DR. GREGORY SMITH, ON PSYCHOLOGY. 



127 



be sought or shunned. What Grote has said of thought, that 

 it is " glorified sensation," is true also of desire. Hope, fear, 

 joy, sorrow, etc., all the many tinted passions, which play so 

 large a part in life, are the outgrowth of the baby's immature 

 cravings for whatever catches its eye ; and as intellect and 

 emotion spring out of sensation in the first instance, so they 

 are continually nurtured as they grow by contact with things 

 outside themselves. It would take too long now to try to 

 show in detail how thought and emotion are evolved and 

 stimulated by material objects, and how they seem inseparably 

 connected with the varying phases of brain and heart. Those 

 who are expert in physiology can tell us best. 



Memory, imagination, logic, as Grote has well said, are not 

 separate faculties, but only different functions of the mind. 

 All testify to the material character of their origin and gradual 

 development. Memory and logic are obviously each a chain of 

 many links. Imagination, the synthesis of mind and emotion, 

 mechanically calls up a series of pictures following one another 

 like the slides in a magic lantern. The sequence of thoughts, 

 the sequence of emotions is, normally, regular as the tickings 

 of a clock. It is a long way from a child's first glimmerings of 

 perception to Shakespeare's " Hamlet " or Goethe's " Faust " — a 

 long way from a child's first cry for food and warmth to the 

 insatiable cupidity of a Napoleon. Bat in both cases alike 

 the inception and the fulfilment are material. But the Will 

 chooses, whether the thought, the desire, shall he permitted or not. 

 I have a book in the press on this subject. Time forbids more 

 now on this part of our subject. 



The Will — this is the question of questions — is it free ? 



Let us begin by conceding all that we are bound to concede 

 to the determinist and admit that emotions and intellect can 

 react upon the will. The Czar is a despot, but he is influenced 

 by those around him. So the Pontiff in Eome. The will, in 

 like manner is swayed by thought and emotion, and yet has to 

 decide. How far those and other circumstances, in any 

 instance, have exercised a constraint over the will is often 

 very difficult to define. The will may be swa3^ed to and fro 

 by the force of these passing winds ; yet every moment we are 

 choosing. If two billiard balls are launched towards each 

 other with equal force and meet, what follows from the impact ? 

 A labouring man going home passes a public house where he 

 can have a drink, and the temptation comes. A little way 

 ahead he sees the light in the window of his home drawing him 

 there. Both motives are strong. He does not stand stock still 



