CHAPTER XV. 



THE COMPOSITION OP MIND. 



In pnrsTiing the analysis of a complex series of phenomena, 

 with the object of ascertaining the simple ultimate elements 

 of which the complex series is made up, we shall sometimes 

 most satisfactorily accomplish our purpose if we begin with 

 the most complicated cases which the series presents. After 

 explaining these by resolving them into their less complex 

 components, our analysis " must proceed similarly with these 

 components ; and so, by successive decompositions, must 

 descend to the simpler and more general, reaching at last 

 the simplest and most general." Let us proceed, after this 

 fashion, to inquire into the Composition of Mind. Begin- 

 ning with the most highly-involved operations of conscious 

 intelligence, and neglecting, for the time being, the con- 

 sideration of those emotional states by which all operations 

 of intelligence are to a greater or less degree accompanied, let 

 us pursue our analysis until we have arrived at those ultimate 

 units of feeling in the manifold compounding of which all con- 

 scious operations, whether intellectual or emotional, consist. 

 Beginning, then, with a somewhat complicated operation 

 of intelligence, let us consider the process by which an as- 

 tronomer, knowing the dimensions of the earth, is enabled to 

 •jalculate therefrom the distance of the moon. He must, la 



