[Illusions by James Sully]@TWC D-Link book
Illusions

CHAPTER VIII
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Such transitory feelings which cannot at the moment be seized by an act of attention are pretty certain to disappear at once, leaving not even a temporary trace in consciousness.
We will now pass to the consideration of other illusions of introspection more analogous to what I have called the active illusions of perception.

In our examination of these we found that a pure representation may under certain circumstances simulate the appearance of a presentation, that a mental image may approximate to a sense-impression.

In the case of the internal feelings this liability shows itself in a still more striking form.
The higher feelings or emotions are distinguished from the simple sense-feelings in being largely representative.

Thus, a feeling of contentment at any moment, though no doubt conditioned by the bodily state and the character of the organic sensations or coenaesthesis, commonly depends for the most part on intellectual representations of external circumstances or relations, and may be called an ideal foretaste of actual satisfactions, such as the pleasures of success, of companionship, and so on.

This being so, it is easy for imagination to call up a semblance of these higher feelings.


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