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he' calls" impressions and ideas , and which he'supposes to differ from each other only in force or vivacity . ' By the term impression ( he says ) I mean all our more lively perceptions when
we hear , or see , or feel , or love , or hate , or desire , or will : and impressions are distinguished from ideas , which are the less lively perceptions of which we are conscious , when we-reflect on any of these sensations or movements
abovementioned . " As it is impossible to speak at all on the powers and operations of the mind without using terms which are not strictly proper , being derived from names which at first
represented sensible objects , the writer on such subjects claims indulgence , and more than any other has a right to complain of injury , if his commentator insists upon the literal meaning of terms , which he has admitted less
from choice than from necessity . For this reason it has appeared to us that Mr . Locke has not been well used by several of the Scotch metaphysicians in their strictures upon his doctrine of ideas : and if , as we think , Mr . Hume
has not been fortunate in his application of the term impression * which ill agrees with what is supposed to be his own doctrine of the origin of ideas , we should not be disposed to insist upon a
• literal meaning , or contest his use of the term as long as having defined it , he keeps within his definition . ' Having divided all our perceptions into two classes , Mr . Hume found it necessary to devise a name for that class which
as he says wanted one in our language . The less lively perceptions had always be ^ n called thoughts , and , since Mr . Locke wrote , ideas pretty generally ; but the more lively perceptions , of which he considered the weaker as a
copy , liad no name which could describe the whole class : they were senstations * feelings , sentiments , passions . Mr . Hume has called them all impressions , and not very philosophically perhaps , since they are acknowledged to be perceptions , and the liveliest of whic'h the mind is conscious . In the
name however we see nothing to confirm the opinion , " that M * . Hume ha $ manifestly advanced his doctrine or Impressions in order to account for the origin of our" ideas independent of a material world : " as far as his
seteclfrte of tPife term gdes we should rfktrie ' r' suppose ' the contrary . Hut it in dtore material to enquire whether our
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ideas are or are riot said truly to re * - semble the stronger perception ^ * $ d-as to differ from them only in forte of vivacity . Dr . Cogan maintains , th ' aY they bear no marks of being copies of those impressions , or perceptions ( as
Mr . Hume calls them ) of the external and internal senses j and when be tries the question not by the impressions of sight , but by those of some of the other senses , he brings facts , which it mu ? t be acknowledged are rather stubborn , against Mr . Hume ' s opinion ..
ie After a disciple of Mr . Hume ha * heard a noise in the street , is he £ on * ciou * of an echo every time he remember * it ? Should a hon viva ? it have regaled himself with copious draughts of Burgundy , whi ; u in France ,- —will he every time he recollects his good fortune , rejoice that he has brought home with him a delicate flavour
in his mouth ? When we reflect upon a musical performance which gave us peculiar pleasure , do we enjoy a lesiif degree of satisfaction at the remembrance , by putting into fainter movements those undulations of air , . which vibrated U ^ dn ? our acoustic nerves during the concert ?
Or should any one be most paiirfully ' scorched by being too near a conflagration , will this vivid impression bereafier iufr- side into moderate warmth , nnd make him comfortable during the remainder of his days , by the easy expedient of recoflecting the event ?"—Pp . 26 * 0 , 261 . '
Is it not however a well-known fact that an air in music has been note'd down , at some distance of time aftet it was first heard , so correctly , ' as to enable one , who never heard it , to repeat it as welj as if he had heafd it ;
that is , the ideas of him who noted tt down so well resemble the sensation ^ , or impressions , that a third person sttan reproduce the sensations in him , from the notes , which were suggested , fvc / l by the impressions , but the recollected perceptions or the ideas . With reSJJe ' c't to the ideas of things visible , our author
remarks ; < c We are charmed with a roipantic o ^ luxuriant prospect ; but we cannot recol . 7 lect , with that accuracy which this systcn ^ demands , the precjse objects with > vhicM the scenery was enriched . WUen I ira , 4 the nauie of a city which I have not seen * *
Vienna , Moscow , Pckin in China , fpr example ; the imagination builds a city after its own maiHier , totally tiplike , th * 5 original . It uses those very n ^ ate ^ iiwl ^ which this philosopher collider * as ? 4 Wt resemblances of other c it its . It r ^ u » t | a < j confessed that tUese fainter mate * UU ha **
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-Review . — Cogaris Ethical Questions . SSifrF
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1817, page 231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2463/page/39/
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