838 Dynamic Theory. 



to themselves, become arranged according to the relationships which 

 the external objects, to which the facts refer, occupy toward each other. 

 So that the idea when formed by this automatic process of arrangement, 

 shall be a true reflection of the external objects just as they are, and 

 just as they stand with regard to each other. 



The saying, ' ' I'll sleep on that proposition, and let you know in the 

 morning," and others like it, indicate a popular recognition of the fact 

 of the automatic and unconscious arrangement of stimuli into definite 

 ideas. Numerous cases can be cited of thinkers, composers of litera- 

 ture, inventors, &c. , who, recognizing the principle, habitually conform 

 their work to it. When they come across something difficult, they first 

 get all the facts possible, and conclude what aspect of their inter-rela- 

 tionships it is they want worked out, and then they leave the matter to 

 the automatic solution of the brain; sometimes a solution is soon 

 reached ; at others, it is necessary to make frequent inquiries of the 

 brain what progress has been made, in order to stimulate and keep up to 

 the mark its unconscious attention to its task. 



A will being made up of various stimuli, some of which influence the 

 actions in one direction, and some in another, obviously when one set is 

 silent or inactive, the will is formed in accordance with the other set. 

 As only a small number of the motives which form the will, are at any 

 one time present to the consciousness, it follows that when those mo- 

 tives of which we are conscious, are divided in direction so as to neu- 

 tralize each other, the action may be instigated and impelled by motives 

 of which we are unconscious. Accordingly, we often find that we have 

 done things which we never had any conscious intention of doing. If 

 any person will observe the gestures, movements of hands, feet, body, 

 muscles of the face, eyes, &c. , that he is constantly making, he will 

 soon see that those of them which are involuntary, and for which he can 

 assign no reason of which he was antecedently conscious, constitute a 

 vast majority of the things he does. And it very often happens that a 

 person makes gestures and movements quite different from those which 

 were necessary to carry out his conscious intentions, and even against 

 them. It is evident that in all such cases it is an under-stratum of 

 stimuli, or, in other words, an unconscious cerebration which governs 

 the acts, and consequently such acts appear to our consciousness as if 

 they were prompted and carried on by some power foreign to ourselves, 

 which has obtained control of our nervous organization. Unconscious 

 muscle movement is a necessary and logical consequence of unconscious 

 cerebration. The movement of the muscles by which planchette is 

 made to give intelligent and often unexpected answers, is, when hon- 

 estly manipulated, always unconsciously directed by ideas, of the pos- 

 session of which the operator may be conscious, or which he may have 



