THE HUMAN WILL 



nating conception of the different "levels" in the 

 nervous system. Thus at the level of the lower 

 end of the spinal cord are certain centres which 

 can (and, in the infant, do) act reflexly, setting 

 certain muscles in motion in response to certain 

 stimuli. At a higher level in the nervous system 

 are other centres which can control these and pre- 

 vent or inhibit the customary reflexes. Just above 

 the upper end of the spinal cord, again, is the punc- 

 tum vitale, or respiratory centre, the cells of which, 

 in response to certain stimuli from the lungs and 

 elsewhere, never fail, day and night, from the 

 cradle to the grave, to stimulate certain muscles 

 which cause air to enter the lungs. This centre, 

 however, is also under the command of centres at 

 higher levels, the activity of which can automati- 

 cally hurry or make irregular or retard the act of 

 breathing; while the highest centres of all permit 

 us consciously to affect the respiratory act in any 

 way we please. 



Now this power of inhibition is the ultimate ex- 

 pression of nearly all that is most admirable in 

 man. In it is the germ of self-control, of restraint, 

 of the power to say "no," of the power to "look 

 after," preferring distant but enduring gain to 

 immediate but transitory, scorning the apples by 

 the way for what may never be more than an ideal 

 goal. Inhibition, then, when developed into the 

 will-not-to, is at once the antithesis of volition, as 

 commonly understood, and its highest expression. 

 We must study it with care. 



