40 MEJ^TAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



CHAPTER III. 



LOGIC OF RECEPTS. 



We have seen that the great border-land, or terra media, lying 

 between particular ideas and general ideas has been strangely- 

 neglected by psychologists, and we may now be prepared to 

 find that a careful exploration of this border-land is a matter 

 of the highest importance for the purposes of our inquiry. I 

 will, therefore, devote the present chapter to a full consider- 

 ation of what I have termed generic ideas, or recepts. 



It has already been remarked that, in order to form any of 

 these generic ideas, the mind does not require to combine 

 intentionally the particular ideas which go to construct it ; a 

 recept differs from a concept in that it is received, not conceived. 

 The percepts out of which a recept is composed are of so 

 comparatively simple a character, are so frequently repeated in 

 observation, and present among themselves resemblances or 

 analogies so obvious^ that the mental images of them run 

 together, as it were, spontaneously, or in accordance with the 

 primary laws of merely sensuous association, without requir- 

 ing any conscious act of comparison. This is a truth which 

 has been noticed by several previous writers. For instance, I 

 have in this connection already quoted a passage from M. 

 Taine, and, if necessary, could quote another, wherein he very 

 aptly likens what I have called recepts to the unelaborated 

 ore out of which the metal of a concept is afterwards smelted. 

 And still more to the purpose is the following passage, which 

 I take from Mr. Sully: — "The more co7icrete concepts, or 

 generic images, are formed to a large extent by a passive 

 process of assimilation. The likeness among dogs, for ex- 



