372 THE ORIGINAL OF OUR IDEAS. Then begins the communication between soul and body which continues during the life of this animal nature : Then the traces in the brain, that are formed by some peculiar dispositions or irritations of the fibres in the stomach or throat, occasion the first sort of sensation, viz. hunger or thirst, pleasure or pain : After that those peculiar impressions in the brain, which are raised by the secondary or sensible qualities of body, produce in a soul a second sort of perceptions, which are also called ideas, such as the perception of particular colours, tastes, and smells : And then also these special motions or traces on the brain, which are raised by the primary qualities of corporeal objects, such as shape, motion, size, &c. raise in the soul the third sort of per- ceptions, or those proper ideas which are similar to and cor- respondent with the outward objects which are the occasions of those impressions. Thus the mind gains these three sorts of perceptions ; but all these are originally owing to the pow- erful appointment of God uniting a soul and body according to these laws. Titus perhaps in the most strict and philosophical manner of speaking, neither theexternal objects, nor the impressions made by them on the are sufficient to be the real proper produ- cing or efficient causes of the ideas in themind, since body cannot affect spirit by any properties that we know in it. Nor is the mind itself a proper, immediate, sole or sovereign cause of her own sensations or corporeal ideas ; for how should the mind know what sensations or ideas to form or excite, when any particular strokes are formed in the brain, since she can perceive no real and natural jogor admonition from any corporeal impressions, traces, or images ? Besides, if the mind has any hint what ideas to form or excite, then it already perceives those objects, or it has those perceptions, and it is useless to form a new one. X. It follows then, that the original, true and proper cause of those ideas is the primealmighty volition of God as creator and preserver of all things ; which in itself being simple and eternal, produces all manner of simple and complex, modal and substan- tial.beings, in their various determined seasons, by those mediums and according to that order and connexion of things which itself first established, in the creation : And the production of all things in-this manner may be properly called, The order or law of nature. Xl. Therefore we may justly be allowed to use the common methods of expression in this case, viz. that the soul itself has these perceptions naturally, and that she naturally forms these ideas of corporeal beings ; and that the corporeal objects impres- sing particular traces and images on the brain, are theoccasional and aatural causes of these perceptions or ideas. Thus we must grant also, that the volition of the mind to
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