COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



some unclean spirit that has laid its hands upon 

 the Will, but the direct effect of physical dis- 

 ease. 



Volition is, accordingly, that transformation 

 of feeling into action which is attended by a 

 conscious comparison of impressions, and which 

 involves nutritive changes in the cerebrum or 

 cerebellum, or in both. As we saw in the pre- 

 ceding chapter, the sequence of actions upon 

 impressions is either reflex or instinctive, and 

 in either case automatic, so long as the nervous 

 energy liberated by the impression is instantly 

 discharged through a completely permeable 

 channel or set of channels. But in those higher 

 organisms in which an immensely varied ex- 

 perience has established innumerable complex 

 systems of less permeable channels, there inter- 

 venes between the liberation of energy in the 

 brain and its discharge upon the motor centres 

 a period during which there is a tension between 

 various nerve currents, each seeking to discharge 

 itself along the most permeable lines of transit. 

 We saw also that this period of tension is a 

 period of conscious deliberation, involving con- 

 scious reflection, and feelings of desire or aver- 

 sion. And these views turned out to be justified 

 by the fact that as soon as the frequent repeti- 

 tion of any given set of experiences has rendered 

 all the transit lines involved in the case com- 

 pletely permeable, so that there is no longer any 

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