Page:Memory; how to develop, train, and use it - Atkinson - 1919.djvu/108

102 deafness or blindness ensues. As Foster says: “Waves of sound falling upon the auditory nerve itself produces no effect whatever; it is only when, by the medium of the endolymph, they are brought to bear on the delicate and peculiar epithelium cells which constitute the peripheral terminations of the nerve, that sensations of sound arise.”

Just as it is true that it is the mind and not the eye that really sees; so is it true that it is the mind and not the ear that really hears. Many sounds reach the ear that are not registered by the mind. We pass along a crowded street, the waves of many sounds reaching the nerves of the ear, and yet the mind accepts the sounds of but few things, particularly when the novelty of the sounds has passed away. It is a matter of interest and attention in this case, as well as in the case of hearing. As Halleck says: “If we sit by an open window in the country on a summer day, we may have many stimuli knocking at the gate of attention: the ticking of a clock, the sound of the wind, the cackling of fowl, the quacking of ducks, the barking of dogs, the lowing of cows, the cries of children at play, the rust-