792 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



towards persons and objects may undergo most important changes, without our 

 being in the least degree aware, until we have our attention directed to our own 

 mental state, of the alteration which has taken place in them. A very common 

 but very characteristic example of this kind of action is afforded by the power- 

 ful attachment which often grows up between individuals of opposite sexes, 

 without either being aware of the fact ; the full strength of this attachment 

 being only revealed to the consciousness of each, when circumstances threaten 

 a separation, and when each becomes cognizant of the feelings entertained by 

 the other. The existence of a mutual attachment, indeed, is often recognized 

 by a bystander (especially if the perceptions be sharpened by jealousy, which 

 leads to an intuitive interpretation of many minute occurrences which would 

 be without signification to an ordinary observer), before either of the parties 

 has made the discovery whether as regards the individual self, or the beloved 

 object ; the Cerebral state manifesting itself in action, although no distinct con- 

 sciousness of that state has been attained, chiefly because, the whole attention 

 being attracted by the present enjoyment, there is little disposition to Intro- 

 spection. The fact, indeed, is recognized in our ordinary language ; for we con- 

 tinually speak of the feelings which we unconsciously entertain towards another, 

 and of our not becoming aware of them until some circumstances call them into 

 activity. Here, again, it would seem as if the material organ of these feelings 

 tends to form itself in accordance with the impressions which are habitually 

 made upon it j so that we are as completely unaware of the changes which may 

 have taken place in it, as we are of those by which passing events are registered 

 in our minds ( 812), until some circumstance calls forth the conscious manifes- 

 tation, which is the u reflex" of the new condition which the organ has acquired. 

 And it may be remarked, in this connection, that the Emotional state seems 

 often to be determined by circumstances of which the individual has no distinct 

 consciousness, and especially by the emotional states of those by whom he is 

 surrounded ; a mode of influence which is exerted with peculiar potency on 

 the minds of children, and which is a most important element in their Moral 

 Education. 1 



820. The faculty of Imagination is in some respects opposed in its cha- 

 racter to that of Reason ; being chiefly concerned about fictitious objects, in- 

 stead of real ones. Still, it is in a great degree an exercise of the same powers, 

 though in a different manner. Thus it is partly concerned in framing new com- 

 binations of ideas relating to external objects, and is thus an extended exercise 

 of Conception ; placing us, in idea, in scenes, circumstances, and relations in 

 which actual experience never found us ; and thus giving rise to a new set of 

 objects of thought. In fact, every Conception of that which has not been itself 

 an object of perception, may, strictly speaking, be regarded as the result of the 

 exercise of Imagination. Now the new Conceptions or mental creations thus 

 formed, take their character, in great degree, from the Emotional tendencies of 

 the mind ; so that the previous development of particular feelings and affections 

 will influence, not merely the selection of the objects, but the mode in which 

 they are thus idealized. In the higher efforts of the Imagination, the mind is 

 not so much concerned with the class of sensational ideas, as with those of the 

 intellectual character; and the collocation, analysis, and comparison of these, 

 by which new forms and combinations are suggested to the mind, involve the 

 exercise of the same powers as those concerned in acts of Reasoning ; but they 

 are exercised in a different way. Whilst the Imagination thus depends upon 

 the Intellectual powers for all its higher operations, the understanding may be 

 said to be equally indebted to the imagination ; for the ideal combinations which 



1 See an admirable Discourse on "Unconscious Influences," by the Rev. Horace Bush' 

 nell, of Hartford (N. E.), published in the "Penny Pulpit," No. 1199. 



