From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



facts they have classed. They thus give themselves 

 the illusion of understanding them. 



Among the facts of subconsciousness there are some 

 quite familiar and well known the facts of inspiration, 

 so these are made into a class apart, the active sub- 

 consciousness^ opposed to the automatic subconsciousness 

 spoken of by P. Janet. But the classification goes 

 neither higher nor further ; this main class is sub-divided 

 into secondary classes unconscious invention; uncon- 

 scious memory; unconscious tendencies; unconscious 

 association of ideas; unconscious emotional states; 

 religious unconsciousness, etc. . . . 



The main class of multiple personalities is divided 

 into sub-classes, labelled infra-consciousness, super- 

 consciousness, co-consciousness, etc., etc. 



In the same order of ideas eminent psychologists 

 distinguish subconscious psychism properly so called 

 from what they term ' metapsychism,' between which 

 there are, however, only analogies, and no essential 

 distinctions. 



The normal subconsciousness and the metaphysic 

 subconsciousness are manifested in very closely allied 

 states : 



The state of ecstasy, of rapture, of absent-mindedness, 

 in a poet, an artist, or a philosopher composing under 

 the influence of inspiration, is, at bottom, identical 

 with the secondary state of the medium. Let it not 

 be said that the medium speaks, acts, and writes quite 

 automatically, whilst the artist, even when his conscious 

 will does not intervene, nevertheless knows what he is 

 producing. This distinction does not always obtain. 

 Many mediums know quite well what is about to be 

 given through them; just as the artist knows bit by 

 Bit what he will produce under an inspiration of which 

 he is neither the master nor the guide. 



Rousseau covering pages of writing without reflec- 

 tion or effort, in a state of rapture which drew tears, 



114 



