664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



while composing a reply which should set the matter straight, and 

 awoke with an instantaneous certainty that an erroneous punctuation 

 had obscured the writer' s meaning, which in reality coincided witli 

 my intention and required no answer. Evidently, the mental accuracy 

 was greater when asleep than when awake — very humiliating." 



12. Mrs. P , of Omaha, writes : " I have many times heard 



remarks, the significance of which I did not fully comprehend at the 

 time, and weeks afterward have had them flash suddenly into my mind 

 with all their import." 



The statistical result is as follows : About eighty -five per cent of 

 those answering claim to have arrived at definite results of work begun 

 in consciousness and left unfinished — at results of a finished logical 

 nature — at results that could come only by bridging the gap between 

 the beginning and partial continuation in consciousness, and the per- 

 fected conclusion by predicating the existence and operation of uncon- 

 scious intellectual effort as the necessary cause of the known result. 

 Fifteen per cent state that they have no experience concerning the 

 phenomena inquired about. Of those answering affirmatively, nearly 

 fifty per cent give examples to corroborate their assertions. 



Fourth. The fourth division is of intellectual activity producing 

 new ideas, creations, and inventions, when there has been no conscious 

 beginning. Does such work proceed in unconsciousness? Some of 

 the facts brought to light by the circular are as follow : 



1. Miss P , of Xew York city : " While reading the * Evening 



Post ' I happened to observe an anagram offered for solution. The ana- 

 gram was, ' Got a scant religion.' I read the paragraph aloud to a friend 

 sitting near me, and then turned to something else, a novel in which I 

 was interested, and which quite absorbed me, and gave the anagram 

 no further thought. I never consciously thought of the anagram until 

 the following morning, when, as I was walking and trying to recall a 

 dream, the word ' Congregationalist ' flashed through my mind. The 

 word had no connection with my dream, and came to me so suddenly 

 and involuntarily on my part, that I was obliged to think for a mo- 

 ment before I could connect it with anything, and then it occurred to 

 me that it was the solution of the anagram which I had read the even- 

 ing before." 



2. Mr. P , of Omaha : " I had to perform endless multiplica- 

 tions at school as a task, and suddenly became conscious of a law 

 governing the process which enabled me to attain the result almost 

 instantaneously ; discovery flashed into consciousness as a clear con- 

 ception." , 



3. Mrs. II , of Bergen Point, Kew Jersey : " Have often awak- 

 ened with a part of an essay all ready, with a letter Avholly prepared 

 once or twice, with a few stanzas composed on subjects that I had en- 

 deavored to treat in rhyme ; once or twice also on subjects that I had 

 not attempted or thought to write upon in verse ; example, ' The Edu- 



