ship, church, clock, dog, kitchen,
library, lawyer, city, etc. Our notions of these and of hundreds of
other such classes are at first both incomplete and faulty. The inflow
of new ideas constantly modifies them, extending, limiting, explaining,
and correcting our previous concepts.

Sometimes, however, a single new thought may have wide-reaching
effects; it may even revolutionize one's previous modes of thinking and
reorganize one's activities about a new center. With Luther, for
instance, the idea of justification by faith was such a new and potent
force, breaking up and rearranging his old forms of thought. St.
Paul's vision on the way to Damascus is a still more striking
illustration of the power of a new idea or conviction. And yet, even
in such cases, the old ideas reassert themselves with great persistence
and power. Luther and St. Paul remained, even after these great
changes, in many respects the same kind of men as before. Their old
habits of thinking were modified, not destroyed; the direction of their
lives was changed, but many of their habits and characteristics
remained almost unaltered.

Apperception, however, is not limited to the effects of _external
objects_ upon us, to the influence of ideas coming from without upon
our old stores of knowledge. Old ideas, long since stored in the mind,
may be freshly called up and brought into such contact with each other
that new results follow, new apperceptions take place. In moments of
reflection we are often surprised by conclusions that had not presented
themselves to us before. A new light dawns upon us and we are
surprised at not having seen it before. In fact, it makes little
difference whether the idea suggested to the mind comes from within or
from without if, when it once enters fairly into consciousness, it has
power to stimulate other thoughts, to wake up whole thought complexes
and bring about a process of action and reaction between itself and
others. The result is new associations, new conclusions, new mental
products--apperceptions.

This _inner apperception_, as it has been sometimes called, takes place
constantly when we are occupied with our own thoughts, rather than with
external impressions. With persons of deep, steady, reflective habits,
it is the chief means of organizing their mental stores. The feelings
and the will have much also to do with this process.

The laws of association draw the _feelings_ as much as the intell