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half open, the impreffions made are scarce perceived, or not at all retained: How far such an one (notwithstanding all that is boafted of innate principles) is in his knowledge, and intellectual faculties, above the condition of a cockle or an oyster, I leave to be confidered. And if a man had paffed fixty years in such a state, as it is poffible he might, as well as three days, I wonder what difference there would have been in any intellectual perfections, between him and the loweft degree of animals.

$15. Perception the Inlet of Knowledge. PERCEPTION then being the first step and degree towards knowledge, and the inlet of all the materials of it, the fewer fenfes any man, as well as any other creature, hath, and the fewer and duller the impreffions are that are made by them, and the duller the faculties are that are employed about them, the more remote are they from that knowledge which is to be found in fome men. But this being in great variety of degrees (as may be perceived amongst men), cannot certainly be difcovered in the feveral species of animals, much less in their particular individuals. It fuffices me only to have remarked here, that perception is the first operation of all our intellectual faculties, and the inlet of all knowledge into our minds; and I am apt too to imagine that it is perception in the lowest degree of it, which puts the boundaries between animals and the inferior ranks of creatures: But this I mention only as my conjecture by the by, it being indifferent to the matter in hand, which way the learned fhall determine of it.

CHAP. X.

THE

OF RETENTION.

1. Contemplation.

HE next faculty of the mind, whereby it makes a farther progrefs towards knowledge, is that which I call retention, or the keeping of thote fimple ideas, which from fenfation or reflection it hath received.

This is done two ways; first, by keeping the idea which is brought into it for some time actually in view, which is called contemplation.

§ 2. Memory.

THE other way of retention, is the power to revive again in our minds thofe ideas which after imprinting have disappeared, or have been as it were laid afide out of fight; and thus we do, when we conceive heat or light, yellow or fweet, the object being removed. This is memory, which is as it were the ftorehouse of our ideas; for the narrow mind of man not being ca-* pable of having many ideas under view and confideration at once, it was neceffary to have a repofitory to lay up those ideas which at another time it might have ufe of. But our ideas being nothing but actual perceptions in the mind, which cease to be any thing when there is no perception of them, this laying up of our ideas in the repofitory of the memory fignifies no more but this, that the mind has a power in many cafes to revive perceptions which it has once had, with this additional perception annexed to them, that it has had them before; and in this fenfe it is that our ideas are faid to be in our memories, when indeed they are actually nowhere, but only there is an ability in the mind when it will to revive them again, and, as it were, paint them anew on itself, though fome with more, fome with lefs difficulty, fome more lively, and others more obfcurely; and thus it is, by the affiftance of this faculty, that we are faid to have all thofe ideas in our underftandings, which, though we do not actually contemplate, yet we can bring in fight, and make appear again, and be the objects of our thoughts, without the help of thofe fenfible qualities which firft imprinted them

there.

§ 3. Attention, Repetition, Pleasure, and Pain, fix Ideas.

ATTENTION and repetition help much to the fixing any ideas in the memory; but thofe which naturally at firit make the deepest and most lasting impreffion are those which are accompanied with pleasure or pain. The

great business of the fenfes being to make us take notice of what hurts or advantages the body, it is wifely crdered by nature (as has been shown) that pain should accompany the reception of feveral ideas, which fupplying the place of confideration and reasoning in children, and acting quicker than confideration in grown men, makes both the old and young avoid painful objects with that hafte which is neceflary for their prefervation, and in both fettles in the memory a caution for the future.

§ 4. Ideas fade in the Memory. CONCERNING the feveral degrees of lafting, wherewith ideas are imprinted on the memory, we may obferve, that fome of them have been produced in the understanding by an object affecting the fenfes once only, and no more than once; others that have more than once offered themselves to the fenfes, have yet been little taken notice of; the mind either heedlefs, as in children, or otherwife employed, as in men, intent only on one thing, not fettling the ftamp deep into itself; and in fome, where they are fet on with care and repeated impreffions, either through the temper of the body, or fome other default, the memory is very weak. In all these cases, ideas in the mind quickly fade, and often vanifh quite out of the understanding, leaving no more footíteps or remaining characters of themfelves than fhadows do flying over fields of corn, and the mind is as void of them as if they never had been there.

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THUS many of thofe ideas which were produced in the minds of children in the beginning of their fenfation (fome of which perhaps, as of fome pleafures and pains, were before they were born, and others in their infancy), if in the future courfe of their lives they are not repeated again, are quite loft, without the leaft glimpfe remaining of them. This may be obferved in those who by fome mifchance have loft their fight when they were very young, in whom the ideas of colours having been but flightly taken notice of,

123 and ceafing to be repeated, do quite wear out, fo that fome years after there is no more notion nor memory of colours left in their minds than in those of people born blind. The memory in fome men, it is true, is very tenacious, even to a miracle; but yet there feems to be a conftant decay of all our ideas, even of those which are ftruck deepest, and in minds the most retentive; fo that if they be not fometimes renewed by repeated exercife of the fenfes, or reflection on those kinds of objects which at firft occafioned them, the print wears out, and at last there remains nothing to be feen. Thus the ideas, as well as children of our youth, often die before us; and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching, where, though the brafs and marble remain, yet the infcriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away. The pictures drawn in our minds are laid in fading colours, and, if not fometimes refreshed, vanish‍and difappear. How much the conftitution of our bodies and the make of our animal fpirits are concerned in this, and whether the temper of the brain make this difference, that in fome it retains the characters drawn on it like marble, in others like freestone, and in others little better than fand, I fhall not here inquire; though

feem probable that the conftitution of the body does fometimes influence the memory, fince we oftentimes find a difeafe quite ftrip the mind of all its ideas, and the flames of a fever in a few days calcine all those images to duft and confufion, which feemed to be as lafting as if graved in marble.

$6. Conftantly repeated Ideas can scarce be left. BUT concerning the ideas themselves, it is eafy to remark, that thofe that are oftenest refreshed (amongst which are those that are conveyed into the mind by more ways than one) by a frequent return of the objects or actions that produced them, fix themselves beft in the memory, and remain cleareft and longest there; and therefore thofe which are of the original qualities of bodies, viz. folidity, extenfion, figure, mɔtion, and reft; and those that almoft conftantly affect

our bodies, as heat and cold; and thofe which are the affections of all kinds of beings, as exiflence, duration, and number, which almoft every object that affects our fenfes, every thought which employs our minds, bring along with them; thefe, I fay, and the like ideas, are feldom quite loft whilft the mind retains any ideas at all.

§ 7. In remembering, the Mind is often active. IN this fecondary perception, as I may fo call it, or viewing again the ideas that are lodged in the memory, the mind is oftentimes more than barely paffive, the appearances of thofe dormant pictures depending fometimes on the will. The mind very often fets itself on work in search of fome hidden idea, and turns as it were the eye of the foul upon it; though fometimes too they ftart up in our minds of their own accord, and offer themselves to the understanding, and very often are roufed and tumbled out of their dark cells into open day-light by fome turbulent and tempeftuous paflions, our affections bringing ideas to our memory, which had otherwife lain quiet and unregarded. This farther is to be obferved concerning ideas lodged in the memory, and upon occafion revived by the mind, that they are not only (as the word revive imports) none of them new ones, but also that the mind takes notice of them as of a former impreffion, and renews its acquaintance with them as with ideas it had known before; fo that though ideas formerly imprinted are not all conftantly in view, yet in remembrance they are conftantly known to be fuch as have been formerly imprinted, i. e. in view, and taken notice of before by the understanding.

$8. The Defects in the Memory, Oblivion and Slowness. MEMORY, in an intellectual creature, is neceffary in the next degree to perception. It is of fo great moment, that where it is wanting, all the reft of our faculties are in a great measure ufelefs; and we in our thoughts, reafonings, and knowledge, could not proceed beyond prefent objects, were it not for the ailift

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