i2 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A proficiency in subconsciously finding words for a thought already 

 formulated, while at the same time shaping the next thought-period 

 in conscious preparation, is a gift of prime importance to writer and 

 speaker alike. It reaches a most developed application in dictating 

 for publication. A remarkable talent of this type is ascribed by his 

 amanuensis to Sir Walter Scott. He records that Sir Walter would 

 continue to dictate while he searched for a book, found the desired 

 passage, and absorbed its meaning. He thus kept going two trains of 

 thought, the one arranged and ready to be spoken, and the other in 

 logical preparation. " This I discovered by his sometimes introducing 

 a word which was wholly out of place — entertained instead of denied, 

 for example; — but which I presently found to belong to the next sen- 

 tence, perhaps, four or five lines further on, which he had been pre- 

 paring at the very moment he gave me the one that preceded it." 



The intricate art of speech thus proceeds — though naturally with 

 the subconsciousness begot of familiarity — by a preliminary projection, 

 an outline staking of the sentence, not yet setting words in place, but 

 mentally mapping their positions; then by the actual setting of the 

 corner-posts and the raising of the framework upon these supports, the 

 two proceeding together with an accompanying preparation for the 

 details, that in due sequence enter into and embellish the complex 

 structure. Yet the architectural, designing or constructive simile is 

 inadequate, because the two procedures are so inextricably dovetailed, 

 because each section receives its plan, foundation, details and finish in 

 one. For the weaver of words does not, like the spider, send out — 

 except in this provisional mental planning — the main radial lines of 

 his web, and then take up in order the cross-threads from segment to 

 segment; rather does the whole, mainrib and cross-lines, develop pro- 

 gressively as the thought finds expression in orderly sentences. He 

 accomplishes this feat by the support of subconsciously delegated func- 

 tions, that reflect years of trained experience, and cooperate with con- 

 summate skill, and ordinarily with no subordinate intrusions, in the 

 centrally directed purpose. 



We resume the survey of speech-lapses by observing another group, 

 that suggests the confusions of conduct that occur in the abstracted 

 handling of material situations. They have been called contamina- 

 tions, coalescences, fusions and the like. They lay bare the subcon- 

 scious alternatives from among which consciousness ordinarily selects 

 properly the one chosen from the several called, but in this exceptional 

 instance allows the submerged factor to project above the surface. 

 Upon being asked whether she had heard a certain musical composition, 

 a young lady had in mind to answer that she had heard scraps of it, 

 or again that she had heard snatches of it, but actually said that she 

 had heard scratches of it; with rubbers in the background of the mind, 



