MENTAL AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 111 



diagrams are given, showing the patterns of nerves in 

 the brain. Max Meyer has done the same thing in 

 ''Fundamental Law of Human Behavior." Such 

 diagrammatic analyses of nerve physiology are of great 

 value to students of mental phenomena. 



IMAGES. The patterns made by the movements of 

 the molecules of the nervous matter on the brain, in- 

 augurated by objective stimulation, such as light, re- 

 flected from a solid body, to the retina, and thence 

 conveyed, by a movement of the molecules, to the brain 

 center of vision, are the images of the objective body. 

 These patterns are constantly changing, and forming 

 new images, corresponding to the innumerable things 

 seen in the environment, from moment to moment. 

 The stimulations frequently come from within the body. 

 What is called ideation is thus produced; and memory 

 is a pattern of a former external sensation, reproduced 

 by molecular motion, initiated in the conducting fibres 

 of the system, by an objective sensation, on its way to 

 the brain. Our consciousness is the working of this 

 psychic machine in its pattern making on the brain. 

 A system of conductivity so elaborate, formed of matter 

 so mobile, as to be in constant flux, the atoms of which 

 are composed of that cosmic energy which is moving 

 the innumerable globes of the universe, and which 

 atoms respond so eagerly, and accurately, to the 

 slightest, as well as to the greatest of objective 

 phenomena, is capable of producing all the psychic 

 effects which we feel in our bodies, and perceive, by 

 their outward marks, in the bodies of others. The 

 nerve cells in the brain are said to be fixed in number 

 during life. But they seem to be exceedingly mobile 

 and sensitive to excitation. They throw out new 

 threads of connection by repeated stimulation of the 



