THE PICTURE AND TEE TEXT 275 



ness of real objects. Through them the absent world is brought back, 

 each picture affording the point of departure for a supplementary imagi- 

 native process which grows richer and richer as the years pass. Pictures 

 thus form a natural mode of transition from the intuition of the world 

 to its representation in thought by means of the conventional symbols of 

 written language. 



In primitive peoples as well as in the life of the child the line of 

 development is through pictorial representation of reality to its descrip- 

 tion in analytic terms by means of verbal symbols. The evolution of 

 language is marked by an increasing importance in the role played by 

 the explanatory text and a corresponding decline in the use made of 

 pictures. In the stages of barbaric culture picture and text are habitu- 

 ally associated. Vast series of figures, on temple wall and tomb and 

 tablet, represent the scenes and events to be recorded, while beneath or 

 at the side is put the running commentary of lettering or other text — the 

 text itself commonly a modified picture-series, as in hieroglyphs and 

 ideographs. Among civilized peoples the picture drops back to a purely 

 accessory position. The text is now completely intelligible by itself — at 

 least it aims to be so ; while the introduction of pictures either marks a 

 sense of insufficiency in the verbal medium or reflects purely an appeal 

 to esthetic values. 



The child, if not the barbarian, apprehends and employs pictures 

 in a way different from the adult, as regards their relation both to the 

 text and to other pictures. This difference marks a characteristic dis- 

 tinction between the two mental types; for the individual's conception 

 of illustration and its function reflects from year to year the nature and 

 development of the mind. At any moment the child will be interested 

 in those pictures which appeal to the needs and impulses then dominant, 

 and at each successive stage of his history only such as conform to the 

 conditions and limitations of his mind will be intelligible. If a picture 

 exhibit the complex relations of many component figures it will not be 

 appreciated by a mind incapable of apprehending the synthetic unity of 

 a complex group or multitude ; and if it represent a single phase in such 

 a connected system of actions or events as can be presented only in a 

 series of pictures, it can not be apprehended by a mind that lacks the 

 capacity to seize their unity in a dramatic concept and thus in imagina- 

 tion to construe the successive elements as a single action. 



For such a mind the complex composition will exist only as a multi- 

 tude of separate figures, among which indeed the mind may wander 

 renewing its delight as each attracts attention, but which receive no 

 added significance through their synthesis as members of a common 

 system. The various pictures which represent the successive phases of a 

 dramatic action will likewise be apprehended only in isolation from one 

 another, each being treated as a story or situation in itself or, if the mind 



