Mind 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



448 



medicine fails to appreciate and use ade- 

 quately. Assuredly the most successful 

 physician is he who, inspiring the greatest 

 confidence in his remedies, strengthens and 

 exalts the imagination of his patient : if he 

 orders a few drops of peppermint-water with 

 the confident air of curing the disease, will 

 he not really do more sometimes for the 

 patient than one who treats him in the most 

 approved scientific w r ay, but without inspir- 

 ing a conviction of recovery? Ceremonies, 

 charms, gesticulations, amulets, and the 

 like have in all ages and among all nations 

 been greatly esteemed and largely used in 

 the treatment of disease; and it may be 

 speciously presumed that they have derived 

 their power, not from any contract with the 

 supernatural, but, as Bacon observes, by 

 strengthening and exalting the imagination 

 of him who used them. Entirely ignorant 

 as we are, and probably ever shall be, of the 

 nature of mind, groping feebly for the laws 

 of its operation, we certainly cannot venture 

 to set bounds to its power over those inti- 

 mate and insensible molecular movements 

 which are the basis of all our visible bodily 

 functions, any more than we can justly ven- 

 ture to set bounds to its action in the vast 

 and ever progressing evolution of Nature, of 

 which all our thoughts and works are but a 

 part. MAUDSLEY Body and Mind, lect. 1, p. 

 38. (A., 1898.) 



2193. MIND DOMINATED BY PRE- 

 CONCEIVED IDEA Misreading of Words. 

 A tendency to read a particular meaning 

 into a word may lead to the misapprehen- 

 sion of the word. To give an illustration : I 

 was lately reading the fifth volume of G. H. 

 Lewes's " Problems of Life and Mind." In 

 reading the first sentence of one of the sec- 

 tions, I again and again fell into the error 

 of taking " The great Lagrange " for " The 

 great Language." On glancing back I saw that 

 the section was headed " On Language," and 

 I at once recognized the cause of my error 

 in the preexistence in my mind of the repre- 

 sentative image of the word " language." 

 SULLY Illusions, ch. 9, p. 228. (A., 1897.) 



2194. MIND INFINITELY VARIED 

 Mental Qualities of Ants. Does it not 

 seem as if Nature wants to play with our 

 judgment by the variety and superiority of 

 conceptions of which she offers an example, 

 in the details as well as in the whole? We 

 can only judge according to known facts, but 

 Nature never imitates herself and has no 

 need to imitate. The fecundity of under- 

 standing that has dictated these laws is not 

 known to possess limits ; each species has its 

 habits, each individual its peculiar constitu- 

 tion. That is why we fall into errors with- 

 out number, why our observations cause us to 

 deviate in deciding which rules appear the 

 most general. [This is observable in the 

 case of] the ants, whose history furnishes 

 so many examples of the insufficiency of our 

 conjectures. HUBER Recherches sur les 

 Mozurs des Fourmis indigenes, p. 102. 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



2195. MIND, IS IT LIMITED TO 

 BRAIN ? Intelligence in Reflex Movements. 

 Is the brain the exclusive organ of mind? 

 If it be so, to what category of functions 

 shall we refer the reflex acts of the spinal 

 cord, which take place independently of the 

 brain, and which often achieve as definite 

 an end, and seem to display as intelligent an 

 aim, as any conscious act of volition? 

 MAUDSLEY Body and Mind, lect. 1, p. 15. 

 (A., 1898.) 



21 96. MIND, LIMITATIONS OF Ar- 

 tistic and Scientific Genius Not Conjoined 

 Mastery in One Line Compatible with Abil- 

 ity in Many. A great mind may be great in 

 many things, because the same kind of 

 power may have numerous applications. 

 The scientific mind of a high order is also 

 the practical mind; it is the essence of rea- 

 son in every mode of its manifestation the 

 true philosopher in conduct as well as in 

 knowledge. On such a mind also a certain 

 amount of artistic culture may be superin- 

 duced; its powers of acquisition may be ex- 

 tended so far. But the spontaneous, exuber- 

 ant, imaginative flow, the artistic nature 

 at the core, never was, cannot be, included 

 in the same individual. Aristotle could not 

 be also a tragic poet, nor Newton a third- 

 rate portrait-painter. The cost of one of the 

 two modes of intellectual greatness is all 

 that can be borne by the most largely en- 

 dowed personality; any appearances to the 

 contrary are hollow and delusive. BAIN" 

 app. to Conservation of Energy by STEWART, 

 p. 431. (Hum., 1880.) 



2197. MIND, LIMITS OF, UNKNOWN 



Worms Seeming to Exceed Ants in Intel- 

 ligence. As worms are not guided by spe- 

 cial instincts in each particular case, tho 

 possessing a general instinct to plug up 

 their burrows, and as chance is excluded, 

 the next most probable conclusion seems to 

 be that they try in many different ways to 

 draw in objects, and at last succeed in some 

 one way. But it is surprising that an ani- 

 mal so low in the scale as a worm should 

 have the capacity for acting in this manner, 

 as many higher animals have no such ca- 

 pacity. For instance, ants may be seen 

 vainly trying to drag an object transversely 

 to their course, which could be easily drawn 

 longitudinally; tho after a time they gen- 

 erally act in a wiser manner. DARWIN For- 

 mation of Vegetable Mould, ch. 2, p. 26. 

 (Hum., 1887.) 



2198. MIND, LITTLE DEVELOPMENT 

 OF, WITHOUT SPEECH The Greatness of 

 Mind Is Due to the Tongue. It is not too 

 much to say that speech, if mental evolution 

 is to come to anything or is to be worth 

 anything, is a necessary condition. By it 

 alone, in any degree worth naming, can the 

 fruits of observation and experience of one 

 generation be husbanded to form a new 

 starting-point for a second, nor without it 

 could there be any concerted action or so- 

 cial life. The greatness of the human mind. 



