THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF MIND. 43 



into one state, does not destroy them. Though subordinated 

 as parts of a whole, they still exist."* 



Again, just as the principle of association is exhibited in 

 the case of ideas not only with reference to the simaltanaous 

 blending of simple ideas into one complex idea, but also 

 with reference to the sicccessive sequence or concatenation of 

 ideas ; so in the case of muscular co-ordinations we acquire, 

 not only the power of a simultaneous co-operation of muscle- 

 groups, but also that of a successive co-operation. For 

 instance, as Professor Bain observes, " In all manual opera- 

 tions there occur successions of movements so lirmly asso- 

 ciated, that when we will to do the first, the rest follow 

 mechanically and unconsciously. In eating, the action of 

 opening the mouth mechanically follows the raising of the 



morsel Although the learning of successions of 



movements involves the medium of sensation, in the first 

 instance, yet we must assume that there is a power, in the 

 system, for associating together movements as such." In 

 fact, it might well have been added, there is such a power 

 that manifests itself long before the dawn of any of the 

 powers of the " will " ; it is as true of the polyp as of the man 

 that " in eating, the act of opening the mouth mechanically 

 follows the raising of the morsel." 



So with the highest or most abstract powers of mind. i 

 For abstraction merely means the mental dissociating of 

 qualities from objects, and, in its higher phases, blending 

 these qualities, or conceptions of them, into new ideal com 

 binations. 



Lastly, just as innumerable special mechanisms of mus- 

 cular co-ordinations are found to be inherited, innumerable 

 special associations of ideas are found to be the same ; and in 

 one case as in the other, the strength of the organically 

 imposed connection is found to bear a direct proportion to 

 the frequency with which in the history of the species it has 

 occurred. Thus, the simplest, oldest, and most constant 

 ideas relating to time, space, number, sequence, &c., may be 

 compared, in point of organic integrity, with the oldest and 

 most indissolubly associated muscular movements, such as 

 those concerned in breathing, deglutition, and visceral 

 motions. Again, inherited instincts have their counterparts 

 in such inherited muscular co-ordinations as are not abso- 



* Principles of Psychology, vol. ii, p. 476. 



