ii2 MEMORY, HABIT, AND IMITATION 



Symbolic recollections are much more than 

 recollections of symbols : they involve the recol- 

 lection of the object which the symbol denotes, 

 and proceed from the capacity of the memory to 

 link together objects and symbols in correlative 

 pairs. Words are of course the principal symbols 

 in use, and our power of expressing ourselves is 

 entirely dependent upon the tenacity with which 

 a word and the thing or conception which it repre- 

 sents, cling together. Unless the word " rose " 

 is attached to the flower it would be impossible 

 to speak about roses. We know very well how 

 often, with foreign languages, this link between 

 symbol and object becomes broken : we say, 

 then, the word fails us. Amongst other symbols 

 are children's toys. Their attractiveness lies 

 entirely in their power of recalling the objects 

 for which they stand. In children, as already 

 observed, the faculty of visualization is exceed- 

 ingly efficient, and this explains the fact, so 

 commonly noticed, that a child will often prefer 

 a rough toy- symbol of its own to an elaborate 

 purchase at the toy-shop. 



A third class of these, so to speak, static 

 recollections are those which enable us to adjust 

 our sensations by correcting them in the light 

 of experience by means of which we see as a 

 round object a table which is really presented to 

 our eye-sight as an oval. These subconscious 

 recollections enable us to convert crude sensory 

 impressions into "percepts"; lacking the faculty 

 of directive instinct, we should be entirely at sea 

 without them. 



The links which bind together a pair of corre- 

 latives in the memory which unite an object 

 with its symbol weaken very greatly in the 

 case of new impressions, as age advances. Adults 

 learn languages with far more difficulty than 



