102 ANIMAL-SENTIENT FORCES. [i. 



(183), and sentient actions of conceptions dependent on external 

 sensations (181, 185). 



191. It appears that the external impression for agreeable, 

 or for neutral external sensations, if such there be, is con- 

 formable to the natural function (destination) of the nerves, 

 or connatural ; on the other hand, that of disagreeable external 

 sensations is not conformable to the animal structure and pro- 

 perties of the nerve, but does them violence in some degree, 

 or is contra-natural} This difference arises probably, because 

 it is in the nature of the soul to be adjusted, as it were, to 

 all which relates to the preservation of the body, and finds 

 nothing to be agreeable which is injurious to the latter (196). 



192. So far as is known, all the nerves of sentient animals 

 are sensitive to at least some external impressions. Con- 

 sequently, all have the power to receive at least some of these 

 sensationally, and transmit them to the brain, where they are 

 changed into material external sensations (34). Material ex- 

 ternal sensations are animal-sentient forces (114), that cause 

 an internal impression on the nerve that has felt the external 

 influence (121), which internal impression is propagated down- 

 wards from the brain along the nerve (143), and if the latter 

 be incorporated with any mechanical machines, may excite 

 actions which are direct sentient actions of external sensations 

 (160). In this way, all those mechanical machines of sentient 

 animals which are supplied with nerves, are in fact capable of 

 at least some direct sentient actions of external sensations, 

 although they may be incapable of a greater number from 



1 Der naturlichen Verrichtung gem'dss and nicht gem'dss are terms used here in 

 the same sense as natiirlich and widernaturlich used elsewhere. The terms natural 

 and unnatural would not, however, exactly express the author's meaning. The 

 doctrine laid down in the text is as profound and truthful as any of the remarkable 

 views advanced by him ; the terms referred to imply, that there are agents to which 

 the animal organism is expressly and beneficially adapted, and the impressions of 

 which excite its mechanism beneficially, in accordance with that scheme of adaptation; 

 while other agents act upon it in a contrary sense, and impair or derange the normal 

 and beneficial working of the organism. In the former case the term connatural best 

 expresses the character of the agents ; in the latter, the term contra-natural. In 

 the Second and Third Parts of the work, these doctrines have an important appli- 

 cation in explaining the conservative and other actions resulting from the operation 

 of the vis nervosa, when excited into action by impressions, where the same words are 

 used with the same meaning. (Vide § 546, et alia.) 



