Just as the apparent distance of a visible object depends _inter alia_ on the distinctness of the retinal impression, so the apparent temporal remoteness of a past event depends in part on the degree of intensity and clearness of the mnemonic image.

This is seen even in the case of those images which we are able distinctly to localize in the time-perspective.

For a series of exciting experiences intervening between the present and a past event appears not only _directly_ to add to our sense of distance by constituting an apparently long interval, but _indirectly_ to add to it by giving an unusual degree of faintness to the recalled image.

An event preceding some unusually stirring series of experiences gets thrust out of consciousness by the very engrossing nature of the new experiences, and so tends to grow more faint and ghost-like than it would otherwise have done.
The full force of this circumstance is best seen in the fact that a very recent event, bringing with it a deep mental shock and a rapid stirring of wide tracts of feeling and thought, may get to look old in a marvellously short space of time.

An announcement of the loss of a dear friend, when sudden and deeply agitating, will seem remote even after an hour of such intense emotional experience.