Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/509

THE SPATIAL HARMONY OP TOUCH AND SIGHT. 495 that were well within reach seemed hopelessly remote, until a deliberate comparison of their positions with that of my visible hand made clear the error. And when things in sight came in contact with some part of my body, the touch-perception, by seeming suddenly to bring the objects nearer, showed that by sight alone their distance had been considerably overestimated. This indicated that, with regard to things other than my body, the position in which they were actually seen was very early accepted as their real position ; there was no translating their new situations into the terms of the older, normal, visual experience, except when touch introduced a discordant report. In the case of the body itself, however, whose visible aspect was of course uninterruptedly ac- companied by sensations of touch, there was a much less ready acceptance of the sight-impression as final and real. The visual projection remained for some time a mere reflexion or displaced image of the reality which was still thought of as lying in its normal position. But as time wore on, this older, normal representation became less per- sistent and vivid ; it was often found to be blurred and to require an instant's mental withdrawal from the actual scene before I could recall it in its original vigour. The actual sight of my body, on the other hand, had constantly to be heeded in visually guiding any action ; so that it had thrust upon it an immediate practical importance which the older representation could hardly maintain. But not until the afternoon of the second day did I notice anything like an acknowledgment of this reflected image as my very body itself. On the third day such an attitude was more frequent. But even to the end I usually had only to shut my eyes to cause the older mental picture to surge back and drive from the field all but some faded remnant of the new perceptions. At times, however, even with closed eyes, I involuntarily thought of my body as in the position just seen. This growing recognition of the projected image of my body as the real body was accompanied and doubtless aided by a waning opposition of the reports of touch and sight. Even on the second day, impressions of touch occasionally suggested no other place than the one indicated by sight. And again on the third day I sometimes found myself handling things in sight without any conscious opposition in the localisation of the different impressions : the touch sensations were not referred to any other than their visible locality. But the most frequent and striking