ORGANIC MOVEMENTS 63 



emphasised by Wundt and a few others, that the doctrine 

 of the so-called origin of the act of volition relates by 

 no means to the origin of volition as such, but only to 

 the origin of the faculty of accomplishing what had been 

 " willed." Volition itself, just as liking and judging, is 

 one of the unexplainable elemental facts of psychology. 



But let us turn back to our proper problem, which 

 is a problem not of psychology but of natural science. 

 The discussion of the genesis of the volitional act has 

 shown us most clearly, that the effects of motor stimuli 

 may form part of the historical basis of reacting. It 

 was the effects of random movements that became liked 

 by the child, and this liking of the effects enters into 

 the historical basis of his future actions, just as do all 

 sorts of stimulations themselves. In a certain sense we 

 may say that the effects of motor stimuli become new 

 stimuli on their own account, at least as far as they are 

 a something presented to the organism and " experienced ' 

 by it, and in this way the whole analysis of the " historical 

 basis " might seem to become more simple and uniform. 

 But nevertheless it is worth while to maintain the 

 distinction between two different types of historical bases 

 of acting, and to study them as they actually occur in 

 special cases. 



The Different Types of Historical Bases 



Acting based upon the experienced final effects of 

 previous motor stimuli always starts from " chance," and 

 it is in so-called " trying >: that it gains its highest import- 

 ance. Imagine you have got a new portmanteau without 



