630 PSYCHO LOOT. 



size, moving objects made it aware of motion, and objective 

 successions taught it time. Similarly in a world with dif- 

 ferent impressing things, the mind had to acquire a sense 

 of difference, whilst the like parts of the world as they fell 

 upon it kindled in it the perception of similarity. Outward 

 sequences which sometimes held good, and sometimes 

 failed, naturally engendered in it doubtful and uncertain 

 forms of expectation, and ultimately gave «a"ise to the dis- 

 junctive forms of judgment ; whilst the hypothetic form, 

 ' if a, then &,' was sure to ensue from sequences that were 

 invariable in the outer world. On this view, if the outer 

 order suddenly were to change its elements and modes, we 

 should have no faculties to cognize the new order by. At 

 most we should feel a sort of frustration and confusion. 

 But little by little the new presence would work on us as 

 the old one did ; and in course of time another set of 

 psychic categories would arise, fitted to take cognizance of 

 the altered world. 



This notion of the outer world inevitably building up a 

 sort of mental duplicate of itself if we only give it time, is 

 so easy and natural in its vagueness that one hardly knows 

 how to start to criticise it. One thing, however, is obvious, 

 namely that the manner in which ive now become acquainted 

 loith complex objects need not in the least resemble the man- 

 ner in tvhich the original elements of our consciousness greio up. 

 Now, it is true, a new sort of animal need only be present 

 to me, to impress its image permanently on my mind ; but 

 this is because I am already in possession of categories for 

 knowing each and all of its several attributes, and of a 

 memory for retracing the order of their conjunction. I 

 now have preformed categories for all possible objects. 

 The objects need only awaken these from their slumber. 

 But it is a very different matter to account for the categories 

 themselves. I think we must admit that the origin of the 

 various elementary feelings is a recondite history, even 

 after some sort of neural tissue is there for the outer world 

 to begin its work on. The mere existence of things to be 

 known is even now not, as a rule, sufficient to bring about 

 a knowledge of them. Our abstract and general discover- 

 ies usually come to us as lucky fancies ; and it is only apres 



