has given precedence over every other: What _Thing_ is behind this
shape, what qualities must be inferred from this _aspect?_ After the
possibility of occupying so much space, the most important quality
which things can have for our hopes and fears, is _the possibility of
altering their occupation of space;_ not our locomotion, but _theirs._
I call it _locomotion_ rather than _movement,_ because we have
_direct_ experience only of our own movements, and _infer_ similar
movement in other beings and objects because of their change of
place either across our motionless eye or across some other object
whose relation to our motionless eye remains unchanged. I call it
_locomotion_ also to accentuate its difference from the _movement_
attributed to the shape of the Rising Mountain, movement _felt_ by
us to be going on but not expected to result in any change of the
mountain's space relations, which are precisely what would be
altered by the mountain's _locomotion._

The _practical_ question about a shape is therefore: Does it warrant
the inference of a _thing_ able to change its position in
three-dimensional space? to advance or recede from us? And if so in
what manner? Will it, like a loose stone, fall upon us? like flame, rise
towards us? like water, spread over us? Or will it change its place
only if _we_ supply the necessary _locomotion?_ Briefly: is the
thing of which we see the shape inert or active? And if this shape
belongs to a thing possessing activity of its own, is its locomotion of
that slow regular kind we call the growth and spreading of plants?
Or of the sudden, wilful kind we know in animals and men? What
does this shape tell us of such more formidable locomotion? Are
these details of curve and colour to be interpreted into jointed limbs,
can the _thing_ fling out laterally, run after us, can it catch and
swallow us? Or is it such that _we_ can do thus by it? Does this
shape suggest the thing's possession of desires and purposes which
we can deal with? And if so, _why is it where it is?_ Whence does it
come? What is it going to do? What is it _thinking_ of (if it can
think)? How will it _feel_ towards us (if it can feel)? What would it
say (if it could speak)? What will be its future and what may have
been its past? To sum all up: What does the presence of this shape
lead us to think and do and feel?

Such are a few of the thoughts started by that shape and the
possibility of its belonging to a thing. And