You listen to me now, I suppose, with certain prepossessions as to
my competency, and these affect your reception of what I say, but
were I suddenly to break off lecturing, and to begin to sing 'We
won't go home till morning' in a rich baritone voice, not only would
that new fact be added to your stock, but it would oblige you to
define me differently, and that might alter your opinion of the
pragmatic philosophy, and in general bring about a rearrangement of
a number of your ideas. Your mind in such processes is strained, and
sometimes painfully so, between its older beliefs and the novelties
which experience brings along.
Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots
spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep
unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old
prejudices and beliefs, as we can. We patch and tinker more than we
renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is
also tinged by what absorbs it. Our past apperceives and co-
operates; and in the new equilibrium in which each step forward in
the process of learning terminates, it happens relatively seldom
that the new fact is added RAW. More usually it is embedded cooked,
as one might say, or stewed down in the sauce of the old.
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