121 
for example, transformed into sound by the firing of a gun, it 
enters my brain, performs a mathematical demonstration, passes 
on, and is next heard of as the striking of a lucifer-match ! 
Yet notwithstanding these assumptions which directly negative 
personality, he argues strongly in favour of personality (p. 64) 
against the sceptic who denies it. But it seems impossible to 
hold at one and the same time this belief, and that of sensa- 
tion, emotion, and thought being not the functions of a person, 
but mere transitory modes of motion. 
42. But, if emotion be indeed a mode of motion, although the 
modes vary, the amount must be always the same, especially when 
the emotion can be re-transferred back into its original state, 
That such is a fact may be assumed, but can never be proved 
till some instrument be constructed capable of measuring the 
velocity of thought. It has been done by Joule, as we have seen, 
in reference to motion and heat ; but who shall do it in reference 
to emotion and affection ? Apart, however, from measurement, 
are we in the least justified in assuming that the amounts are 
equal, speaking from Mr. Spencer’s point of view? He says, 
“ No idea or feeling arises save as the result of some physical 
force expended in producing it.” But take a case by which to 
test this. Let us suppose that of a widowed mother hear- 
ing of the death of her only son at sea. She looks at certain 
black strokes on paper : the only physical force expended is the 
slight wave motion that passes from the paper to her eye ; but 
the mental emotion is something terrible — something that con- 
vulses the whole frame, and whose effects are felt for years 
afterwards. To speak of this great heart sorrow, that silvers 
the hair and bows the head, as the mere change of a mode of 
motion, is wholly futile. It, indeed, originates motion in the 
brain and whole system, but is not itself originated by motion. 
The same is seen still more clearly, if possible, as Dr. McCosh 
points out, where no physical force is expended at all, as when 
we begin to reflect on the actions of the past, and are, if they 
have been wrong, scourged by the agonies of remorse, till, as 
before, the whole frame quivers beneath the lash. 
43. Professor Parker, of Yale College, tells us, as proof of the 
conversion of motion into mentation, that “ experiments have 
shown that ideas which affect the emotions produce most heat 
in their reception ; ” “ a few minutes’ recitation to one’s self of 
emotional poetry producing more effect than several hours of 
deep thought.” But this does not prove his point : it only shows 
that we are more affected by emotional poetry than by reflective 
thought, and consequently the mind acts more energetically on 
the brain; but, as before, the heat follows the emotion, and 
does not precede it, as required by the theory. That there is 
VOL. VII. it 
