Part 28

"One must not fail to think about the influences to which one has been subjected since this time.

"It is possible that life during its development in the aspirant to common sense may have changed the direction of his first conceptions either by conversation or by reading or by the reproduction of divers narrations.

"It would then be a lack of common sense to base an exact recollection of former incidents on the recent state of being of the soul, without seeking to reproduce the state of mind in which one was at the epoch when those incidents occurred.

"Activity of mind, stimulated to the utmost, is able to give a color to preceding impressions, which they never have had, and, in this case again, the recollection will be marred by inexactness.

"The art of situation requires the strictest application and on this account it is a valuable factor in the acquirement of common sense.

"Attention vitalizes our activity in order to accelerate the development of a definite purpose toward which it can direct its energy.

"It could be analyzed as follows:

"First, to see;

"Secondly, to hear.

"The functions of the other senses come afterward, and their susceptibility can attract our attention to the sensations which they give us, such as the sense of smell, of touch, of taste.

"These purely physical sensations possess, however, a moral signification, from which we are permitted to make valuable deductions.

"The first two have three distinct phases:

"First degree, to see.

"Second degree, to look.

"Third degree, to observe.

"If we see a material, its color strikes us first and we say: I have seen a red or yellow material, and this will be all.

"Applying ourselves more closely, we look at it and we define the peculiarities of the color. We say: it is bright red or dark red.

"In observing it we determine to what use it is destined.

"The eye is attracted by:

"The color.

"The movement.

"The form.

"The number.

"The duration.

"We have just spoken of the color.

"The movement is personified by a series of gestures that people make or by a series of changes to which they subject things.

"The form is represented by the different outlines.

"The number by their quantity.