What we have seen of rivers, lands, and cities must form
the materials for picturing to ourselves distant places.
Since the old ideas have so much to do with the proper reception of the
new, let us examine more closely the _interaction_ of the two. If a
_new idea_ drops into the mind, like a stone upon the surface of the
water, it produces a commotion. It acts as a stimulus or wakener to
the old ideas sleeping beneath the surface. It draws them up above the
surface-level; that is, into consciousness. But what ideas are thus
disturbed? There are thousands of these latent ideas, embryonic
thoughts, beneath the surface. Those which possess sufficient kinship
to this new-comer to hear his call, respond. For in the mind "birds of
a feather flock together." Ideas and thoughts which resemble the new
one answer, the others sleep on undisturbed, except a few who are so
intimately associated with these kinsmen as to be disturbed when they
are disturbed. Or, to state it differently, certain thought-groups or
complexes, which contain elements kindred to the new notion, are
agitated and raised into conscious thought. They seem to respond to
their names. The new idea may continue for some time to stimulate and
agitate.
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