692 Dynamic Theory. 



ard stimuli for the purpose of arousing the ideas in the association with 

 which the} r are established. Among such standards may be mentioned 

 portraits of friends, and all sorts of pictures, keepsakes, monuments 

 and ceremonies commemorative of events, holidays, saints' days, birth- 

 days, festivals and fasts, images of gods, saints, &c. 



One thing is a sign of another when it causes the other to be remem- 

 bered. The relationship of sign and thing signified depends upon both 

 of them having differentiated memory organs in the brain in association 

 with each other, the stimulation of the one called "sign" being always, 

 or generally, sufficient to stimulate the other also. The sign may be de- 

 fined to be one of a series of related details, the aggregate sum of which 

 constitutes one general subject of stimulation, which may usually be 

 expressed by a single general term. 



A single depraved action is a sign of depravity, because such action, 

 or its equivalent, has in some time past made its mark in the cerebral 

 tissue, along with others of its kind, under a general class with which 

 there is the further association of the term "depravity." Associated 

 with the term are the ideas of the evil effects upon ourselves of such ac- 

 tion, and consequently the feelings of aversion which it arouses. The 

 formation of an organ which recognizes depravity in an action, is a pro- 

 cess of the gradual spread of cell differentiations from a center by stim- 

 uli of a similar and associated kind. The great majority of such stim- 

 uli never could happen to the experience of any single individual. As 

 each of us has this organ, it is chiefly an artificial product, the result 

 of the accumulations of generations, imparted to each individual in the 

 course of his education. 



In early life the nuclei of the organs are scattered over the cerebral 

 cortex, first located there according to the directive influence of heredit} r . 

 These, by development and education, become organs of so many stand- 

 ard stimuli with which to compare the stimulus from any object with 

 which we become affected. This object is a sign of something repre- 

 sented by one ( or more ) of our organs, and we are accustomed to say 

 we compare this object with our standards, and place its memory along- 

 side of its natural associations. Sometimes there is doubt, and an ef- 

 fort of reason, as we call it, is necessary to accomplish the proper as- 

 signment. Further reflection will show us that " we " do not make 

 these comparisons, or direct the assignments of the new stimuli to their 

 appropriate associations. This action is purely automatic, and could 

 not go on otherwise than as it does. 



As mentioned above, the stimulus goes of necessity to the cells which 

 have in the past been differentiated by the same sort of stimuli. If we 

 could imagine it to go somewhere else, no effect would come of it, for 

 the stimulus could arouse no action, and consequently no memory in 



