Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. - Various None (e book reader android txt) 📗
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Obedience To Thought Or Knowledge Was Shown By The Fact That His Dinner
Could Be At Once Interrupted By Awakening A New Train Of Feeling By A
New External Impulse. Put A Crooked Stick Resembling A Gun Into His
Hand, And At Once The Man Was Seized With A Rage Comparable To That
Produced In The Strasburg Dog By Taking Hold Of His Tail. The Fury Of
Conflict Was On Him: With A Loud Yell He Would Recommence The Skirmish
In Which He Had Been Wounded, And, Crying To His Comrades, Would Make A
Rush At The Supposed Assailant. Take The Stick Out Of His Hand, And At
Once His Apathy Would Settle Upon Him; Give Him A Knife And Fork, And,
Whether At The Table Or Elsewhere, He Would Make The Motions Of Eating;
Hand Him A Spade, And He Would Begin To Dig. It Is Plain That The
Impulse Produced By Seeing His Comrades Move To The Dining-Room Started
The Chain Of Automatic Movements Which Resulted In His Seating Himself
At The Table. The Weapon Called Into New Life The Well-Known Acts Of The
Battle-Field. The Spade Brought Back The Day When, Innocent Of Blood, He
Cultivated The Vineyards Of Sunny France.
In Both The Dog And The Man Just Spoken Of The Control Of The Will Over
The Emotions And Mental Acts Was Evidently Lost, And The Mental
Functions Were Performed Only In Obedience To Impulses From
Without--I.E. Were Automatic. The Human Brain Is A Complex And Very
Delicate Mechanism, So Uniform In Its Actions, So Marvellous In Its
Creation, That It Is Able To Measure The Rapidity Of Its Own Processes.
There Are Scarcely Two Brains Which Work Exactly With The Same Rapidity
And Ease. One Man Thinks Faster Than Another Man For Reasons As Purely
Physical As Those Which Give To One Man A Faster Gait Than That Of
Another. Those Who Move Quickly Are Apt To Think Quickly, The Whole
Nervous System Performing Its Processes With Rapidity. This Is Not,
However, Always The Case, As It Is Possible For The Brain To Be
Differently Constructed, So Far As Concerns Its Rapidity Of Action, From
The Spinal Cord Of The Same Individual. Our Power Of Measuring Time
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 131Without Instruments Is Probably Based Upon The Cerebral System Of Each
Individual Being Accustomed To Move At A Uniform Rate. Experience Has
Taught The Brain That It Thinks So Many Thoughts Or Does So Much Work In
Such A Length Of Time, And It Judges That So Much Time Has Elapsed When
It Has Done So Much Work. The Extraordinary Sense Of Prolongation Of
Time Which Occurs In The Intoxication Produced By Hasheesh Is Probably
Due To The Fact That Under The Influence Of The Drug The Brain Works
Very Much Faster Than It Habitually Does. Having Produced A Multitude Of
Images Or Thoughts In a Moment, The Organ Judges That A Corresponding
Amount Of Time Has Elapsed. Persons Are Occasionally Seen Who Have The
Power Of Waking At Any Desired Time: Going To Bed At Ten O'Clock, They
Will Rouse Themselves At Four, Five Or Six In The Morning, As They Have
Made Up Their Minds To Do The Previous Night. The Explanation Of This
Curious Faculty Seems To Be That In These Persons The Brain-Functions Go
On With So Much Regularity During Sleep That The Brain Is Enabled To
Judge, Though Unconsciously, When The Time Fixed Upon Has Arrived, And
By An Unconscious Effort To Recall Consciousness.
Of Course The Subject Of Automatism Might Have Been Discussed At Far
Greater Length Than Is Allowable In The Limits Of Two Magazine Articles,
But Sufficient Has Probably Been Said To Show The Strong Current Of
Modern Physiological Psychology Toward Proving That All Ordinary Mental
Actions, Except The Exercise Of The Conscious Will, Are Purely Physical,
Produced By An Instrument Which Works In a Method Not Different From
That In Which The Glands Of The Mouth Secrete Saliva And The Tubules Of
The Stomach Gastric Juice. Some Of My Readers May Say This Is Pure
Materialism, Or At Least Leads To Materialism. No Inquirer Who Pauses To
Think How His Investigation Is Going To Affect His Religious Belief Is
Worthy To Be Called Scientific. The Scientist, Rightly So Called, Is A
Searcher After Truth, Whatever May Be The Results Of The Discovery Of
The Truth. Modern Science, However, Has Not Proved The Truth Of
Materialism. It Has Shown That The Human Organism Is A Wonderful
Machine, But When We Come To The Further Question As To Whether This
Machine Is Inhabited By An Immortal Principle Which Rules It And Directs
It, Or Whether It Simply Runs Itself, Science Has Not, And Probably
Cannot, Give A Definite Answer. It Has Reached Its Limit Of Inquiry, And
Is Unable To Cross The Chasm That Lies Beyond. There Are Men Who
Believe That There Is Nothing In The Body Save The Body Itself, And That
When That Dies All Perishes: There Are Others, Like The Writer, Who
Believe That They Feel In Their Mental Processes A Something Which They
Call "Will," Which Governs And Directs The Actions Of The Machine, And
Which, Although Very Largely Influenced By External Surroundings, Is
Capable Of Rising Above The Impulses From Without, Leading Them To
Believe In The Existence Of More Than Flesh--Of Soul And God. The
Materialist, So Far As Natural Science Is Concerned, Stands Upon Logical
Ground, But No Less Logical Is The Foundation Of Him Who Believes In
Human Free-Will And Immortality. The Decision As To The Correctness Of
The Beliefs Of The Materialist Or Of The Theist Must Be Reached By Other
Data Than Those Of Natural Science.
H.C. Wood, M.D.
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 132
Our Monthly Gossip.
Civil-Service Reform And Democratic Ideas.
A Movement Which Appeals Not To The Emotions, But To The
Intellect--Whose Advocates Aim At Enlightening-The Public Mind And
Convincing It Of The Truth Of Some New Or Disregarded Principle, And The
Necessity Of Enforcing It--Needs Above All Things Open And Active
Opposition, Both As A Stimulant To Its Supporters And As A Means Of
Arousing General Attention. It Has Been Very Unfortunate For Our
Civil-Service Reformers That They Have Never Been Able To Provoke
Discussion. They Have Had The Field Of Argument All To Themselves. Their
Repeated Challenges Have Been Received Only With Silent Respect,
Scornful Indifference, Or Expressions Of Encouragement Still More
Depressing. Those Whose Hostility They Were Prepared To Encounter Have
Been The Readiest To Acknowledge The Truth Of Their Propositions--
Considered As Pure Abstractions--And Have Even Invited
Them To Apply Their System--In Conjunction With That Which It Seeks To
Supplant. Meanwhile, The Popular Interest Has Been Kept Busily Absorbed
By Issues Of A Different Nature; And The Reformers, Snubbed In Quarters
Where They Had Confidently Counted On Aid, And Hustled From The Arena In
Which They Had Fondly Imagined They Were To Play A Prominent Part And
Exert A Decisive Influence, Are Now, It Is Announced, About To Devote
Their Energies To The Quiet Propagation Of Their Views By Means Of
Tracts And Other Publications, Abstaining From Any Appearance In The
Domain Of Actual Politics Either As A Distinct Party Or As An Organized
Body Of Independent Voters Appealing To The Hopes And Fears Of Existing
Parties, And Ready To Co-Operate With One Or The Other According To The
Inducements Offered For Their Support.
We Heartily Wish Them Success In This New Enterprise, And It Is As A
Contribution To Their Efforts That We Publish In This Number Of The
Magazine An Article Which, So Far As Our Observation Extends, Is The
First Direct Argumentative Attack Upon Their Doctrines And Open Defence
Of The System They Have Assailed. We Shall Not Undertake To Anticipate
Their Reply, But I Shall Content Ourselves With Pointing Out, On The
Principle Of _Fas Est Ab Hoste Doceri,_ What They May Learn From This
Attack, And Especially What Hints May Be Derived From It In Regard To
The Proper Objective Point Of Their Proposed Operations. Hitherto, If We
Mistake Not, They Have Been Led To Suppose That The Only Obstacles In
Their Way Are The Interested Antagonism Of The "Politicians" And The
Ignorant Apathy Of The Great Mass Of The People, And It Is Because They
Have Found Themselves Powerless To Make Head Against The Tactics Of The
Former Class That They Intend To Confine Themselves Henceforth To The
Work Of Awaking And Enlightening The Latter. There Is Always Danger,
However, When We Are Expounding Our Pet Theories To A Group Of Silent
Listeners, Of Ignoring Their State Of Mind In Regard To The
Subject-Matter And Mistaking The Impression Produced By Our Eloquence.
George Borrow Tells Us That When Preaching In Rommany To A Congregation
Of Gypsies He Felt Highly Flattered By The Patient Attention Of His
Hearers, Till He Happened To Notice That They All Had Their Eyes Fixed
In A Diabolical Squint. Something Of The Same Kind Would, We Fear, Be
The Effect On A Large Number Of Persons Of Well-Meant Expositions Of The
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 133English Civil-Service Reform And Its Admirable Results. Nor Will Any
Appeals To The Moral Sense Excite An Indignation At The Workings Of Our
Present System Sufficiently Deep And General To Demand Its Overthrow.
Civil-Service Reform Had A Far Easier Task In england Than It Has Here,
And Forces At Its Back Which Are Here Actively Or Inertly Opposed To It.
There The System Of Patronage Was Intimately Connected With
Oligarchical Rule; Official Positions Were Not So Much Monopolized By A
Victorious Party As By A Privileged Class; The Government Of The Day Had
Little Interest In Maintaining The System, The Bulk Of The Nation Had A
Direct Interest In Upsetting It, And Its Downfall Was A Natural Result
Of The Growth Of Popular Power And The Decline Of Aristocracy. Our
System, However Similar In Its Character And Effects, Had No Such
Origin; It Does Not Belong To Some Peculiar Institution Which We Are
Seeking To Get Rid Of: On The Contrary, It Has Its Roots In certain
Conceptions Of The Nature Of Government And Popular Freedom--Of The
Relations Between A People And Those Who Administer Its Affairs--Which
Are All But Universally Current Among Us.
It Is This Last Point Which Is Clearly And Forcibly Presented In The
Article Of Our Contributor, And Which It Will Behoove The Reformers Not
To Overlook. Nothing Is More Characteristic Of The American Mind, In
Reference
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