THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF. 301 



as alternations of direction in movements occurring inside 

 tte head.* 



In consenting and negating, and in making a mental 

 effort, the movements seem more complex, and I find them 

 harder to describe. The opening and closing of the glottis 

 play a great part in these operations, and, less distinctly, 

 the movements of the soft palate, etc., shutting off the pos- 

 terior nares from the mouth. My glottis is like a sensitive 

 valve, intercepting my breath instantaneously at every 

 mental hesitation or felt aversion to the objects of my 

 thought, and as quickly opening, to let the air pass through 

 my throat and nose, the moment the repugnance is over- 

 come. The feeling of the movement of this air is, in me, 

 one strong ingredient of the feeling of assent. The move- 

 ments of the muscles of the brow and eyelids also respond 

 very sensitively to every fluctuation in the agreeableness 

 or disagreeableness of what comes before my mind. 



In effort of any sort, contractions of the jaw-muscles and 

 of those of respiration are added to those of the brow and 

 glottis, and thus the feeling passes out of the head i)roper- 

 ly so called. It passes out of the head whenever the wel- 

 coming or rejecting of the object is strongly felt. Then a 

 set of feelings pour in from many bodily parts, all ' expres- 

 sive ' of my emotion, and the head-feelings proper are 

 swallowed up in this larger mass. 



In a sense, then, it may be truly said that, in one per- 

 son at least, the ' Self of selves,' when carefully examined, 

 is found to consist mainly of the collection of these peculiar 

 ^notions in the head or hetiveen the head and throat. I do 

 not for a moment say that this is all it consists of, for I 

 fully realize how desperately hard is introspection in this 

 field. But I feel quite sure that these cephalic motions are 

 the portions of my innermost activity of which I am most 

 distinctly aware. If the dim portions which I cannot yet 

 define should prove to be like unto these distinct portions 

 in me, and I like other men, it icould folloiv that our entire 

 feeling of spiritual activity, or ivhat commonly parses by that 



* For some farther remarks on these feelings of movement see the 

 next chapter. 



