276 PSYCIIOLOG Y. 



whole sentence bathed in that original halo of obscure rela- 

 tions, which, like an horizon, then si)read about its meaning. 

 Our psychological duty is to cling as closely as possible 

 to the actual constitution of the thought we are studying. 

 We may err as much by excess as by defect. If the kernel 

 or 'topic,' Columbus, is in one way less than the thought's 

 object, so in another way it may be more. That is, when 

 named by the psychologist, it may mean much more than 

 actually is present to the thought of which he is reporter. 

 Thus, for example, suppose you should go on to think : 

 ' He was a daring genius ! ' An ordinary psychologist would 

 not hesitate to say that the object of your thought was still 



* Columbus.' True, your thought is about Columbus. It 



* terminates ' in Columbus, leads from and to the direct 

 idea of Columbus. But for the moment it is not fully and 

 immediately Columbus, it is only ' he,' or rather ' he-was- 

 a-daring-genius ;' which, though it may be an unimportant 

 dift'erence for conversational purposes, is, for introspective 

 psychology, as great a difference as there can be. 



The object of every thought, then, is neither more nor 

 less than all that the thought thinks, exactly as the thought 

 thinks it, however complicated the matter, and however 

 symbolic the manner of the thinking may be. It is need- 

 less to say that memory can seldom accurately reproduce 

 such an object, Avhen once it has passed from before the 

 mind. It either makes too little or too much of it. Its 

 best plan is to repeat the verbal sentence, if there was 

 one, in which the object was expressed. But for inarticu- 

 late thoughts there is not even this resource, and intro- 

 spection mast confess that the task exceeds her powers. 

 The mass of our thinking vanishes for ever, beyond hope 

 of recovery, and psychology only gathers up a few of the 

 crumbs that fall from the feast. 



The next point to make clear is that, hoicever complex the 

 object may be, the thought of it is one wndivided state of con- 

 sciousness. As Thomas Brown says : * 



" I have already spoken too often to require again to eatition you 

 against the mistake into which, I confess, that the terms which the 



* Lectures ou the Philosophy of the Human Mind, Lecture 45. 



