T/ie Internal Senses. 691 



simple, we shall find them compound, and they grade off so insensibly 

 into their related and associated ideas that it is difficult to tell where one 

 ends and the other begins. In rain, the eye is impressed by the appear- 

 ance of a single drop which may be seen high in the air and traced in 

 its descent till it reaches the earth, where it strikes and bursts into many 

 fragments. Accompanying this drop are myriads of others, subjected 

 to the same conditions and coming to the same end. Behind these phe- 

 nomena we recognize the attraction of gravitation, which causes the drops 

 to fall, and the force of the wind, which gives them their slanting direc- 

 tion, and the idea of the parallelogram of forces is involved. Then there 

 are the other accompaniments and conditions that go to associate them- 

 selves with the falling drops, as the dull and dusky sky, the wet earth, 

 muddy roads, ditches and streams full of water, dripping trees, broken 

 shrubbery, prostrated fields of grain, washed-out bridges, delayed mails, 

 weather-bound travelers, thunder and lightning, and its effects in killed 

 stock, burnt buildings, and suspension of telegraphic operations; gen- 

 eral cessation of out-door work, loss of time and loss of wages. These, 

 and a thousand more details, may be included in, or associated with, 

 the general idea of rain, and the whole or any part may be restimulated 

 or recollected in consequence of a new sight of a cloud, the sign of rain. 

 It is obvious that in no two people would the revived series of rain as- 

 sociations be precisely the same, because no two have had the same ex- 

 perience with rain, or been placed in the same relationships to it. It 

 would not, for example, awaken in the brain of a savage any sensation 

 of suspended telegraphic communications, nor would he be reminded 

 of the law of gravitation, because no part of his brain has been differ- 

 entiated by such stimuli. The associations revived in the brain of a 

 sailor would be different from those of a farmer. In each case they 

 might influence motor action, but in each in a different way. It is, of 

 course, owing to the difference in the surroundings and influences to 

 which different individuals are subjected, that the fissures and convolu- 

 tions vary in their details, the organs and their expressions and mani- 

 festations varying in a corresponding manner. 



There is no end to the objects which are " signs " of something else. 

 Words are signs of objects in the environment, and of states of cere- 

 bral organs. Written words are the signs of spoken words. The hun- 

 ter recognizes signs of game in tracks and other indications. A flag is 

 a sign of nationality 7 ; a motto, of sentiment. There are signs of pleas- 

 ure, of discontent, of sorrow, of weariness, of cowardice, of meanness; 

 signs of wealth, of poverty, of industry, of shiftlessness, of prosperity; 

 signs of war, signs of peace, and signs of the times. There are signs 

 of culture, signs of breeding, signs of morality, signs of depravity. 



We artificially contrive and establish numerous objects to act as stand- 



