I'sj/r/iofofjical Invest if/at ions 247 



in our brain ; the appearance of relative strength is deceptive. Galton draws 

 attention to the stjirtling spontaneity with which some of the ideas that 

 (lotenninu tlio will se»3tn to arise. He sugf^ests a sulwonscious chain of 

 idnis a part of which suddenly conies into consciousness and may dominate 

 the will. "Most of our ideas are partially shaped when they are first con- 

 sciously perceived, and fro<|U«'titly they are fully shapcvl." 



Those who with closed eyt« witness a whole series of transformations 

 not called up by any act of will of their own, and of which they cannot chance 

 the sefpience hy any conscioiis effort, will be prepared to consider favouralily 

 Galton's view that every form of sudden presentation, every new ideii, hasan 

 analogous source to these visual ones. 



"Moroover, as the iinaginntion works in oliscun^ dopttis out of the usual ken of consciousness, 

 there Hcemn reason for supposing that the 'something' upon which it works may in modt cases 

 be equally beyond its view. It in also certain that those who introsptcot, and those who study 

 the goncms of dreams, succeed in diHcovering plain causes for numerous images and thoughts 

 that had spcmed to iiave arisen sponUmeously. If thi'se explanations are correct, as I feel 

 assured they are, wc must understand the word 'spontaneity' in the same sense that a scientific 

 man undrrst«nds the word 'chance.' lie thereby atlirnis his ignorance of tlie precise causes of 

 an event, but he docs not in any way deny the possibility of determining them. The general 

 results of my introspe(;tive inquiry support the views of those who hold that man is little more 

 than a conscious machine, the larger part of whose actions are predictable. As n^gards such 

 residuum us there may be, which is not auUjmatic and which a man however wise and well 

 informed could not possibly foresee, I have nothing to say, but I have found that the more 

 carefully I inquired, whether it was into the facts of hereditary similarities of conduct, into 

 the life-histories of very like or very unlike twin.s, or now introspectively into the processes of 

 what I should have called my own Free-will, the smaller seems the ix>om left for the possible 

 residuum." (pp. 412-3.) 



(Jalton would have been the last to claim finality for his conclusions, but 

 his investigation raises many points of interest, and like so much of his 

 psychological work emph.asises the wide field of sulxionscious mental activity 

 springing at odd intervals into consciousness. This Galton compares with the 

 sudden and silent appearance of the head of a seal above the surface of still 

 water and its just as sudden and silent di.sappearance, the observer being yet 

 aware that the seal has been continuously active in a manner unperceived 

 below the surface. 



Three other psychological experiments on himself were made by Galton, 

 but the results were not published. He refei-s to them in his Memories\ In 

 the first, made in his youthful days, he wius guided by a pa.ssionate desire to 

 subjugate the body to the spirit, and determined that the will should replace 

 automatic acts. He applied this to bi'eathing, and every breath was sub- 

 mitted to the will. The normal power of breatlnng was dangerously interfered 

 with and he felt as if he should suttbcate, if he ceased to will. He hatl a 

 terrible lualf-hour in which by slow and irregular steps the lost automatic 

 power wjis recovered. Secondly Galton determined to g*ain some of the 

 conunoner feelings of Insanity. He adopted the plan of inve.sting everything 

 he met with the imaginary attributes of a spy. Galton found the experiment 

 only too successful; in the course of a morning stroll by the time he had 



' Pp. 276-7. 



