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THE TRUTH
(b) PSYCHOLOGY
1-THE SOUL
Perception is the function of a simple substance. It cannot be performed by compounds.
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Every perception is a mental synthesis-an indivisible affection or sensation. Perception does not imply a reflection, e.g., the reflection of an object in the looking-glass. A reflection is composed of parts, and perception is a pure synthesis-an indivisible affection or sensation. If perception consisted in a reflection over a compound surface, no part of the compound surface would be seized of the whole of the reflection, for different parts of it will appear in different portions of the reflecting surface. Each part of the reflecting surface would thus know only what is reflected on it but no more. The whole of the object is not reflected in any one of the parts of the reflecting surface, and cannot be known anywhere over its surface.
The subject of perception must, then, be a simple substance that has no parts, so that the whole of the excitation will act on a partless subject and be recognized by it at once.
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The subject of logical inference must also be a partless entity. If the premises and their implications were
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