Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/77

 what we may consider new senses. The subject may be thus carried to the higher point concerning the increase of all the mental powers.

In "our little life. . . rounded with a sleep," we are cut off by invisible barriers from even a comprehension of the peculiar tastes for enjoyment manifested by some others. It is difficult to understand Livingston's contentment during a life of exile and exposure. There was in him an inextinguishable mental tendency which appeared in his strange delight in conquering difficulties. But we need not cite an example from the other hemisphere. We see this bias or mental momentum (if a mechanical phrase be allowable in affairs of the mind) all around us. It is true the force is not always effective, but this does not invalidate the reality of this peculiar tendency, which too often shows in how singularly narrow a manner the mental powers act. The minds of men are like circles which allow elongation in a given direction, but at the expense of another part of the circle which contracts in a corresponding degree. The addition of a sixth sense would result in a resource which would not lessen the effectiveness of other faculties by a withdrawal of force to supply the new demand.

That we are mentally inadequate appears in our ever-recurring errors. This narrowness of view is also illustrated by the misunderstandings that arise between ideal and practical men. Some persons who are devoted exclusively to every-day affairs can not easily comprehend how others can look at a printed page and then form imaginary images or be greatly interested in fiction. On the other hand, the imaginative reader is forced to admit the importance of practical people, yet he can not see why they take pleasure in trade, which to the reader of intense literary taste involves necessary monotony—like that of a mill at which tramps in England were forced to grind before they could obtain lodging. The ideal and the practical are apparently at opposite poles, yet the general result conforms to the law of liquids in hydraulics: a proper balance is maintained in spite of particular variations. But this intense progressive action, or bias, on one side or the other, should be distinguished from the primary power which would be added were another subjective connection opened with the objective world. The perceptions of a new sense would be positive, like those of our present senses, and would in no manner seem the result of effort or of the skill that comes by practice.

Mr. Gladstone, in an article contributed to the "Nineteenth Century," tried to demonstrate theoretically that the perception of color among the ancients was especially defective. In support of this he cited numerous passages from Homer as showing that the great Greek poet could not distinguish fine shades of color. After noticing Homer's comparison of the objects in nature with the colors of animals, he argues that a person with the average modern eye for the perception of color would not have made such comparisons without being aware of their inaccuracy. But he does not maintain that