ternal action; fuch as thinking, fufpending thought, inclining, refolving, willing, &c. Neither is it a conception of relation amongst objects or of their differences: a conception of this kind, is termed opinion. The term fentiment is appropriated to those thoughts that are fuggefted by a paffion or emotion.

33. Attention is that state of mind which prepares a man to receive impreffions. According to the degree of attention, objects make a stronger or weaker impreffion *. In an indolent state, or in a reverie, objects make but a flight impreffion; far from what they make when they command our attention. In a train of perceptions, no single object makes fuch a figure as it would do fingle and apart for when the attention is divided among many objects, no fingle object is intitled to a large share. Hence the ftillness of night contributes to terror, there being nothing to divert the atten

tion.

Horror ubique animos, fimul ipfa filentia terrent. Eneid. 2.

Zara. Silence and folitude are ev'ry where!
Through all the gloomy ways and iron doors
That hither lead, nor human face nor voice
Is feen or heard. A dreadful din was wont

*Bacon, in his natural hiftory, makes the following obfervations. Sounds are meliorated by the intension of the fenfe, where the common fenfe is collected most to the particular fense of hearing, and the fight fufpended. Therefore founds are fweeter, as well as greater, in the night than in the day and I suppose they are sweeter to blind men than to others: and it is manifeft that between fleeping and waking, when all the fenfes are bound and fufpended, mufic is far fweeter than when one is fully waking.

:

To

To grate the fenfe, when enter'd here, from groans And howls of flaves condemn'd, from clink of chains,

And crash of rufty bars and creeking hinges:
And ever and anon the fight was dash'd
With frightful faces and the meagre looks
Of grim and ghaftly executioners.

Yet more this ftillnefs terrifies my foul
Than did that scene of complicated horrors.

Mourning Bride, act. 5. fc. 8.

And hence it is, that an object seen at the termination of a confined view, is more agreeable than when seen in a group with the furrounding objects.

The crow doth fing as fweetly as the lark
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if she should fing by day,
When ev'ry goofe is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

Merchant of Venice.

34. In matters of flight importance, attention, in a great measure, is directed by will; and for that reafon, it is our own fault if trifling objects make any deep impreffion. Had we power equally to with-hold our attention from matters of importance, we might be proof against any deep impreffion. But our power fails us here: an interesting object feizes and fixes the attention beyond the poffibility of control; and while our attention is thus forcibly attached by one object, others may folicit for admittance; but in vain, for they will not be regarded. Thus a fmall misfortune is fcarce felt in prefence of a greater :

Lear. Thou think'ft 'tis much, that this contentious ftorm.

Invades

Invades us to the fkin; fo 'tis to thee;
But where the greater malady is fix'd,
The leffer is scarce felt.

Thou'd'ft fhun a bear;

But if thy flight lay tow'rd the roaring sea,
Thou'd'ft meet the bear i' th' mouth.

mind's free,

When the

The body's delicate: the tempeft in my mind
Doth from my fenfes take all feeling elfe,
Save what beats there.

King Lear, act. 3. Sc. 5.

35. Genus, fpecies, modification, are terms invented to distinguish beings from each other. Individuals are distinguished by their qualities: a large class of individuals enjoying qualities in common, is termed a genus: a fubdivifion of fuch clafs is termed a fpecies. Again, that circumstance which diftinguisheth one genus, one fpecies, or even one individual, from another, is termed a modification: the fame particular that is termed a property or quality when confidered as belonging to an individual or a class of individuals, is termed a modifica tion when confidered as distinguishing the individual or the class from another. A black fkin and soft curled hair, are properties of a negro: the fame circumstances confidered as marks that distinguish a negro from a man of a different fpecies, are denominated modifications.

36. Objects of fight, being complex, are distinguishable into the feveral particulars that enter into the compofition: these objects are all of them coloured; and they all have length, breadth, and thickness. When I behold a fpreading oak, I diftinguish in this object, fize, figure, colour, and fometimes motion viewing a flowing river, I distinguish colour, figure, and conftant motion: a dye has colour, black spots, fix plain furfaces, all equal and uniform. The objects of touch, have

all

all of them extenfion. Some of them are felt rough, fome smooth: fome of them are hard, fome foft. With refpect to the other fenfes, fome of their objects are fimple, fome complex: a found, a tafte, a fmell, may be fo fimple as not to be diftinguishable into any parts: others are perceived to be compounded of different sounds, different tastes, and different smells.

37. The eye at one look can take in a number of objects, as of trees in a field, or men in a crowd: as these objects are diftinct from each other, each having a feparate and independent existence, they are distinguishable in the mind as well as in reality; and there is nothing more eafy, than to abftra&t from fome and to confine our contemplation to others. A large oak with its fpreading branches, fixes our attention upon itself, and abftracts us from the fhrubs that furround it. In the fame. manner, with respect to compounded sounds, tastes, or smells, we can fix our thoughts upon any one of the component parts, abftracting our attention from the reft. But the power of abstraction is not confined to objects that are feparable in reality as well as mentally: it alfo takes place where there can be no real separation. The fize, the figure, the colour, of a tree, are infeparably connected, and cannot exist independent of each other: the fame of length, breadth, and thickness and yet we can mentally confine our obfervations to one of thefe, neglecting or abftracting from the reft. Here abstraction takes place where there cannot be a real feparation.

38. This power of abstraction is of great utility. A carpenter confiders a log of wood, with regard to hardness, firmnefs, colour, and texture: a philofopher, neglecting these properties, makes the log undergo a chymical analyfis; and examines its tafte, its fmell, and its component principles: the

geome

geometrician confines his reafoning to the figure, the length, breadth, and thicknefs. In general, every artist, abstracting from all other properties, confines his obfervations to thofe which have a more immediate connection with his profession.

39. Hence clearly appears the meaning of an abftract term, and abftract idea. If in viewing an object, we can abstract from some of its parts or properties, and attach ourselves to others; there must be the fame facility, when we recall this object to the mind in idea. This leads directly to the definition of an abstract idea, viz. "A partial view of a "complex object, limited to one or more of the "component parts or properties, laying afide or abstracting from others." A word that denotes an abstract idea, is called an abftra& term.

40. The power of abstraction is bestowed upon man, for the purposes folely of reasoning. It tends greatly to the facility as well as clearness of any procefs of reasoning, that, withdrawing from every other circumftance, we can confine our attention to the fingle property we defire to investigate.

41. Abstract ideas, may, I think, be distinguished into three different kinds, all equally fubfervient to the reasoning faculty. Individuals appear to have no end; and did we not poffefs the faculty of diftributing them into claffes, the mind would be loft in an endless variety, and no progrefs be made in knowledge. It is by the faculty of abstraction that we distribute beings into genera and Species: finding a number of individuals connected by cer tain qualities common to all, we give a name to thefe individuals confidered as thus connected; which name, by gathering them together into one class, serves in a curt manner to express the whole of these individuals as diftinct from others. Thus the word animal ferves to denote every being which hath felf-motion; and the words man, borfe, lion VOL. II.

&c.