INFERIORITY OF TOUCH COMPARED WITH OTHER SENSES.
58. That superiority, or rather that exclusive privilege, conceded by Condillac and other philosophers to touch, not only has no foundation, as we have just seen, but seems to be in contradiction to the very nature of thissense. In short, it assigns the first place to the coarsest, the most material of all the senses.
It cannot be known what ideas a man reduced to the one sense of touch would form of things; but it seems to me that far from entering into clear and vivid communication with the external world, and finding a sufficient foundation whereon to base his cognitions, he would grope in the profoundest ignorance, and labor under the most transcendental errors.
59. If we compare touch with sight, or even with hearing and smell, we shall at once perceive a very important difference to its disadvantage. Touch transmits to us only impressions of objects immediately joining our body; whereas, the other three, and especially sight, place us in communication with far distant objects. The fixed stars are separated from us by a distance such as almost to pass our imagination, and yet we see them. Neither smell nor hearing, it is true, go so far; but the former fails not to warn us of the existence of a garden at many paces from us; and the latter gives us notice of a battle fought at many leagues distance, of the electric spark which has cloven the clouds on the confines of the horizon, or of the tempest roaring over the immensity of ocean.
60. The limitation of touch to what is immediate to it involves a scarcity of the ideas originating in it alone, and of necessity places it in a lower grade than the other three senses, particularly sight. Let us in order to form clear ideas upon this point compare the range of sight with that of touch relatively to some object, for example, a building. By means of sight we in a few instants obtain an idea of its front, and other external parts; and in a short time become acquainted with its internal divisions, with the arrangement even of its ornaments and furniture. Can we accomplish all this by touch? Even if we suppose themost delicate sense of touch, and the most tenacious memory of the impressions communicated, long hours would be necessary to pass the hand over the front of the building, and form some idea of it. How will it be when we come to the whole exterior of the building? the whole interior? We see that it would be necessary to renounce such a task, that the elaborate workmanship of a cornice, a pedestal, a peristyle, the magnificence of a tower, a cupola, the boldness of an arch, a vault, which the eye seizes in an instant, would require the poor being possessed of touch alone to go often on all fours, climb over dangerous scaffoldings, and expose himself to the danger of falling from fearful heights; and yet he would never be able to acquire the millionth part of what the eyes so easily and so quickly perceive.
Apply these observations to a city, to vast countries, to the universe, and see what immense superiority sight has over touch.
61. We do not indeed find so vast a superiority when we compare touch with the other senses; nevertheless, it does exist in a very high degree.
The first difference is the ability to act from a distance. Certainly, touch also may in some manner perceive the presence or absence of the sun, by means of the impressions of heat and cold; and in like manner the presence or absence, and the more or less close proximity of some bodies, etc.; but not only are these impressions far from having the same variety and rapidity as those of hearing, but they would not even give us any idea of distance, if we had not already perceived it otherwise than by touch.
Heat and cold, dryness and moistness, are what the impressions which some bodies, though distant, may make upon touch are reduced to; and these impressions are clearly of a nature to be exposed to many serious errors.
62. If we suppose a man, having only the sense of touch, to know the presence or absence of the sun above the horizon, his only rule being the temperature of the atmosphere, which depends upon a thousand causes having no connection with the orb of day, it will happen that the natural or artificial change of it will lead him into error. The dampness which we perceive around a lake is a sign of the nearness of the water; but do we not a thousand times experience the feeling of dampness from causes operating on the atmosphere, altogether independent of the waters of a lake?
It is certain that the concentration of all sensitive forces upon one sense, the absence of all distraction, and continual attention to only one kind of sensations, might raise the delicacy of touch to a degree of perfection which we probably do not know; just as the habit of connecting ideas with respect to only one order of sensations, and of forming judgments concerning them, produces a precision, exactness, and variety, far superior to all that we can imagine. But however far we might extend our conjectures upon this head, it is certain that there is a limit in the nature of the organ and of its relations to bodies. This organ must be limited to contiguous objects, in order to receive well determined impressions; and with respect to those that are distant, and can act upon it, they can do this by causing on it an impression such as the nature of both permits, heat or cold, dryness or dampness, and if you will, a certain pressure either greater or less. So far as a great many other objects are concerned, we cannot imagine any action. However much the circle of this class of sensations be enlarged, it must ever be very limited. Moreover, we must observe, that the perfectibility of touch by means of its isolation does not belong to it exclusively, but extendslikewise to the other senses; for it is founded on the laws of organization, and the generation of our ideas.
63. To comprehend the superiority of hearing to touch in this matter, we have only to consider the relation of distances, the variety of objects, the rapidity of the succession of sensations, the simultaneousness so much greater in hearing than in touch, and their relations to speech.
I. Relation of distances. On this point, hearing is clearly superior to touch, for the latter generally requires contact, the former does not, but for the due appreciation of its object even requires a distance suited to the class of the sound. Of how many distant objects does hearing inform us of which touch can tell us nothing? The gallop of the horse threatening to trample us under foot, the roaring of the torrent which may carry us away in its course, the thunder rumbling from afar, and announcing the tempest, the roar of cannon, telling that a battle has begun, the rattle of carriages in the streets, drums and bells, and clamor of voices which indicate the explosion of popular fury, the noisy music that proclaims the joy caused by happy news, the concert dedicated to the pleasures of the saloon, the song that brings back melancholy recollections, sentiments also of hope and love, the groan that warns us of suffering, the plaint that afflicts us with the idea of misery; all this hearing tells us, but touch can tell us nothing of any of these.
II. Variety of objects. Those distant objects which we know by touch, are of necessity little varied; and for the same reason the ideas resulting from it will be liable to a deplorable confusion and to great uncertainty. Hearing, on the contrary, informs us of infinite and exceedingly different objects, and that, too, with perfect precision and exactness.
III. Rapidity of the succession of impressions. It is evident that hearing has here an incalculable superiority over touch. When touch perceives by juxtaposition, it is under the necessity of successively going over the objects and even their different parts if it would receive varied impressions; and this, however small their number, requires much time. If the objects do not act by juxtaposition, but by some medium, the succession will require much more time, and there will be much less variety. Compare this slowness to the rapidity with which hearing perceives a whole series of sounds in musical combinations, the infinite inflexions of the voice, the countless number of distinct articulations, the infinity of noises of all kinds which we uninterruptedly perceive and classify, and refer to their corresponding objects.
IV. The simultaneousness of sensations so vast in hearing, is extremely limited in touch; for in the latter it can only be in relation to a few objects; but in the other it extends to many very different objects.
V. But what most triumphantly indicates the superiority of hearing to touch, is the facility it affords us of placing ourselves in communication, by means of speech, with the mind of our fellow-mortals,—a facility, resulting from the rapidity of succession already remarked. Undoubtedly, this communication of mind with mind, may be established by touch, if we express our words by characters sufficiently raised to be distinguished: but what an immense difference between these impressions and those of hearing? Even if we suppose habit and a concentration of all the sensitive forces to have produced such a facility in passing the fingers over lines, as far to surpass all that we see in the most dexterous players of musical instruments, what comparison can there be instituted between this velocity and that of hearing? How much time would be requisite only to go over tablets whereon is written a discourse which we hear in afew minutes? Moreover, all men have means of hearing, they need only make use of their organs. But in order to converse by touch, it is necessary to prepare tablets, which can only serve for one object, and cannot be at the same time used by two persons; whereas by means of hearing, one man alone may in brief time communicate an infinity of ideas to thousands of listeners.