SENSIBILITY AND MIND. 93 



grows stronger and stronger until impairment of ma- 

 terials supervenes. The battery is active in sleep and 

 while awake. In somnolence it generates incongru- 

 ous dreams ; in waking hours we exercise a will, or 

 regulating power, which we have obtained by culti- 

 vation. At night we lose control of the flow of ideas, 

 and the mind is generated in a random manner. The 

 battery is in order and running, but the regulator is 

 wanting. 



In old age the nerve battery or mind producing 

 organ loses its wonted activities the cerebral mass 

 lacks phosphorus, and the blood is less rich in oxygen. 

 Besides, the thickness of the walls of the capillaries, 

 and the density of the parieties of the nerve-cells, are 

 reasonably presumed to favor inactivity. 



A thrombus forms and enlarges in one of the 

 great cerebral arteries, so that one part of the brain 

 gets very little blood ; a condition of softening sets in, 

 and extends, for its nature is progressive. The victim 

 loses memory, sympathies, and affections ; and im- 

 becility and deranged mental activities exhibit them- 

 selves. Mental soundness is questioned; and the veil 

 of charity is stretched over the wreck. Did the feeble 

 infant mind grow into the playfulness of youth, the 

 resoluteness of adult life, and then decline to a state 

 of imbecility ? It most certainly did, and obeyed or- 

 ganic law all the while. That infant mind was born 

 in connection with an infant brain the battery was 

 weak ; it grew in scope as the brain developed into an 

 active mind-producing organ ; and it at length grew 

 weak again, because it was associated with an old and 

 worn-out cerebral mass. What became of all the 

 mind developed or evolved during a period of three 



