716 



SCIENCE. 



{Vol. U., No. 43. 



sense ; that is, we see heieb}' how the muscular 

 sense, used as the measure of the amount of our 

 activity, is for that reason the especial means of 

 helping us to build up definite ideas of complex 

 facts. Motions we could know, it would seem, 

 apart from the muscular sense ; but we should 

 have no such clear ideas as we have of the dif- 

 ferences among motions. Even so it probably 

 is with space. We should know of space if we 

 were motionless ; but we should not know of 

 what Mr. Shadworth Hodgson calls figured 

 space, — space mapped out as the mathemati- 

 cian needs to map it out. In fact, the con- 

 nection of the muscular sense with the simple 

 perception of movement, to form the complex 

 perception of the definite character of the mani- 

 fold differences between one movement and 

 another, gives us an excelleiit illustration of 

 that general law of mind according to which as 

 man}- originallj' separate mental facts as possi- 

 ble are constantly' being brought together, in 

 order that, from their blending, a new and more 

 definite unitj- maj' come. Increased complex- 

 ity of data running side by side with increased 

 simplicity of form, — this is the law of mental 

 progress ; and so the motions perceived bj' the 

 pure sense of touch become definitely compara- 

 ble with one another, and with the motions of 

 the pure sense of sight, hj means of the union 

 of both with the data of the muscular sense, 

 the whole thus forming the basis for higher 

 rational mental processes. 



Professor Strieker's facts are also useful as 

 independent illustrations of certain other allied 

 laws that have been elsewhere recognized . For 

 instance : the tendencj' to join the conception 

 of a motion with an imitation or nascent imita- 

 tion of this motion has been before illustrated 

 by the phenomena of hypnotism, by the ges- 

 tures of sensitive and vivacious people, by the 

 facts of so-called ' mind-reading,' and by many 

 similar and verj' common experiences. Pro- 

 fessor Strieker has attended more to these 

 imitative tendencies than most people are 

 accustomed to do, and has verified them sub- 

 jectively for himself. Mr. Galton's ' histrionic 

 associations ' (' Human faculty,' p. 198) belong 

 to the same group of facts. 



Another law, however, is indirectly verified 

 by Professor Strieker, as far as his observa- 

 tions go ; and it may be well to mention this 

 law here, because, so far as the present writer 

 knows, little attention has been devoted to it 

 by psychologists. It is the law formulated as 

 an aesthetic principle in Lessing's ' Laocoon,' 

 that moving objects, actions, events, can be 

 properly described by the poet in language ; 

 while things that have to be spoken of as rest- 



ing, and, in general, things that are coex- 

 istent, cannot successfully be represented by 

 language. Still more generall.y stated as a 

 practical principle of the rhetorician, the law is, 

 that, to describe vividly, one must seize upon 

 everj' element in the object that can be spoken 

 of in terms of motion or action, and must 

 either neglect or very briefly indicate what- 

 ever elements cannot so be interpreted. This 

 principle explains one use of personifications, 

 whether total or partial. The mountains rise 

 into the skj-, or lift their heads ; the lake 

 stretches out before one's sight ; the tower 

 looms up, or hangs over the spectator, — such 

 are some of the more familiar devices of de- 

 scription. An exception that illustrates the 

 rule is found in the case of very bright colors, 

 whose interest and comparative brilliancy in 

 the mental pictures of even very unimaginative 

 persons may make it possible for the descrip- 

 tive poet to name them as coexistent, wiliiout 

 suggesting motion, particularly if he render 

 them otherwise especially interesting. So in 

 the well-known description, in Keats's ' St. 

 Agnes' eve,' of the light from the stained-glass 

 casement, as it falls on the praying Madeline. 

 Even here, however, the light falls. And 

 color-images, however brilliant, are increased 

 in vividness b}' the addition of the suggestion 

 of motion ; as in Shellej''s ' Ode to the west 

 wind,' where 



"The leaves dead 

 Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, 

 Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, 

 Pestilence stricken multitudes." 



Much less eflfective would be the mention of 

 the most brilliant autumn hues apart from 

 motion. 



Lessing gave as basis for this theor}- the 

 somewhat abstract statement that language, 

 being spoken or read snccessiveh", is best fitted 

 to portraj' the successive. But this is hardly 

 the whole story. The modern generalization 

 that men and animals alike observe moving 

 more easilj' than quiet objects, in case the 

 motion is not too fast or too slow, seems to 

 come nearer to ottering an explanation. But 

 this account is still incomplete ; for it will be 

 found that we do not always picture mentally 

 the motion of an object, even when we try to 

 do so. To see a man walk in the mind's ej'e 

 is not always so easy as to pictiu'c a man in 

 some attitude. Professor Strieker notes that 

 his dreams seldom picture to him actual mo- 

 tions. In mauj' dreams we must all have 

 noticed that the rapid transitions that take 

 place are rather known as motions or altera- 

 tions that have happened, than as changes in 



