550 The Outline of Science 



conscience there, and its reason somewhere else; it reasons, 

 wills, and is conscientious as a whole. Thought, feeling, and 

 will do not lie side by side, as it were, like stones in a mosaic, 

 any of which could be removed without destroying the rest; 

 they rather resemble the functions of the body, none of which 

 are possible without the co-operation of all the others. 1 



Another way to describe mental activity was to regard every 

 idea 



as capable of existing in two conditions, or forms; on the 

 one hand, it might be a conscious idea, or exist in conscious- 

 ness; consciousness being spoken of as an illuminated 

 chamber into which ideas enter in turn, to be lit up and 

 active for a short period; and on the other hand, it might 

 exist as an unconscious idea in the memory, a sort of Hades 

 or dim underworld to which each idea, or its ghost, returns 

 after its brief exposure to the light of consciousness; there 

 to await and to seize any opportunity of emerging again 

 into light and life. Within this underworld ideas remain 

 linked together in complex groupings. The whole assembly 

 of ideas, thus linked in the obscurity of memory, constitutes 

 the structure of the mind; and mental activity consists in 

 each idea dragging up after it into the light whatever ideas 

 are linked or associated with it. 2 



* 



When we come to the mind proper we may, using a purely 

 pictorial analogy, regard it as consisting of three layers. The top 

 layer we may call the region of the conscious life. It is, as it were, 

 a vividly illuminated region, where everything that goes on is 

 clearly seen. It is to this region that we normally refer when 

 we seek the explanation of our conduct, and, as we shall see, 

 the explanations we obtain in that way are often wrong. A little 

 below this clear region is a semi-conscious region, a region which 

 can become accessible to us by effort. It is in this region, for 

 instance, that the information which is not present to our minds, 



1 F. S. Granger, Psychology. 

 ' Wm. McDougall, Psychology. 



