SPONTANEITY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE ORGANS.

71

The Locomotive Apparatus is perhaps the most conspicuous of the voluntary groups. This involves (taking vertebrate animals in general) the limbs-or the anterior and posterior extremities with their numerous muscles, and the trunk of the body, which in all animals chimes in more or less with the movements of the extremities. In the outbursts of spontaneous action, locomotive effort (walking, running, flying, swimming, &c.) is one of the foremost tendencies; having the advantage of occupying a large portion of the muscular system, and thus giving vent to a copious stream of accumulated power. No observant person can have failed to notice instances, where locomotion resulted from purely spontaneous effort. In the human subject, the locomotive members are long in being adapted to their proper use, and in the meantime they expend their activity in the dancing gestures and kicking movements, manifested by the infant in the arms of the nurse.

The locomotive action agitates the whole length of the spine up to the articulations of the neck and head. The members concerned, however, have many movements besides, especially in man; and these are found to arise no less readily. Thus the movements of the arms are extremely various, and all of them may burst out in the spontaneous way. The grasp of the hand is the result of an extensive muscular endowment, and at an early stage manifests itself in the round of the innate and chance movements.

The erections and bendings of the body are outlets for spontaneous activity, and especially erection, which implies the greater effort. When superfluous power cannot run into the more abundant opening of locomotive movement, it expends itself in stretching and erecting the body and limbs to the extreme point of tension. The erection extends to the carriage of the head and the distension of the eyes, mouth, and features.

The vocal organs are a distinct and notable group of the active members. The utterance of the voice is unequivocally owing on many occasions to mere profusion of central energy,

although more liable than almost any other mode of action to be stimulated from without. In man the flow of words and song, in animals the outbursts of barking, braying, howling, are often manifestly owing to no other cause than the 'fresh' condition of the vocal organs.

The eyes have their independent centre of energy, whence results a spontaneously sustained gaze upon the outer world. When no object specially arrests the attention, the activity of the visual movements must be considered as mainly due to central power. In a person deprived of the sight of one eye, we find that eye still kept open, but not so wide as the other. The mouth is also subject to various movements which may often be the result of mere internal power, as is seen in the contortions indulged in after a period of immobility and restraint. The jaws find their use in masticating the food, but failing this, they may put forth their force in biting things put into the mouth, as in children not yet arrived at the age of chewing. The tongue is an organ of great natural activity, being endowed with many muscles, and having a wide scope of action. In the spontaneous action of the voice, which is at first an inarticulate howl, the play of the tongue, commencing of its own accord, gives the articulate character to utterance, and lays a foundation for the acquirement of speech.

Among the special aptitudes manifested among the lower animals we find marked examples of the spontaneity of action. The destructive weapons belonging to so many tribes, are frequently brought into play without any stimulus or provocation, and when no other reason can be rendered than the necessity for discharging an accumulation of inward energy. As the battery of the Torpedo becomes charged by the mere course of nutrition, and requires to be periodically relieved by being poured upon some object or other, so we may suppose that the jaws of the tiger, the fangs of the serpent, the spinning apparatus of the spider, require at intervals to have some objects to spend themselves upon. It is said that the constructiveness of the bee and the beaver incontinently manifests itself even when there is no end to be gained; a circumstance not at all singular, if we admit

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FEELINGS.

73 the spontaneous nature of many of the active endowments of men and animals.

The spontaneous activity is always observed to rise and fall with the vigour and state of nutrition of the general system, being abundant in states of high health, and deficient during sickness, hunger, and fatigue. Energetic movements, moreover, arise under the influence of drugs and stimulants acting on the nerves and nerve centres; also from fever and other ailments. Convulsions, spasms, and unnatural excitement, are diseased forms of the spontaneous discharge of the active energy of the nerve centres.*

OF THE MUSCULAR FEELINGS.

8. We are now brought to the express consideration of the first class of phenomena proper and peculiar to mind, namely, States of Feeling; these we have from the outset recognized as one of the three distinct manifestations of our mental nature. To give a systematic and precise account of the states of human consciousness,-a Natural History of the Feelings, is one of the aims of the science of mind.†

A critic of this work in the Nationa! Review, while admitting that the doctrine here contended for serves to explain phenomena that are left unexplained, on the assumption, most generally prevailing in the systems of the human mind, that our activity is called forth solely by the stimulus of our sensations-takes exception to the purely physical origin above assigned to the spontaneous movements. It is with the writer a serious ground of complaint that these movements are made to proceed from a "psychological nothing," or apart from any antecedent mental state. The question thus raised turns upon matter of fact, and if any observations can be produced to show that mind does manifest itself anterior to the spontaneous outburst, my statement is incorrect. But so far as I have been able to judge of what really happens, consciousness rapidly follows or else accompanies the spontaneous discharge, but does not precede it. We have unequivocal instances of movements arising without consciousness, as under chloroform and in delirium; and it is not contended that mind accompanies the movements of the foetus in the womb. A disputed point substantially identical with this is handled at length in "The Emotions and the Will." (Emotions, chap. vii., sec. 12).

It may facilitate the comprehension of the method herein adopted for the systematic delineation of the feelings, if I offer a few explanatory

9. There are three classes of Feelings connected with the moving organs:

(1.) Feelings dependent on the organic condition of the muscles; as those arising from hurts, wounds, diseases, fatigue, rest, nutriment. Most of these affections the muscles have in common with the other tissues of the body; and they will be considered under a subsequent head. Our plan requires that we should here exhibit the marked antithesis, or contrast, existing between Muscular Feeling proper (the Consciousnesss of movement, howsoever caused) and Sensation proper. The one is associated with energy passing outwards, the other with stimulation passing inwards; the two facts mingle together in the stream of mental life, but are yet of a widely different nature.

remarks as to the scope of it. The reader is sufficiently acquainted with the threefold partition of mind into Feeling, Volition, and Intellect. If this partition be complete and exhaustive, every mental fact and phenomenon whatsoever falls under one or other of these heads; nothing mental can be stated but what is either a feeling, a volition, or a thought. It must, nevertheless, be observed, that mental states need not belong to one of these classes exclusively. A feeling may have a certain volitional aspect, together with its own proper characters: thus the mental state caused by intense cold is of the nature of a feeling in the proper acceptation of the term; we recognize it as a mode of consciousness of the painful kind, but inasmuch as it stimulates us to performing actions for abating, or freeing ourselves from, the pain, there attaches to it a volitional character also. In like manner, every state that can be reproduced afterwards as a recollection, or retained as an idea, has by that circumstance a certain intellectual character.

Now, in describing states that come properly under the general head of feeling, we are called upon to bring forward, in the first instance, the peculiarities, or descriptive marks, that characterize them as feelings. This done, we may carry on the delineation by adverting to their influence on activity, or volition; and, lastly, we may specify anything that is distinctive in the hold that they take of the intellect. It is clear that if a Natural History of the human feelings is at all possible, we must endeavour to attain an orderly style of procedure, such as naturalists in other departments have had recourse to. If the fundamental divisions of mind have any validity in them, they ought to serve as the basis of a proper descriptive method; in fact, the description should accord with them.

The plan, in its completeness, may be represented thus:-
PHYSICAL SIDE.

Bodily Origin. (For Sensations chiefly.)
Bodily Diffusion, expression, or embodiment.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE MUSCULAR FEELINGS.

75

(2.) Feelings connected with muscular action, including all the pleasures and pains of exercise. These are the states just alluded to as peculiar to the muscular system.

(3.) The Feelings that indicate the various modes of tension of the moving organs. According as a muscle is tense or relaxed, according as much or little energy is thrown into it, and according to the quickness or slowness of the contraction, we are differently affected, and this difference of sensibility enables us to judge of the positions of our active members, and of many important relations of external things. These are the feelings. of muscle that enter most directly into our inteliigence; having little of the character of mere Feeling, and a very large reference to Thought, they deserve a separate treatment.

MENTAL SIDE.

Characters as Feeling.

Quality, i.e., Pleasure, Pain, Indifference.
Degree.

As regards Intensity or acuteness.

As regards Quantity, mass, or volume.

Special characteristics.

Volitional characters.

Mode of influencing the Will, or Motives to Action.

Intellectual characters.

Susceptibility to Discrimination and to Agreement.

Degree of Retainability, that is, Ideal Persistence and
Recoverability.

It is to be remarked that, as a general rule, pleasures agree in their physical expression, or embodiment, and also in their mode of operating on the will, namely, for their continuance, increase, or renewal. In like manner, pains have a common expression, and a common influence in promoting action for their removal, abatement, or avoidance. Hence the fact that a state is pleasurable or painful carries with it these two other facts as a matter of course.

Again, as regards the Intellect; Discrimination, Agreement, and Retainability are to a certain extent proportional to the degree of the feeling, or the strength of the impression. This being the case, the statement of the degree involves the probable nature of the properties connected with the Intellect. Hence it is unnecessary in most cases to carry the delineation through all the particulars of the table. It is only when a feeling possesses any peculiarities rendering it an exception to the general laws of coincidence now mentioned, that the full description is called for. Two or three examples of the complete detail will be given.