PART III.

THE REPRESENTATIVE POWERS.

CHAPTER X.-MEMORY.

XI.-PHANTASY.

XII.-IMAGINATION.

XIII.-REPRESENTATION.-GENERAL VIEW.

THE FEELINGS.

REPRESENT
ATIVE
POWERS.

THE PERCEPTIVE POWERS,

THIRD PART.

THE REPRESENTATIVE POWERS.

By these we mean our capabilities to represent our experiences in old or new forms. Now you stand beneath the fragrant orange-tree, and see and handle and smell and taste its delicious fruit. You present, or make present, to yourself the orange-tree, with its environments. Weeks have passed. An orange-blossom in a bouquet suggests that orange-tree. You see yourself again standing beneath the tree and enjoying its fragrant fruit. You represent, or make present again, to yourself the orange-tree. The power to represent things to yourself just as you presented them the first time is called memory. You fall asleep. You see yourself standing beneath an orange-tree. The fruit is pure gold. You fill your basket with gold oranges, and dream of boundless wealth. The picture seems to you an objective reality. The power thus spontaneously to represent things to yourself, changed but seeming to be realities, is called phantasy. You plan an orangegrove. All the rows are circles. In the midst you place a lovely cottage for yourself, "with one fair spirit for your minister." The power to thus inten

tionally represent your experiences, modified into ideals, is called imagination.

The Representative Faculties.

Memory.
Phantasy.
Imagination.

You recall the landscape just as you saw it; self, as memory, recalls. You drift into dream-land, linking fancy unto fancy; self, as phantasy, builds air-castles. You plan an ideal cottage; self, as imagination, creates ideals. Our representative faculties are our powers to reproduce and change the forms of our acquisitions.

CHAPTER X.

MEMORY.

By this is meant the power to reproduce our acquisitions just as we experienced them. Years ago you saw an eclipse of the sun. Now you reproduce the scene exactly as you perceived it. You say you remember. Yesterday you felt angry. You are now conscious of the fact that you were angry, and of the insulting note that occasioned your anger. You recall your past experience.

Acts of Memory analyzed.-Some time since I attended a lecture on the solar spectrum. I now recall the spectrum as it appeared on the canvas. I recall the lecturer, and myself enjoying the lecture. The whole scene, just as presented, is again made presentis represented. Thus recall your visit to your child

hood home; your first teacher. What do you do when you remember?

Elements of Acts of Memory.-You discover in a complete act of memory four elements-retention, recollection, association, and recognition.

1. Self, as memory, stores his acquisitions. I know the multiplication-table. I do not keep it in consciousness, but I can recall it at will. This element of memory is called retention. I meet a stranger; some resemblance calls to mind a friend. That some characteristic of that friend was retained seems a reasonable inference. Otherwise, how could the resemblance suggest the friend? How these keys of memory are kept we have no means of knowing. The mind is not Plato's tablet, nor Cicero's storehouse. Neural changes, fleeting as the ripples on the bosom of the lake, give no hint of past mental acts. That self, as memory, in some unknown way retains so as to be able to recall his acquisitions, is all we can yet say.

2. Self, as memory, reproduces his experiences. I was conscious of seeing General Grant. I am now conscious of recalling that experience. Again the silent man is present. This element of memory is termed recollection, reproduction, or remembrance. It is the essential element, and hence is often used as equivalent to memory.

3. Self, as memory, restores things with their associations. The rose with its fragrance, the singer with the song, the lover with his love, Grant with his staff, are represented just as they were presented. The magic changes wrought by phantasy and imagination are absolutely distinct from the work of memory. Here past experiences with all the objective conditions are represented without change. This element of memory is called association, because things with their associations are made again present.

4. Self, as memory, identifies memories and experiences. I recall my visit to Niagara; I recognize the remembrance as a former experience. I meet an acquaintance; I recognize him. This element of memory is called recognition. The soul retains the keys to its acquisitions. Present mental acts, by means of these keys, restore the past. The object, with its environments, is represented. Finally, the remembrances are recognized as identical with former experiences. The act of memory is complete. You may distinguish the four elements of memory in the following lines:

"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood,

When fond recollection (re)presents them to view !"