ORGANIC MOVEMENTS 65 



you want to reach a certain place, of which you only 

 know the general position, you will probably go wrong 

 very often the first time, but will " learn " to go right 

 by the " effects ' of your walking. If, however, you are 

 accompanied the first time by a friend who knows the town 

 and give good heed to what you " see ' : on your way, you 

 may find the place the next time without any " error." 



" Association " 



One of the most important features, we said, of the 

 historical basis of reacting is that its specificities may 

 be resolved into their elements. We must not, however, 

 forget that, in spite of this possibility of being resolved, 

 a certain conservation of the combination of the specificities 

 received is the conditio sine qua non in the process of acting : 

 otherwise there would be no " association." Psychology, 

 as you know, speaks of two kinds of " association," 

 one dependent on contiguity, the other on similarity 

 or contrast. Now all association by contiguity is to 

 be regarded as in some sort the conservation of at least 

 a part of the original specificity of combination in the 

 stimuli forming the historical basis of acting. The mere 

 fact on the other hand that, psychologically, association 

 alone is quite unable to explain the totality of psychical 

 life, shows that conservation of a portion of the specificities 

 originally present cannot play more than a subordinate 

 part in acting : conservation does indeed play a part, 

 but there would be none but very primitive forms of 

 acting, if conservation were not accompanied by separation 

 and new combination of what had been received originally, 



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