15. Perception the inlet of all materials of knowledge.
Perception then being the first step and degree towards
knowledge, and the inlet of all the materials of it; the fewer senses any man, as well as any other creature, hath;
and the fewer and duller the impressions are that are made by them, and the duller the faculties are that are
employed about them,--the more remote are they from that knowledge which is to be found in some men. But
this being in great variety of degrees (as may be perceived amongst men) cannot certainly be discovered in the
several species of animals, much less in their particular individuals. It suffices me only to have remarked
here,--that perception is the first operation of all our intellectual faculties, and the inlet of all knowledge in our
minds. And I am apt too to imagine, that it is perception, in the lowest degree of it, which puts the boundaries
between animals and the inferior ranks of creatures. But this I mention only as my conjecture by the by; it being
indifferent to the matter in hand which way the learned shall determine of it.
