THE OLD AND THE NEW PHRENOLOGY. 743 



of memory, have as a basis the association of ideas. It may be 

 admitted at once that many high processes of thought involve 

 the following of association along many lines at once, or in such 

 a complex way that to picture them clearly to the mind would be 

 an almost impossible task. But there appears to be no essential 

 difference in kind between the simple conclusions which have been 

 used as illustrations and the more complex ones involved in ab- 

 stract reasoning. The logician will reduce all your acts of rea- 

 soning to certain syllogisms which it is now quite customary to ex- 

 press in algebraic formulse. For each of these formulae it is pos- 

 sible to picture a physical basis of nerve-cells, joined together by 

 nerve-fibers, so that it seems probable that the mechanism of 

 thought will some day be understood. Our thoughts are usually 

 so rapid and so many that we do not stop to analyze them, but, 

 when we do, we find them always the result of a gradual accre- 

 tion of ideas and not a new creation. The inventor will tell you 

 that his mostbrilliant discovery did not spring suddenly into his 

 mind in all its perfection, but was gradually led up to, step by 

 step, with many halts and puzzling alternatives. Finally, old 

 mechanisms and principles, formerly familiar, were successfully 

 associated together with new adaptations into a new unit, and the 

 ingenious mechanism was complete. The evolution of the loco- 

 motive, of the telegraph, and of the telephone teaches us the pro- 

 cess in the inventor's mind as clearly as it shows his genius for 

 construction. There are many other mental processes which might 

 be followed out which display equally well how closely reasoning 

 depends on the association of ideas — i. e., upon the play of con- 

 sciousness along lines of communication between different re- 

 gions of the brain. But we must pass on to some illustrations of 

 action. 



Watch a game of tennis and notice the difference between 

 players, and you can tell a great deal about their mental pro- 

 cesses. One is quick to see the ball, to note its direction, and to 

 calculate its speed and the position it will reach in a moment, and 

 yet from a lack of quickness in movement or from clumsiness he 

 is unable to return it well. Another is particularly agile and 

 graceful, plays all over the field, and seems to be everywhere at 

 the right time ; and you think him the better player. But as you 

 watch you find that he judges the ball badly, and is not accurate 

 in his calculation as to where it is going or when it will fall. The 

 champion player is the one who combines accuracy and quickness 

 with precision and agility. The sight of the direction of the ball 

 leads him at once to a correct judgment of how far he has to run 

 or reach for it, and his movement is quick enough and directed 

 with just sufficient force to make the return. Now, this matter of 

 precision of movement is dependent upon a process of perception, 



