778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I found the purely verbal associations to contrast forcibly in their 

 rapid, mechanical precision with the tardy and imperfect elaboration of 

 highly generalized ideas ; the former depending on an elementary ac- 

 tion of the brain, the latter upon an exceedingly complicated one. It 

 was easy to infer from this the near alliance between smartness and 

 shallowness. 



It so happens that my mental imagery concerns itself more with 

 aspects of scenery than with the faces of men, as I have rather a good 

 memory for localities, and much pleasure in thinking about them, while 

 I am distressed by natural inaptitude for recollecting features. I was 

 therefore surprised to find that the names of persons were just twice as 

 fi-equent in my associations as those of things, ineluding places, books, 

 and pictures. The associated words that formed parts of sentences or 

 quotations were twenty-seven in number, and tended strongly to recur- 

 rence. The majority were of good verse or prose ; the minority were 

 doggerel. I may as well specify their origin. Four of the verse quota- 

 tions were from Tennyson, two from Shakespeare, and eight from other 

 sources partlj' doggerel. Of the prose, five were from the Bible, and 

 seven from other sources, partly grotesque, and some of them family 

 phrases. I suspect there is a great deal of rubbish in the furniture of 

 all our brains. 



The occasional vividness of an idea is very startling, and I do not 

 see my way to explaining it fully ; but sometimes I am sure it is due 

 to the concurrence of many associations, severally of small intensity, 

 but in the aggregate very effective. An instance of this is the power- 

 ful effect produced by multitudes subject to a common feeling of enthu- 

 siasm, religious fervor, or pure panic. On the few occasions on which I 

 have had the opportunity of experiencing such manifestations, it seemed 

 to me that every one of the multitudinous sounds and movements that 

 reached the ear and eye, being inspired by a common feeling, added its 

 effect to that of all the others. When we are in the presence of a single 

 person or of a small companj^, the empty background fills a large part 

 of the field of view, and dilutes the visual effect of their enthusiasm. 

 Nay, the larger part of the forms of the persons themselves are simi- 

 larly inexpressive, unless they be consummate actors. But nothing is 

 seen in an enthusiastic multitude but excited faces and gestures, no- 

 thing is heard but excited voices and rustlings. Their variety is such 

 that every chord in the heart of a bystander, that admits of vibrating 

 in sympathy with the common feeling, must be stimulated to do so by 

 some of them. 



The background of our mental imagery is neither uniform nor con- 

 stant in its character. It changes in color, tint, and pattern, though, 

 in my case, all these are usually very faintly marked, and it requires 

 much attention to study them properly. Its peculiarities have nothing 

 to do vnth associated ideas ; they appear to depend solely upon chance 

 physiological causes, to which some of our ideas are also undoubtedly due. 



