494 PSYCHOLOGY. 



eluding tliose of the effort wliicli it requires, as well as those 

 of its direction, its extent, its strength, and its velocity, are 

 images of peripJieral sensations, either ' remote,' or resident in 

 the moving parts, or in other parts ivhich sympathetically act 

 ivith them in consequenceof the ' diffusive wave.' 



A priori, as I shall show, there is no reason why there 

 should be a consciousness of the motor discharge, and there 

 is a reason why there should not be such a consciousness. 

 The presumption is thus against the existence of the feeling 

 of innervation ; and the burden of proving it falls upon those 

 who believe in it. If the j)ositive empirical evidence which 

 they offer prove also insufficient, then their case falls to the 

 ground, and the feeling in question must be ruled out of 

 court. 



In the first place, then, let me show that tJie assumption 

 of the feeling of innervation is unnecessary. 



I cannot help suspecting that the scholastic prejudice 

 that * the effect must be already in some way contained in the 

 cause ' has had something to do with making psychologists 

 so ready to admit the feeling of innervation. The outgoing 

 current being the effect, what psychic antecedent could 

 contain or prefigure it better than a feeling of it ? But 

 if we take a wide view, and consider the psychic ante- 

 cedents of our activities at large, we see that the scholastic 

 maxim breaks down everywhere, and that its verification 

 in this instance would rather violate than illustrate the 

 .general rule. In the diffusive wave, in reflex action, and 

 in emotional expression, the movements which are the 

 effects are in no manner contained by anticipation in the 

 stimuli which are their cause. The latter are subjective 

 sensations or objective perceptions, which do not in the 

 slightest degree resemble or prefigure the movements. But 

 we get them, and, presto ! there the movements are ! They 

 ,are knocked out of us, they surprise us. It is just cause 

 for wonder, as our chapter on Instinct has shown us, 

 that such bodily consequences should follow such men- 

 tal antecedents. We explain the mystery tant Men qu£ 

 mal by our evolutionary theories, saying that lucky varia- 

 tions and heredity have gradually brought it about that 



