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will. And the work of will in producing these movements is of the simplest description: it has simply to dwell upon an idea to produce motion in any desired manner; As William James points out, every idea tends ultimately either to produce a movement or to check one which otherwise would be produced. But what is an idea in itself? Is it not the mental counterpart of a sensation pure and simple? William Jamest tells us :
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
"The lower centres act from present sensations alone; the hemispheres act from perceptions and considerations, the sensations which they may receive serving only as suggesters of these. But what are perceptions but sensations grouped together? and what are considerations but expectations, in the fancy, of sensations which will be felt one way or another according as action takes this course or that? If I step aside on seeing a rattle snake, from considering how dangerous an animal he is, the mental materials which constitute my prudential reflection are images more or less vivid of the movement of his head, of a sudden pain in my leg, of a state of terror, a swelling of the limb, a chill, delirium, unconsciousness, etc., etc., and the ruin of my hopes. But all these images are constructed out of my past experiences. They are reproductions of what I have felt or witnessed. They are, in short, remote sensations, and the difference between the hemisphereless animal and the whole one may be concisely expressed by saying that the one obeys absent, the other only present, objects."
Such is the process of deliberation: the reminiscences of the past are awakened and re-grouped in different ways till fancy's approval is obtained; and these regroupings constitute what is known as a train of thought. Thus is the function of the central organ of mind discharged by means of simple movements. The
The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I. p. 24. Ibid, page 20.
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