88 HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. [chap. 



tbeir but luore than this is needed ; it is further necessary that 



they^must ^^ery word shall suggest nothing else. The requisite that 

 suggest a word shall suggest its meaning is secured by the power 

 else. of memory : the requisite that it shall suggest nothing 



The first gjgg jg secured by the not less necessary, though purely 

 .secured by negative, power of forgetting. The sound of a word may 

 beriuo'" have been heard a thousand times, imder circumstances 

 the second which were never exactly alike ; the speaker, the words 

 getting. before it in the sentence, the words after it, and all other 

 circumstances, have been constantly varied, excepting only 

 the only important cu'cumstance (using the word circum- 

 stance with its literal signification), the circumstance of its 

 meaning. In virtue of the law that strong or often-repeated 

 impressions on the consciousness leave residua in the 

 memory, the word itself and its meaning are remembered ; 

 in virtue of the law that feeble or seldom-repeated impres- 

 sions on the consciousness fade altogether away, the vary- 

 ing and unimportant cii'cumstances under which the word 

 has been heard are forgotten. Of all the complex impres- 

 sions which have been produced on the mind by the word, 

 as it has been heard a thousand times under as many 

 partly dissimilar circumstances, the varying and unlike 

 elements are forgotten, wliile the constant elements — that 

 is to say, the sound of the word and its meaning — are 

 retained ; and the residua of the thousand impressions, 

 having become alike by the loss of their unlike elements, 

 are indistinguishable, and coalesce into one. By this pro- 

 cess, the word comes to remain in the memory, separate, 

 detached, suggesting its meaning, and suggesting nothing 

 else. But if the residua of all the thousand impressions 

 did not lose their unlike elements, they would still be 

 distinguishable, and could not coalesce into one. The word 

 would indeed remain in the memory, but not as a single 

 coalesced residuum ; it would not be separate and detached 

 from irrelevant objects : it would no doubt suggest its 

 meaning, but it would suggest so much else that it would 

 not serve the purpose which language is meant to ser\^e.^ 



' It may be objected to this, that, in learning a foreign language, we 

 habitually remerabcr a word and its meaning after meeting with it only 



