[x. MR. DARWIN S CRITICS. 247 



thoughts arc the concomitants of a process which goes 

 on in the nervous system of the man. Unless the 

 nerve-elements of the retina, of the optic nerve, of the 

 brain, of the spinal chord, and of the nerves of the 

 arms went through certain physical changes in due 

 order and correlation, the various states of consciousness 

 which have been enumerated would not make their 

 appearance. So that in this, as in all other intellectual 

 operations, we have to distinguish two sets of successive 

 changes one in the physical basis of consciousness, and 

 the other in consciousness itself ; one set which may, 

 and doubtless will, in course of time, be followed 

 through all their complexities by the anatomist and the 

 physicist, and one of which only the man himself can 

 have immediate knowledge. 



As it is very necessary to keep up a clear distinction 

 between these two processes, let the one be called 

 neurosis, and the other psychosis. When the game 

 keeper was first trained to his work, every step in the 

 process of neurosis was accompanied by a correspond 

 ing step in that of psychosis, or nearly so. He was 

 conscious of seeing something, conscious of making sure 

 it was a hare, conscious of desiring to catch it, and 

 therefore to loose the greyhound at the right time, 

 conscious of the acts by which he let the dog out of the 

 leash. But with practice, though the various steps of 

 the neurosis remain for otherwise the impression on the 

 retina would not result in the loosing of the dog; the 



O O 



great majority of the steps of the psychosis vanish, and 

 the loosing of the dog follows unconsciously, or as we 

 say, without thinking about it, upon the sight of the 

 hare. No one will deny that the series of acts which 

 originally intervened between the sensation and the 

 letting go of the dog were, in the strictest sense, intel 

 lectual and rational operations. Do they cease to be so 



