter are the least grossly and palpably exposed to our observation. To the former of these circumstances is to be ascribed the general principle, upon which
all the known theories of perception proceed; that, in order to