WE now commence the subject of Mind proper, or the

enumeration and explanation of the States and Varieties of Feeling, the Modes of Action, and the Powers of Intelligence, comprised in the mental nature of man.

In the First Book, which is to comprehend the MOVEMENTS, SENSATIONS, APPETITES, and INSTINCTS, I propose to deal with what may be termed the inferior region of mind, the inferiority being marked by the absence, in a great degree, of Intellect and cultivation. This is the region wherein man may be most extensively compared with the brute creation, whose intelligence and education are comparatively small. When the powers of a superior intellect, and the example and acquirements of former generations are superadded to the primitive Sensations and Instincts, there results a higher class of combinations, more difficult to analyse and describe, and falling therefore more properly to a later stage of the exposition.

It will, however, be remarked as a novelty in the plan thus announced, that the Appetites and Instincts have been included in the same Book with the Sensations. In the works of former writers on Mental Science, as, for example, Reid, Stewart, Brown, and Mill, those portions of our nature have been included among the general group of Active Powers, including Desire, Habit, and the Will. My reasons for departing from the example of these eminent writers are the following. In the first place, the Appetites and Instincts are scarcely at all connected with the higher operations of intelligence, and therefore they do not require to be preceded by the exposition of the Intellect. Everything necessary to be said respecting them may be given as soon as the Sensations are discussed. In the second place, I hope to make it appear that the illustration of the Intellectual processes will gain by the circumstance that Appetite and Instinct have been previously gone into. Thirdly, the connexion of Appetite

F

with Sensation is so close, that the one will be found to tread on the heels of the other. Fourthly, as regards Instinct, I conceive it to be proper to render an account of all that is Instinctive in our nature-all our untaught activities-before entering upon the process of acquisition as treated of under the Intellect. In addition to these reasons stated in advance, I trust to the impression produced by the effect of the arrangement itself for the complete justification of my departure from the plan of my predecessors.

The arrangement of the present Book will be into four chapters.

The subject of Chapter first is Action and Movement considered as spontaneous, together with the Feelings and Impressions resulting from muscular activity.

Chapter second treats of the Senses and Sensations.

Chapter third treats of the Appetites.

Chapter fourth includes the Instincts, or the untaught movements, and the primitive rudiments of Emotion and Volition. This subject is brought in at that stage in order to complete the plan of the present Book, which professes to exhaust all the primitive germs, whether of Action or Emotion, belonging to our nature, before proceeding to the consideration of intelligence and acquisition. In a complete system of mind the Intellect would in this view be placed midway between the instinctive, and the cultivated, emotions and activities, being itself the instrument for converting the one class into the other.

CHAPTER I.

OF SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY AND THE FEELINGS

OF MOVEMENT.

I.

THE

THE feelings connected with the movements of the body, or the action of the muscles, have come to be recognised as a distinct class, differing materially from the sensations of the five senses. They have been regarded by some metaphysicians as proceeding from a sense apart, a sixth, or muscular sense, and have accordingly been enrolled under the general head of sensations. That they are to be dealt with as a class by themselves, as much so as sounds or sights, the feelings of affection, or the emotion of the ludicrous, is now pretty well admitted on all hands.

With regard, however, to the position of this class of feelings in the plan or arrangement of our subject, there is still room for differences of opinion. In my judgment they ought not to be classed with the Sensations of the five Senses, and I believe further that the consideration of them should precede the exposition of the Senses. The grounds of this belief are such as the following:-namely, that movement precedes sensation, and is at the outset independent of any stimulus from without; and that action is a more intimate and inseparable property of our constitution than any of our sensations, and in fact enters as a component part into every one of the senses, giving them the character of compounds while itself is a simple and elementary property. These assertions require to be proved in detail, but before doing so, it is advisable to notice briefly the mechanism or anatomy of movement in the animal frame.

OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM.

2. Muscular Tissue. The muscular tissue is that by means of which the active movements of the body are produced. It consists of fine fibres, which are for the most part collected into distinct organs, called muscles, and in this form it is familiarly known as the flesh of animals; these fibres are also disposed round the sides of cavities and between the coats of hollow viscera, forming strata of greater or less thickness. The muscular fibres are endowed with contractility—a remarkable and characteristic property, by virtue of which they shrink or contract more or less rapidly under the influence of certain causes which are capable of exciting or calling into play the property in question, and which are therefore named stimuli. A large class of muscles, comprehending those of locomotion, respiration, expression, and some others, are excited by the stimulus of the will, or volition, acting on them through the nerves; these are therefore named voluntary muscles,' although some of them habitually, and all occasionally, act also in obedience to other stimuli. There are other muscles or muscular fibres which are entirely withdrawn from the control of the will, such as those of the heart and intestinal canal, and these are accordingly named 'involuntary.' These two classes of muscles differ not only in the mode in which they are excited to act, but also to a certain extent in their anatomical characters.'-SHARPEY; QUAIN'S Anatomy, p. clxiii.

Structure of Voluntary Muscles. The voluntary muscular fibres are for the most part gathered together into distinct masses, or muscles of various sizes and shapes, but most generally of an oblong form, and furnished with tendons at either extremity, by which they are fixed to the bones. The two attached extremities of a muscle are named, in anatomical descriptions, its origin and insertion, the former term being usually applied to the attachment which is considered to be most fixed, although the rule cannot always be applied strictly. The fleshy part is named the belly.