The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1889-03-21
volCELESS IMAGES.
without Them Nothing Can Be Don.
s=z=.-...-..s-. Fields of Thought.z-z,..$ a.,

Images are repetitions of sensation,
endowed with all its mental wealth,
and consciously reprod uced from the
stores OF memory. Both in their own
nature and in this very work OF repro
.duction all true imagery is batheds in
the light of a thousand concepts.
Hence it is that without images we can
do nothing in the fields of thought,
whilst with images we can mentally do
all things which it is given us to do.
The. very highest and most abstract
concepts are seen and handled by our
.intellects in the form OF voiceless inn
agery. How many are the concepts
reused in u.s. by the forms and by
the remembered images, of the
human countenaneep Love and good
ness, purity. and truth, benevolence
and devotion. firmness and justice,
authority'and command, these are a
few, and a few only, Of the abstract
ideas which may be presented and
represented to us. in eYeryAdegree and
in every combination, by the remem-
bored image Of some silent face. And
we'll do the peets--kHew Their
whole skill and art may be said to lie
in raising and recalling images; and
although it is of necessity that, in adj
dressing minds other than their own,
they can only raise images in them
through the medium Of language, we
know that, whilst the tie between
their words and their ideas is arbi-
trary and conventional, that other tie
which binds together their images and
their ideas is a tie natural, immediate
and direct. What a wealth of con-
cepts is set before us, for example, in
the images raised by this single 1inei
Her eyes are homes OF silent prayer.
And if we can think of these images,
and OF all that they suggest, without
the intervention Of any word, and with
out hearing, even in imagination a
single sound, we may be very sure that
the very highest concepts, the most
generalized and the most abstract, are
separable from language, and inde-
pendent OF it. Introspection, careful,
watchful and prolonged, will convince
us perhaps to our own establishment
how large a part Of our thinking
are condpcted-though 1t
be onlyafor an instant and by mo-
'mentafy glance through the raising
and recalling Of remembered images.
In the supreme domain of human
Character and action we shall often
be. able to detect our concepts
clustering round the image Of some
man or woman who by some accident
Of early association has been the type
to us, and is now the remembered SYM
boil. Of some exalted virtue. Images
and pictures, in infinite varieties Of
combination, are the warp and wool Of
sall human thought. When / think of
war / donot think Of that rather
weak-sounding monosyllable. Nor do
! think OF the stronger word, battles"
nor OF the Roman .sbsiIisns,n nor Of
s.pr1iia, /" nor OF the Teutonic 'kreich, {"
nor Of any other word. / think Of some
typical and characteristic image, orsof
q crowd Of images-of msn In move
ment and in connict-o charges Of
cayalry-of squares standing to resist
them behind hedge Of bsyonets or Of
spears; or ! think Of the s.far flashing
OF the red artillery" or. perhaps, Of
the still more powerful imagery called
up BY the words: Every battle Of the
10 with confused noise. and
lgarm ents rolled ID blood The Duke
81 Argyll, Il Contemporary Review.