296 A Liinit to Evolution 



action ceases immediately, and the intellectual attention is 

 aroused. 



The result of all the foregoing powers of feeling and co- 

 ordinated movements is, that we have an automatic power of 

 uniting our various pleasurable tendencies into now one and 

 now another dominant impulse, and of further co-ordinating 

 our movements so as to imite them in one general movement 

 directed to gratify such dominant impulse. As to our tend- 

 ency to imitation, it is notorious that the sight of a yawn 

 induces yawning. Such spontaneous imitation is often carried 

 much further, notably by some idiots. Nor is it surprising it 

 should be so, when we reflect that the sight of a motion per- 

 formed by others slightly stimulates in us those very nerves by 

 which such motions have been brought about in them. Let 

 this nervous stmiulation be much augmented, and actual move- 

 ment on the part of the spectator may necessarily follow. 



Lastly, we have, through the action of associated feelings 

 and co-ordinated motions, the power unconsciously and 

 automatically to employ what are practically 'means to 

 effect some end.' Thus a sleep-walker will open a drawer to 

 take out of it some desired object, or will turn a key to 

 unlock a door, and so obtain entrance into some locality 

 sought after. This seems strange, but it can be quite well 

 accounted for by an action of the nervous system essentially 

 similar to that which occurs through the association of 

 feelings, and in imitation. For the senses have present 

 to them groups of sensations, such as those from the walls 

 and furniture of the room the sleep-walker is traversing 

 on his way to the desired locality the door of which is locked. 

 The sensations so felt arouse the imagination of the inside of 

 the desired locality ; this arouses the nervous channels habitu- 

 ally stimulated in overcoming the intervening obstruction ; the 

 hand automatically seeks the key, the stimulus of its touch 

 stimulates the muscles of the arm, the key is turned and the 



