_Illusions of Recognition._

As a last illustration of comparatively passive illusions, I may refer
to the errors which we occasionally commit in recognizing objects. As I
have already observed, the process of full and clear recognition,
specific and individual, involves a classing of a number of distinct
aspects of the object, such as colour, form, etc. Accordingly, when in a
perfectly calm state of mind we fall into illusion with respect to any
object plainly visible, it must be through some accidental resemblance
between the object and the other object or class of objects with which
we identify it. In the case of individual identification such illusions
are, of course, comparatively rare, since here there are involved so
many characteristic differences. On the other hand, in the case of
specific recognition there is ample room for error, especially in those
kinds of more subtle recognition to which I have already referred. To
"recognize" a person as a Frenchman or a military man, for example, is
often an erroneous process. Logicians have included this kind of error
under what they call "fallacies of observation."

Errors of recognition, both specific and individual, are, of course,
more easy in the case of distant objects or objects otherwise
indistinctly seen. It is noticeable in these cases that, even when
perfectly cool and free from emotional excitement, we tend to interpret
such indistinct impressions according to certain favourite types of
experience, as the human face and figure. Our interpretative imagination
easily sees traces of the human form in cloud, rock, or tree-stump.

Again, even when there is no error of recognition, in the sense of
confusing one object with other objects, there may be partial illusion.
I have remarked that the process of recognizing an object commonly