THE MOTION OF THE BRAIN. 61 



Nothing can be more familiar than this, that motion is easy, and 

 rest uneasy, to those who are already on the move. Now we may 

 reason by a great syllogism from the man to the body, from the body 

 to the lungs, and from the lungs to the brain : nay, and also from 

 the brain to the mind. For example, if the brain were stationary, 

 no thought could enter it without lifting it first : there would be no 

 preparedness for thought, which is essential motion. Whereas, by 

 a constant rhythm taking place in the whole mass, the mind requires 

 to create no motion, but simply to act as a modifying, directing, or 

 exemplary power, in order to produce all or any motions as states or 

 details of the general swell. Thus, the rapid admission of thoughts 

 requires a moving or active brain, just as does the distribution of the 

 nerve spirit, which is a river of bodily thoughts. 



It is indeed admitted that the brain is an active organ, so for as 

 it undergoes the fleeting states of thought. These are the modifica- 

 tions of its activity, the ripples of consciousness. But what we are 

 contending for is nothing less than a tidal cerebral sea. For as the 

 thoughts, emotions and bodily actions fall upon the lungs, and pro- 

 duce the varieties of the breathing, because the breathing itself is 

 there first as an impressible atmosphere, so do the thoughts and 

 volitions produce the varieties of the animation upon the basis of 

 an already-moving or animating brain. The temporary waves of 

 thought, are but the surface which comes into our light : there is a 

 deeper heaving besides, organic as the body, which has its own cur- 

 rents and shores, and is constant like nature, obeying the progress 

 not of the moment, but of the lifetime. Its spirits are not transi- 

 tory like ours, but night and day they do not sleep until death over- 

 takes them. 



The argument we are discussing is, however, theoretical; a con- 

 dition which is common to the truths of the exact sciences. The 

 solution of the problem in this light will depend upon whether the 

 brain or the mind is accepted as the central truth. If the mind be 

 taken as the fixed point, the principles of thought will have their 

 just power, and the brain will be seen to revolve around the mind, 

 and by its revolutions, or expansions and contractions, by its mov- 

 ing up to, or away from, the mind, to produce the times and seasons, 

 the warmth and cold, of human thought and will; and as the variety 

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