Besides having perceptions, the mind, it is said, is modified in a hundred other ways: by desires, passions, and emotions; and these, it is thought, contribute to form its reality, just as much as the perception of outward things does. But this is a mistake. Perception, the perception of an external universe, is the groundwork and condition of all other mental phenomena. It is the basis of the reality of mind. It is this reality itself. Through it, mind is what it is; and without it, mind could not be conceived to exist. Since, therefore, perception is the very life of man, when we use the word mind in this discussion we shall understand thereby the percipient being, or the perceiver. The word mind and the word precipient we shall consider convertible terms.
The earliest, and, in France and this country, the still dominant philosophy explains the connection between mind and matter by means of the relation of cause and effect. Outward things present to the senses are the causes of our perceptions, our perceptions are the effects of their proximity. "The presence of an external body," says Dr Brown, "an organic change immediately consequent on its presence, and a mental affection;" these, according to him, form three terms of a sequence, the statement of which is thought sufficiently to explain the phenomenon of perception, and to illustrate the intercourse which takes place between ourselves and outward objects.
This doctrine is obviously founded on a distinction laid down between objects as they are in themselves
