THE PRINCIPAL ACTS 387 



To meditate is to carry out a succession of thoughts, to sift by 

 successive thoughts either the affinities between several objects that 

 are under consideration, or the different ideas that may be obtained 

 from a single object. 



A single object may indeed provide an intelligent being with a 

 number of different ideas, such as those of its mass, size, shape, colour, 

 consistency, etc. 



If the individual becomes conscious of some of these ideas when the 

 object is not present, he is said to be thinking of that object ; and indeed 

 he actually does carry out one or more successive thoughts with regard 

 to it ; but if the object is present he is then said to observe it and 

 examine it, in order to derive from it all the ideas that his method of 

 observation and capacity for attention permit of. 



Just as thought works on direct ideas, that is, on ideas obtained by 

 sensations that are noticed, so too it works on the complex ideas that 

 the individual possesses, and may restore them to consciousness. 



Hence the object of a thought or succession of thoughts may be 

 material or include various material objects ; but it may also be 

 constituted out of a complex idea or several ideas of this character. 

 Now, by means of thought, the individual may obtain still further 

 ideas from these two different kinds, and so on indefinitely. Hence we 

 get imagination, which originates in the habit of thinking and forming 

 complex ideas, and which creates by similarity or analogy special 

 ideas on the model of those yielded by sensations. 



I shall now bring my remarks on this subject to a close : for I do 

 not propose to undertake any analysis of ideas, as has already been 

 done by abler men and more profound thinkers ; I shall have attained 

 my purpose if I have made clear the true mechanism by which ideas and 

 thoughts are formed in the organ of intelligence, in response to excita- 

 tions of the individual's inner feeling. 



I shall merely add that thought is always accompanied by attention, 

 so that when the latter ceases the former promptly comes to an 

 end. 



I shall further add that since thought is an action, it uses up the 

 nervous fluid, and consequently, that when it is maintained too long, 

 it causes fatigue, exhaustion and injury to all the other organic func- 

 tions and especially that of digestion. 



I shall conclude with the following remark, which I beUeve to be 

 well-founded, viz. : that the available portion of our nervous fluid 

 becomes larger or smaller in accordance with certain conditions, so 

 that it is sometimes abundant and more than sufficient for the 

 production of prolonged thought and attention, while sometimes it 

 is sufficient and cannot provide for a succession of intellectual acts. 



