88 Rev. J. Wills on Mr. Stewart's Explanation of 



He forgets the leg, while attending to the inclination of the body ; and the hand 

 neglects its office, while he thinks of his feet ; the saddle, bridle, stirrups, whip, 

 and spurs belong to different systems, and war with each other, and the idea of 

 preserving a graceful balance obliterates them all. Now, as the idea of succes- 

 sion is here excluded, and as the equestrian must keep all together, or roll in the 

 dust, the process becomes more clearly indicated ; he must necessarily acquire a 

 position of will or attention, of which all these minutias are the components. 



In shooting, there are three acts to be executed simultaneously — the motion 

 of the gun, of the eye, and of the finger ; they separately present no difficulty ; 

 the young sportsman is, however, aware how hard it is to think of them toge- 

 ther ; the veteran executes them as a simple act conceived by the will, and per- 

 formed by the members. But this example offers a side-glance at the process : 

 for in shooting there is an obstacle very often found from the operation of ex- 

 treme anxiety to hit : the immediate effect of this is to cause a minute attention 

 to the means, so that the ordinary act is thus interfered with. The complex 

 volition is resolved into its component parts, and while the anxious marksman is 

 securing some part of accuracy, he neglects some other. The sure marksman does 

 not think of any methods ; but hits without knowing how it was done : his gun 

 seems to have learned its part, and comes up to his mark : he may tell you, if 

 you ask, that he never takes an aim. The fact is, that men do not recollect, and 

 often cannot find out the component ideas involved in their commonest acts : they 

 act with a single effort complex in its motions, but uniform and one in the im- 

 pulse of the mind. 



It would be tedious to apply, at detailed length, the same reasoning to all 

 the examples given by Mr. Stewart : but it is fit and just to touch upon them ; in 

 order to indicate at least their connexion with the general process. They m^ 

 all indeed suggest much, which I shall not notice until further on, when I shall 

 reach the more general statements which I think to be the results of this view. 



The case of an expert accomptant is easily apprehended. The constant habit 

 of arranging numbers into groups, each group indicating a certain sum, is the 

 same process as that by which letters combine into words having each word a cer- 

 tain sense. This is too simply obvious to dwell upon. 



But I would here call your attention, by the way, to the obvious difficulty, which 

 makes the conception of all unhabitual operations very nearly impossible to the 



