All these are but so many forms of the representative power. We may designate them respectively as the _reproductive_, _recognitive_, and _creative_ faculties. The mind's activity is essentially the same under each of these forms. The object is not _given_ but _thought_, not presented to sense, but _represented_ to the mind. The process is reflective rather than intuitive. It is a matter of _understanding_ rather than of _sense_ or of _reason_. It is a conception, not a perception or an intuition, and it is a simple conception of the object as it is or is conceived to be, in itself considered, and not in relation to other objects. CHAPTER I. MEMORY. § I.--MENTAL REPRODUCTION. I. NATURE OF THE PROCESS. _General Character._--As now defined, this is that form of mental activity in which the mind's former perceptions and sensations are reproduced in thought. The external objects are no longer present--the original sensations and perceptions have vanished--but by the mind's own power are reproduced to thought, giving, as it were, a representation or image of the original. _Example._--Suppose, for instance, that I have seen Strasburg minster, or the cathedral of Milan. Months, perhaps years pass away. By-and-by, in some other and remote part of the world, something reminds me of that splendid structure; I see again its imposing front, its lofty towers, its airy pinnacles and turrets. The solemn pile rises complete, as by magic, to the mind's eye, and, regardless of time or distance, the faculty of simple conception reproduces the object as it is. _Conceptions of Sound._--In like manner I form a conception, more or less distinct, of sounds once heard. The chanting of the evening service in the Church of the Madeleine at Paris, and the prolonged note of a shepherd's horn among the Alps, are instances of musical sound that frequently recur with startling distinctness to the mind. The same is to some extent true of the sensations and perceptions derived from the other senses. With more or less vividness the objects of all such sensations and perceptions are capable of being reproduced in conception.