CHAP, vili.] CONNEXION OF NERVOUS ACTIONS WITH MIND. 203 



accustomed to regard this species of succession of bodily and mental 

 changes as peculiarly inexplicable, from the very different nature of 

 the substances which are reciprocally affected, it is truly not more 

 so than any other case of succession of events, where the phenomena 

 occur in substances that are not different in their properties, but 

 analogous, or even absolutely similar ; since, in no one instance of 

 this kind, can we perceive more than the uniform order of the 

 succession itself; and of changes, the successions of which are all 

 absolutely inexplicable, none can be said to be more or less so than 

 another. That a peculiar state of the mere particles of the brain 

 should be followed by a change of state of the sentient mind, is 

 truly wonderful ; but, if we consider it strictly, we shall find it to 

 be by no means more wonderful than that the arrival of the moon 

 at a certain point of the heavens should render the state of a body 

 on the surface of our earth different from what it otherwise would 

 naturally be ; or that the state of every particle of our globe, in its 

 relative tendencies of gravitation, should be instantly changed, as 

 it unquestionably would be, by the destruction of the most distant 

 satellite of the most distant planet of our system, or, probably too, 

 by the destruction even of one of those remotest of stars which are 

 illuminating their own system of planets, so far in the depth of 

 infinity that their light to borrow a well-known illustration of 

 sidereal distance may never yet have reached our earth since the 

 moment at which they darted forth their first beams on the crea- 

 tion of the universe. We believe, indeed, with as much confidence, 

 that one event will uniformly have for its consequent another event, 

 which we have observed to follow it, as we believe the simple fact, 

 that it has preceded it in the particular case observed. But the 

 knowledge of the present sequence, as a mere fact to be remem- 

 bered, and the expectation of future similar sequences, as the result 

 of an original law of our belief, are precisely of the same kind, 

 whether the sequence of changes be in mind or in matter, singly, 

 or reciprocally in both." * 



It is not merely through voluntary effort that the mind can 

 excite the action of nerves. The involuntary, and often uncontrol- 

 lable, influence of emotion is likewise able to give rise to certain 

 movements, and even to produce certain sensations, through the 

 nerves. How quickly the expression of the countenance changes 

 under the varying phases of mental emotion; and how faithfully 

 does it naturally pourtray the working of the mind within ! And. 



* Brown, Philosophy of the Human Mind. Loot. xix. 



