passenger train come in. The noise
alone suggests the engine, cars, conductor, passengers, and all the
train complete. As a matter of fact I saw nothing at all but have
before my mind the whole picture. On Sunday morning I see some one
enter a familiar church door, and going on my way the whole picture of
church, congregation, pastor, music and sermon come distinctly to my
mind. Only a passing glance at one person entering suggests the whole
scene. In looking at a varied landscape we see many things which the
sensuous eye alone would not detect, distances, perspective and
relative size, position and nature of objects. This apperceptive power
is of vast importance in practical life as it leads to quick judgment
and action, when personal examinations into details would be impossible.

In apperception we never pass from the known to things which are
_entirely new_. Absolutely new knowledge is gained by perception or
intuition. When an older person meets with something totally new, he
either does not notice it or it staggers him. Apperception does not
take place. In many cases we are disturbed or frightened, as children,
by some new or sudden noise or object. But most so-called new things
bear sufficient resemblance to things seen before to admit of
explanation. Strange as the sights of a Chinese city might appear, we
should still know that we were in a city. In most "new" objects of
observation or study, the familiar parts greatly preponderate over the
unfamiliar. In a new reading lesson, for example, most of the words
and ideas are well known, only an occasional word requires explanation
and that by using familiar illustrations. The flood of our familiar
and oft-repeated ideas sweeps on like a great river, receiving here and
there from either side a tributary stream, that is swallowed up in its
waters without perceptible increase.

So strong is the apperceiving force of familiar notions that they drag
far-distant scenes in geography and history into the home neighborhood
and locate them there. The _imagination_ works in conjunction with the
apperceiving faculty and constructs real pictures. Children are
otherwise inclined to substitute one thing for another by imagination.
With boys and girls, geographical objects about home are often
converted by fancy into representatives of distant places. It is
related of _Byron_ that while reading in childhood the story of the
Trojan war, he localized all the place