A Handbook of Phrenotypics for Teachers and Students/Noticing
NOTICING.
When a number of notions strike simultaneously our senses, we are not always aware of all of them; we notice some of these notions in preference to others;—e.g. When several individuals gaze from London Bridge upon a certain spot of the Thames, all the thousands of notions which cover that spot will paint themselves upon each of the living retinas, and exert an influence through the optic nerves upon all the brains standing upon the bridge; but not all these notious will be equally noticed by each individual brain: one will notice nothing but smoke and paddle-wheels; he will declare that there were neither ladies nor musicians; another will, on the contrary, notice ladies in preference to smoke and paddle-wheels; a third, perhaps, will have seen neither smoke, paddle-wheels, nor ladies; he was particularly struck with the presence of a Spanish cat, or English dog, &c. &c.
The noticing some notions in preference to others, will depend upon a variety of circumstances, which would be too long, and besides not indispensably necessary, to be enumerated here; suffice that some notions are noticed, and others are not, although, in reality, they do all stand stubbornly before the senses. And so it is with regard to notions that spring up and stand before the inagination; some of them are noticed, and some of them are not;—e.g. the notion of the pen with which I am writing makes jump up before my mind the person of the stationer of whom I bought it, and also the shelves that were behind him; but I must not suppose that this notion, my pen, has brought before my imagination nothing else besides the stationer and his shelves; the notion, my pen, has, in reality, brought before my imagination a host of notions, but I have not noticed them all. I have noticed the stationer and his shelves in preference to all the rest: this preference will depend upon a variety of circumstances, which would be too long, and besides not indispensably necessary, to be enumerated here—suffice it to know that some of the sprung-up notions are noticed, and others are not, although in reality they do all stand stubbornly before the imagination.
That all the notions that stand before the eye in the same field of vision do all paint themselves upon the retina, although they are not all noticed, has been proved by absolute physical experiments—(artificial eyes, camera obscura, the daguerreotype, &c.:) but that there are notions jumped up, and standing before the eye of the imagination, besides those noticed by us, is, I acknowledge, an hypothesis of my own; an hypothesis which I wish to be believed, relied, and acted upon, for the following reasons:—
- It cannot be proved to be false.
- It has analogy from the external senses in its favor; and above all,
- It serves, as we shall see hereafter, a useful purpose.