A THIN KING MACHINE. 605 



an organism capable of very varied combinations of action, we can 

 easily see, not only bow memory becomes jDOSsible, but also bow such 

 infinite variations of association are rendered conceivable. For if every 

 thought or perception is, as it were, an organized tremor in a vast group 

 of diverse nerve-elements, often indeed in almost all together, it is 

 simple enough to understand how these tremors may fall into regular 

 rhythms, may excite one another in regular successions, may get habit- 

 ual, just as the steps do in dancing, or the movements of the hand in 

 writing a familiar and well-remembered formula — for examjjle, in sign- 

 ing one's name. Here, in this immense and minutely organized work- 

 shop, we have a constant succession of motions in wheels and gearing, 

 so arranged that each motion may be communicated in a thousand di- 

 rections, and what is apparently a single impetus may call up the most 

 diverse and extraordinary results. But, in reality, the impetus is not 

 single : for, when we are thinking of horse in one way, we have a cer- 

 tain fixed form of movement called up ; while, if we are thinking of it 

 in another way, the form called up, though analogous in many respects, 

 is far indeed from being identical. When I write " nice," you think 

 of something or other vaguely pleasant ; but, when I write " Nice," the 

 very pronunciation is altered into something very like "niece," and 

 the picture that rises before your mind is the very definite one of the 

 Promenade des Anglais, with its long line of white villas and stunted 

 palm-trees, bounded by the blue horizon of the Mediterranean and the 

 beautiful slopes of the coast toward Villefranche. It is just the same 

 with the apples and the oranges. The elements of the picture vary in- 

 cessantly ; and while one combination now suggests one association, 

 another combination another time suggests a second. The elements 

 join together in an infinite variety of ways, and so a finite number of 

 cells and fibers enable us to build up all the wealth of thought, just as 

 twenty-six tiny symbols allow us to express all the wonderful concep- 

 tions of Milton and all the beautiful ideas of Shelley. There are only 

 fifty-two cards in a pack, it is true, but no two games of whist ever 

 yet played, in all probability, were absolutely identical. 



To sum it all up : it is the brain as a whole that thinks, and feels, 

 and desires, and imagines, just as it is the body as a whole that walks, 

 and swims, and digs, and dances. To locate, say, the faculty of lan- 

 guage in a particular convolution of a particular hemisphere is almost 

 as absurd, it seems to me, as to locate, say, the faculty of writing in 

 the last joint of the right forefinger. Convolution and forefinger may 

 be absolutely essential or indispensable for the proper performance of 

 speech or writing ; but to say that is not to say that the function in 

 question is there localized. The brain as a whole is the organ of mind, 

 but there is no organ for the word Canonbury or for the proper per- 

 ception of a Mrs. Pollock geranium. — Gentleman^ s Magazine. 



