A very large part of the mental life of a student consists in the
manipulation of images. By images we mean the revivals of things that
have been impressed upon the senses. Call to mind for the moment your
house-number as it appears upon the door of your home. In so doing you
mentally reinstate something which has been impressed upon your senses
many times; and you see it almost as clearly as if it were actually
before you. The mental thing thus revived is called an image.

The word image is somewhat ill-chosen; for it usually signifies
something connected with the eye, and implies that the stuff of mental
images is entirely visual. The true fact of the matter is, we can image
practically anything that we can sense. We may have tactual images of
things touched; auditory images of things heard; gustatory images of
things tasted; olfactory images of things smelled. How these behave in
general and how they interact in study will engage our attention in
this chapter.

The most highly dramatic use of images is in connection with that
mental process known as Imagination. As we study the writings of Jack
London, Poe, Defoe, Bunyan, we move in a realm almost wholly imaginary.
And as we take a cross-section of our minds when thus engaged, we find
them filled with images. Furthermore, they are of great variety--images
of colors, sounds, tastes, smells, touches, even of sensations from our
own internal organs, such as the palpitations of the heart that
accompany feelings of pride, indignation, remorse, exaltation. A
further characteristic is that they are sharp, clean-cut, vivid.

Note in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, the number, variety