THE SENSUAL BRAIN. 33 



the senses. The instinctive laying out of the body for pleasures, 

 and its spontaneous avoidance of pains, are however cases of this 

 order. Moreover we feel that a strong vein of these actions runs 

 through many of our habits, and executes them for us, contempo- 

 raneously with our desires. Habitual vices, in proportion as they 

 become fixed, seem to roll upon this fatal wheel, by which low plea- 

 sure runs incontinently into motion. The bottle is hung round 

 the neck of the drunkard by a simple sensual circle of the kind, as 

 well as by a longer thong of which perverse desire is the neck- 

 piece. By a similar yoke, of seeing and leering, is the voluptuary 

 led by his objects. In short, whatever we do, good or bad, without 

 being able to control it, appears to contain a sensual kernel. Sen- 

 suality, however, is a passive faculty, and we shall have to distinguish 

 presently an active part belonging to it, and playing upon it, and 

 which for the present we term animality. This then is the third of 

 the nervous stones which construct us — sensation, which set a-moving 

 is sensuality. It leads us to dance pleasantly but involuntarily to 

 the music of the senses. Its seat is in the base of the brain. 



The fourth and remaining piece of the nervous system comprises 

 the cerebral hemispheres, which reasoning by the method of exclu- 

 sion we regard as the seat of the mind, or the properly human facul- 

 ties; and not only of these, but of all those powers which belong to 

 consciousness, and are over and above the senses. These hemi- 

 spheres are predominant in place and size in man, as well as in the 

 higher animals. 



We have now chronicled three divisions of the nervous system,* 



* The nervous system, or its functions, are sometimes dissected for us by 

 diseases, as well as by narcotic agents, which benumb one part and leave the 

 others free. For instance, during the administration of chloroform, first thought 

 and will, and the fixity of sense which depends upon attention, become confused 

 and waver : and shortly afterwards active consciousness is abolished. The 

 cerebrum is detached from the train, and life goes on at slackened pace without 

 its traction. The sense of pain however still continues. By degrees this too is 

 lost : the second and feebler engine of sensation, the sensual brain, is also de- 

 tached, and nothing but breathing is prefixed to the cars. This now becomes 

 slower and more slow, and if the experiment be continued, ceases. Life is then 

 generally irrecallable. In natural and artificial trance the process of disconnec- 

 tion may proceed two steps further ; and the nervous function may be detached 



