Ideas can be formed only about such things as we know, or rather such things as any one special sense has been impressed with, has perceived and recognized. Those things or beings by which any one sense has not been impressed, the mind neither has perceived nor is able to recognize. Everyone, whether barbarian or civilized, is perfectly familiar with those things or beings that immediately surround him—that is, all those things and beings which the senses have already been impressed with, perceived and recognized. Sounds, or words, have been invented to designate all such; and these are known; the picture representing any one object is retained, stored away in the great nervous storehouse, the brain—are remembered. The oftener a thing is perceived, the more familiar it becomes and the more easily recognized, the firmer it becomes fixed and the more easily it is recollected.
Thus primitive man, with his few wants, and these wants amply supplied by nature, had or invented names for all of them. These formed the earliest collection of names of objects—their appearance, their actions, their habits, etc. All these qualities were associated, identified, and presented by words, in due time, without the presence of the objects. That is to say, the simplest ideas were in this manner formed, and the ideas so formed corresponded with the number of words, and the number of words corresponded with the number of impressions received by the senses.
Each sense presents its share—one sense more, another less. A person may have received a large number of impressions on the organ of vision—a painter, for instance—and may have stored away a wealth of artistic knowledge, yet the sense of hearing may be exceedingly poor in the number of impressions received. Such an individual would be rich in artistic ideas but comparatively poor in musical ideas. So it is with all the special senses.
Each sense receives impressions on its own account. It has its own special nervous center, and these special centers again are closely connected with the great mass of brain matter. Collectively they have for their function, to receive impressions, retain them, store them away, recollect them, and reproduce them by articulate sound, or to recognize them.
In this process then we have the formation of idea, memory, thought; recollection is the endeavor to call back, or form a figure of, an object once already perceived—felt by the senses.
CHAPTER X.
MOSES.—THE CONFIRMATION OF THE IDEA OF GOD.
We will here sketch the military career of Moses.
We omit the early incidents of the life of Moses—his childhood, his growth, his education—and begin with his active life.