SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE METHODS 



former case combine to prevent any other than 

 the true conclusion from being framed into a 

 proposition to which the mind assents. Count- 

 less accumulated experiences have taught the 

 modern that there are many associations of ideas 

 which do not correspond to any actual connec- 

 tion of cause and effect in the world of pheno- 

 mena ; and he has learned accordingly to apply 

 to his newly framed notions the rigid test of 

 Verification. Besides which the same accumu- 

 lation of experiences has built up an organized 

 structure of ideal associations into which only 

 the less extravagant newly framed notions have 

 any chance of fitting. The primitive man, or 

 the modern savage who is to some extent his 

 counterpart, must reason without the aid of 

 these multifarious checks. That immense mass 

 of associations which answer to what are called 

 physical laws, and which in the mind of the 

 civilized modern have become almost organic, 

 have not been formed in the mind of the sav- 

 age ; nor has he learned the necessity of experi- 

 mentally testing any of his newly framed no- 

 tions, save perhaps a few of the commonest. 

 Consequently, there is nothing but superficial 

 analogy to guide the course of his thought hither 

 or thither, and the conclusions at which he ar- 

 rives will be determined by associations of ideas 

 occurring apparently at haphazard.^ Hence the 

 1 Do we not see here how close is the connection, psycho- 



155 



