night. The same man drove home from church and left his wife.

A great share of cases of lack of memory are due to abstraction, or to absent-mindedness, which Mach terms "present-mindedness." It often characterizes people of great ability along narrow lines of thought. The following is an instance of lack of memory due to fatigue. Female, age 22: At the age of 16 I had been travelling all day; I went to the ticket-office at the last change of cars, but could not think where I was going, yet I had lived in the town sixteen years."

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There are a few instances given in which loss of memory is due to distraction. A middle-aged woman heard of her son's death by drowning. She could not remember her husband's address in order to telegraph him, although she had written there hundreds of times. 'Aunt recalls nothing that happens since her husband's death."

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Defective memory in children is ascribed to things known. There are many instances reported in which forgetting occurred in the field of things done; many of these cases, however, are evidently cases of temporary forgetfulness due to abstraction. All of the Indians, with a single exception, state that things known are most easily forgotten. As to abstraction, no period of life is free from its influence. Not a few draw comfort from the facts, frequently cited, that Samuel Johnson when he had stepped from

the sidewalk would continue for a long distance with one foot in the gutter and one on the walk; that Pestalozzi did not know enough to put up his umbrella when it rained; that Sir Isaac Newton supposed he had eaten when he saw the chicken-bones on his plate; and that Edison forgot his wedding-day. The fact is that no period of life is free from noticeable abstraction. The boy with book in hand forgets to go to dinner after he has rung the bell; the young woman goes to different parts of the house, she knows not why; middle age hunts for the thimble on its finger, or the pen in its mouth; while old age is troubled that it cannot find the glasses on its nose.

Loss of mind and heredity are much less frequently cited as causes of forgetfulness than abstraction or distraction due to disease.

The fourteenth question was very abstract, and in some instances was evidently misunderstood. The answers came chiefly from young people. Of those who apparently answered in an intelligent manner 140 believed that the interval between being aware of an experience and the ability to define, locate, and name the experience grows narrower as we grow old. Often the period up to middle age only is considered. One qualifies the statement "until old age"; two state that this is true until college is reached; while many consider that it holds until middle age. Not a few of the replies are the outgrowth

of individual experiences, and would not apply after the age of 20 or 22 is reached. 125 state that the interval grows wider. Several state that this is especially true of middle age. The fact is recognized in the returns that the interests of middle life are greater, and the range of one's acquaintances is wider, and that this influences the interval necessary for recognizing and defining an experience. This may not be the only factor, but it seems to offer at least a partial explanation. A fruitful field of inquiry is thus opened up and the ground broken. Prolonged and painstaking study of this problem may be richly repaid.

CHAPTER VII

APPERCEPTION AND ASSOCIATION

And not the slightest leaf but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams!

SAMUEL ROGERS.

WE saw in Chapter V that each individual has his own memories and that these memories are peculiar to his mental habit.

ture of the

We will now consider more carefully the naparticular relations between the presentations and the mind which receives and retains them. In Fig. 37 different persons see different forms. To the hunter it is a beaver or a woodchuck; to the naturalist a hedgehog or a flounder, according as his mind has been most directed to animals or fish; to a mason it appears to be a trowel, and to a keeper of pets an Angora cat. The astronomer finds in it a cloud which might hinder observation. The street gamin would say it is just an ink-blot, and he would be right. Thus what we see in any presentation is determined by our mental acquisitions and by our habits of life.

FIG. 37.

It is reported that, at the battle of Sedan, General Philip Sheridan, standing beside Bismarck, noticed that the French emperor was present and that a retreat would soon begin, but Bismarck could not see the confusion about the enemy's headquarters which gave the American general data for a correct inference. This ability had been gained by experience on Southern battlefields. How different, says Lange, Rome seemed to a middle-aged vassal, a Luther, a Herder, or a Goethe. The word father suggests to the child its parent, to the devout Christian, God, to the patriot, Washington. What we perceive to-day is determined by the sum of all life's yesterdays. In daily life this is a well-recognized principle. We infer from the man's conversation whether he be a farmer, an attorney, a physician, a teacher, or a business man. When different men read the same newspaper, they heed what is most nearly related to their professional lives, and the remainder is for the most part unnoticed. The artist notices the light and shadow of the landscape, sees the perspective and the exact location of objects. In the same view, the farmer notices whether the ground is seeded to timothy or clover and estimates how many cows can be pastured there.

"A primrose by a river's brim