THE UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BRAIN. 563 



decision as to some important change either in my own life, or in the 

 life of members of my family, which involved a great many of what we 

 are accustomed to calicos and cons that is, there was a great deal to 

 be said on both sides. I heard the expression once used by a naturalist, 

 with regard to difficulties in classification " It is very easy to deal 

 with the white and the black ; but the difficulty is to deal with the 

 gray." And so it is in life. It is perfectly easy to deal with the white 

 and the black there are things which are clearly right, and things 

 which are clearly wrong ; there are things which are clearly prudent, 

 and things which are clearly imprudent ; but a great many cases arise 

 in which even right and wrong may seem balanced, or the motives may 

 be so balanced that it is difficult to say what is right ; and again, there 

 are cases in which it is difficult to say what is prudent ; and I believe, 

 in these cases where we are not hurried and pressed for a decision, the 

 best plan is to do exactly that which I spoke of in the earlier part of the 

 lecture to set before us as much as possible every thing that is to be 

 said on both sides. Let us consider this well ; let us go to our friends ; 

 let us ask what they think about it. They will suggest considerations 

 which may not occur to ourselves. It has happened to me within the 

 last three or four months to have to make a very important decision 

 of this kind for myself; and I took this method I heard every thing 

 that was to be said on both sides, I considered it well, and then I de- 

 termined to put it aside as completely as possible for a month, or longer, 

 if time should be given, and then to take it up again, and simply just 

 to see how my mind gravitated how the balance then turned. And 

 I assure you that I believe that in those who have disciplined their 

 minds in the manner I have mentioned, that act of "Unconscious 

 Cerebration," for so I call it, this unconscious operation of the brain in 

 balancing for itself all these considerations, in putting all in order, so 

 to speak, in working out the result I believe that that process is far 

 more likely to lead us to good and true results than any continual dis- 

 cussion and argumentation, in which one thing is pressed with undue 

 force, and then that leads us to bring up something on the other side, 

 so that we are just driven into antagonism, so to speak, by the undue 

 pressure of the force which we think is being exerted. I believe that 

 to hear every thing that is to be said, and then not to ruminate upon 

 it too long, not to be continually thinking about it, but to put it aside 

 entirely from our minds as far as we possibly can, is the very best mode 

 of arriving at a correct conclusion. And this conclusion will be the 

 resultant of the whole previous training and discipline of our minds. 

 If that training and discipline has all been in the direction of the true 

 and the good, I believe that we are more likelv to obtain a valuable 

 result from such a process than from any conscious discussion of it in 

 our minds, any thing like continually bringing it up and thinking of it, 

 and going over the whole subject again in our thought. The un- 

 conscious settling down, as it were, of all these respective motives will, 



