PHYSIOLOGY. 107 



species of animals. Motions are instinctive in another view, 

 because though they may have an end, they are a consequence 

 of the perception of that end, as in the former case the desire 

 was. Sneezing, for example, is very often without any end pro- 

 posed, and it frequently happens quite involuntarily ; but upon 

 other occasions there is a propensity, a certain desire of mo- 

 tion, without our foreseeing of what nature it will be ; it de- 

 pends upon the degree of stimulus exciting it ; we feel a sensa- 

 tion, and are uneasy to have certain effects produced ; but these 

 are not under our command, from which it is plain that we have 

 not a choice of the means. We raise up our heads, make a 

 full inspiration, and the whole face is thrown into a strong con- 

 vulsion to produce the particular forcible expulsion of the ah* 

 through the nostrils, and the concussion of the nostrils that 

 thence arises ; and here our motions are instinctive, and not un- 

 der the power of reasoning or choosing ends and means. Fur- 

 ther, the passions of the mind are modes of our will, and are 

 directed to ends ; but the end is frequently vague, and still 

 more so the means. Thus, a man in anger strikes the object of 

 his wrath, and perhaps beats every thing in his way, and we 

 might say he did not know what he did, he has no choice of 

 the means whereby he would gratify his passion. But this is 

 enough with regard to rational and instinctive motions. We 

 call voluntary those in which we will the motions as means to 

 an end ; in many cases an end is in view, and we likewise choose 

 means ; but in the motions of our own bodies, which are to 

 obtain the ends, there is a mixture of the instinctive; the 

 means, the motions of the body, follow from a conception of the 

 end, without our being conscious of willing the particular means, 

 We can analyze many of our complex actions ; but, in the com- 

 mon exercise of them, I cannot perceive that we have any such 

 conception; e.g. when a person conceives the intention of throw- 

 ing a stone to a great distance, he does it by a horizontal swing 

 from his arm ; by degrees, without any reasoning, from the ex- 

 tension of the mechanical power, he acquires a great deal of 

 address from his lever ; he sets back one foot for the central 

 gravity, lifts up the arm to its utmost in order to give the cen- 

 trifugal force, and from that brings down his arm, with a great 

 variety of other motions, But many persons would not think 



