

210 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Feb 



Just as there are vibrations in the solar spectrum below the 

 visible red rays and above the visible violet rays, there are 

 evidences of the working of mind outside of the range of con- 

 sciousness. These extensions of the mental spectrum have been 

 called the subliminal mind. Is not this subconscious mind 

 identical with the instinctive mind? 



The brain is the organ of the conscious or objective inind. 

 The instinctive mind has no special organ, but is the federal 

 head of the aggregated minds of the cells which constitute the 

 whole organism. The brain, or imperial mind, exerts its influence 

 on the instinctive or colonial mind by the powder of suggestion. 

 "Every suggestion is a nascent instinct. Original sin is a kind 

 of suggestion instilled from childhood and producing real 

 hereditary sin." (Guyau). 



Conscience is a peculiarly human emotion. It is certain of 

 action only when it has become instinctive. A gcjod conscience 

 is the fruit of good seed sown by the rational intelligence in the 

 soil of the instinctive mind. The voice of conscience is the voice 

 of our distant progenitors transmitted along the lines of heredity. 



Patriotism is an altruistic instinct. Kipling's "Absent- 

 Minded Beggar" acts, not rationally, but instinctively when he 

 enlists in defence of the Empire. When a nation finds it necessary 

 to assert its patriotism by noisy and dangerous demonstrations, 

 it may be assumed that such patriotism has not yet developed 

 into an instinct. 



The sting of death is withdrawn when it is recognized that 

 like sleep, it is instinctive. The great majority of deaths are 

 peaceful because they are instinctive. 



What has been called an instinctive aversion to snakes, 

 seems to be disappearing in the civilized human race in the light 

 of the fact that most of our snakes are harmless. The rivalry 

 of the rat for the possession of the earth may in time develop a 

 similarly strong instinct in the human mind against that animal. 



Instinct, Intuition, Omniscience, are words embodying 

 ideas of the same category. Intuition is a high grade of in- 

 stinctive human intelligence, the faculty of knowing without the 

 labor of -inductive reasoning. Genius is habitual intuition. The 

 genius is "in tune with the Infinite:" his instinc ive n;ind 

 vibrates in unison with the mind of the Omniscient 



Extend instinct, intuition, genius to infinity and we attain ..;^j 

 omniscience. Divine omniscience and human intni'.i'm are the ^' 



same in kind, differing onlv in degree, differing as i he Father 

 differs from the son. 



