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establish-namely, a tendency in the moving system to go into action, without any antecedent sensation from without or emotion from within, or without any stimulus extraneous to the moving apparatus itself. But we do not see any ground for excluding the agency of the centres, in the commencing stimulus of periodical active exercise. The same central energy that keeps up the muscular tonicity, must be allowed to share in the self-originating muscular activity. If so, the demand for exercise that comes round upon every actively constituted nature, is a strong confirmation of the view we are now engaged in maintaining.

Coupling together, therefore, the initial movements of infancy, the mobility of early years generally, the observations on young and active members of the brute creation, and the craving for exercise universally manifested, we have a large body of evidence in favour of the doctrine of spontaneous action.

(6.) The operation of what is termed Excitement likewise corroborates the position we are now maintaining. The physical fact of the excited condition is an increase in the quantity, or a change in the quality, of the blood in the brain. The mental fact is the increase of mental energy in all its modes. A stimulus applied, in such a condition, produces a more than usual response; and there is manifested an incontinent activity, irrespective of all stimulation. The outward movements are hurried and uncontrollable, the feelings are more intense, the thoughts are rapid; every mental exertion is heightened. When the excitement rises to the morbid pitch, as in disease, or under the influence of drugs, such as strychnine, there is an enormous expenditure of force, apart from any stimulation whatsoever: the altered nutrition of the brain is the sole influence concerned.

(7.) As a farther confirmation, it may be remarked that sensibility and activity do not rise and fall together; on the contrary, they often stand in an inverse proportion to each other. By comparing different characters, or the different states of the same individual, we may test the truth of this

observation. The strong, restless, active temperament is not always marked as the most sensitive and emotional, but is very frequently seen to be the least affected by these influences. The activity that seems to sustain itself, costing the individual almost no effort, being his delight rather than his drudgery, and very little altered by the presence or the absence of stimulus or ends, is manifestly a constitutional selfprompting force; and such activity is a well known fact. It is one of the fundamental distinctions of character, both in individuals and in races; being seen in the restless adventurer, the indefatigable traveller, the devotee of business, the incessant meddler in affairs; in the man that hates repose and despises passive enjoyments. It is the pushing energy of Philip of Macedon and William the Conqueror. On the other hand, sensitive and emotional natures, which are to be found abundantly among men, and still more abundantly among women, are not active in a corresponding degree, while the kind of activity displayed by them, is plainly seen to result more from some stimulus or object, than from an innate exuberance of action. The activity prompted by ends, by something to be gained or avoided, is easily distinguished from the other by its being closely adapted to those ends, and by its ceasing when they have been accomplished. He that labours merely on the stimulus of reward, rests when he has acquired a competency, and is never confounded with the man whose life consists in giving vent to a naturally active temperament, or a superabundance of muscular and central energy.

(8.) Lastly, it will be afterwards shown, that without spontaneity, the growth of the Will is inexplicable.

Regions of Spontaneous Activity.

7. The muscles for the most part act in groups, being associated together by the organization of the nervous centres, for the performance of actions requiring concurrent movements.

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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

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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 or our sensations-takes exception to the purely physical origir 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 fœtus 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