THE PERCEPT INVOLVES ALL RELATIONS OF THE OBJECT.--Nor is the case in
the least different with ourselves. When we wish to learn about a new
object or discover new facts about an old one, we do precisely as the
child does if we are wise. We apply to it every sense to which it will
afford a stimulus, and finally arrive at the object through its various
qualities. And just in so far as we have failed to use in connection
with it every sense to which it can minister, just in that degree will
we have an incomplete perception of it. Indeed, just so far as we have
failed finally to perceive it in terms of its functions or uses, in that
far also have we failed to know it completely. Tomatoes were for many
years grown as ornamental garden plants before it was discovered that
the tomatoes could minister to the taste as well as to the sight. The
clothing of civilized man gives the same sensation of texture and color
to the savage that it does to its owner, but he is so far from
perceiving it in the same way that he packs it away and continues to go
naked. The Orientals, who disdain the use of chairs and prefer to sit
cross-legged on the floor, can never perceive a chair just as we do who
use chairs daily, and to whom chairs are so saturated with social
suggestions and associations.
