122 ANIMAL-SENTIENT FORCES. [i. 



iii. As these impressions are more feeble than those of sen- 

 sations^ and even of imaginations, so also must be the resulting 

 actions. And this is confirmed by observation. When, for 

 example, a person sees another eat, and himself thinks of 

 eating, this foreseeing, in conjunction with the accompanying 

 desire, stimulates the salivary glands as food itself would have i 

 done. The foreseeing of a fall from a height excites us to 

 hold fast, even against our will and purpose, as we should do, 

 if the fall actually took place. When a person dreams that 

 he will empty the urinary bladder, the act often takes place. 

 The expectation of the action of a remedy often causes us to 

 experience its operation beforehand. Yawning, from imitation, 

 belongs to this class of phenomena. 



241. The entirety of a foreseeing is compounded only of 

 certain of the constituents of a future external sensation; 

 consequently, its material ideas, or impressions on the cerebral 

 origin of the nerves, are a portion of those of the future 

 sensation, and therefore its sentient actions are expressed in 

 the same mechanical machines, but more feebly (240, 106). 



242. Since many of the elements of a complete external 

 sensation may be subordinate external sensations, and a fore- 

 seeing arising from it may consist wholly or principally of these 

 (239, 225); it follows that a foreseeing may develope few or 

 none of the primary actions, but principally or wholly those of 

 the subordinate sensations (241). A cold air coming in contact 

 with the cutaneous nerves, when we are warm, contracts the 

 pores, and drives the perspiration inwards. This is the sentient 

 action of the primary external sensation of cold. The re- 

 pressed acrid perspiration irritates the nerves of the muscles, 

 and our limbs tremble, and our teeth chatter, and this is the 

 sentient action of the subordinate sensation in the muscles 

 which move the limbs and the lower jaw (225). A person in 

 a warm bed dreams, or vividly foresees, that he falls into a 

 river full of floating ice, and he forthwith shivers : a case of 

 this kind really occurred, and may be found in the ' Diction- 

 naire Encyclop.,^ article " Somnambule.^' A somnambulist 

 once fancied in winter, that as he was walking by the side 

 of a river, he saw a child fall in and drown. The bitter cold 

 did not restrain him from saving it. He threw himself out 

 of bed in the posture, and with the movements of a person 



