Another source of the idea of a shadow being
the object of our thought is this: We imagine the
shadow to be a picture the intention of which
can not be
questioned, that is, a picture which we don't
interpret in order to understand it, but which we understand
without interpreting it. Now there are pictures of which
we should say that we interpret them, that is, translate them into
a different kind of picture, in order to understand them; and
pictures of which we should say that we understand them
immediately, without any further interpretation. If you
see a telegram written in cipher, and you know the key to this
59.
cipher, you
will, in general, not say that you understand the telegram
until || before you have translated
it into ordinary language. Of course you have only
replaced one kind of symbols for another; and yet if now you read
the telegram in your language no further process of interpretation
will take place. ‒ ‒ ‒ Or rather, you may now, in
certain cases, again translate this telegram, say into a picture;
but then too you have only replaced one set of symbols by
another.