XXXlli.] MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 71 



of itself, but also the revived consciousness or memory 

 of another. Without this process, so far as I can see, 

 thought would have no materials. And not only may 

 one impression on consciousness call up the remembrance 

 of another, but that remembrance may call up another 

 remembrance ; and this may go on for a great number 

 of times. Reverie may perhaps be defined as consisting Reverie, 

 in the succession of remembered images thus calling 

 one another into consciousness, without the guidance of 

 thought or will. It is impossible to doubt that in a great 

 number of cases the intermediate links of association are 

 unaccompanied by consciousness ; in no other manner can 

 we account for the strange way in which absent and long- 

 forgotten things will often come back to memory. This 

 unconscious suggestion is the rudimentary and lowest form 

 of unconscious thinking. But I have not yet come to the 

 consideration of the thinking process. 



The next stage in the development of memory is re- EecoUec- 

 collection, or the recalling of remembrances, not by the yXntary 

 involuntary process of mere suggestion, but by a voluntary memory. 

 act; as, for instance, when, in answer to a request, we 

 relate what we have heard. It is within every one's ex- 

 perience, that a very considerable effort of will is often 

 needed, in order to recall what we wish to remember. 

 Recollection is a higher development than mere memory, 

 and, like all higher developments, it is later acquired. 

 Children often remember tenaciously before they can 

 recollect. This is the reason of a fact that is well known 

 to every one who has had much intercourse with young Children 

 children; namely, that they enjoy hearmg a story told [jfj^^^j.^ 

 over and over again, even when they know it so well that with little 



■ , T • -i mi 7. xi power of 



they can correct any mistake m it. ihey remember the lecollec- 

 story without being able to recollect it. Somethmg of the t'o"- 

 same is to be observed among uneducated adults ; indeed, 

 the power of recollection is probably in no case equal to 

 the power of remembrance. 



Attention is a voluntary act ; it may be defined as the Only what 

 voluntary direction of consciousness. It is, I think, ^.^ttg,jj^>^i 

 a fact which every one may verify, that objects which to can be 



