i6o LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



ments of living beings are prompted and guided by 

 feeling, I urged that . . . the amount and direction 

 of every nei-vous discharge must depend solely on 

 physical conditions. And I contended that to see this 

 clearly is to see that when we speak of movement 

 being guided by feeling, we use the language of a less 

 advanced stage of enlightenment. This view has siuce 

 occupied a good deal of attention. Under the name of 

 automatism it has been advocated by Professor Huxley, 

 and with firmer logic by Professor Clifibrd. ... In 

 the minds of our savage ancestors feeling was the source 

 of all movement. . . . Using the word feeling in its 

 ordinary sense, . . . we assert not only that no evidence 

 can he given that feeling ever does gwide or prompt action, 

 hut that the process of its doing so is inconceivahle. 

 (Italics mine.) How can we picture to ourselves a 

 state of consciousness putting in motion any particle 

 of matter, large or small ? Puss, while dozing before 

 the fire, hears a light rustle in the comer, and darts 

 towards the spot. What has happened ? Certain 

 sound-waves have reached the ear, a series of physical 

 changes have taken place within the organism, special 

 groups of muscles have been called into play, and the 

 body of the cat has changed its position on the floor. 

 Is it asserted that this chain of physical changes is not 

 at all points complete and sufficient in itself ? " 



I have been led to turn to this article of Mr. 

 Spalding's by Mr. Stewart Duncan, who, in his 

 " Conscious Matter," * quotes the latter part of the 

 foregoing extract. Mr. Duncan goes on to quote 



* London, David Bogue, 1881, p. 60. 



