Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/534

 522 CHARLES MERCIER : tions of which the following is an outline. Beturning to the physiological aspect of the question, it is to be noticed that the nervous process which is the objective condition of Will, although it has the characters common to all nervous pro- cesses, has one character that is special and unique. Other feelings have as their physiological basis the activity of this or that region of grey matter a region which may be large or may be small, but which includes a portion only of the highest nerve-centres, and leaves other regions to be simul- taneously and separately active, and to form the basis of simultaneous and different feelings. That is to say, other feelings form a portion only of consciousness and are there- fore considered to be distinct from the Ego which is the sum total of all the states of consciousness at one time co-existing. But the nervous process that underlies Will is a far more extensive affair. It is not, as that of other feelings is, the activity of this or that centre or region ; it is the resultant or algebraical sum of the activities of all the highest nervous regions. Hence the feeling which it underlies is in a special manner identified with the Ego. When I say I have a feeling of warmth or anger, I regard the feeling as something distinct from the / that feel it. But when I will, I regard the will as the expression of my whole self. And it is this identifi- cation of Will with the subject that constitutes its peculiarity as compared with other feelings, and that has led to its relegation to a region of mind apart from them. The classification of the group of feelings with which we are now dealing depends, it will be remembered, upon the stage of the action of the organism on the environment at which the feeling occurs. The next feeling that we have to consider is therefore that which corresponds with the next stage of this action, and occurs when the current of energy is delivered from the nerves into the muscles and the mus- cular contraction takes place. Every spontaneous action of the organism on the environment is effected by muscular contraction, and the feeling accompanying a muscular con- traction is therefore a necessary part of the feeling that accompanies every act, however the act may be performed and whatever part of the organism may be chiefly concerned in it. To this feeling we give the name of Effort. (Genus 2.) The simplest acts, such as phonation, turning of the head, and so forth, contain no other physiological elements than the nervous discharge and the muscular contraction. When these two stages are gone through the act is complete, and the corresponding feelings of Will and Effort alone occur. Further, it is evident that we have now exhausted the pos-