THE PERCEPTION OF THINGS. Ill 



age, wondered at the small boats, but took the big ship as 

 a 'matter of course.' Oulj Avliat we partly know already 

 inspires us with a desire to know more. The more elabo- 

 rate textile fabrics, the vaster works in metal, to most of 

 us are like the air, the water, and the ground, absolute ex- 

 istences which awaken no ideas. It is a matter of course 

 that an engraving or a copper-plate inscription should pos- 

 sess that degree of beauty. But if we are shown a pen- 

 drawing of equal perfection, our personal sympathy with 

 the difficulty of the task makes us immediately wonder at 

 the skill. The old lady admiring the Academician's picture, 

 says to him : " And is it really all done hy hand ?'' 



IS PERCEPTION UNCONSCIOUS INFERENCE? 



A widely-spread opinion (which has been held by such 

 men as Schopenhauer, Spencer, Hartmann, Wundt, Helm- 

 holtz, and lately interestingly pleaded for by M. Binet *) 

 will have it tha,t perception should he called a sort of reasoning 

 operation, more or less unconscioiisly and automatically per- 

 formed. The question seems at first a verbal one, depend- 

 ing on how broadly the term reasoning is to be taken. If, 

 every time a present sign suggests an absent reality to our 

 mind, Ave make an inference ; and if every time we make an 

 inference we reason ; then perception is indubitably reason- 

 ing. Only one sees no room in it for any unconscious part. 

 Both associates, the present sign and the contiguous things 

 which it suggests, are above-board, and no intermediary 



to explain the distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask ... 'If any- 

 one there in the sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you 

 do?' 'Get out of the way ' would be the answer. 'No need of that,' 

 the toacher might reply. ' You may quietly go to sleep in your room, 

 and get up again, you may wait till your confirmation-day, you may learn 

 a trade, and grow as old as I am, — then only will the cannon-ball be get- 

 ting near, then you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the .sun's 

 distance!' " (K. Lange, Ueber Apperception, 1879, p. 76— a charming 

 though prolix little work.) 



* A. Schopeniiauer, Satz vom Grunde, chap. iv. H. Spencer, P.sychol., 

 part VI. chaps, ix, x. E. v. Hartmann, Phil, of the Unconscious (B), 

 chaps, vii, VIII. W. Wundt. Beitriige, pp. 432 If.; Vorlesuugen, iv, xiii. 

 H. Helmholtz, Physiol. Oplik, pp. 4:^0, 447. A. Binet, Psychol, du Rai- 

 sonnement, chaps, iir, v. Wundt and Helmholtz have more recently 

 * recanted.' See above, vol i. p. 169 note. 



