Is Mr. Shandy in this passage from Tristram Shandy suggesting that not only is the information that has been stored in one's memory made up of visual images, but also ideas in general?
"For if you will turn your eyes inwards upon your mind...and observe attentively, you will perceive, brother, that whilst you and I are talking together, and thinking and smoaking our pipes: or whilst we receive successively ideas in our minds, we know that we do exist...Now, whether we observe it or no, continued my father, in every sound man's head, there is a regular succession of ideas of one sort or another which follow each other in a train...which follow and succeed one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle"
(Tristram Shandy 138-139).
"The sources of what is in memory are diverse, but what happens to an impression or an idea once it gets into the brain is a single process resulting in the production of a phantasm that can be seen and scanned by 'the eye of the mind.' This sort of language is constant and pervasive in writings on the subject from the earliest times" (Carruthers 19)
In the quote shown above, Carruthers discusses the concept that has been around for a very long time about the "mind's eye." Even in conversation today this is brought up. What was different earlier on was that memory comes from a "single process" that is stored as a "phantasm" or a reproduction/image of the idea. It is purely visual, without accounting for all of the other sensory input that may have contributed, such as auditory. In this model of memory, even something simple such as a laugh would only be represented as an image, without any sort of sound to recall. It also does not allow for many ideas or processes happening at once, which is something that the brain is known to do now. Even though this concept does not seem like the most rational view to have in today's world, one can see evidence of its pervasiveness in earlier periods such as the 18th century through literature. The moment shown above from Sterne's Tristram Shandy is a great example of this.
In this scene, Mr. Shandy is trying to show how one can understand time and one's own existence to Uncle Toby. He uses again this imagery of looking in on the mind, as if the mind has its own eyes. He also seems to believe that the mind goes through one process at a time-each idea follows calmly after the other in a specific order like a train. He then goes on to equate ideas to "images in the inside of a lanthorn," which could suggest that he believes that ideas are purely visual, as well. Mr. Shandy is applying the visual, single-process model of the memory to ideas that enter the mind in general in this moment. It is also interesting that he suggests that people are capable of observing all the ideas that enter their brains and see that it is calm, orderly, and that they are able to comprehend all that is going on. This makes the mind seem like a very, very simple organ. On the other hand, the narration techniques that Sterne employs throughout this entire novel seem to negate this mentality. There are constant digressions, and sometimes the narrator even admits that he has forgotten to mention something or that he cannot follow his thoughts quickly enough.
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