THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF MIND. 41 



liiglily complex structure of vibrations or harmonics, and that 

 the ear takes in all these harmonics by as many separate 

 nervous elements (whatever the elements may be which 

 minister to the perception of pitch), although they are all 

 blended into one compound sensation, which is so well com- 

 pounded that the evidence supplied by it alone would never 

 have led us to suspect that the sensation was other than 

 simple. The same is known to be the case with sensations 

 of colour, taste, and smell ; so that Lewes feels justified in 

 going to the length of saying, " Every sensation is a group of 

 sensible components."* And, taking the same view on the 

 psychological side as I take, he furtlier says in general terms, 

 " The main fact on which our exposition rests is indisputable, 

 namely, that sensation, perception, emotions, conceptions, are 

 not simple undecomposable states, but variously com- 

 pounded." 



To avoid being tedious, I shall not pursue tlie analysis 

 through all the grades of the psychological faculties ; but, 

 taking ideation in its widest sense, as including alike the 

 mere memory of a sensation and the most complex process 

 of abstract thought, I shall brieHy show that it everywhere 

 displays a grouping and compounding of subjective elements 

 which, if translated into their objective counterparts, display 

 precisely the same method of nervous evolution as that wliich 

 obtains in the lower ganglia, as expressed by muscular co- 

 ordination. 



As Bain observes, "Movements frequently conjoined 

 become associated, or grouped, so as to arise in the aggregate 

 at one bidding. Suppose the power of walking attained, and 

 also the power of rotating the limbs, one may then be 

 taught to combine the walking pace with the turning of the 

 toes outward. Two volitions are at first requisite for this act, 

 but after a time the rotation of the limb is combined with 

 the act of walking, and, unless we wish to dissociate the tw^o, 

 they go together as a matter of course ; the one resolution brings 



on the combined movement Articulate speech 



largely exemplifies the aggregation of muscular movements 

 and positions. A concurrence of the chest, larynx, tongue, 

 and mouth, in a definite group of exertions, is requisite for 

 each alphabetical letter. These groupings, at first impossible, 



* Prollems, ^^c, p. 260. 



