748 Dynamic Theory. 



muscle or a dozen. In fact, he does not will to contract a muscle at all, 

 and does not know that the thing he does will to do, involves the con- 

 traction of a muscle. If he will at the same time to move a leg, there 

 is nothing in his consciousness to show that a different set of muscles 

 have to be contracted in this case; and although the action involves a 

 much more complicated adjustment and co-operation of muscular con- 

 traction, involving several muscles instead of one, he knows nothing of 

 this, and it is as easy to will one as the other. If we fix the eyes upon 

 a moving object, as a running horse for example, 'the eyes will roll in 

 their orbits so as to keep the image upon the retina. All we have 

 willed to do in this case is to see the horse. We are quite unconscious 

 of the slow and uniform contraction of the rectus externus of one eye, 

 and the rectus internus occuli of the other, by which our will is carried 

 out. In fact, these muscles perform the operation as well for a monkey 

 or an Indian, who does not know of their existence, as for the anatomist, 

 who is competent to address them by their highly distinguished names. 

 It is the same in regard to the production of vocal tones, ' ' for we 

 cannot raise or depress the larynx as a whole, nor move the thyroid car- 

 tilage upon the cricoid, nor approximate the arytenoid cartilages, nor 

 extend or relax the vocal ligaments by simply willing to do so, however 

 strongly." ( Carpenter.) What we do will to do is to produce a given 

 tone. A conception of this given tone is in the brain first, and the will 

 is, to have this conception vocalized. The vocalization consists in the 

 reproduction of a series of muscular contractions in the same order in 

 which they have been produced before ( according to a cortical memory), 

 or in the order in which they have been produced before, modified by a 

 new stimulus from the environment; for example, the hearing of new 

 sounds, the new stimuli mingling their forces with the memories of the 

 old stimuli, and thus producing a new conception. This "conception" 

 consists, therefore, of a bundle of either potential or active stimuli, the 

 constituent elements of which are each singly competent to liberate 

 upon some muscle the nervous energy necessary for its contraction. 

 Whether it does so liberate it depends on further motive stimuli from 

 the environment. Thus, a man may have the conception of a song, but 

 he will not sing it unless he have an appreciative audience that wishes 

 it. The real ultimate motive power in the creation of a will for the pro- 

 duction of vocal sounds, therefore, is in the sounds produced in the en- 

 vironment and projected upon the sense organs, and conveyed thence by 

 the nerves to the sensory ganglia, and from them to the vocal organs, 

 producing an outcry, or they may be transmitted to the cortex of the 

 cerebrum, registering as a memory to occupy a potential position, ready 

 to become active upon a further reinforcement of stimuli. When this 

 further reinforcement does take place, the aggregate compound stimulus, 



