Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/24

 THE PERCEPTION OF SPACE. (l.) 11 would probably represent an advanced stage of evolution, for it is likely that in the very earliest dawn of sensibility every impression made awakened the same vague but exten- sive feeling.) Now, in the creature we have assumed, so long as things do not evolve still farther, there is no reason to suppose that the several sense-spaces of which it may become conscious, each filled with its own peculiar content of feeling, should enter into any definite spatial intercourse with each other, or lie in any particular order of positions. Even in ourselves we can recognise this. Different feelings may coexist in us without assuming any particular spatial order. The sound of the brook near which I write, the odour of the cedars, the comfort with which my breakfast has filled me, and my interest in this paragraph, all lie distinct in my consciousness, but in no sense out-, or along- side, of each other. Their spaces are interfused and at most fill the same vaguely objective world. Even where the qualities are far less disparate, we may have something similar. If we take our subjective and corporeal sensations alone, there are moments when, as we lie or sit motionless, we find it very difficult to feel distinctly the length of our back or the direction of our feet from our shoulders. By a strong effort we can succeed in dispersing our attention im- partially over our whole person, and then we feel the real shape of our body in .a sort of unitary way. But in general a few parts are strongly emphasised to consciousness and the rest sink out of notice ; and it is then remarkable how vague and ambiguous our perception of their relative order of location is. Obviously, for the orderly arrangement of the several sense-spaces in consciousness, something more than their mere separate existence is required. What is this further condition ? . If spatial feelings are to l)e perceived alongside of each other and in definite order they must appear as parts in a vaster spatial freling ivhicli can enter the mind simply and all at once. I think it will be seen that, the difficulty of estimating correctly the form of one's body by pure feeling arises from the fact that it is very hard to feel its totality as a unit at all. The trouble is similar to that of thinking forwards and backwards simultaneously. When conscious of our head we tend to grow unconscious of our feet, and there enters thus an element of time-succession into our perception of ourselves which transforms the latter from an act of intuition to one of construction. This element of constructiveness is present in a still higher degree, and carries with it the same conse- quences, when we deal with objective spaces too great to be