THE FEELING OF EFFORT. 21 



" The patient when his eyes were closed in the middle of an unpractised movement, 

 remained with the extremity in the position it had when the eyes closed and did not com- 

 plete the movement j^roperly. Then after some oscillations the limb gradually sank by 

 reason of its weight (the sense of fatigue being absent). Of this the patient was not 

 aware, and wondered when he opened his eyes, at the altered position of his limb." ^ 



In the normal state of man there is always a possibility that action may not occur in 

 this simple ideo-motor way. The motor ideas may awaken other ideas which inhibit the dis- 

 charge into the executive ganglia. But in the state called hypnotism we have a condition 

 analogous to sleep in so far forth that the ideas which turn up do not awaken their habit- 

 ual and most reasonable associates. Their motor effects are therefore not inhibited, and 

 the hypnotized subject not only believes everything that is told him, however improb- 

 able, but he acts out every motor suggestion which he receives. The eminent French 

 jjhilosopher, Renouvier, as early as 1859, expressly assimilated these facts of hypnotism 

 to the ordinary ideo-motor actions, and to those effects of moral vertigo and fascination 

 which make us fall when we are on heights, laugh from the fear of laughing, etc., etc. 

 His account of the psychology of volition ^ is the firmest, and in my opinion, the 

 truest connected treatment yet given to the subject by any author with whom I am 

 acquainted. 



IV. The Will connects Terms in the Mental Sphere only. 



We must now leave behind us the cases of extremely uncomplicated mental motivation, 

 which we have hitherto considered, and take up others where the tendency of a particular 

 motor idea to take effect is arrested or delayed. These are the cases where the^a^, the 

 distinct decision, or the volitional effort, come in ; and we find them of many degrees of 

 complexity. 



First there are cases with no effort properly so called, either of muscle or resolution : 

 Shall I put on this hat or that ? Shall I draw a horse or a man on the sheet of paper 

 which this amusement-craving child brings me ? Shall I move my index finger, or my 

 little finger to show my " liberum arbitrucm indifferentice ?" In the mountains, in youth, 

 on some intoxicating autumn morning, after invigorating slumber, we feel strong enough 

 to jump over the moon, and casting about us for a barrier, a rock, a tree, or any object on 

 which to measure our bodily prowess, we perform with pei'fect spontaneity feats which at 

 another time might demand an almost impossible exertion of muscle and of will. 



Both of these exertions are present in a vast class of actions. Exhausted with fatigue 

 and wet and watching, the sailor on a wreck throws himself down to rest. But hardly 

 are his limbs faii'ly relaxed, when the order " to the j^umps ! " again sounds in his ears. Shall 



1 Takacs. Ueber die Verspatung der Empfindungsleitung. 1880), has recently propounded the opinion that in hypnot- 



Archiv fur Psychiatrie Bd. X, Heft 2, p. 533. ized subjects the hemispheres are thrown entirely outof ^ear 



^ Essais de Critique Generale; 2me Essai, Psychologie and no irfeas whatever awakened. This opinion is so much 



rationelle, pp. 237 and following. 2uie Edition, 1875. at variance with that of English and French observers that 



Tome I, pp. 367-408. Heidenhain, in an interesting pamph- further corroboration is required, 

 let (Der sogennante thierischc Magnetismus, Leipzig, 



