In the case of these temporally undefined expectations, the law already expounded holds good that all vividness of representation tends to lend the things represented an appearance of approaching events.

On the other hand, there are some events, such as our own death, which our instinctive feelings tend to banish to a region so remote as hardly to be realized at all.
So much with respect to errors in the localizing of future events.
In the second place, a habit of imagining a future event or group of events will give play to those forces which tend to transform a mental image.

In other words, the habitual indulgence of a certain anticipation tends to an illusory view, not only of the "when ?" but also of the "how ?" of the future event.

These transformations, due to subtle processes of emotion and intellect, and reflecting the present habits of these, exactly resemble those by which a remembered event becomes gradually transformed.

Thus, we carry on our present habits of thought and feeling into the remote future, foolishly imagining that at a distant period of life, or in greatly altered circumstances, we shall desire and aim at the same things as now in our existing circumstances.
In close connection with this forward projection of our present selves, there betrays itself a tendency to look on future events as answering to our present desires and aspirations.