PRESENCE OF MIND. 265 



Thinking is natural, but reasoning is not ; we can think without 

 reasoning. Thinking is the forming ideas. They may have a connexion 

 with each other, so as to keep up a relationship, which might be called 

 ' natural reasoning.' But reason is a kind of voluntary act ; the mind 

 brings itself to it. The first thing w r e lose when we are losing the con- 

 sciousness of ourselves, is the power of thinking. When we can think 

 we can reason. 



That the mind has the power of producing actions in the brain is 

 evident in many cases. The person who invented or applied the steam- 

 engine to the sailing of ships, when it was before the Committee at the 

 Eooms of the Society of Arts and Sciences, was taken at once with an 

 apoplectic stroke, of which he died in about twenty-four hours 1 . 



Lord Eglinton informed me, whenever two soldiers were condemned 

 to be shot, but one was to have a pardon, and they were to throw dice 

 for their lives, that commonly the successful one fainted while the other 

 remained calm. This would show that it is not the ' kind' of affection, 

 but the ' quantity.' 



A lady sitting up after every one was gone to bed, saw her door open, 

 and a servant of the house come in with a pistol in his hand. She imme- 

 diately blew out the candle, pushed the bed from the wall, and escaped 

 between them. The servant in the dark pushed dowoi the table she had 

 been sitting by. This discomposed him ; she came out of her hiding- 

 place, got out of the door, and had the presence of mind to lock it. She 

 awoke the house ; and, as soon as she found assistance, or was 

 secure, she fainted, and none knew what was the matter till she came 

 to herself. The man was secured, and it was found he was out of 

 his senses. 



The various effects of the mind upon the body are almost without 

 end ; those, perhaps, are best known in many diseases of the body, 

 but known only by those who have the diseases w T hich can be affected 



1 [I have been favoured by the following reply to an inquiry on this interesting 

 statement : — 



" Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, 

 Adelphi, London, W.C., 27th December, 1859. 

 " My dear Sir, — I have had our records carefully searched, and I find no notice 

 whatever of any such circumstance as you allude to in your note of the 24th 

 inst. The only communication during the period named which had reference to 

 steam power and boats is an anonymous one, ' On obtaining a circular motion 

 for moving boats by steam,' which was not thought so good for the purpose as 

 those already in use. What John Hunter could have referred to I am at a loss 

 to say. " Yours very truly, 



" P. Le Neve Foster, Sec." 

 " Bichd. Owen, Esq., British Museum."] 



