'34 



OF MIND. 



in the category of reflex actions, we are all conscious of 

 others, and these the highest of all nervous phenomena and 

 peculiar to man himself, which require no external stimulus 

 for their excitation. These, on the contrary, attain their 

 highest perfection when the mind is absorbed in contem- 

 plating its own peculiar states, and has succeeded, as it 

 were, in withdrawing itself to the utmost possible extent 

 from the influence of surrounding conditions which operate 

 physically upon the peripheral portion only of a mechanism, 

 the central portion of which is in some way under the im- 

 mediate control of mind. To say, then, in answer to the 

 question, "What happens in the brain when its possessor 

 thinks ?" that what he terms ideas and thoughts are excited 

 by, and are the consequence of, changes occurring outside 

 him, the result of an external impulse, and due to a sort 

 of reflex action, appears to me a very unsatisfactory reply, 

 not approaching an explanation. For, in the first place, if 

 we admit that mental action results from external impres- 

 sions, these must be stored up in some unknown manner, 

 and lie dormant for a long period of time, while actions 

 which are ordinarily termed reflex are characterized by 

 immediately following the external impressions. Secondly, 

 in mental nervous acts, no one has shown that the supposed 

 mental reflex action bears any relation whatever to the 

 external physical impulse supposed to excite it ; or how is 

 to be explained, upon the reflex hypothesis, the fact that 

 a very slight external impression may excite excessive 

 mental action, or vice versa ? Thirdly, when the mind is most 

 active, ordinary reflex phenomena are often in complete 

 abeyance. Fourthly, the organs concerned in ordinary 



