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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
ence, moreover, depend on the condition of the senses and mind, e.g., a man with a jaundiced eye sees all things as yellow. The data of perception, thus, is sensation and sensation alone. What things are in themselves is not known; only sensations are felt and experienced, and it is these sensations which constitute the raw material of our perception. The perception, hence, the existence of the universe, thus, depends on the functioning of senses, in different language, on the states of consciousness. Berkeley maintains :
“That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what everybody will allow, And it seems no less evident that the various sensations or ideas imprinted on the sense, however blended or combined together (that is, whatever objects they compose), cannot exist otherwise than in a mind perceiving them. I think an intuitive knowledge may be obtained of this, by any one that shall attend to what is meant by the term 'exist' when applied to sensible things. The table I write on, I say exists, that is, I see and feel it ; and if I were out of my study I should say it existed, meaning thereby that if I was in my study I might perceive it, or that some other spirit actually does perceive it. There was an odour, that is, it was smelt; there was a sound, that is to say, it was heard ; a colour or figure, and it was preceived by sight or touch. This is all that I can understand by these and the like expressions. For, as to what is said of the absolute existence of unthinking things without any relation to their being perceived, that seems perfectly unintelligible. Their esse is percipi, nor is it possible they should have any existence, out of the minds or thinking things which perceive them. It is indeed an opinion, strangely prevailing amongst men, that houses, mountains, rivers, and, in a word, all sensible objects have an existence, natural or real, distinct from their being perceived by the understanding. But with how great an assurance and acquiescence so ever this principle may be entertained in the world ; yet whoever shall find in heart to call it in question, may, if I mistake not, perceive it to involve a manifest contradiction. For what are the
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