THE DATA OF PHILOSOPHY. 151 



them loosely aggregated: the only indissoluble cohesions 

 among them being between certain of their generic forms. 



While the components of each current cohere with one 

 another, they do not cohere at all strongly with those of 

 the other current. Or, more correctly, we may say that the 

 vivid current habitually flows on quite undisturbed by the 

 faint current; and that the faint current, though often 

 largely determined by the vivid, and always to some extent 

 carried with it, may yet maintain a substantial independ- 

 ence, letting the vivid current slide by. We will glance at 

 the interactions of the two. The successive faint 



manifestations constituting thought, fail to modify in the 

 slightest degree the vivid manifestations that present them- 

 selves. Omitting a quite peculiar class of exceptions, here- 

 after to be dealt with, the vivid manifestations, fixed and 

 changing, are not directly affected by the faint. Those 

 which I distinguish as components of a landscape, as surg- 

 ings of the sea, as whistlings of the wind, as movements 

 of vehicles and people, are absolutely uninfluenced by the 

 accompanying faint manifestations which I distinguish as 

 my ideas. On the other hand, the current of faint 



manifestations is always somewhat perturbed by the vivid. 

 Frequently it consists mainly of faint manifestations which 

 cling to the vivid ones, and are carried with them as they 

 pass — memories and suggestions as we call them, which, 

 joined with the vivid manifestations producing them, form 

 almost the whole body of the manifestations. At other 

 times, when, as we say, absorbed in thought, the disturb- 

 ance of the faint current is but superficial. The vivid mani- 

 festations drag after them such few faint manifestations 

 only as constitute recognitions of them : to each impression 

 adhere certain ideas which make up the interpretation of 

 it as such or such. But there meanwhile flows on a main 

 stream of faint manifestations wholly unrelated to the vivid 

 manifestations — what we call a reverie, perhaps, or it may 

 be a process of reasoning. And occasionally, during the 



