PHYSIOLOGY OF ATTENTION AND VOLITION. 227 



attempting to reform education by " devising courses," by finding out 

 new things, by contesting the supremacy of this or that branch of 

 knowledge, does it not seem wiser to insist upon right teaching? 

 Subjects as doleful to the common student-mind as Latin grammar, 

 Greek grammar, formal logic, psychology, and ethics, have been made 

 " to revolutionize " the whole state of being for many a pupil, and this 

 by right teaching. All knowledge is worthy — worthy the best of 

 human endeavor, both to secure and to communicate. Let us, then, 

 pass from this as from a matter not needful longer to be discussed, 

 and demand true teaching. 



THE PHYSIOLOGY OF ATTENTION AND VOLITION. 



Br JAMES CAPPIE, M. D. 



" /""^ IYE me a fulcrum," cried the ancient sage — "give me a ful- 

 \JT crum, and I shall move the world." " Grant me a few postu- 

 lates," says the modern reasoner, " and I shall read you the riddle of 

 the universe." An unchallengeable postulate, however, is almost as 

 difficult to find as a stable extra-terrestrial fulcrum. The scientific 

 " spirit of the age " walks by sight and not by faith. It revels in facts. 

 It numbers, and weighs, and measures ; it catalogues and describes ; 

 it compares and classifies. To make progress among the secrets of 

 Nature its highway is experiment, and its watchword is demonstra- 

 tion. For any interpretation of a natural phenomenon it demands 

 proofs that can appeal to the senses, and it looks with wholesome sus- 

 picion, if not contempt, on mere " arm-chair " speculation. 



The marvelous success in advancing knowledge, and in gaining 

 power over the forces of Nature that has resulted from its use, is con- 

 vincing evidence that the scientific method of interrogation is sound, 

 and that it should always be adopted wherever possible. But it is not 

 always possible to apply the method. The nearer we approach the 

 region of subjective phenomena, the more difficult it becomes to test 

 particular interpretations by an appeal to experiment. The galva- 

 nometer may reveal agitation in a sensory surface, but it tells nothing 

 about sensation. The convolutions of a dog's brain may be tampered 

 with, but he will not describe to us his feelings. Consciousness alone 

 can discriminate the facts of consciousness ; and the character, or suc- 

 cession, or relation of these can only be described in terms of meta- 

 physic. Theories of physical relationship here must at first be tenta- 

 tive, and at the best they will require to be stated in very general 

 terms. The argument must consist in the application of general prin- 

 ciples ; and, in choosing these, analogy balanced by common sense 

 must be our guide. In drawing our conclusions, we may be satisfied 

 if these can be held with some moderate degree of probability. 



In attempting to gain a closer view of the somatic relations of mind, 



