1 1 4 Traces of Unity in 



same way of thinking with myself in this matter. About 

 the first published statement* of this argument, I 

 may say, in the words of Dryden, that it was ' only a 

 confused mass of thoughts tumbling over one another 

 in the dark, when the fancy was yet in its first work, 

 moving the sleeping images of things towards the 

 light, there to be distinguished, and then either chosen 

 or rejected by the judgement : ' and, most certainly, 

 no feeling of complacency is called up by the re- 

 membrance of any other statement published subse- 

 quentlyft. I should, in fact, be very glad if much that 

 I have written on this subject at different times could 

 be cancelled. 



What has been done, however, has been done, and all 

 that I can do is to express the hope that anyone who 

 chooses to interest himself in this matter will do me the 

 justice to take nothing short of what is stated in my last 

 work || as a sufficient statement of the case of vital motion 

 as it now stands. 



The history of vital motion reveals sundry changes 

 of opinion about which it is expedient to know some- 

 thing before proceeding further. 



In the days of Thales beyond which it is difficult 

 to go back any movement would seem to have been 

 referred to a living being of some sort with which the 



* "Philosophy of Vital Motion." 8vo. Churchill, 1851. 



t " Epileptic and other Convulsive Affections of the Nervous System." 

 (Incorporating the Gulstonian Lectures for 1860.) 3rd edition. Post 8vo. 

 Churchill, 1861. 



+ " Lectures on certain Diseases of the Nervous System." Delivered 

 at the Royal College of Physicians. Post 8vo. Churchill, 1864. 



" Dynamics of Nerve and Muscle." Post 8vo. Macmillan & Co., 

 1871. 



|| "Vital Motion as a Mode of Physical Motion." Post 8vo. Mac- 

 millan, 1876. 



