256 TAfe and LeittTS of Francis (ialton, 



"When I am emitaged in tiying to think anything; out, the |)roce.ss of doing so appears to 

 mo to he this: the ideas that lie at any inomont within n>}' full conaeiousnesH seem to attract of 

 their own accord the most appropriate out of a numl>er of other ideas which are lying close at 

 hand, hut iniperfivtly within the raiifjo of my consciousness. There se«>nis to lj<> a presenoe- 

 flhMnber in my mind where full eonsciousnesx holds court, and where two or three ideas are at 

 the Mine time in audience, <uid an ant<H;hamber full of more or less alliinl ideas, which is 

 situatcxl just iM-yoiid the full ken of consciousiie-ss. Out of this antechandx^r the idesis most 

 nmrly allied to those in the pnwence-chandier appear to be 8umnione<l in a mechanically 

 logical way, an<l to have their turn of audience, llie snocessful j)rogres,s of thouj;lit apjH'urs 

 to depend — first, on a large attendance in the anU>chamber; secondly, on the presence there 

 of no ideas except such as are strictly germane to the topic under consideration ; thirdly, on 

 the justness of the logical mechanism that issues the summons. The thronging of the anU>- 

 chamlier is, I am convinctxl, altogether Ixsyond my control; if the ideas do not appear, I can- 

 not create them, nor compel them to come. Tlie exclusion of alien ideas is accomjMinie*! by a 

 sense of mental effort and volition, whenever the topic under consideration is unattractive, 

 otherwise it proceeds automatically, for if an intruding idea find nothing to cling to, it is 

 unable to hold its place in the antechamber and slide.s l^ck again." (pp. 203-4.) 



Galton's analysis suggests the importance of (i) the selective action of 

 the brain in storing ideas drawn from experiences, and of (ii) its efficiency in 

 associating these "ide;is. In lx)th the.se faculties it seems to me that we are 

 dealing with an innate (juality of the brain, which distinguishes two brothers 

 reared under the same environment, or two youths educat(Hl in the same 

 way in the same school and the same university. It is impcssible to re- 

 produce here the whole of Galton's suggestive thought in this section of his 

 work on the Antochamher of Conscioii.wr.ss; we must refer the rea<ler to 

 the work itself One further citation of a characteristic kind may Ix^ given: 



"Extreme fluency and a vivid and rapid imagination are gifts naturally and healtlifully 

 pOMMsed by those who rise to be great orators or literary men, for they could not have 

 beeome wi c iCB s afu l in those careers without them. The curious fact already alluded to of five 

 editors of ncwspajiers bi>ing known to n)c as having phantasmagoria, points to a connection 

 between two forms of fluency, the literary and the visual. Fluency niay be also a morbid 

 faculty, being markedly increa.sed by alcohol (as poets are never tired of telling us), and by 

 various drugs, and it exists in delirium, insanity, and states of high emotion. Tlie fluency of 

 a vulgar scold is extraordinary." (pp. 205-6.) 



Galton's next section is entitled "Early Sentiments" (pj). 208-1 G), and 

 in it he endeavours to show that 



" the power of nurture is very great in implanting sentiments of a religious nature, of terror 

 and of aversion, and of giving a fallacious sense of their being natural instincts." (p. 216.) 



He states that : 



"The models upon whom the child or boy forms himself ar<> the l)oys or men whom he has 

 been thnjwn amongst, and whom (nun some incidental cause he may ha\e learnt to love and 

 reBpiH.-t. The every -day iitteranws, the likes and dislikes of his |i!ireiits, their social and cjiste 

 feelings, their religious pt-rsuasions are al)8orl»e<i by him; their views or those of his teachers 

 become assimilattvl and made his own."... "He is born prepan^d to atta<-h himself as a climbing 

 plant is naturally disposed to climb, the kind of stick being of little importance." (p. 208.) 



It seems to me that Galton overlooks here the fact that "slavish accept- 

 ance" is very frequently an inherited character. The child accepts the first 

 thing plactnl before it, not necessarily liecause it is the first thing or comes 

 from its parents, but Ijecause it lacks desire to in(juire for itself Galton 

 asserts that mere chance of birthplace makes religion a matter of accident, 



