Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/478

 464 GUSTAV SPILLEB : We must, therefore, urge that every mental trend is tl offspring of other trends, these simplifying as we retreat to infancy. Let us make sure of the meaning of the statement. In a mental series where we blunder along, vexed with doubts and difficulties, do we encounter nothing but organic reaction ? When we learn our algebra, or our geometry, is there in the process of acquisition as much routine as when we know them well ? However paradoxical it may appear, we answer Yes. We observed already that the number of links in an act leaves the question of their possessing an organic basia unaffected. Rationality is no fixed attribute of such 'an act. This we have seen holds true of physical activities. Now all that we have to face in a difficult mental series is a large number of steps. A man is asked, "How many days has September ? " He answers promptly, " Thirty ". Or he says perhaps, " Let me see. September, did you say ? I don't think I remember. I'll try, though. I believe there is a doggerel verse that might help. Confound it ; I can't recall the verse. Yes, I can. ' Thirty days hath September.' I thought I could recall that verse. September has thirty days, my friend." It would be of the greatest interest ex- haustively to analyse, if that were possible, such a string of thought. Here we can only state that every turn enumerated is of a kind and a class that we have employed in our mental experience times out of number. To wonder, to be surprised, to doubt, to feel convinced, are all mental phases which have their place in general routine. The wonder follows immediately on something it has followed before, link on link, as we should expect. The multiplicity of links raises no problem, nor does the failure of the act to attain its end affect the matter. The fact that we have been thinking for years makes it evident that thought as a whole is a tangle of organic complexes. We doubt, as we have been accustomed to doubt. We show implicit faith as we have done on previous occasions. We meet the various facts of life from settled, often contradictory points of view. Occasions being similar, we tend to react similarly. The cast of a person's character is partly traceable to this fact. It will be said that active consciousness is not organic when we are conscious of observing something. Why not ? Are there not degrees of consciousness ? Is it not past ex- perience which decides when we shall be conscious or not ? May we not be clearly conscious, and be quite unconscious that we are clearly conscious ? Do we not frequently attend closely, and yet, because of routine, forget the fact almost