The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-29
By THE VERY REV. J. w. MOORE, c. M,
President St. Johns College, Brooklyn, N. Y.

shs idea Of it, absence, non being. and
principleA the principle Of contradic-
tion, . thing can exist and not exist at
the same time. This 10 soon followed
By an appreciation Of efficient causality
gathered from the child's experience OF
tn own bodily and mental activity and
the experience Of the things around ono
And the same experience quickly leads
70 an appreciation OF final causality or
purpose DO not the child's unwearying
questions as to what makes the wheels
go round or why does he turn that
handle show this to be the normal work.
ing OF the human mind7 or course the
child, while showing clearly that he has
these ideas. is not able 10 a~nalyze them
or to explain their genesis in his mind.
Please note that we call them ideas:
the most fertile field Of error for our
present day philosopher is tho idea.
Prof. Royce confuscs IL with ~ act OF
the will. Prof. Schiller and Dewey. as
well as william James and NJ. Bergson.
all fail to realize the most vitality i'm
portant distinction between the sense
Image in the imagination and the idea in
the intellect. They come into mans
consciousness together and II is only by
careful thought and consideration hat
he can see the essential and most fruit
full difference between them.
The idea in Itself is a complete alb
~straction from any individual being be-
longing TO the class hat the idea rep
resents. while the image in the imagi-
nation - a more or less accurate inn
preston in sensation Of some concrete
individual material thing. For instance,
q circle in the fancy is a more or less
vivid picture OF n round outline and II
sufficiently visualized must be Of a
definite color, diameter. &c. 1t would
At accurately only the individual circle
real or reahzable that has these definite
characteristics. The clear idea of a
circle is indeed the thought Of a curved
line every point OF which Ii equally dis
tant from the central point within, and
fits with the greatest accuracy the circle
whose a are a twelfth Of an inch in
length and the circle whose a d are
10000 miles long. Because the idea Is
always accompanied by some image,
however vague and inadequate, in the
fancy or Imagination tho two are so
often identified by tho psychologist, but
II is a fatal error, for Il leads TO the
neglect OF the discrimination Of greatest
moment in nature, between the mere
animal and man,
F. II Ia due TO this power OF abstraction,
OF forming ideas that are really un'ver-
sal that the supremacy of man ~ due.
1t is most obvious perhaps in the ma
terial world, II one reflects for a mo-
ment that every sort OF bird build It's
nest to-day OF the same architectural
plans lis forebctrs employed 10000
years ago, and uses the same methods
OF foraging for It's young, while man
has progressed in the most wonderful
way in all departments OF material life.
From the tandem that natur gave us
for locomotion, which is still unsur
passed for brief 10 lrneys. he has passed
from the suhdu'ng OF animals TO his ser
vice, TO the steam and electric train and
car and boat, the acceptance, the fateful
submarine.
Here, and In the myriad other paths
OF human progress, te has distracted the
underlying ideas from the things around
him and has applied them with consum'
mate ski to other matters-something
the animal world is utterly incapable OF
doing. A MONKEY has been known "a
freeze TO death lying on n hearth before
q burnt out fire. where plenty OF sticks
were laid ready at hand to replenisf
the fire when il grew low, . thing he hac
seen his master do a thousand times
but having only a picture of this act Sc
in his Imagination and no intellect Il
grasp the causal connection between thu
putting on OF the wood and the con
tlnuance of the fire he has persisted with
the cold. Do not these consideration
warrant the statement that there II
nothing great on The earth but man
there Is nothing great In man but mind
The idea, the abstract notion o
things on which all human progress de
pends must no something OF its NATURE
entirely immaterial, because all materia
things are concrete and individual. bu