As soon as we see something
new and desire to understand it, at once we involuntarily begin to
ransack our old stock of ideas to discover anything in our previous
experience which corresponds to this or is like it. For whatever is
like it or has an analogy to it, or serves the same uses, will explain
this new thing, though the two objects be in other points essentially
different. We are, in short, constantly falling back upon our old
experiences and classifications for the explanation of new objects that
appear to us.
So far is this true that the _most ordinary things_ can only be
explained in the light of experience. When John Smith wrote a note to
his companions at Jamestown, and thus communicated his desires to them,
it was unintelligible to the Indians. They had no knowledge of writing
and looked on the marks as magical. When _Columbus' ships_ first
appeared on the cost of the new world, the natives looked upon them as
great birds. They had never seen large sailing vessels. To vary the
illustration, the _art of reading_, so easy to a student, is the
accumulated result of a long collection of knowledge and experience.
There is an unconscious employment of apperception in the practical
affairs of life that is of interest.
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