e way, when
the student is first presented in school with an example of the
infinitive, he brings to bear upon the vague presentation various ideas
already contained within his experience through his previous study of
the noun and the verb. To the extent also to which he possesses and is
able to recall these necessary old ideas, will he be able to adjust
himself to the new and unfamiliar presented example (infinitive). It is
evident, therefore, that a new presentation can have a meaning for us
only as it is related to something in our past experience.

=Further Examples.=--The mind invariably tries to interpret new
presentations in terms of old ideas. A newspaper account of a railway
wreck will be intelligible to us only through the revival and
reconstruction of those past experiences that are similar to the
elements described in the account. The grief, disappointment, or
excitement of another will be appreciated only as we have experienced
similar feelings in the past. New ideas are interpreted by means of
related old ideas; new feelings and acts are dependent upon and made
possible by related old feelings and acts. Moreover, the meaning
assigned to common objects varies with different persons and even with
the same person under different circumstances. A forest would be
regarded by the savage as a place to hide from the attacks of his
enemies; by the hunter as a place to secure game; by the woodcutter as
affording firewood; by the lumberman as yielding logs for lumber; by the
naturalist as offering opportunity for observing insects and animals; by
the artist as a place presenting beautiful combinations of colours. This
ability of the mind to retain and use its former knowledge in meeting
and interpreting new experiences is known in psychology as
_apperception_. A more detailed study of apperception as a mental
process will be made in Chapter XXVI.

THE SELECTING PROCESS

=Learner's Mind Active.=--A further principle of method to be deduced
from the foregoing is, that the process of bringing ideas out of former
experiences to bear upon a presented problem must take place within the
mind of the learner himself. The new knowledge being an experience
organized from elements selected out of former experiences, it follows
that the learner will possess the new knowledge only in so far as he has
himself gone through the process of selecting the necessary interpreting
ideas out of his own former knowledge and finally orga