690 Dynamic Theory. 



of these standards are absolutely correct or exact representations of the 

 things they stand for. The way we came to think ' ' brave, " for exam- 

 ple, was by having heard that term associated with a certain action ; 

 thereupon, whenever we afterward see or hear of such an action, we 

 think " brave, " and when we hear the word brave we think the action ; 

 that is, our standard organ for " brave" is stimulated, and yields its 

 sensation of the memory. Obviously, no two people have exactly the 

 same standard for anything, as no two will tell in precisely the same 

 way, of a thing they both have seen. 



Our first formed standards for qualities are concrete. Our first idea 

 of brave is the whole story of some heroic action. As heroic actions 

 multiply in our observation, we cease to be confined to the first one as 

 our standard. As the idea, brave, becomes associated with so many 

 observations, and ceases to be the peculiar property of any, it becomes 

 more and more an abstract idea, till, finally, reference to it awakens no 

 single instance of heroism, but the quality which is common to all the 

 instances. 



Organs are connected with each other in all directions and in the most 

 intimate manner, so that it is always impossible to stimulate one organ 

 without at the same time exciting some other. When we see an object 

 that has ever been seen before, the transmuted stimulation of the light 

 from that object reaches the organ of the object previously formed, and 

 stimulates it afresh, causing a sensation of the thing in memory, and 

 the stimulation goes on to some associated organ, arousing its sensation 

 likewise. The object in the environment which initiates this disturbance, 

 is called the " sign " of the second object whose organ is stimulated. 

 Thus, we say a cloud is a sign of rain. That is, if I see a cloud I think 

 of rain, because in times past when my cloud organ was differentiated, 

 a rain organ was at the same time differentiated in association with it. 

 And now whenever one of them is aroused, its stimulation overflows to 

 the other and arouses it. How much of it is aroused depends upon the 

 various ways in which the organ of rain is connected with other organs. 

 For in mature persons there is a perpetual tendency to develop new as- 

 sociations, and to form connections between organs at first not associ- 

 ated. And this arises simply from the fact that in nature there are no 

 departments. All things are united by a common chain, and as more 

 and more of external nature imprints itself upon our brain, the more 

 comprehensive our ideas become. We get a better focus upon nature, 

 and objects which at first appeared huge, dim and isolated, are resolved 

 into infinite details, and links of connection are discovered which before 

 were invisible. Divisions and departments are subjective, and exist in 

 our ideas because many of our organs are at first unassociated and un- 

 connected. If we analyze common ideas which we ordinarily treat as 



