610 SPEAKING, READING, WRITING : AS MENTAL 



the stimuli inciting to the articulation of the corre- 

 sponding words would then pass to the Motor Centres 

 in precisely the same manner as in the case of ordinary 

 Speech whatever the precise course pursued by these 

 stimuli may he, and howsoever they may, on their 

 route, come into relation with those portions of the 

 Kinsesthetic Centres that are concerned with Speech- 

 movements. 



"With reference to the process of Writing, it almost 

 invariably happens that this accomplishment is acquired 

 after the individual has been taught to Speak and to Kead 

 more or less perfectly. During this course of instruction 

 the pupil learns to associate the visual perceptions of the 

 separate letters of words with certain muscular move- 

 ments of the hands and fingers necessary to enable him 

 to produce the written letters for himself, and afterwards to 

 join them together so as to represent words. This involves 

 a long and tedious process of education, and the mus- 

 cular movements which are ultimately learned are in all 

 probability more intimately associated with sight- percep- 

 tions than with sound-perceptions ; though of course the 

 Word as a revived sound-perception may be said to exist 

 also during the act of Writing. The muscles of the upper 

 extremity being also to the fullest extent voluntary 

 muscles, and therefore very different from those concerned 

 in the acts of Speech, the whole process of learning to 

 write is one which comes much more within the ken 

 of our consciousness than does the otherwise parallel 

 process of learning to articulate words." 



We ought therefore to have much more power of re- 

 calling ' in idea ', either (a) the ' volitional efforts ' that 

 were needed to enable us to Write words, or (b) that 

 * muscular consciousness ' spoken of by Professor Bain 

 as representing the particular states of tension of the 



