OE THE ACTION OF THE BRAIN. 261 



bility of sensation and state of body, the foetus may have state of mind. 

 This state is the first acting principle ; reasoning comes on slowly after. 

 It is the most universal cause of action in the body, making voluntary 

 muscles act contrary to the will, increasing or diminishing the actions 

 of the involuntary ones, and making many [involuntary ones] act which 

 otherwise would not act at all, as those arising from some of the passions. 

 The state of mind always arises from, or is connected with, external 

 objects joined to some sentiment, either concerning itself, which may be 

 called ' passion,' or concerning some other body, called ' sympathy. 



The state of body from which the state of mind arises, may be called 

 either real, as for example a child sucking, a duck swimming ; or it may 

 be imaginary, arising from habituated states or an acquired state, as 

 when a man works himself into a passion, not arising from the state of 

 body at the time, but from a repetition of a former action which arose 

 originally from a state of body. 



State of mind, whether fear or anger, produces many salutary effects 

 on the body. A hare or fox runs away, and if that fails, it fights, a 

 different action here arising from a very different state of mind. 



State of mind produces actions of voluntary parts prior to volition, 

 and indeed prior to sensation. A child moves its legs in the womb, 

 moves the moment it is born, can and does cry as soon as it breathes. 

 The calf, pig, foal, walks as soon as born ; a duck, as soon as hatched, 

 runs to the water the moment it sees it. 



Nothing shows the effects of the mind upon the body more than the 

 hatching hen. A hen shall hatch her chickens, at which time she is very 

 lean ; if those chickens are taken from her, she will soon get fat ; but, 

 if they are allowed to stay with her, she will continue lean the whole 

 time she is rearing them, although she is as well fed, and eats as much 

 as she would have done if she had had no chickens. 



Of the Action of the Brain. 



The brain is often so much employed in action, either in producing 

 the mind or thought, that it cannot, as it were, be stimulated or impressed 

 by the nerves, so as to receive sensation. A man shall be so much 

 affected by some object as to render him incapable of either sensation or 

 thought ; or a man may be so far absorbed in reasoning as not to feel 

 impressions on the body, which will prevent any anxiety that might 

 arise from those impressions. Or the brain can be so employed respect- 

 ing the mind as neither to feel the body, nor be capable of thinking, 

 and vice versa. 



Many people have powers in the mind to reason upon subjects which 



