SYMBOLS. 543 



tive twice, is seen also in the most ancient art of Greece, where 

 on the bas-reliefs a forest was represented by one tree, an army 

 by one soldier, a house by a single column. 



Gradually symbols become more abstract and tend to lose 

 their concrete character. "The consignment of a piece of sod 

 taken from the ground in presence of the buyer and of witnesses 

 is a concrete and material formality, almost a consignment of the 

 earth itself ; but the consignment of a bundle of straw as a sign 

 of the sale of land or of a house is already a much more abstract 

 symbol, because its visible connection with the thing is less, be- 

 cause the separation between the symbol and the thing is much 

 greater, and man fills up the gap with the rich mental associa- 

 tions which are already formed in his mind. Another step, and 

 the fragile straw too will disappear, and the material symbolism 

 of primitive times be replaced by the more ideal forms of proof 

 which we employ. So, little by little, almost unawares, man is 

 brought by evolution face to face with the most complex abstract 

 ideas." 



Emotional symbols is the subject of an interesting division. 

 Ferrero says : " We perceive that an emotion, produced by what- 

 ever cause, lasts for a certain time, then grows weaker until it is 

 extinguished. Neither love, nor hatred, nor pleasure, nor pain 

 are, fortunately for mankind, eternal, because, as they are also 

 transformations of force, they cease when they have exhausted 

 the initial quantity of energy which they possessed at their origin. 

 We perceive also that by the law of mental inertia this emotion 

 can not be repeated, even with reduced intensity, unless a sensa- 

 tion antecedently associated with the same emotion in experi- 

 ence excites or recalls it. Now emotional symbols are composed 

 of those sensations which have the power to awaken dormant 

 emotions ; by the law of inertia they arise once more and reac- 

 quire their immense importance." Hence he proceeds to show 

 how the trophy arose, and also how, from the custom of taking 

 from the vanquished his most brilliant garments, splendid gar- 

 ments came to be the insignia of dominant and privileged classes, 

 kings, princes, chiefs, to be held as tokens of authority. Ferrero 

 makes a minute examination of the importance attached to dress 

 in modern society, and proves how this is an excellent specimen of 

 an emotional symbol. In support of his views he cites the words 

 of Buckle, where he says that dress was of such importance in 

 the sixteenth century that a person's condition was evident from 

 his exterior, no one daring to usurp the habit of a superior class. 

 But during the democratic movement which preceded the French 

 Revolution the innovations of fashion were felt even in the re- 

 unions of good society. At dinners, suppers, and balls, as con- 

 temporary writers tell, dress had been so much simplified that 



