Hence, in desiring, the more the enjoyment is delayed, the more fancy begins to weave about the object images of future fruition, and to clothe the desired object with properties calculated to inflame the impulse.

In the perception of a tree we can distinguish the act of experiencing, or perceiving, from the thing experienced, or perceived.

But though cognition is not an element of mental action, nor even in any real sense of the word an aspect of it, the distinction of cognition and conation has if properly defined a definite value.

Curiosity begins as an act of tearing to pieces or analysis.

The mental act of sensation which issues in reflex movement is so simple as to defy analysis.

Desire then is the invasion of the whole self by the wish, which, as it invades, sets going more and more of the psychical processes; but at the same time, so long as it remains desire, does not succeed in getting possession of the self.

Psychology is the science of the act of experiencing, and deals with the whole system of such acts as they make up mental life.