Lazarus says they stand "like well-armed men
in the inner stronghold of the mind ready to sally forth and overcome
or make serviceable whatever shows itself at the portals of sense." It
is then through the active aid of familiar ideas that new things find
an introduction to soul life. If old friends go out to meet the
strangers and welcome them, there will be an easy entrance and a quick
adoption into the new home.
But frequently these old friends who stand in the background of our
thoughts must be _awakened_ and called to the front. They must stand
as it were on tiptoe ready to welcome the stranger. For if they lie
asleep in the penetralia of the home the new comers may approach and
pass by for lack of a welcome. It is often necessary, therefore, for
the teacher to revive old impressions, to call up previously acquired
knowledge and to put it in readiness to receive and welcome the new.
The success with which this is done is often the difference between
good and poor teaching.
We might suppose that when two persons look at the same object they
would get the _same impression_, but this is not true at all. Where
one person faints with fright or emotion another sees nothing to be
disturbed at.
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