THE UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BRAIN. 547 



is practically worth more than all the arguments of all the logicians 

 who have discussed the basis of our belief in it." And so, again, with re- 

 gard to another point which more nearly touches our subject to-night 

 the fact that we have a Will which dominates over our actions ; that 

 we are not merely the slaves of automatic impulse which some phi- 

 losophers would make us " the decision of mankind " (as Archbishop 

 Manning, applying my words, has most truly said), " derived from con- 

 sciousness of the existence of our living self or personality, whereby we 

 think, will, or act, is practically worth more than all the arguments of 

 all the logicians who have discussed the basis of our belief in it." 



Now, then, my two points are these : What is the nature of this 

 process which evolves, as it were, this result unconsciously to ourselves, 

 when we have been either asleep, as in the case of the banker, or, as in 

 the other familiar case I have cited, when we have been giving our 

 minds to some other train of thought in the interval ? What is it that 

 brings up spontaneously to our consciousness a fact which we en- 

 deavored to recall with all the force of our will, and yet could not 

 succeed ? 



And then a^ain : What is the nature of this common-sense, to which 

 we defer so implicitly and immediately in all the ordinary judgments 

 of our lives ? 



Now, in order that we may have a really scientific conception of 

 the doctrine I would present to you, I must take you into an in- 

 quiry with regard to some of the simpler functions of our bodies, 

 from which we shall rise to the simpler actions of our minds. You 

 all know that the Brain, using the term in its general sense, is the 

 organ of our Mind. That every one will admit. We shall not go 

 into any of the disputed questions as to the relations of Mind and 

 Matter ; for the fact is, that these are now coming to take quite a 

 new aspect, from Physical philosophers dwelling so much more 

 upon Force than they do upon Matter, and on the relations of 

 Mind and Force, which every one is coming to recognize. Thus, when 

 we speak of nerve-force and mind as having a most intimate relation, 

 no one is found to dispute it; whereas, when we talk about Brain and 

 Mind having this intimate relation, and Mind being the function of the 

 brain, there are a great many who will rise up against us and charge 

 us with materialism, and atheism, and all the other deadly sins of that 

 kind. I merely speak of the relation of the brain to the mind, as the 

 instrument through which the mind operates and expresses itself. We 

 all know that it is in virtue of the impressions carried to the brain, 

 through the nerves proceeding from the different sensory organs in 

 various parts of the body, that we become conscious of what is taking 

 place around us. And, again, that it is through the nerves proceeding 

 from the brain that we are able to execute those movements which the 

 Will prompts and dictates, or which arise from the play of the Emo- 

 tions. But I have first to speak of a set of lower centres, those which 



