36 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



and Concept are applicable to the lands on either side of it. 

 The consequence is that psychologists of the one school 

 invade this intermediate province of ideation with terms that 

 are applicable only to the lower province, while psychologists 

 of the other school invade it with terms which are applicable 

 only to the higher : the one matter upon which they all 

 appear to agree being that of ignoring the wide area which 

 this intermediate territory covers — and, consequently, also 

 ignoring the great distance by which the territories on either 

 side of it are separated. 



In addition, then, to the terms Percept and Concept, I 

 coin the word Recept. This is a term which seems exactly to 

 meet the requirements of the case. For as perception literally 

 means a taking wholly, and conception a taking together, 

 reception means a taking again. Consequently, a recept is 

 that which is taken again, or a re-cognition of things 

 previously cognized. Now, it belongs to the essence of what 

 I have defined as compound ideas (recepts), that they arise 

 in the mind out of a repetition of more or less similar 

 percepts. Having seen a number of araucarias, the mind 

 receives from the whole mass of individuals which it perceives 

 a composite idea of Araucaria, or of a class comprising all 

 individuals of that kind — an idea which differs from a general 

 or abstract idea only in not being consciously fixed and 

 signed as an idea by means of an abstract name. Compound 

 ideas, therefore, can only arise out of a repetition of more or 

 less similar percepts ; and hence the appropriateness of 

 designating them recepts. Moreover, the associations which 

 we have with the cognate words. Receive, Reception, &c., are 

 all of the passive kind, as the associations which we have 

 with the words Conceive, Conception, &c., are of the active 

 kind. Now, here again, the use of the word recept is seen to 

 be appropriate to the class of ideas in question, because in 

 receiving such ideas the mind is passive, as in conceiving 

 abstract ideas the mind is active. In order to form a 

 concept, the mind must intentionally bring together its 

 percepts (or the memories of them), for the purpose of 



