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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



— does the mind's eye eke out the imperfections of physical vision. 

 The vague conformations of drapery and make-up that are identi- 

 fied and recognized in spiritualistic seances illustrate extreme in- 



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 OO 



OOO 



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Fig. 18. 



Fig. 19. 



stances of this process. The whitewashed tree or post that momen- 

 tarily startles us in a dark country lane takes on the guise that ex- 

 pectancy gives it. The mental predisposition here becomes the 

 dominant factor, and the timid see as ghosts what their more sturdy 

 companions recognize as whitewashed posts. Such experiences we 

 ascribe to the action of suggestion and the imagination — the cloud 

 " that's almost in shape like a camel," or " like a weasel," or " like a 

 whale." But throughout our visual experiences there runs thi^ 



Fig. 20. — Do you see a duck or a rabbit, or either? (From Harper's Weekly, originally in 



Kliegende Blatter.) 



double strain, now mainly outward and now mainly inward, from the 

 simplest excitements of the retina up to the realms where fancy 

 soars freed from the confines of sense, and the objective finds its 

 occupation gone. 



