AUTOMATIC ACTION 257 



sealing of bottles, is able at length to do his work neatly 

 while conversing with his customers. Must we suppose that 

 his actions are perfectly voluntary only as long as they are 

 entirely clumsy ? A first-class cricketer automatically makes 

 the right movements with the bat; he has no time for 

 deliberate thought. Is his swift dexterity a sign that his 

 will is in abeyance ? Suppose a servant allowed the contents 

 of a jug of hot water to pour over her master's feet when 

 receiving orders ; would he not blame her rightly ? And 

 would not the blame imply that she should have kept part 

 of her attention fixed on the jug ? When a smoker collects 

 tobacco, places it in a paper, and twists and lights a cigarette, 

 his hands, and even each separate digit, perform unlike 

 movements. Are we to suppose that the movements of only 

 one hand or of one digit are voluntary ? No one will maintain 

 this. It will be admitted that the movements of all the 

 digits on both hands are voluntary. It must then be 

 admitted that the attention is not concentrated on the 

 movements of any one digit, but is diffused over them all. 

 And if it be capable of being diffused over the movements of 

 two limbs, what reason is there why it should not be capable 

 of being diffused over the movements of four ? In other 

 words, what reason is there why we should regard the move- 

 ments of a walker, who is thinking of his hands, or the stars, 

 or his banking account, as reflex ? A well-drilled soldier 

 obeys the least word or gesture ; as well might we suppose, 

 from the absence of fuss, that he is not under the control of 

 his commander, as suppose, from a similar absence of fuss, 

 that automatic actions are not under the control of the will. 

 As a fact, of all actions, automatic actions are most under 

 control of the will, since only a minimum (but a sufficient 

 minimum) of will, of attention, of fuss is needed for their 

 control. In this they differ radically from reflex actions, 

 with which they are so often confounded, but which are 

 seldom controlled by the will, and are never initiated by it. 

 It is probable, indeed, that the whole of this dire confusion 

 has arisen, or at least been perpetuated, by the use of the 

 inappropriate word automatic. An automaton is a creature 

 without will. An automatic action, so called, in a living 

 being is one in which the will works smoothly and easily, 

 without hesitation, without sense of effort. Owing to this 

 ease and lack of effort the superficial assumption has been 

 made that it is a kind of reflex action. 



420. Sometimes when we concentrate our attention on an 

 act, which we are accustomed to perform automatically, we 



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