140 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



compare it ; if it is a unity, it is equally unique. We are 

 mind-bodies or body-minds ; sometimes we feel more of 

 the one, sometimes more of the other. 



We are born with ready-made structural arrangements 

 which make a number of reflex actions at once possible. 

 We have the power of adding to reflexes a certain number 

 of habitual acccomplishments, and we differ notably 

 among ourselves in our readiness to acquire dexterity. 

 We are also born with a limited number of old-established 

 instinctive predispositions, which express themselves 

 in impulses along certain lines of behaviour. As to 

 higher activities, we cannot say much more than this, 

 that our inheritance includes a marvellous cerebral 

 organisation of a certain pattern, which puts into our 

 hands a number of aptitudes rather than ready-made 

 accompHshments. We have to learn most things, and 

 we are above all creatures educable. Using the abund- 

 ant material supplied by the sensory elements, we build 

 up an intellectual framework. Perhaps it is better to 

 say, that endowed with a certain cerebral surface-relief, 

 we soon become the possessors of a characteristic stream 

 of inner life — a stream of thought and feeling and other 

 mentel activities. As our experience grows, what may 

 be called the stream-system becomes more complicated. 

 The system, which has the analogues of banks and pools, 

 tributaries and overflow beds, quiet reaches and rapids, 

 is conditioned by the flow of the stream, but, in turn, 

 conditions it. Eddies are always forming in the stream, 

 and some we call memories. There is stagnancy of 

 thought, and there are floods of feeling that erode new 



