512 PSYCIIOLOOY. 



the terms. But wliat we feel as their difference, we should 

 feel, even though we were unable to name or otherwise 

 identify the terms. 



To which I reply that I believe that the difference is 

 always concreted and made to seem more substantial by rec- 

 ognizing the terms. I went out for instance the other day 

 and found that the snow just fallen had a very odd look, 

 different from the common aj^pearance of snow. I presently 

 called it a ' micaceous ' look ; and it seemed to me as if, the 

 moment I did so, the difference grew more distinct and 

 fixed than it was before. The other connotations of the 

 word * micaceous ' dragged the snow farther away from 

 ordinary snow and seemed even to aggravate the peculiar 

 look in question. I think some such effect as this on our 

 way of feeling a difference will be very generally admitted 

 to follow from naming the terms between which it obtains ; 

 although I admit myself that it is difficult to show coercively 

 that naming or otherwise identifying any given pair of 

 hardly distinguishable terms is essential to their being felt 

 as different at Jirst.* 



* The explanation I offer presupposes that a difference too faint to have 

 any direct effect in the way of making the mind notice it pe?' se will never- 

 theless be strong enough to keep its ' terras ' from calling up identical 

 associates. It seems probable from many observations that this is the case. 

 All the facts of ' unconscious ' inference are proofs of it. We say a 

 painting ' looks ' like the work of a certain artist, though we cannot name 

 the characteristic differentiae. "We see by a man's face that he is sincere, 

 though we can give no definite reason for our faith. The facts of sense- 

 perception quoted from Helmholtz a few pages below will be additional 

 examples. Here is another good one, though it will perhaps be easier 

 understood after reading the chapter on Space-perception than now. 

 Take two stereoscopic slides and represent on each half-slide a pair of 

 spots, a and b, but make their distances such that the «'s are equidistant 

 on both slides, whilst the 6's are nearer together on slide 1 than on slide 2. 

 Make moreover the distance ab = ab'" and the distance ab' = ab" Then 



a b a b' 



Slide 1. • • • • 



a b" a b'" 



Slide 2. • • • « 



look successively at the two slides stereoscopically, so that the a's in both 

 are directly fixated (that is, fall on the two foveae, or centres of distinct' 



