PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 449 



the fundamental nucleus and mainspring of human personality is 

 represented by the subconscious; the sensorial self is only a 

 fraction of it ; from it in large degree we derive our habitual and 

 instinctive tendencies, the impulses to our actions, the spontaneous 

 products of genius. 



According to Myers " an ' inspiration of genius ' is in truth a 

 subliminal uprush, an emergence into the current of ideas which 

 the man is consciously manipulating of other ideas which he has 

 not consciously originated, but which have shaped themselves 

 beyond his will, in profounder regions of his being. There is 

 here no degeneration, but rather a fulfilment of the true norm 

 of man with suggestions of something supernormal, which tran- 

 scends existing normality as an advanced stage of evolutionary 

 progress transcends an earlier stage. . . ." 



" The psychical type to which we have applied the name of 

 genius may be recognised in every region of thought and emo- 

 tion. In each direction a man's everyday self may be more or 

 less permeable to subliminal impulses. The man who is in but 

 small degree thus permeable, who acts uniformly on supraliminal 

 considerations on ratiocination, as he will say, and not on 

 impulse this man is likely to be safe in prudent mediocrity. 

 He subsists upon a part of human nature which has already been 

 thoroughly trained and prepared for this world's work. The man, 

 on the other hand, who is more readily permeable to subliminal 

 uprushes,- takes the chance of wider possibilities, and moves 

 through life on a more uncertain way." 



In this connection Toulouse (1910) has made an interesting 

 analysis of Henri Poincare, one of the greatest mathematicians 

 of the age, Poincare, who was also eminent in physics, 

 astronomy, and philosophy, left an exact account of his methods of 

 work and of the manner in which he reached his important 

 discoveries. It is commonly supposed that researches, concep- 

 tions, and constructions of a mathematical character imply the 

 constant intervention of our highest mathematical faculties ; 

 Poincare's introspection, on the contrary, led him to conclude 

 that a subconscious mind works in us, and is active in solving the 

 most difficult problems. He held that thought is constantly 

 permeating the subconscious, and that, as in the semi-waking 

 state, we are never without groups of thoughts of which we are 

 only dimly conscious. When one such thought is particularly 

 new and striking it is drawn into the focus of consciousness and- 

 arrested by our reason. According to Poincare* the exact sciences 

 like poetry and music owe their progress to the work of this 

 subconscious faculty, and not to our conscious mentation. " What 

 first strikes us," he wrote in L'invention mathdmatique (1908), 

 " are the appearances of sudden illumination, the manifest signs 

 of a long anterior unconscious labour. . . . Often, in working at a 



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