The feelings
and the will have much also to do with this process.
The laws of association draw the _feelings_ as much as the intellectual
states into apperceptive acts. I hear of a friend who has had
disasters in business and has lost his whole fortune. If I have never
experienced such difficulties myself, the chances are that the news
will not make a deep impression upon me. But if I have once gone
through the despondency of such a crushing defeat, sympathy for my
friend will be awakened, and I may feel his trouble almost as my own.
The meaning of such an item of news depends upon the response which it
finds in my own feelings. It is well known that those friends can best
sympathize with us in our trouble who have passed through the same
troubles. Even enemies are not lacking in sympathy with each other
when an appeal is made to deep feelings and experiences common to both.
The feeling of _interest_, which we have emphasized so much, is
chiefly, if not wholly, dependent upon apperceptive conditions. Select
a lesson adapted to the age and understanding of a child, present it in
such a way as to recall and make use of his previous experience, and
interest is certain to follow.
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