Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/462

 448 GUSTAV SPILLEB : nervous centres, there we shall find sensations alongside of physical activities. (c) It might seem plausible to surmise that every step in a routine process is recalled by the step which precedes it, and that on the first step being recalled, the others follow auto- matically. The whole process, unless interrupted, would according to this hypothesis, run down like an alarm-clock. It would be as with a row of bricks appropriately arranged. As the top portion of the first brick received a push in the direction of the other bricks, it would fall on the second brick, which would fall on the third, and so on until the last brick fell. Facts, however, do not bear out this theory. It is not the outward stimulus that calls up the reaction ; for as the stimulus makes itself felt, so, at the same time, the reaction begins to emerge into consciousness. The stimulus touches a brain area where both stimulus and re- action are implicated. There is not one neural disturbance following another ; but one neural disturbance as a result of which we both perceive and act. And, likewise, along with the reaction there is already developing a tendency to elabo- rate a further stimulus. The disturbance, to state the thesis differently, is never strictly a local one. Hence we must reject the suggestion that routine process is a mechanical step-to-step process. (d) We are bound to go further. With any complex process such as writing, we cannot stop at inconsiderable neural disturbances. We have to reckon with a need which persists throughout. When this is interfered with we cease to write. Such stimulating needs are the source of organised trends of every description, as indeed of every task. They represent a definite neural sensibility which enables the work to proceed. The cessation of the needs involves the cessation of the sensibility referred to, and the latter ceasing, the former ceases. It is this sensibility which conditions the ready reception of the stimuli and the ready reaction following. In the literal sense, therefore, we have nothing atomic or purely mechanical in a routine act like that of writing. We are still dealing with a complex. 9. Organic Trends and Memory. The child is resolved to write the letter " r " more distinctly. Next time he sits down to write he does not remember his resolution. In some instances he knows that he is coming to an " r," and yet again and again writes in the bad old fashion. The ex- planation of this, after what has been said in the section preceding the last, is not difficult. The child pursues its task independently of other mental labour. He has drilled