Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/28

 THE PEKCEPTION OF SPACE. (l.) 15 Thus it appears indubitable that all space-relations except those of magnitude are nothing more or less than pur^ sensational elements. But 'magnitude appears to outstep this narrow sphere. We have relations of muchness and littleness between times, numbers, intensities >and qualities* as well as spaces. It is impossible then that sucK relation^ should form a particular kind of simply spatial feeljng. This l we must admit : the relation of quantity is generic and occurs in many categories of consciousness, whilst the other rela- tions we have considered are specific and occur in space alone. When our attention passes from a shorter line to r a longer, from a smaller spot to a larger, from a feebler light to a stronger, from a paler blue to a richer, from a march tune to a galop, the transition is accompanied in the synthetic field of consciousness by a peculiar feeling of difference which is what we call the sensation of more, more length, more expanse, more light, more blue, more motion. This transi- tional sensation of more must be identical with itself under all these different accompaniments, or we should not give it the same name in every case. We get it when we pass from a short vertical line to a long horizontal one, from a small square to a large circle, as well as when we pass between those figures whose shapes are congruous. But when the shapes are congruous our consciousness of the relation is a good deal more distinct, and it is most distinct of all when, in the exercise of our analytic attention, we notice, first, & part, and then the irhok, of a single line or shape. Then the more of the whole actually sticks out, as a separate piece of space, and is so envisaged. The same exact sensation of it is given when we are able to superpose one line or figure on another. This condition sine qnd non of exact measurement of the more has led some to think that the feeling itself arose in every case from original experiences of superposition. This is probably not an absolutely true opinion, but for our present purpose that is immaterial. So far as the subdivi- sions of a sense-space are to be measured exactly against each other, objective forms occupying one subdivision must directly or indirectly be superposed upon the other, and the mind must get the immediate feeling of an outstanding plus. And even where we only feel one subdivision to be vaguely larger or less, the mind must pass rapidly between it and the other subdivision and receive the immediate sensible shock of the more. We seem thus to have accounted for all space-relations, and made them clear to our understanding. They are nothing but sensations of particular lines, particular angles,