Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 15.djvu/87

 PRESENTATION AND REPRESENTATION. 73 (3) fp 1 ' 2 - 304 ' 6 ! :- 2 _3 4 . a !- 2 _ 3. S-: l-2_34. n l-8_8. rjl-2. 5 I - 2 _ 34 5 (5) ^ Here the difference of Greek letter above the letters P indicates, as noted above, that in successive moments there is some difference in the successive primary presentations, small though it be. The capital letters indicate the parts of the total presentations due to the stimulation of the moment, which are recognised as the primary presentations ; while the small letters indicate the parts of the total presentations due to the effects of previous stimulation, which constitute secondary presentations which are overwhelmed by the vivid- ness of the several primary presentations. Complicated as these formulae appear they will be recog- nised as most artificially simplified for our special purpose. In fact the complexity of a noetic pattern, such as we have used as a simile in a previous article, gives a much closer suggestion of the real nature of the presentation of any moment. I present these formulae because in the final one, No. (5), we have a symbol which is typical, as it pictures well the simplest form of primary presentation which can be con- ceived to occur in our experience, and may be presumed to represent the general form of such much more complex primary presentations as we usually experience. Sec. 13. If such formulae do picture our presentations, as we experience them, then we find no reason to wonder that when we cut ourselves off from the stimuli which bring with them primary presentations, a vast field of secondary presentations appears in consciousness. Nor do we wonder that after the experience of a presentation of the form (5) (say the perception of my friend before me) we sometimes (say when my friend leaves the room) experience a presentation of the form (6) pi-2_34 ; i-2_ 3; y p i -a. jji. Nor do we wonder that, often, complex fields appear in which we experience not only primary presentations of one sort (say the perception of my friend), and at the very same
 * P1-2_34 5 ,