BODILY ILLNESS AS A MENTAL STIMULANT. 241 



As an illustration of special mental power shown in 

 health, by a person whose mental condition in illness we 

 shall consider afterwards, Sir Walter Scott may be mentioned. 

 The account given by his amanuensis has seemed surprising 

 to many, unfamiliar with the nature of literary composition 

 (at least after long practice), but is in reality such as anyone 

 who writes much can quite readily understand, or might 

 even have known must necessarily be correct. ' His 

 thoughts,' says the secretary to whom Scott dictated his Life 

 of Napoleon Buonaparte, ' flowed easily and felicitously, with- 

 out any difficulty to lay hold of them or to find appropriate 

 language' (which, by the way, is more than all would say 

 who had read Scott's Life of Buonaparte, and certainly more 

 than can be said of his secretary, unless it really was a fami- 

 liar experience with him to be unable to lay hold of his 

 thoughts). * This was evident by the absence of all solici- 

 tude (miscrta cogitandi) from his countenance. He sat in 



repeated composition, whilst the conscious mind is entirely engrossed 

 in its own thoughts and feelings, may be thus accounted for without 

 the supposition that the mind is actively engaged in two different 

 operations at the same moment, which would seem tantamount to 

 saying that there are two egos in the same organism. ' An instance in 

 my own experience seems even more remarkable than the reporter's 

 work during sleep, for he had but to continue a mechanical process, 

 whereas in my case there must have been thought. Late one even- 

 ing at Cambridge I began a game of chess with a fellow-student 

 (now a clergyman, and well known in chess circles). I was tired 

 after a long day's rowing, but continued the game to the best of my 

 ability, until at a certain stage I fell asleep, or rather fell into a 

 waking dream. At any rate all remembrance of what passed after that 

 part of the game had entirely escaped me when I awoke or returned 

 to consciousness about three in the morning. The chessboard was 

 there, but the men were not as when the last conscious move was made. 

 The opponent's king was checkmated. I supposed my opponent 

 had set the men in this position either as a joke or in trying over 

 some end game. But I was assured that the game had continued 

 to the end, and that I had won, apparently playing as if fully con- 

 scious ! Of course I cannot certify this of my own knowledge. 



R 



