86 GENERAL VIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS. 



whole amount of those exhibited by the beings, than they do in the higher; 

 whilst those which we may regard as specially dependent on a nervous sys- 

 tem, appear to constitute but a small part of their general vital actions. The 

 life of such beings, therefore, bears a much closer resemblance to that of the 

 Vegetable than to that of the higher Animal. Their organic functions are 

 performed with scarcely more of sensible movement than is seen in plants ; 

 and of the motions which they do exhibit (nearly all of them immediately 

 concerned in the maintenance of the organic functions), it is probable that 

 many are the result of the simple contractility of their tissues, called into ac- 

 tion by the. stimuli directly applied to them. It is scarcely possible to imagine 

 that such beings can enjoy any of those higher mental powers, which Man 

 recognizes by observation on himself, and of which he discerns the manifes- 

 tations in those tribes, which, from their nearer relation to himself, he regards 

 as more elevated in the scale of existence. If we direct our attention, on the 

 other hand, to the psychical* operations of Man, as forming part of his gene- 

 ral vital actions, we perceive that the proportion is completely reversed. So 

 far from his organic life exhibiting a predominance, it appears entirely subor- 

 dinate to his animal functions, and seems destined only to afford the conditions 

 for their performance. If we could imagine his nervous and muscular systems 

 to be isolated from the remainder of his corporeal structure, and endowed in 

 themselves with the power of retaining their integrity and activity, we should 

 have all that is essential to our idea of Man. But, as at present constituted, 

 these organs are dependent, for the maintenance of their integrity and func- 

 tional activity, upon the nutritive apparatus ; and the whole object of the latter 

 appears to be the supply of those conditions which are necessary to the exer- 

 cise of the peculiarly animal functions. That his mental activity should be 

 thus made dependent upon the due supply of his bodily wants, is a part of the 

 general scheme of his probationary existence ; and the first excitement of his 

 intellectual powers is in a great degree dependent upon this arrangement. 



102. The most simple or elementary function of the Nervous System is, as 

 already observed, the establishment of a communication between a part which 

 is susceptible of impressions, and another which can perform contractile move- 

 ments ; so that a stimulus applied to one may immediately excite a respondent 

 action in the other, however great may be its distance. Hence it may be said 

 to have an internuncial function ; but this, so far as it is performed without 

 the necessary participation of the consciousness or will of the individual, is 

 not essentially higher in character than the corresponding function in Plants, 

 although the latter is effected by a different apparatus. The ministration of 

 the nervous system to purely Animal life, obviously consists in its rendering 

 the mind cognizant of that which is taking place around, and in enabling it to 

 act upon the material world, by the instruments with which the body is pro- 

 vided for the purpose. It is curious to observe that every method at present 

 known, by which mind can act upon mind, requires muscular contraction as 

 its medium, and sensation as its recipient. This is the case, for example, not 

 only in that communication which takes place by language, whether written 

 or spoken ; but in that less evident but not less eloquent converse, by which 

 two minds "attuned to nature's sweetest harmony," can read each other's 

 thoughts. The look, the touch, the gesture, which are so frequently more 

 expressive than any words can be, are all the result of muscular contractions 

 excited in the nervous centres ; and thus we trace the limitation which, even 

 in communication that appears so far removed from the material world, con- 



* Here and elsewhere this term will be employed in its most extended sense, to desig- 

 nate all the mental operations, whether intellectual, emotional, or instinctive, of which 

 Man's nervous system is the instrument. 



