THE EXPERIMENTAL THEORY 83 



acquainted is to anticipate to some extent, on the 

 basis of prior experience. I am, say, barely ac 

 quainted with Mr. Smith : then I have no extended 

 body of associated qualities along with those palpa 

 bly present, but at least some one suggested trait 

 occurs ; his nose, his tone of voice, the place where 

 I saw him, his calling in life, an interesting anec 

 dote about him, etc. To be acquainted is to know 

 what a thing is like in some particular. If one is 

 acquainted with the smell of a flower it means that 

 the smell is not just smell, but reminds one of 

 some other experienced thing which stands in con 

 tinuity with the smell. There is thus supplied a 

 condition of control over or purchase upon what 

 is present, the possibility of translating it into 

 terms of some other trait not now sensibly present. 

 Let us return to our example. Let us suppose 

 that S is not just displaced by K and then by G. 

 Let us suppose it persists ; and persists not as an 

 unchanged S alongside K and G, nor yet as fused 

 with them into a new further quale J. For in such 

 events, we have only the type already considered 

 and rejected. For an observer the new quale might 

 be more complex, or fuller of meaning, than the 

 original S, K, or G, but might not be experienced 

 as complex. We might thus suppose a composite 

 photograph which should suggest nothing of the 

 complexity of its origin and structure. In this 

 case we should have simply another picture. 



