608 PSYCHOLOGY. 



Obviously, then, Le is not blind to tlie kind of stroke in 

 the least. He is blind only to one individual stroke of 

 that kind in a particular position on the board or paper. — 

 that is, to a particular complex object ; and, j^aradoxical as 

 it may seem to say so, he must distinguish it with great 

 accuracy from others like it, in order to remain blind 

 to it when the others are brought near. He ' apperceives ' 

 it, as a preliminary to not seeing it at all ! How to con- 

 ceive of this state of mind is not easy. It would be much 

 simpler to understand the process, if adding new strokes 

 made the first one visible. There would then be two dif- 

 ferent objects apperceived as totals, — paper with one 

 stroke, paper with two strokes ; and, blind to the former, 

 he would see all that was in the latter, because he would 

 have apperceived it as a different total in the first instance. 



A process of this sort occurs sometimes (not always) 

 when the new strokes, instead of being mere repetitions of 

 the original one, are lines which combine with it into a 

 total object, say a human face. The subject of the trance 

 then may regain his sight of the line to which he had pre- 

 viously been blind, by seeing it as part of the face. 



When by a prism before one eye a previously invisible 

 line has been made visible to that eye, and the other eye is 

 closed or screened, its closure makes no difference ; the 

 line still remains visible. But if then the prism is removed, 

 the line will disappear even to the eye which a moment 

 ago saw it, and both eyes will revert to their original blind 

 state. 



We have, then, to deal in these cases neither with a 

 sensorial anaesthesia, nor with a mere failure to notice, 

 but with something much more complex ; namely, an 

 active counting out and positive exclusion of certain ob- 

 jects. It is as when one 'cuts ' an acquaintance, 'ignores ' 

 a claim, or ' refuses to be influenced ' by a consideration of 

 whose existence one remains aware. Thus a lover of Na- 

 ture in America finds himself able to overlook and ignore 

 entirely the board- and rail-fencen and general roadside 

 raggedness, and revel in the beauty and picturesqueness of 

 the other elements of the landscape, whilst to a newly- 



