SOME RELATIONS OP MIND AND BODY. 171 



It appears to me, however, that the phrase " subconscious 

 intelligence " is a contradiefcion in terms, and that in using this 

 phrase he is attributing to the human intellect operations which its 

 molecular organ performs without further guidance and direction, 

 when consciousness is in abeyance, than it follows blindly in con- 

 forming to the laws imposed upon it by the Creator. The brain 

 is so constituted that, when, in chains of successive impressions 

 (whether established by volitional effort or otherwise it matters 

 not), the links of association have become sufficiently strong, the 

 casual impression of the moment has a tendency to recall asso- 

 ciated impressions, and to reproduce them in the order and 

 sequence in which, through frequency of repetition, they arc 

 most readily reproducible — in other words, in lines of least 

 resistance. This tendency is sometimes found to be antagonistic 

 to the will, and a resolute concenti-ation of such forces as are 

 properly mental may prove unequal to the task of crowding out 

 unwelcome trains of thought. Efficient impressions (be the 

 immediately exciting cause what it may) on sensory material 

 find response in the obedience of adapted motor-nerves : thus it 

 has been rendered possible for elaborate action and complicated 

 movements which bear witness, not only to hereditary aptitude, but 

 also, and perhaps still more, to antecedent intellectual effort, to 

 be executed unconsciously. The molecular organ of the human 

 spirit does, undoubtedly, in its multifai^ious operations, react 

 upon the agent, besides supplying the latter with a needful 

 stimulus, namely to such action, both emotional and intellectual, 

 as admits of cognizance in this material world, and with imagery 

 for the embodiment of thoughts that may be printed in a sen- 

 sorium of flesh and blood. But what I venture to maintain is 

 that the instrument, however fearfully and wonderfully made, 

 discharges no function which warrants the assertion that its laws 

 are the laws of mind. That portion of the brain which busies 

 itself incessantly in a seemingly aimless process of unconscious 

 cerebration may, by tossing up to the surface hidden impressions, 

 render the labours of the watchful and prying intellect incal- 

 culably more fruitful than they otherwise would be, and in this 

 humble way may co-operate with the portion to which higher 

 functions have been assigned. But to utilise the services of both, 

 and to conduct the process of ratiocination, is assuredly the 

 exclusive property of the proprietor of the instrument — the in- 

 dwelling spirit. 



