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[ 207 ] How to conceive of this state of mind is not easy . It would be much simpler to understand the process , if adding new strokes made the first one visible . There would then be two different objects apperceived as totals , — paper with one stroke , paper with many strokes ; and , blind to the former , he would see all that was in the latter , because he would have apperceived it as a different total in the first instance . A process of this sort occurs sometimes ( not always ) when the new strokes , instead of being mere repetitions of the original one , are lines which combine with it into a total object , say a human face . The subject of the trance then may regain his sight of the line to which he had previously been blind , by seeing it as part of the face . [ 208 ] Perception of Space and Matter , 1879 , part ii , chap . 3 . [ 209 ] For a very good condensed history of the various opinions , see W . Volkmann von Volkmar , Lehrbuch d . Psychologie , § 16 , Anm . Complete references to Sir W . Hamilton are given in J . E . Walter , Perception of Space and Matter , pp . 65 - 6 . [ 210 ] Most contemporary writers ignore the question of the soul's seat . Lotze is the only one who seems to have been much concerned about it , and his views have varied . Cf . Medicinische Psychol . , § 10 . Microcosmus , bk . iii , ch . 2 . Metaphysic , bk . iii , ch . 5 . Outlines of Psychol . , part ii , ch . 3 . See also G . T . Fechner , Psychophysik , chap . xxxvii . [ 211 ] I purposely ignore ' clairvoyance ' and action upon distant things by ' mediums , ' as not yet matters of common consent . [ 212 ] I disregard consequences which may later come to the thing from the fact that it is known . The knowing per se in no wise affects the thing . [ 213 ] B . P . Bowne : Metaphysics , pp . 407 - 10 . Cf . also Lotze : Logik , § § 308 , 326 - 7 . [ 214 ] Cf . John Grote : Exploratio Philosophica , p . 60 ; H . Helmholtz , Popular Scientific Lectures , London , p . 308 - 9 . [ Pg 224 ] CHAPTER IX . [ 215 ] THE STREAM OF THOUGHT . We now begin our study of the mind from within . Most books start with sensations , as the simplest mental facts , and proceed synthetically , constructing each higher stage from those below it . But this is abandoning the empirical method of investigation . No one ever had a simple sensation by itself . Consciousness , from our natal day , is of a teeming multiplicity of objects and relations , and what we call simple sensations are results of discriminative attention , pushed often to a very high degree . It is astonishing what havoc is wrought in psychology by admitting at the outset apparently innocent suppositions , that nevertheless contain a flaw . The bad consequences develop themselves later on , and are irremediable , being woven through the whole texture of the work . The notion that sensations , being the simplest things , are the first things to take up in psychology is one of these suppositions . The only thing which psychology has a right to postulate at the outset is the fact of thinking itself , and that must first be taken up and analyzed . If sensations then prove to be amongst the elements of the thinking , we shall be no worse off as respects them than if we had taken them for granted at the start . The first fact for us , then , as psychologists , is that thinking of some sort goes on . I use the word thinking , in accordance with what was said on p . 186 , for every form of consciousness indiscriminately . If we could say in English ' it thinks , ' as we say ' it rains ' or ' it blows , ' we should be [ Pg 225 ] stating the fact most simply and with the minimum of assumption . As we cannot , we must simply say that thought goes on .
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