THE RELATIONS OF MINDS TO OTHER THINGS 213 



with something much more complex ; namely, an active 

 counting out and positive exclusion of certain objects. It 

 is as when one * cuts ' an acquaintance, ' ignores ' a claim, 

 or ' refuses to be influenced ' by a consideration. But the 

 perceptive activity which works to this result is discon- 

 nected from the consciousness which is personal, so to 

 speak, to the subject, and makes of the object concerning 

 which the suggestion is made, its own private possession 

 and jDrey.* 



The mother who is asleep to every sound but the stir- 

 rings of her babe, evidently has the babe-portion of her au- 

 ditory sensibility systematically awake. Relatively to that, 

 the rest of her mind is in a state of systematized anaesthesia. 

 That department, split off and disconnected from the sleep- 

 ing part, can none the less wake the latter up in case of 

 need. So that on the whole the quarrel between Des- 

 cartes and Locke as to whether the mind ever sleeps is lesa 

 near to solution than ever. On a priori speculative grounds 

 Locke's view that thought and feeling may at times wholly 

 disappear seems the more plausible. As glands cease to 

 secrete and muscles to contract, so the brain should some- 

 times cease to carry currents, and with this minimum of its 

 activity might well coexist a minimum of consciousness. 

 On the other hand, we see how deceptive are appearances, 

 and are forced to admit that a part of consciousness may 

 sever its connections with other parts and yet continue to be. 

 On the whole it is best to abstain from a conclusion. The 

 science of the near future will doubtless answer this ques- 

 tion more wisely than we can now. 



* How to conceive of this state of mind is not easy. It would be much 

 simpler to understand the process, if adding new strokes made the first one 

 visible. There would then be two different objects apperceived as totals, 

 — paper with one stroke, paper with many strokes ; and, blind to the for- 

 mer, he would see all that was in the latter, because he would have apper- 

 ceived it as a different total in the first instance. 



A process of this sort occurs sometimes (not always) when the new 

 strokes, instead of being mere repetitions of the original one, are lines 

 which combine with it into a total object, say a human face. The sub- 

 ject of the trance then may regain his sight of the line to which he had 

 previously been blind, by seeing it as part of the face. 



