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ACQUIREMENTS INVOLVED IN VOLITION.

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as a wish, it prompts the requisite exertions. Thus it is that a child learns to search out a light in a room in order to enjoy the maximum of the illumination; it learns to turn its view to the fire, or the window, or to some face that it has begun to recognize agreeably. Volition means, 3rdly, the performance of some intermediate actions with a view to our gratification; as when things are seized with the hand in order to be carried to the mouth, and when animals, descrying their food at a distance, set themselves to move forward to lay hold of it. These intermediate actions are most manifestly the result of experience, in the human. subject at least. The power of locomotion has first to be developed; the exerting of the power then becomes associated with its various consequences, and among others that of bringing the individual within reach of the objects of its desires. 4thly, The voluntary command of the organs means the power of imitation, or of performing actions in consequence of seeing them performed. Here a link has to be established between a certain appearance to the eye and the movement of corresponding organs in the individual's self. In the case of vocal imitation, a sound is the antecedent of an utterance, each sound heard being associated with a distinct movement of the chest and larynx, under the proper attitudes of the mouth. It is not uncommonly supposed that imitation, both of actions and of sounds, is instinctive; but I believe this to be incorrect. 5thly, Under volition we include the power of moving our organs merely on the wish to see them moved; as when I look at my hand, and will to raise it. Here a connexion is formed between the sensible appearance of any member, or the idea left by that sensible appearance, and its being moved. Lastly, we can make a movement on being directed to do so, being named; 'up head,' down hands,' &c. further association, formed between certain names or sounds and a particular class of movements. All these various actions are employed in the most elementary efforts of the will to control the body. Others could be named that

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transcend their range of influence, as, for example, the control of the passions and the command of the thoughts.*

*The following are notes of observations made upon the earliest movements of two lambs seen during the first hour after birth, and at subsequent stages of their development. The two came from the same mother, and their actions were in the main alike.

One of the lambs, on being dropped, was taken hold of by the shepherd, and laid on the ground so as to rest on its four knees. For a very short time, perhaps not much above a minute, it kept still in this attitude. A certain force was doubtless exerted to enable it to retain this position; but the first decided exertion of the creature's own energy was shown in standing up on its legs, which it did after the pause of little more than a minute. The power thus put forth I can only describe as a spontaneous burst of the locomotive energy, under this condition, namely, that as all the four limbs were actuated at the same instant, the innate power must have been guided into this quadruple channel in consequence of that nervous organization that constitutes the four limbs one related group. The animal now stood on its legs, the feet being considerably apart so as to widen the base of support. The energy that raised it up continued flowing in order to maintain the standing posture, and the animal doubtless had the consciousness of this flow of energy, as its earliest mental experience. This standing posture was continued for a minute or two in perfect stillness. Next followed the beginnings of locomotive movement. At first a limb was raised and set down again, then came a second movement that widened the animal's base without altering its position. When a more complex movement with two limbs came on, the effect seemed to be to go sideways; another complex movement led forwards; but at the outset there appeared to be nothing to decide one direction rather than another, for the earliest movements were a jumble of side, forward, and backward. Still, the alternation of limb that any consecutive advance required, seemed within the power of the creature during the first ten minutes of life. Sensation as yet could be of very little avail, and it was evident that action took the start in the animal's history. The eyes were wide open, and light must needs have entered to stimulate the brain. The contact with the solid earth and the feelings of weight and movement were the earliest feelings. In this state of uncertain wandering with little change of place, the lamb was seized hold of and carried up to the side of the mother. This made no difference till its nose was brought into contact with the woolly skin of the dam, which originated a new sensation. Then came a conjunction manifestly of the volitional kind. There was clearly a tendency to sustain this contact, to keep the nose rubbing upon the side and belly of the ewe. On finding a certain movement to have this effect, that movement was sustained; exemplifying what I consider the primitive or fundamental fact of volition. On losing the contact, there was as yet no power to recover it by a direct action, for the indications of sight at this stage had no meaning. The animal's spontaneous irregular movements were continued;

VOLUNTARY ACQUISITION IN ANIMALS.

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52. In order to illustrate the acquired character of these several voluntary actions, excepting always the first, I shall

for a time they were quite fruitless, until a chance contact came about again, and this contact could evidently sustain the posture or movement that was causing it. The whole of the first hour was spent in these various movements about the mother, there being in that short time an evident increase of facility in the various acts of locomotion, and in commanding the head in such a way as to keep up the agreeable touch. A second hour was spent much in the same manner; and in the course of the third hour, the animal, which had been entirely left to itself, came upon the teat, and got this into its mouth. The spontaneous workings of the mouth now yielded a new sensation, whereby they were animated and sustained, and unexpectedly the creature found itself in the possession of a new pleasure; the satisfaction first of mouthing the object-next, by-and-by, the pleasure of drawing milk; the intensity of this last feeling would doubtless give an intense spur to the co-existing movements, and keep them energetically at work. A new and grand impression was thus produced, remaining after the fact, and stimulating exertion and pursuit in order to recover it.

Six or seven hours after the birth the animal had made notable progress. Locomotion was easy, the forward movement being preferred, but not predominant. The sensations of sight began to have a meaning. In less than twenty-four hours, the animal could, at the sight of the mother ahead, move in the forward direction at once to come up to her, showing that a particular visible image had now been associated with a definite movement; the absence of any such association being most manifest in the early movements of life. It could proceed at once to the teat and suck, guided only by its desire and the sight of the object. It was now in the full exercise of the locomotive faculty; and very soon it could be seen moving, with the nose along the ground in contact with the grass, the preliminary of seizing the blades in the mouth.

I am not able to specify minutely the exact periods of the various developments in the self-education of this lamb, but the above are correct statements to the best of my recollection. The observations proved distinctly these several points, namely, first, the existence of spontaneous action as the earliest fact in the creature's history; second, the absence of any definite bent prior to experienced sensations; and third, the power of a sensation actually experienced to keep up the coinciding movement of the time, thereby constituting a voluntary act in the initial form. What was also very remarkable, was the rate of acquisition, or the rapidity with which all the associations between sensations and actions became fixed. A power that the creature did not at all possess naturally, got itself matured as an acquisition in a few hours; before the end of a week, the lamb was capable of almost anything belonging to its sphere of existence; and at the lapse of a fortnight, no difference could be seen between it and the aged members of the flock.

select the case of Imitation. If we can prove satisfactorily that this is not instinctive, but acquired, little doubt will remain on the other cases.

But a primitive The instinctive

(1.) The first argument against instinctive imitation is the fact, that no imitation whatever takes place during the first few months of infant existence. So far as my observation goes, there is very little during the first year. impulse ought to appear much earlier. movements discussed in the preceding Book show themselves from the very commencement of life. There is no new development or manifestation of power at the time when the imitative propensity comes on; there is nothing parallel, for example, to the physical changes that show themselves at puberty, along with the new feelings of that period. The child is seen to go through a great deal of active exertion of its own, in the course of those unimitative months; the power of repeating the actions of others would be exceedingly valuable at this time, and would save much fruitless endeavour; but the very faintest tendency in this direction cannot be discerned. There may be instances of a more precocious faculty than any that I have observed, but these would not affect the present argument.

(2.) In the second place, imitation, when it does begin, is slow and gradual in its progress, a fact that looks like acquisition, and not like instinct. We find, for example, that, in speech, the imitation is at first limited to one or two articulations, and that others come on by degrees at considerable intervals. If there were any primitive connexion in the brain between a sound heard, and the reproduction of that sound with the voice, it ought to be as good for one letter of the alphabet as for another. So with the movement of the hand; why should one be possible, while no amount of example will bring out a second, not in itself more difficult?

(3.) The imitation very often fails after it has once been hit. A child has caught a certain sound, and will at particular times produce it; yet at other times there is no possibility of bringing on the utterance. This is constantly

IMITATION ACQUIRED.

seen in the first efforts of children. It is i

repeat to them a sound, a letter, or a syllabl

shown themselves able to pronounce; the association the audible impression and the specific vocal exertion has plainly not yet been formed; it cannot therefore be instinctive. The child has, in the course of its spontaneous articulate movements, come on the sound hum, and this sound once pronounced is likely to recur in the cycle of its spontaneous actions; but to utter the syllable at the instance of another person's utterance is something additional. As an acquisition, I can easily render to myself an account of the process. The sound spoken is also heard; besides the vocal exertion, there is a coincident impression on the ear; an association grows up between the exertion and the sensation, and, after a sufficient time, the one is able to recall the other. The sensation, anyhow occurring, brings on the exertion; and when, by some other person's repeating the syllable, the familiar sound is heard, the corresponding vocal act will follow. Experience, I think, proves that the time elapsing between the ability to utter a sound, and the readiness to utter it on its being heard, corresponds to the time requisite for an adhesion to grow up between the two heterogeneous elements, the one a spontaneous action, the other a sensation. These early sounds come out more frequently of themselves, than under the stimulus of imitation, which proves that the exertion precedes the power of imitating.

If imitation be instinctive, there must be several thousands of instinctive connexions between sensations and actions. The sound of each letter of the alphabet, and every word, would require to be connected, by a primitive adhesion, with definite movements of the larynx, the mouth, and the chest. Every movement of the hand would need to be associated with the visible appearances of the same movement in other human beings. We should have to affirm the manifest absurdity that associations could be formed between things yet unexperienced; between sounds, and sights, and actions, long before anything had been heard, seen, or done.

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