DOC.
395
OCTOBER
1917
397
word.
A
very
distinctive coloration
of
our
consciousness
is
even
attached
to such
words
as:
but,
yet, although, etc.;
otherwise
these words would be
little
more
than
Chinese vocables
to
us.
And
hence, upon hearing
a
spoken
sentence in each
moment,
we
have
a very
characteristic state
that
is
determined
by
what
has been
heard
up
till
then,
that
is,
not
by
the
word
melody perhaps,
but
by
the
meaning
of
what
has been heard.
Also
added to all
of
this
are
the
peculiar
colorations
of
anticipations
both
in
music
as
well
as
in
speech,
since
we
also
expect
a
very
specific
continuation that
makes
sense
in the
musical
context, of course, just
as
in
the
verbal
one.
In
addition
to these various
infinitely
graduated
colorations of
consciousness, aftereffects,
the
sense
of
words,
and
anticipation,
there
are
others
that
do
not
concern us
here, though. Thus,
for
ex.,
when
we
try
in vain
to
recall
into
our
consciousness
something forgotten,
we are
in
a
different state
of
mind,
depending on
what the
forgotten
thing
is,
etc.
The
great
American
psychologist
James
was
the first
to
deal
thoroughly
with
all these
psychological
subtleties and
to
present
them in
the
vividest and
clearest form in his
work.[12]
He calls
the
various aftereffect colorations
fringes
(Fransen);
his
German advocate Cornelius
calls them
relation colorations
[Rela-
tionsfärbungen].[13]
Any psychology
that
does
not
take these
things
into
account,
and this
unfortunately
includes
the
majority,
lends
a
rough,
wooden
impression
to those familiar
with
them,
and
certainly
also to
any
open-minded
person
not
familiar with them. If
it
is
the
mark
of
a
genius
to be
the
first
to
describe
things
that
everyone
can
observe and
yet
that
no one
has
noticed,
then
James has earned
this title
to
the
fullest
degree.
He
was
the
first to succeed in
comprehending
the
directly given
facts of consciousness
in all
their
vibrancy
instead
of
having
them
pressed
into
a herbarium, whereby
all the fine
details
are
lost. Thus
my reply
to
your
comment
that the
momentary
state resembled
a
Mach element and
was
deficient in
content
has become
a
little
descriptive
psychology.
It would also be
of
particular
satisfaction
to
me
if I
should have succeeded in
showing
you
how
intriguing
this
normally
so
boring discipline actually is.
I
hope
to have succeeded
in
convincing you
that the
present
state of consciousness
must
be immeasur-
ably rich,
a
microcosm,
since all
the
manifolds
we
experience must,
of
course,
somehow be
expressed
in
the
momentary
state. I
hope
to
have succeeded in
pre-
senting clearly
the
matter
of
multifarious aftereffects and
of
musical
apprehension
through
projection
in
the instantaneous
state,
whereupon
I
refer
particularly
to
the
diagram.
With
reference to
this
presentation,
I
am so
bold
as
to
quote
the
charming
sentence
from
your
popular
essay:
“Before
you
have conceded
this
to
me
with
conviction,
dear
reader,
do not read
on!”[14]
Once
you
have
recognized, however,
that the
current state
is
rich in
content, you
will
agree
with
me more
readily
also
in
the
following.