FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. '21 



the damp eartli beneath a maple-tree. The sensations of 

 delicious rest and coolness pour- 

 ing themselves through the direct 

 line would naturally discharge into 

 the muscles of complete exten- 

 sion : he would abandon himself 

 to the dangerous rejDOse. But the 

 loop-line being open, part of the 

 current is drafted along it, and 

 awakens rheumatic or catarrhal 

 reminiscences, which prevail over 

 the ijistigations of sense, and make ^' ' 



themau arise and pursue his way to where he may enjoy his 

 rest more safely. Presently we shall examine the manner 

 in which the hemispheric loop-line may be supposed to 

 serve as a reservoir for such reminiscences as these. Mean- 

 while I will ask the reader to notice some corollaries of its 

 being such a reservoir. 



First, no animal Avithout it can deliberate, pause, post- 

 pone, nicely weigh one motive against another, or compare. 

 Prudence, in a word, is for such a creature an impossible 

 virtue. Accordingly we see that nature removes those func- 

 tions in the exercise of which prudence is a virtue from the 

 lower centres and hands them over to the cerebrum. Wher- 

 ever a creature has to deal with complex features of the en- 

 vironment, prudence is a virtue. The higher animals have so 

 to deal ; and the more complex the features, the higher we 

 call the animals. The fewer of his acts, then, can such an 

 animal perform without the help of the organs in question. 

 In the frog many acts devolve wholl}^ on the lower centres; 

 in the bird fewer ; in the rodent fewer still ; in the dog very 

 few indeed ; and in apes and men hardly any at all. 



The advantages of this are obvious. Take the prehen- 

 sion of food as an examj)le and suppose it to be a reflex 

 performance of the lower centres. The animal will be con- 

 demned fatally and irresistibly to snap at it whenever 

 presented, no matter what the circumstances may be ; 

 he can no more disobey this prompting than water can 

 refuse to boil when a fire is kindled under the pot. His 

 life will again and again pay the forfeit of his gluttony. 



