Habit and Instinct, 4 r 9 



Inseparably associated with the appetence or aversion 

 there is a representation of the activity which constitutes 

 the fulfilment of the emotion. On the physiological side 

 this is probably an incipient excitation of the muscles or 

 other organs concerned in the requisite actions. The 

 miser's fingers itch to clutch the gold, the possession of 

 which he desires. Our muscles twitch as we long to join 

 in the race or the active contention of a game of football. 

 Our horse grows restive as the hunt goes by. Our dog can 

 scarce restrain himself from racing after the rabbits in the 

 park. Under the influence of emotion, then, the body is 

 prepared for activity, the organs and muscles are beginning 

 to be innervated, and, if the appetence or desire be 

 sufficiently strong, the appropriate actions are initiated, 

 and the organism tends to pass from the state of unstable 

 equilibrium arising out of a pressing need to the stable 

 condition of satisfied appetence. The function of the will 

 in this process we shall have briefly to consider presently. 



Let us here notice, with regard to the activities, what 

 we have before seen with regard to the process of perceptual 

 construction. We there noticed that, at the bidding of a 

 relatively simple suggestion, a complex object may be con- 

 structed by the mind. This presupposes a highly com- 

 plex mental organization ready to be set in motion by the 

 appropriate stimulus. The organization has been estab- 

 lished by association and through evolution in the indi- 

 vidual and his ancestors. It is the same with the activities. 

 They, too, are the outcomes of associations and experiences 

 established and registered during generations of ancestral 

 predecessors. At the bidding of the appropriate stimulus 

 arousing impulse or appetence, a train of activities of great 

 intricacy may be set agoing with remarkable accuracy and 

 precision. It is true that a certain amount of individual 

 education is required to draw out and establish the latent 

 powers of the body, as also of the mind ; but the ability is 

 inborn, and only requires to be cultivated. Every one of 

 us inherits an organization rendering him capable of per- 

 forming a vast amount of mental construction and a great 



