[120] Strictly speaking, it would occupy more time, since the effort of recalling each successive link in the chain would involve a greater interval between any two images than that between the corresponding experiences.
[121] I need hardly say that there is no sharp distinction between these two modes of subjective appreciation. Our estimate of an interval as it passes is really made up of a number of renewed anticipations and recollections of the successive experiences. Yet we can say broadly that this is a prospective estimate, while that which is formed when the period has quite expired must be altogether retrospective.
[122] See an interesting paper on "Consciousness of Time," by Mr. G. J. Romanes, in Mind (July, 1878).
[123] It is well known that there is, from the first, a gradual falling off in the strength of a sensation of light when a moderately bright object is looked at.
[124] Cf. Hartley, Observations on Man, Part I. ch. iii. sec. 4 (fifth edit., p. 391).
[125] See Dr. Carpenter's Mental Physiology, fourth edit, p. 456.
[126] This is, perhaps, what is meant by saying that people recall their past enjoyments more readily than their sufferings. Yet much seems to turn on temperament and emotional peculiarities. (For a fuller discussion of the point, see my Pessimism, p. 344.)
[127] The only exception to this that I can think of is to be found in the power which I, at least, possess, after looking at a new object, of representing it as a familiar one. Yet this may be explained by saying that in the case of every object which is clearly apprehended there must be vague revivals of similar objects perceived before. Oases in which recent experiences tend, owing to their peculiar nature, very rapidly to assume the appearance of old events, will be considered presently.
[128] Mental Physiology, p. 456.
[129] Mental Physiology, second edit., p. 172.