Chap. XXYIII ] AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES. 603 



becomes so identitied with the various attributes of the 

 object that, when heard, it invariably recalls to memory 

 the object of which it may now be said to form a kind of 

 additional attribute, just as the sight or touch of the object 

 will in turn call up the memory of the sound which has 

 been employed as its designation. At first these articu- 

 late sounds (or spoken words) are only connected with 

 external objects, though soon certain adjectives, signifying 

 approval or disapproval, are added as qualifying sounds. 

 By degrees the number of nouns and of adjectives in use 

 increases, and also other parts of speech are added. 



the process of learning is the same in all 



cases, whether the spoken sound is to be associated with 

 an external object, with an emotional condition, or with 

 a conception of the mind : first, it is necessary that we 

 should be able to recollect and identify, when again pre- 

 sented to consciousness, either the set of attributes 

 belonging to the object, the peculiarities of the emotional 

 state, or of the intellectual conception ; and, secondly, 

 that we should be able to recollect the particular vocal 

 sounds which have been associated with these several 

 modifications of consciousness v/hen previously existing. 



This is the first stage passed through in 



the acquirement of a language — it is the mere learning 

 to associate particular sounds with particular mental im- 

 pressions, which association at last becomes so strong as 

 to be almost inseparable, the thing unfailingly recalling 

 to memory the sound, and the articulate sound as surely 

 conjuring up a more or less vivid idea of the thing. In 

 the process of Naming, therefore, there is involved not 

 only a simple act of memory, but also, as Herbert Spencer 

 has pointed out, the germ of a reasoning process in the 



form of a simple act of inference it would 



seem pretty obvious that so far as the infant thinks by 



