564 FUNCTIONS OF THE CEREBRO -SPINAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



action being shaped in accordance with it. In the acts of animals of a still 

 higher grade, as in those of the Child, we can scarcely fail to perceive the 

 manifestation of reasoning processes analogous to those which we ourselves 

 perform, and the expressions of some of those emotional states of which we 

 are ourselves conscious. The super-addition of these more elevated endow- 

 ments, in the Vertebrated series, is coincident with the addition of a peculiar 

 ganglionic centre, the Cerebrum, to the Sensori-motor apparatus; and the 

 relative proportion which the former bears to the latter, both as to size and 

 to complexity of structure, corresponds so closely with the degree of pre- 

 dominance which the Intelligence possesses over the Instinctive propensities, 

 that it is scarcely possible to doubt that the Cerebrum is the instrument 

 through which this higher form of psychical power is exercised. Much of 

 this exercise, however, may still be automatic in its nature ; for so long as 

 the current of thought and feeling flows on in accordance with the direct 

 promptings of Suggestion, and without any interference from Volition, may 

 it be considered as a manifestation of the " reflex " activity of the Cerebrum, 

 which takes the form of a mental instinct. This reflex activity manifests 

 itself not only in the psychical operations themselves, but also in muscular 

 movements; and these, when they proceed from simple ideas without any 

 excitement of feeling may be designated as ideo-motor : whilst if they spring 

 from a passion or emotion, they are termed emotional. The mental instincts, 

 however, are by no means as invariable in the different individuals of the 

 same species, as are what may be termed the plnj*i<_-al Instincts of that infe- 

 rior part of the nervous apparatus, which is more closely connected with the 

 maintenance of the Organic life; the particular changes which any given 

 suggestions will excite in each, being partly determined by original constitu- 

 tion, and partly by acquired habits. 



451. The superiority of the Mind of Man over that of the most elevated 

 among the lower animals, consists not only in the far greater variety and 

 range of his faculties, but yet more in that dominant power of the Will, 

 which enables him to utilize them with the highest effect. In so far as the 

 course of his thoughts and feelings is the mere result of the action of exter- 

 nal impressions upon an organization having certain respondent tendencies, 

 must he be considered as irresponsible for his actions, his character being 

 formed for instead of by him ; but in so far as he can exert a Volitional power 

 of directing his thoughts and controlling his feelings, may he rise superior 

 to circumstances, make the most advantageous use of the Intellectual facul- 

 ties with which he may be endowed, and bring his Moral character more and 

 more into accordance with the highest type which his nature may be capable 

 of attaining in its present sphere of existence. Notwithstanding the evi- 

 dences of rationality which many of the lower animals present, and the 

 manifestations which they display of emotions that are similar to our own, 

 there is no ground to believe that they have any such controlling power ; on 

 the contrary, all observation seems to lead to the conclusion, that they are 

 under the complete domination of the ideas and emotions by which they may 

 be for the time possessed, and have no power either of repressing these by a 

 forcible act of Will, or of turning the attention, by a like voluntary effort, 

 into another channel. In this respect, then, their condition resembles that 

 of the Dreamer, the Somnambule, or the Insane patient, in all of whom this 

 voluntary control is suspended, and who (when their minds are susceptible 

 of external impressions) may be so "played upon" by the suggestion of ideas, 

 that any respondent action consistent with the ordinary mental state of the 

 individual may be evoked by an appropriate stimulus; just as we see in the 

 case of animals that are trained to the performance of particular sets of 



