OF THE WILL 357 



unexpectedly turns out to be very hot, the pain caused by the heat 

 of the iron promptly moves your inner feeling ; and before you have 

 had time to think what you ought to do, your muscles have already 

 carried out the action which consists in letting go the hot iron that 

 you were holding. 



From these observations it follows that actions carried out in 

 consequence of needs prompted by sensations which immediately 

 affect the individual's inner feeling, are in nowise the result of any 

 thought, judgment, or act of will ; while those which are wrought in 

 consequence of needs aroused by ideas or propensities are exclusively 

 the result of those acts of intelhgence which also affect immediately 

 the inner feeUng and enable the individual to act by a manifest will. 



This distinction between actions of which the immediate cause is in 

 some sensation and those which result from a judgment or act of intelh- 

 gence, is of great importance for the avoidance of confusion and error 

 in our investigations of these wonderful phenomena. It is because 

 the distinction had not been drawn that animals have been usually 

 credited with a will in the performance of their actions ; and people 

 have supposed, on the analogy of man and the most perfect animals, 

 that all animals have the faculty of voluntary movement. Yet this 

 is not so, even in those that possess a nervous system, and stiU less in 

 those that do not. 



It is certain that animals which have no nervous system cannot 

 possess the faculty of wiU ; so far from it are they, that they cannot 

 even have the f eeUng of their existence : the infusorians and polyps are 

 in this position. 



Those which have a nervous system capable of yielding the faculty 

 of feehng, but which have no hypocephalon or special organ for in- 

 telhgence, possess indeed an inner feehng — the mainspring of their 

 actions — and form confused perceptions of the objects which affect 

 them ; but they have no ideas, do not think, compare or judge, and 

 hence carry out no act of will. There is reason to beheve that this 

 is the case in the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, annelids, cirrhipedes, 

 and even molluscs. 



The inner feeling, aroused by some need, is the source of all the 

 actions of these animals. They act without any dehberation or pre- 

 hminary determination, and always in the one direction to which the 

 need drives them ; and when they encoimter some obstacle while 

 acting, if they avoid it or turn aside and seem to choose, it is only 

 because a new need has aroused their inner feehng. Thus the new 

 action does not result from any combination of ideas, or comparison 

 between objects, or judgments, since these animals cannot carry out 

 any operations of the intelhgence, having no organs for the purpose ; 



