At present it must be enough to recognize the
distinctions already drawn; a thing may be said to be potential in
either of two senses, (a) in the sense in which we might say of a
boy that he may become a general or (b) in the sense in which we might
say the same of an adult, and there are two corresponding senses of
the term 'a potential sentient'. There are no separate names for the
two stages of potentiality; we have pointed out that they are
different and how they are different. We cannot help using the
incorrect terms 'being acted upon or altered' of the two transitions
involved. As we have said, has the power of sensation is potentially
like what the perceived object is actually; that is, while at the
beginning of the process of its being acted upon the two interacting
factors are dissimilar, at the end the one acted upon is assimilated
to the other and is identical in quality with it.
6
In dealing with each of the senses we shall have first to speak of
the objects which are perceptible by each. The term 'object of
sense' covers three kinds of objects, two kinds of which are, in our
language, directly perceptible, while the remaining one is only
incidentally perceptible. Of the first two kinds one (a) consists of
what is perceptible by a single sense, the other (b) of what is
perceptible by any and all of the senses. I call by the name of
special object of this or that sense that which cannot be perceived by
any other sense than that one and in respect of which no error is
possible; in this sense colour is the special object of sight, sound
of hearing, flavour of taste.
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