the image, the more accurately and efficiently will the purpose be carried out. We cannot exert an act of volition without having in the mind an idea or image of what we will to effect. The will has no direct power over the muscles but only over the images in the mind, and it is in accordance with these that the muscles act.2 By suggesting ideas to the mind of the mesmerised subject he may be made to do the most absurd things. It is well known, too, in the treatment of the insane that if a patient is violent from the presence of a particular idea in the mind, the introduction of a new idea by a welldirected question or otherwise will often at once change the current of his thoughts, and so allay his excitement.3

Clearness and accuracy of image is only to be obtained by repeatedly having it in the mind, or by repeated action of the faculty. Each repeated act of any of the

1"It is certain that in order to execute consciously a voluntary act we must have in the mind a conception of the aim or purpose of the act."-Dr. Maudsley.

2"The will which carries into action the determinations of the intellect has no direct power over the muscles which execute its mandates."-Dr. Carpenter. "Our power of willing consists in the power of calling into existence the appropriate idea.... The power of the will is not immediate over the muscle but over the idea. .. Whenever we have obtained a command over the ideas, we have also obtained a command over the motions," and "we cannot perform associated contractions of several muscles till we have established by repetition the ready association of the ideas ".-James Mill.

3 "The insane impulse appears to be not unfrequently the expression of a dominant idea. which operates by taking full possession of the mind, and by forcing the body (so to speak) into the movements which express it. . Of all the features of insanity, morbid impulses, emotions and feelings, and the loss of control over them, are the most essential and constant."-Dr. Carpenter. The late Prof. Traill, of Edinburgh, was on one occasion in the room with a madman, who suddenly locked the door and threatened to throw him out of the window. "I can do better than that," said the Professor, "I can go down to the street and jump in at the window." The extravagance of this boast gave a new turn to his thoughts; he opened the door to allow the Professor to go down to the street, and was at once secured.

faculties renders the mental image of it more clear and accurate than the preceding, and in proportion to the clearness and accuracy of the image will the act itself be performed easily, readily, skilfully. The course to be pursued, the point to be gained, the amount of effort to be put forth, become more and more clear to the mind. It is only from what we have done that we are able to judge of what we can do, and understand how it is to be effected.1 When our ideas or conceptions of what we can do are not based on experience, they become fruitful sources of error.

A clear and accurate idea of what we wish to do, and how it is to be effected, is of the utmost value and importance in all the affairs of life. A man's conduct naturally shapes itself according to the ideas in his mind, and nothing contributes more to success in life than having a high ideal and keeping it constantly in view. Where such is the case one can hardly fail in attaining it. Numerous unexpected circumstances will be found to conspire to bring it about, and even what

1 "We cannot do an act voluntarily unless we know what we are going to do, and we cannot know exactly what we are going to do until we have taught ourselves to do it."-Dr. Maudsley.

2" By aiming at a new construction, we must clearly conceive what is aimed at. . . . Where we have a very distinct and intelligible model before us we are in a fair way to succeed; in proportion as the ideal is dim and wavering we stagger and miscarry." -Prof. Bain.

3 "The continued concentration of attention upon a certain idea gives it a dominant power, not only over the mind but over the body."-Dr. Carpenter. "The idea of our own strength gives strength to our movements. A person who is confident of effecting anything by muscular efforts will do it more easily than one not so confident in his own power."-Dr. J. Müller. "The entire man in his body and soul, his actions and moral feelings, is governed by what he believes."-Anon. "To believe firmly is almost tantamount in the end to accomplishment. Extraordinary instances are related showing the influence of the will over even the involuntary muscles."--Dr. Tanner.

seemed at first to be hostile may be converted into means for its furtherance; while by having it constantly before the mind he will be ever ready to take advantage of any favouring circumstances that may present themselves.1 "A passionate desire and an unwearied will can perform impossibilities, or what seem to be such, to the cold and feeble."-Sir J. Y. Simpson. "Dream, O youth, dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets.”—Lord Lytton.2

But in order properly to understand the importance of these images, and to perceive the power and extent of their influence, it is necessary to keep in view that much that exists in the mind, and exerts an influence in it, does so unconsciously, as will be shown at greater length in the next chapter. While a mental image must first have been consciously in the mind before we could afterwards recognise it as having been there at all, yet after a time, or after many returns, it may be in the mind, and exert an active influence there without our being conscious of its presence. Time is a necessary element in consciousness, and an idea or image

1 "It is wonderful how even the casualties of life seem to bow to a spirit that will not bow to them, and yield to subserve a design which they may, in their first apparent tendency, threaten to frustrate. When a firm decisive spirit is recognised it is curious to see how the space clears around a man and leaves him room and freedom."--John Foster.

2 "Thus it is that aspirations are often prophecies, the harbingers of what a man shall be in a condition to perform."-Dr. Maudsley. It is related of Warren Hastings that when only seven years old "there rose on his mind a scheme which through all the turns of his eventful life was never abandoned. He would recover the estate which belonged to his father-he would be Hastings of Dalyesford." T. B. Macaulay.

3 "An idea sometimes arises and produces a movement without there having been any active consciousness of it, the effect being that which first arouses consciousness if it be aroused at all.-Dr. H. Maudsley.

must be a certain time before the mind in order to its being consciously apprehended. But the more frequently ideas recur, and the more familiar they become, the less time do they occupy, and the less impression do they make,-coming and going, frequently, without our being at all aware of it. We only know of their presence from the effects they produce, or the results that follow from them. In learning to play on the piano, for instance, one is at first fully conscious of every note as he goes over it; but after a lengthened practice he may be able to play the most difficult pieces without giving any attention to them, carrying on, perhaps, an animated conversation on an entirely different subject at the same time. There is every reason to believe that mental images were present in the latter case as in the former, guiding and directing every step of it, but their passage through the mind was too rapid for them to be taken notice of. Sometimes an unconscious idea will prevail over a conscious one, and one may purpose or intend to do a certain thing, or to follow out a certain line of conduct, but other influences, the result of previous actions, may prevail, and what he would he does not, and what he would not that he does.1 In the same way a man may wish to give expression to certain thoughts in his mind and yet, from the presence of different or perverted images, he may say or write. something different or even contrary to what he intended.

1❝In certain individuals and in a certain state of mental concentration the expectation of a result is sufficient to determine, without any voluntary effort and even in opposition to the will, the muscular movements by which it is produced."--Dr. Carpenter. "Everyone's experience will recall to him occasions on which an idea excited in his mind could not be dismissed therefrom by the will, and perhaps would not let him rest until he had realised it in action, even though such realisation appeared to his judgment inadvisable,”—Dr. H. Maudsley.

Perhaps something like the following may have at some time or other occurred to most of our readers :-He wishes to write a letter, has paper and pens before him, but wants ink. He knows he wants something, and paper being before him puts the idea of paper into his mind, and he says, "Bring me some paper" instead of ink. We believe that telegraph-offices are not without instances of clerks sending messages very different from, if not directly contrary to, what was before them. The message probably suggested to the mind ideas of the contrary, and the latter were accordingly sent.1

If we bear in mind that every sensation or idea must form an image in the mind before it can be perceived or understood, and that every act of volition is preceded by its image, it will be seen that images play a very important part in all our mental operations. According to the nature of the ideas or images which he entertains Iwill be the character and conduct of the man. The man tenacious of purpose is the man who holds tenaciously certain ideas; the flighty man is he who cannot keep one idea before him for any length of time, but

1 "Ideas which have passed out of the conscious memory sometimes express themselves in involuntary muscular movements to the great surprise of the individual executing them."-Dr. Carpenter. In certain forms of mental insanity "we find a sort of duplication of the mental unity. The individual thus divided into two parts-one portion of himself remaining healthy while the other is at the mercy of the phenomena of automatic involuntary impulse-looks on as a conscious spectator at certain extravagant acts that he is forced to commit, at certain senseless words that he utters. There are patients sometimes who write and describe their distresses-the involuntary agonies through which they pass, the words they have pronounced unwittingly, how they are impelled to speak in spite of themselves, to say what they would not have wished to say, to go through ridiculous gesticulations, and to commit extravagances they believe themselves incapable of restraining."-J. Luys. "When anyone is thinking intensely about one thing and carelessly conversing about another, he is liable to use the word of a contrary meaning to that which he designed, as cold weather for hot weather, summer for winter."-Dr. E. Darwin.