VOLUNTARY MOTION. 453 



But, again, a bright object is presented to a child. Its desire for it 

 ultimates in a movement that misses it, and then in one that grasps it. 

 In what respect do the mental accompaniments of the movement differ 

 in the two cases ? In nothing whatever. The mental phenomena which 

 accompany both the failure and the success are a desire for the object 

 and a volition for the movement. Next week or month, you hold the 

 bright object before the child again, and he succeeds in grasping it 

 every time ; and still the mental accompaniments of the movement are 

 the same the same desire for the object, and the same volition for the 

 movement not for the wrong movement, even when the failure was 

 made. Then, if the desire and the volition are precisely the same in 

 both cases, why should one movement be a success and the other a 

 failure ? It is evident that the fact that the child has learned that he 

 can make the movement does not contribute to the success, for the first 

 success was made before he had learned that he could ; and the knowl- 

 edge that he can does not contribute to a future success, because it 

 does not contribute in the least to a knowledge of how to do it. Then, 

 where are we driven to ? The mental accompaniments or phenomena do 

 not (with a qualification which it is not important to explain here) con- 

 tribute to the success of our voluntary movements. Therefore, we must 

 look for the reason why one voluntary movement is a success and another 

 a failure, in the phenomena of organization, and not in those of mind. 



If the final conclusion above reached is true, there should be no 

 difference, physiologically, between a voluntary and a reflex movement. 

 And such we find to be the case. The essential physiological phenom- 

 ena of a voluntary movement are, an impression upon a peripheral sur- 

 face, conducted thence along certain nerves to a nervous centre which 

 is thereby excited to a peculiar kind of molecular action, and that 

 action generates what is called a nervous force, which is discharged 

 through another set of nerves upon certain muscles, causing them to 

 contract. The essential physiological phenomena of a reflex movement 

 are precisely the same. The point of present interest in both, cases is 

 that peculiar molecular action of the nervous centres (which, as we 

 have stated, is essentially the same in both cases) which generates the 

 nervous force that is discharged upon the muscles, causing their con- 

 traction. Now, if there is no essential difference, physiologically, be- 

 tween a voluntary and a reflex movement, in what do they differ? Of 

 course, the former is the latter with volition superadded, or the latter is 

 the former with volition deducted. And what is volition ? Volition is 

 simply a peculiar molecular action of a nervous centre of motion re- 

 flected upon consciousness translated into a state of consciousness 

 symbolized in consciousness. The mental part of the phenomena the 

 volition being simply a state of consciousness a consciousness of the 

 molecular action then, the molecular action is a condition precedent 

 to that state of consciousness which is a symbolical representation of 

 it. The molecular action, being precedent to the symbol of itself, can- 



