第142章 Chapter VI(6)

Both,he held,are on the same plane,and exist only 'in our minds.'Hamilton holds that the so-called 'secondary qualities'are only 'subjective affections.'They are not properly qualities of Body at all,but sensations produced in the mind by the action of bodies on the nervous system.(40)The opinion that these secondary qualities belong to the non-ego is the 'vulgar or undeveloped form of natural realism.'Hence,when we say that we are conscious of the 'rose'or the 'inkstand,'we ought to regard the colour,fragrance,temperature,and so on,as affections of the ego.To the non-ego belong the primary qualities alone;and these are substantially nothing but extension and solidity.(41)In other words,the rose belongs to the non-ego as space-filling;to the ego,as coloured and fragrant.Upon this,it is easy to remark with Mill,that as the vulgar admittedly consider the whole rose to belong to the non-ego,and the distinction to have been first drawn by philosophers,we at once admit an illusion in what,On Hamilton's principles,is apparently a 'deliverance of consciousness.'Why are we forbidden to make the same hypothesis as to the primary qualities?'Falsus in uno,'as Hamilton somewhere says,'falsus in omnibus.'If my judgment of colour be illusory,why not my judgment of extension?The veracity of the Creator is equally concerned in both cases.