of a piece of bread, is associated through a primi- 

 tive link of the mental constitution with the several 

 movements of the hand, arm, and mouth, con- 

 cerned in the act of eating. 



This assertion of Dr Reid's may be simply met 

 by appealing to the facts. It is not true that 

 human beings possess at birth any voluntary com- 

 mand of their limbs whatsoever. A babe of two 

 months old cannot use its hands in obedience to 

 its desires. The infant can grasp nothing, hold 

 nothing, can scarcely fix its eyes on anything. Dr 

 Reid might just as easily assert that the move- 

 ments of a ballet-dancer are instinctive, or that 

 we are born with an already established link of 

 causation in our minds between the wish to paint 

 a landscape and the movements of the painter's 

 arm. If the more perfect command of our volun- 

 tary movements implied in every art be an acquis- 

 ition, so is the less perfect command of these 

 movements that grows upon a child, during the 

 first year of life. At the moment of birth, volun- 

 tary action is all but a nonentity. 



There is therefore some process of acquirement 

 in the establishing of those links of feeling and 

 action implied in volition ; but the acquisition 

 must itself repose upon some fundamental property 

 of our nature that may properly be styled an 

 instinct. There certainly does exist in the depths 

 of our constitution a power whereby our pains and 

 pleasures impel to action of some kind or other ; 

 not simply that diffused excitement termed the 

 expression of a feeling, but actions bearing upon 

 the feeling itself are stimulated. But the difficulty 

 is to get the right action brought into play, and in 

 order to the solution of this, it is necessary to 

 assume the following positions : 



First, that there is a spontaneous tendency for 

 the various movements called voluntary to begin 

 without reference to any purpose or end, being 

 prompted simply by the discharge of power from 

 the brain. The activity of young animals implies 

 that there is, after refreshment and repose, a gush 

 of active power flowing towards the moving mem- 

 bers, and leading to an exuberance of incon- 

 tinent play of the energies ; and various other 

 facts might be cited to shew that action precedes 

 feeling in the order of our development.* A great 

 number of movements are stimulated in the 

 course of this spontaneity that have originally 

 no meaning, but evidently are capable of being 

 brought under control by the aid of some other 

 influence or property. 



Secondly, there would seem to be a power of 

 sustaining an action once begun, if that action is 

 found to alleviate a pain or enhance a pleasure. 

 If, therefore, at the moment of some acute pain, 

 there should accidentally occur a spontaneous 

 movement that gives relief, there grows out of this 

 circumstance a prompting to continue that move- 

 ment ; while, on the contrary, a movement aggra- 

 vating the pain would be checked by a prompting 

 of the opposite kind. An infant lying in bed has 

 the painful sensation of chillness. In the course 

 of a variety of spontaneous movements of arms, 

 legs, and body, there occurs an action that brings 

 the child in contact with the nurse lying beside 

 it ; instantly warmth is felt ; and this alleviation 

 of the painful feeling becomes immediately the 

 stimulus to sustain the movement going on at 



Bain on the Senses and tht Intellect, p. 73. 



THE HUMAN MIND. 



that moment. That movement, when discovered, 

 is kept up in preference to the others occurring in 

 the course of the random spontaneity. All through 

 life this prompting is at work, both to remove 

 suffering and heighten pleasure. No express 

 effort on our part is required to arrest a move- 

 ment causing us pain ; the withdrawal is instan- 

 taneous, instinctive. 



What is wanted to complete the mechanism of 

 voluntary control as shewn in the maturity of the 

 power, is the growth of a number of associations 

 between the various pains and pleasures, and the 

 movements that are found directly or indirectly to 

 tell upon them. It would require many pages to 

 develop this process intelligibly ; we must be con- 

 tent with indicating the foundations on which the 

 whole structure of our volitional endowments 

 would seem to repose. 



The voluntary command of the organs implies, 

 then, the following things : ist, The power above 

 mentioned of continuing or abating a present 

 movement in obedience to a present feeling, as 

 when the child sucks while the appetite is gratified, 

 and ceases when satiety comes on. This is a 

 primary fact of the human constitution, existing 

 from the commencement of sentient life, and not 

 communicable by any known method. So far, 

 therefore, Volition is an Instinct, id, The power 

 of beginning a movement in order to heighten or 

 abate a present feeling, as when the child directs 

 its head and mouth to seize the nipple, and begins 

 sucking. There may be a few instances of instinc- 

 tive movements of this kind, but in general they 

 are acquired, being determined by means of associ- 

 ation. The coincidence of the movement and the 

 feeling must be first accidental ; the movement 

 springing up of its own accord, and finding itself 

 able to control the feeling, the two become after a 

 time so firmly connected that the one suggests the 

 other. Thus the movement of the eyes and head 

 is at first spontaneous, but the agreeable feelings 

 of light brought on by these movements prompt 

 their continuance, and the pleasure gets to be 

 associated with these movements ; whereupon, 

 when this feeling is present to the mind as 

 a wish, it prompts the requisite exertions. Thus 

 it is that a child learns to search out a light in a 

 room in order to enjoy the maximum of the illu- 

 mination ; it learns to turn its view to the fire or 

 the window, or some face that it has begun to 

 recognise agreeably. Volition means, ^d, the 

 performance of some intermediate actions in 

 order to gratify the sense ; as when things are 

 seized with the hand in order to be carried to 

 the mouth, and when animals, recognising their 

 food at a distance, set themselves to move for- 

 ward to lay hold of it. These intermediate 

 actions are most manifestly the result of experi- 

 ence, in the human subject at least. The power 

 of locomotion has first to be developed, and 

 being put in exercise, the exertion becomes associ- 

 ated with its various consequences, and among 

 others, that of bringing the individual within 

 reach of the objects of its desires. 4//<, The 

 voluntary command of the organs means the 

 power of Imitation, or of performing actions in 

 consequence of seeing them performed. Here a 

 link has to be established between a certain 

 appearance to the eye and the movement of 

 corresponding organs in the individual's self ; 

 or in the case of vocal imitation, a sound is the 



351 



