SiM'lAI, IIKKKIHTY 



sympat dices and prepossessions deeply seat 



ii ill.- mind of ill.- -idividual like 



Mtless rays in a focus. They live in him as thought, 



i-lt the crowd imagines that, whet h r right or wrong, 



praiseworthy or Mai it is !. that cherishes 



th'-rn " ' It is this mental : itatc of gem-rat ions 



long gone that i- conden>ed in the mind of one person 



and comprises the mental furniture which we acquire 



in the course of our life's experience. It is active in 



miming our explanations of our actions and always 



modifies our interpretation of the conduct of others. 



fessor Cooley speaks of this social atmosphere ' 

 into which we are born. in. -hiding its organization into 

 literatim-, art. and institution.-, as the out-id.* or visible 

 structure of thought. Although the symbols, the tradi 

 -, and the institutions are projected from the mind, 

 fn the very instant of their pn.j.-ction. they react. 

 'rolling, stimulating, developing, ami fix certain 

 thoughts at the expense of others to which no awakening 

 suggestion comes. Thus all is one growth. The "in 

 di vidual is a member not alone of a family, a class, a 

 fa larger whole reaching back to p ric 



man whose thought has gone to make it up.'"' In this 

 id medium the individual lives as in an element, from 

 which he draws the materials of his growth and to whirh 

 he contrihutes \\ 1 -onMructive thought he may 



s. Th.- individual mind becomes a blank when sep- 

 arated from the stream of collective exp- ri. :...-. hut im- 

 mersed in the great currents of men and ideas the in- 

 dividual grows, drawing from the common experience 

 the material for its own life. This has led Professor 

 Cooley to say. "The growth of the individual mind 

 op. r,f . P . 158. Cooky, fioctol Orjmimtitm, p. 64. 



