'It commonly shows itself,' says Dr. Carpenter, in regard to new impressions; those of the earlier period of life not only remaining in full distinctness, but even, it would seem, increasing in vividness, from the fact that the Ego is not distracted from attending to them by the continual influx of impressions produced by passing events. The extraordinary persistence of early impressions, when the mind seems almost to have ceased to register new ones, is in remarkable accordance with the law of Nutrition. It is a Physiological fact, that Decline essentially consists in the diminution of the formative activity of the organism. Now it is when the Brain is growing that a definite direction can be most strongly and persistently given to its structure. Thus the habits of thought come to be formed, and those nerve-tracks laid down which (as the Physiologist believes) constitute the mechanism of association, by the time the brain has reached its maturity; and the nutrition of the organ continues to keep up the same mechanism in accordance with the demands on its activity, so long as it is being called into use. Further, during the entire period of vigorous Manhood, the Brain, like the Muscles, may be taking on some additional growth, either as a whole or in special parts; new tissue being developed and kept up by the nutritive process, in accordance with the modes of action to which the organ is trained. And in this manner a store of "impressions" or traces is accumulated, which may be brought within the sphere of consciousness, whenever the right suggesting-strings are touched. But as the nutritive activity diminishes, the “ "waste" becomes more active than the renovation; and it would seem that while (to use a commercial analogy) the "old-established houses" keep their ground, those later firms whose basis is less secure are the first to crumble away,– the nutritive activity, which yet suffices to maintain the original structure, not being capable of keeping the subsequent additions to it in working order. This earlier degeneration of later formed structures is a general fact perfectly familiar to the Physiologist.-P.

442.

There is a kind of abbreviating process in mental operations, which may serve further to illustrate the principle of the retrocession into unconsciousness of recoverable ideas. The most familiar instance of this is, perhaps, the act of composition. If the object of the writer be to produce conviction, his arguments must be at the same time logical, and suited to the capacity and modes of thought of the reader whom he addresses. They must also be set out in correct and perspicuous language. But none of these considerations are present to the practised writer during the act of composition. He has not a thought at the time of the elementary propositions on which his fabric of reasoning is built up; or of the

observation of human nature, which is the foundation of his judgment as to the best cal laws which are obeyed in the construcway of putting his case; or of the grammatition of his style. He notes them as little as he does the formation of the letters traced by his pen. Yet it is as impossible to doubt that logical readiness, practical tact, and a graceful style are formed from the materials of a mental experience, built up in accordance with the laws of reason in its several applications, as that the printed essay pamphlet is made up of combinations of letters of the alphabet. So do the speculations of the most advanced mathematicians imply the acceptance of the elementary geometrical truths, although we may safely believe that in the composition of the Mécanique Céleste,' the illustrious author never thought of his obligations to Euclid.

or

The curious question now suggests itself, what is the nature of those sudden intuitions which occasionally present themselves, which, so far as can be discovered, have no connection whatever with any immediately antecedent idea? Are they independent of the general law of association, absolutely severed from the mental condition which has preceded them-Singular Points, as it were, in the great curve of our conscious existence? Or are they the cropping up, unexpectedly, of a link in a chain which has existed all the while below the plane of our consciousness, subject to the same law of association with our ordinary thoughts? The exposition of Dr. Carpenter's views on this subject forms, in our judgment, the most interesting portion of his work-the chapter on UNCONSCIOUS CEREBRATION. He is at some pains to remove the prejudice, which he believes to exist, on moral and religious grounds, against his explanation of the phenomenon.

'Having found reason,' says he, 'to conclude that a large part of our Intellectual Activity-whether it consists in reasoning processes or in the exercise of the Imaginationis essentially automatic, and may be described in Physiological language as the reflex action of the Cerebrum, we have next to consider whether this action may not take place unconsciously. To affirm that the Cerebrum may act upon impressions transmitted to it, and may elaborate intellectual results, such as we might have attained by the intentional direction of our Minds to the subject, without any consciousness on our own parts, is held by many Metaphysicians, more especially in Britain, to be an altogether untenable, and even a most objectionable doctrine. But this affirmation doctrine which has been current among the is only the Physiological expression of a Metaphysicians of Germany, from the time of Leibnitz to the present date, and which was

deavoured to devise a method by which, only a single prism being used, the first evil might be remedied, and by the withdrawal of the prism the second disability removed. He thought of this long; but could not hit upon the form of prism which would satisfy the conditions, and laid his microscopic studies for the time entirely on one side. About a fortnight afterwards, while reading a stupid novel,' the form of the prism that would answer the purpose flashed into his mind. He at once drew a diagram, and worked out the mathematical conditions, and the next day constructed his prism, which answered perfectly well, and furnished the type upon which all binoculars in ordinary use have since been constructed.

Dr. Carpenter considers that Unconscious Cerebration,' or as psychologists would term it, latent Mental Modification, is not confined to intellectual operations, but extends likewise to the sphere of the Emotions. In this way he accounts for the influence which one person imperceptibly, and even unconscious ly, acquires over others; although, perhaps, this would be better described as the subjection to the influence of the former insensibly growing up in the latter. The typical case of this is, of course, that one which affords so ample a field to novel-writers, where two persons of different sexes discover suddenly that they cannot live without each other. But, of course, the same principle obtains in the case of the eminent statesman who becomes popular with a whole nation; or with the subtle divine, who succeeds in turning scores of youthful votaries from the faith of their fathers; while both in the one instance and the other the understanding is not unfrequently baffled in its endeavour to trace the steps of the process upon any principle it can accept. But the only sphere of human action in which observation can possibly test the operation of unconscious cerebration is, in our opinion, the purely intellectual one. The infinite complexity of the factors entering into almost every moral act (which appears as their composite resultant) defies scientific analysis.

The hostility to the doctrine of Unconscious Cerebration,' to which allusion has been made above, of course has its foundation in an apprehension that the legitimate consequences of such a theory may be found to exclude the idea of a self-determining power, in the individual man,-in other words, to make Will the mere resultant of the general (spontaneous or automatic) activity of the Mind, and dependent, like it, upon Physical antecedents.' However widely Dr. Carpenter extends the sphere of

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automatic activity, he opposes himself most uncompromisingly to this view; and, in our judgment, clearly and satisfactorily confutes it by contrasting the mental condition of a rational agent in his normal condition with that of an insane person, or of one under the influence of opium, or subjected to the operations of the Electro-biologists.' In the case of decided insanity the self-determining power is permanently suspended; in the others, temporarily so. In all, the mind having in itself no power of altering the current of ideas which pass through it, remains as it were possessed' by them. The individual, while in this condition, is at the mercy of any one who contrives the means of impressing upon him ab extra some dominant idea which sets the automatic machinery in motion. In the year 1850, the art of Electro-Biology' was brought into fashion by two Americans, who asserted that, by means of an influence only known to themselves, they could subjugate the will of others, paralyse their muscles, pervert the evidence of their senses, and even suspend all consciousness of identity. Their mode of proceeding was to place a small disk of zinc and copper in the hand of the subject of the operation. On this he was to gaze steadily, abstracting his thoughts from everything else, and bending his whole efforts to intensifying the act of gazing. Mr. Braid, of Manchester, who for some time before had been making experiments on the subject of Induced Reverie,' pointed out that the zinc and copper disk (which had given occasion to the name Electro-Biology) was quite unessential to the success of the operation, and that its place might be supplied by any object whatever securing a fixed gaze;-the whole secret consisting in the induction of a state of reverie by means of the steady direction of the eyes to one point for a period of time, varying according to the susceptibility of the subjects, usually from five to twenty minutes :

'The longer the steady gaze is sustained, the more is the Will of the individual withdrawn from the direction of his thoughts, and concentrated on that of his eyes, so that at latter; and in the meantime, the continued last it seems to be entirely transferred to the monotony is tending, as in the Induction of Sleep or of Reverie, to produce a corresponding state of mind, which, like the body of a cataleptic subject, can be moulded into any position, and remains in that position until subjected to pressure from without. When this subject seems to remain entirely dormant, state is complete, the Mind of the Biologized until roused to activity by some suggestion which it receives through the ordinary channels of sensation, and to which it re

sponds as automatically as a ship obeys the | movements of its rudder; the whole course of the individual's thought and action being completely under external direction. He is, indeed, for the time a mere thinking automaton. His mind is entirely given up to the domination of any idea which may transiently possess it; and of that idea his conversation and actions are the exponents. He has no power of judging of the consistency of his idea with actual facts, because he cannot determinately bring it into comparison with them. He cannot of himself turn the current of his thoughts, because all his power of self-direction is in abeyance. And thus he may be played on, like a musical instrument, by those around him; thinking, feeling, speaking, acting, just as they will that he should think, feel, speak, or act. But this is not, as has been represented, because his will has been brought into direct subjection to theirs; but because, his will being in abeyance, all his mental operations are directed by such suggestions as they may impress on his consciousness.'-Pp. 552, 553.

The weakening of volitional control is one of the most characteristic effects of the abuse of opium, even while the intellectual powers may have become unusually enhanced.

The opium eater,' says Mr. De Quincey, 'loses none of his moral sensibilities or aspirations; he wishes and longs, as earnestly as ever, to realise what he believes possible, and feels to be exacted by duty; but his intellectual apprehension of what is possible infinitely outruns his power, not of execution only, but of power to attempt. He lies under the weight of incubus and nightmare: he lies in sight of all that he would fain perform, just as a man forcibly confined to his bed by the mental languor of a relaxing disease, who is compelled to witness injury or outrage offered to some object of his tenderest love:-he curses the spells which chain him down from motion: he would lay down his life if he might but get up and walk; but he is powerless as an infant, and cannot even attempt to rise.'

The effect of the Hachish (a preparation of the Indian Hemp, used in the Levant for the purposes of intoxication) is thus described by Dr. Moreau, a French physician, who studied the subject with reference to its bearing on the phenomena of insanity:

'We become the sport of impressions of the most opposite kind; the continuity of our ideas may be broken by the slightest cause. We are turned, to use a common expression, by every wind. By a word or gesture our thoughts may be successively directed to a multitude of different subjects, with a rapidity and a lucidity which are truly marvellous. The mind becomes possessed with a feeling of pride, corresponding with the exaltation of its faculties, of whose increase in energy and power it becomes conscious. It will entirely depend on the circumstances in which we are

placed, the objects which strike our eyes, the words which fall on our ears, whether the most lively sentiments of gaiety or of sadness shall be produced, or passions of the most opposite character shall be excited, sometimes with extraordinary violence; for irritation will rapidly pass into rage, dislike into hatred and desire of vengeance, and the calmest affection into the most transporting passion. Fear becomes terror; courage is developed into rashness which nothing checks, and which seems not to be conscious of danger. The most unfounded doubt or suspicion becomes a certainty. The mind has a tendency to exaggerate everything; and the slightest impulse carries it along.'

A well-known case, related by Dr. Abercrombie, of an officer, who served in the Expedition to Louisburgh, in 1758, presents a curious parallel to the experience of electro-biology in a somnambulism of a peculiar kind. The ordinary somnambulist is generally possessed by one dominant idea, to which all his actions conform. But the individual in question, when asleep, could be completely directed by whispering in his ear, especially if this was done by one with whose voice he was familiar. This peculiarity rendered him the subject of many practical jokes for the amusement of his brother officers. They found him one day asleep on a locker in the cabin, and made him believe that he had fallen overboard, exhorting him to swim for his life. He immediately imitated the movements of a swimmer. Then they told him that a shark was upon him, and that he must dive for his life. This he at once did, with such force as to throw himself on to the cabin floor, which, of course, awakened him. After all the experiments, he had no recollection of his dreams, but a confused feeling of oppression and fatigue; and he used to tell his friends that he was sure they had been playing some tricks with him.

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The difference between these abnormal states and that of a man of whom the mens sana in corpore sano' may be predicated, is plainly due to the self-determining power possessed by the latter,-the Will,that which qualifies Man as an ens agens,'

no less than his consciousness as the identi

cal subject of diverse impressions constitutes him an 6 ens sciens; the two phases of personality exhibiting themselves, as we have hinted above, united in the most elementary state of human existence. To know and to act comprises the sum total of Human Capa

bilities.

Laws of Nature and the Laws of Thought What are commonly called the are, in fact, the limiting conditions of knowledge and action, only discoverable by beings endued with the powers of knowing and