Let us return to our example: why does the idea of my wife call to mind that of the journey? It might quite as well suggest others. In reality, a number of ideas, or subconscious cerebral activities, act at the same time as that of my wife to give rise to the idea of the journey. This journey had already been decided on before thinking of it at the moment in question, and the resolution that I had taken to make it had left in my brain latent impressions (engrams) which slumbered there; such as those of the date of departure, the duration of the journey, its termination, precautions to be taken for the house during our absence, things to take with us, expenses, etc., etc. During the infinitely short time when the idea of journey appears in my consciousness, between that of my wife and that of my trunk, I have no consciousness of all these things. They are, however, closely associated with the idea of journey, and in connection with it by the thousand threads of a subconscious and latent cerebral force which takes place in my cerebral nerve-elements (neurones); and it is their hidden action which awakens the idea of journey and directs my attention to it, at the same time weakening by their divers interferences the intensity of other associated engrams; in particular that of the sentiment of traveling, and thereby preventing a series of ideo-motor sensations relating to departure from becoming predominant. What suddenly appears in my consciousness is the verbal representation symbolized by the word _journey_; a general representation of synthetic nature, and consequently nebulous. It is the words of language only which allow me to synthetize a general idea in a short and definite form. Thus, the cerebral flash _journey_ which follows the idea of my wife is not caused by the latter idea alone; it has been mainly drawn from its obscurity and brought before the mobile conscious attention, by the action of the thousand subconscious threads, some of which we have just mentioned, and which have at the same time determined its quality. Without my being aware of it, these dynamic threads, or latent engrams, have to a great extent determined the kind of idea which will follow that of _journey_, and which will seem to me to be caused by this last alone, namely the idea of _trunk_. The idea of journey might equally well have awakened other images, such as those of the acquaintances whom I should meet, or of the town I intended to visit. Why that of the trunk? This is simply because the care of the effects to be taken, the place they should occupy, etc., revolved unconsciously but strongly in my brain, and for the moment predominated over other subconscious associations.