184 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



of the brain, deal with the highest affairs of the mental 

 state. They exercise the will, they are the seats of 

 intellectual operations, and they constitute by their 

 collective working " the conscious Ego " which is the 

 essence of our responsible individuality. 



The lower or automatic centres, on the other hand, 

 as their name implies, are in the position of self-acting 

 machines. They control actions and operations which 

 lie outside the will, and which are not (necessarily at 

 least) associated with our consciousness. Reading 

 and writing and walking, are each and all acts which 

 are automatically regulated. We have to acquire them, 

 it is true, but, once acquired, they are ever afterwards 

 performed without thought. Over such acts, then, the 

 lower brain-centres preside. I might quote the heart's 

 action, the regulation of the blood-vessels, swallowing, 

 and the movements of the stomach in digestion, as 

 additional illustrations of automatic acts. 



These lower centres of ours save us a vast deal of 

 trouble and worry. They leave the intellect free to 

 deal with deeper problems than are involved in the 

 mere acts of living and being ; and when we come to 

 think of it we see that a good three-fourths of our 

 lives are really composed of actions which are per- 

 formed utterly without thinking, and which are all 

 the better performed, in truth, because we have not to 

 think about them at all. 



In sleep-walking, we see how the lower centres of 

 the brain can assume temporary command of the body, 

 how they can rouse the sleeper from his bed, and 

 direct and guide his movements unerringly in the 

 majority of cases. Now, mesmerism, or hypnotism, 

 is an analogous condition to somnambulism. I take 

 it that in the hypnotic state, however induced, there 



