26 MIND. [iNTROD. 



tions of our mind are directly followed by certain states of our 

 bodily organs. The nerve of sight, for example, is affected in a 

 certain manner ; vision, which is an affection, or state of the mind, 

 is its consequence. I will to move my hand; the hand obeys 

 my will so rapidly, that the motion, though truly subsequent, 

 seems almost to accompany my volition, rather than to follow 

 it."* 



And in all the inferior animals, possessed of like organs, there can 

 be no doubt that sensations may be produced similar to those which 

 arise in the human mind. In many of them, indeed, the sense of sight, 

 hearing, or smell seems much more acute than in man, and affords 

 examples of a beautiful and providential provision for the peculiar 

 sphere which the creatures are destined to occupy. The unerring 

 precision of the beast or bird of prey in pouncing upon its victim 

 the accuracy with which the hound tracks by its scent the object 

 of its pursuit or, the quickness with which most of our domestic 

 animals detect sounds and judge of their direction, are familiar 

 illustrations of the superiority of these senses in animals whose 

 general organization is inferior to that of man. 



There are few animals, however small and insignificant, in which 

 we cannot recognize evidence of a controlling and directing will. 

 But even in those few, in which voluntary movements are not dis- 

 tinctly to be discerned, the presence of a special system of organs, 

 with which in the higher animals volition and sensation are asso- 

 ciated, namely, a nervous system, serves as a characteristic distinc- 

 tion from plants. 



A power of perception, and a power of volition, together consti- 

 tute our simplest idea of Mind ; the one excited through certain 

 corporeal organs, the other acting on the body. Throughout the 

 greatest part of the animal creation mental power exists, ranging 

 from this its lowest degree a state of the blindest instinct, 

 prompting the animal to search for food to the docility, sagacity, 

 and memory of the brute ; and to its highest state, the reasoning 

 powers of man. 



The phenomena of Mind, even in their simplest degree of de- 

 velopment, are so distinct from anything which observation teaches 

 us to be produced by material agency, that we are bound to refer 

 them to a cause different from that to which we refer the pheno- 

 mena of living bodies. Although associated with the body by 

 some unknown connecting link, the mind works quite independently 



* Dr. Brown. Philosophy of the Human Mind, p. 106. 



