nient for the
building up that thought. Duly to enforce this truth, and to prepare the
way for applications of it, we must briefly inquire into the mental act
by which the meaning of a series of words is apprehended.

Sec. 12. We cannot more simply do this than by considering the proper
collocation of the substantive and adjective. Is it better to place
the adjective before the substantive, or the substantive before the
adjective? Ought we to say with the French--un _cheval noir;_ or to say
as we do--a black horse? Probably, most persons of culture would decide
that one order is as good as the other. Alive to the bias produced by
habit, they would ascribe to that the preference they feel for our own
form of expression. They would expect those educated in the use of the
opposite form to have an equal preference for that. And thus they would
conclude that neither of these instinctive judgments is of any worth.
There is, however, a philosophical ground for deciding in favour of the
English custom. If "a horse black" be the arrangement, immediately on
the utterance of the word "horse," there arises, or tends to arise,
in the mind, a picture answering to that word; and as there has, been
nothing to indicate what _kind_ of horse, any image of a horse suggests
itself. Very likely, however, the image will be that of a brown horse,
brown horses being the most familiar. The result is that when the word
"black" is added, a check is given to the process of thought. Either the
picture of a brown horse already present to the imagination has to be
suppressed, and the picture of a black one summoned in its place; or
else, if the picture of a brown horse be yet unformed, the tendency to
form it has to be stopped. Whichever is the case, a certain amount of
hindrance results. But if, on the other hand, "a black horse" be
the expression used, no such mistake can be made. The word "black,"
indicating an abstract quality, arouses no definite idea. It simply
prepares the mind for conceiving some object of that colour; and the
attention is kept suspended until that object is known. If, then, by the
precedence of the adjective, the idea is conveyed without liability to
error, whereas the precedence of the substantive is apt to produce a
misconception, it follows that the one gives the mind less trouble than
the other, and is therefore more forcible.

Sec. 13. Possibly it will be objected that the adjective and substantive
come so close togethe