Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 97

;

Chap.

BETWEEN SUBJECT AND OBJECT

I]

73

but one of the forms through which our consciousness When an infant is pricked by a pin, there is no operates. ing

is

single conception, in the consciousness of the child, either of a pin, of pricking, or of pain, and yet the pricking has been carried over to its consciousness, for the child cries. On the other hand, we see that, with an operation under chloroform, all relation between our consciousness and a member of our own body can be cut off, so that only later on, by external observation, we learn that a foot or an arm has been amputated. Which fact took place body entirely our own outside in of the consciousness of

And so there are a number of emotions, imand perceptions Avhich, entirely independently of our thinking and the world of our thought, come into or remain outside of our consciousness, simply in proporour

ego.

pressions,

tion as the receptivity of our ego corresponding therewith

stands or does not stand in relation to the object.

All

the emotions of pain or pleasure, of feeling well or not well, of color

and sound,

of

what

is

exalted or low, good or

bad, pious or godless, beautiful or ugly, tasty or sickening, etc.,

arouse something in our consciousness and enter into

relation with our ego through our consciousness, so that is

we who

it

suffer pain or joy, are delighted or indignant,

have taste for something or are disgusted with it; but however strong these emotions of our consciousness may be, they as such have nothing to do with the thought-aetion of our If we smell the odor of a rose, the rememconsciousness. brance of the odor may recall in us the image of the rose, and this representation may quicken the action of thought but this takes place entirely outside of the odor. For when some one makes us smell the odor of a plant entirely unknown to us, so that we can form no representation of it, nor do any thinking about it, the stimulus received by our consciousness is entirely similar, and as the odor is equally delicate and fragrant, our pleasure in it is equally great. The same phenomenon occurs when for the first time we taste fine wines whose vintage is unknown to us. The simple entrance, therefore, of something into our consciousness does

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