WILL. 551 



whether tliey be present to our senses, or whether they be 

 merely represented in idea, have this peculiar sort of im- 

 pulsive power. The impulsive quality of mental states is an 

 attribute behind which we cannot go. Some states of mind 

 have more of it than others, some have it in this direction, 

 and some in that. Feelings of pleasure and pain have it, 

 and perceptions and imaginations of fact have it, but neither 

 have it exclusively or peculiarly. It is of the essence of all 

 consciousness (or of the neural process which underlies it) 

 to instigate movement of some sort. That with one creature 

 and object it should be of one sort, with others of another 

 ^ort, is a problem for evolutionary history to explain. 

 However the actual impulsions may have arisen, they must 

 now be described as they exist ; and those j)ersons obey a 

 curiously narrow teleological superstition who think them- 

 selves bound to interpret them in every instance as effects 

 of the secret solicitancy of pleasure and repugnancy ol! 

 pain.* 



* The silliness of the old-fashioned pleasure-philosophy saute aux yeux 

 Take, for example, Prof. Bain's explanation of sociability and parenta 

 love by the pleasures of touch : "Touch is the fundamental and generic 

 sense. . . . Even after the remaining senses are differentiated, the primary 

 sense continues to be a leading susceptibility of the mind. The soft warm 

 touch, if not a first-class influence, is at least an approach to that. The 

 combined power of soft contact and warmth amounts to a considerable 

 pitch of massive pleasure ; while there may be subtle influences not redu- 

 cible to these two heads, such as we term, from not knowing anything 

 about them, magnetic or electric. The sort of thrill from taking a baby in 

 arms is something beyond mere warm touch ; and it may rise to the ecstatic 

 height, in which case, however, there may be concurrent sensations and 

 ideas. ... In mere tender emotion not sexual, there is nothing but the 

 sense of touch to gratify, unless we assume the occult magnetic inLuences. 

 . . . In a word, our love pleasures begin and end in sensual contact. Touch 

 is both the alpha and omega of affection. As the terminal and satisfymg 

 sensation, the we j9?Ms Mto'«, it must be a pleasure of the highest degree. . . . 

 Why should a more lively feeling grow up towards a fellow-being Ihan 

 towards a perennial fountain ? [This ' should ' is simply delicious from 

 the more modern evolutionary point of view.] It mup,t be that there is a 

 source of pleasure in the companionship of other sentient creatures, over 

 and above the help afforded by them in obtaining the necessaries of life. 

 To account for this, I can suggest notliiug but the primary and independent 

 pleasure of the animal embrace." [Mind, this is said not of the .sexual 

 interest, but of ' Sociability at Large.'] " For this pleasure every creature 

 is disposed to pay something, even when it is only fraternal. A certain 



