Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/20

 2 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

in the spinal cord, certain ingoing and outgoing nerves are closely connected, so that the impulse started by the sensa tion goes straight on through without being diverted in its course. Consciousness may be aroused and may to a cer tain extent be able to inhibit the responsive act; though that is often not possible. If one touches a red-hot iron he will almost inevitably jerk back his hand; and it requires the most strenuous exertion of the will to inhibit this re flex muscular action. Only for a little while can we stop the winking of the eyes, and if a cinder enters the eye we can not resist the tendency to shut the lids. Ordinarily and normally, reflex actions go on without awakening con sciousness; but under certain conditions the nervous im pulse instead of passing immediately and entirely through the outgoing nerve to produce a motor response, radiates in some measure to nervous centres which are located higher up and which directly condition consciousness. These re flex actions are not automatic in the sense in which the proc esses of digestion and circulation of the blood and other so-called automatisms are ; for the latter are not in any appreciable measure subject to the immediate control of the will, however much they may be indirectly and gradually modified by conscious attitudes. These automatisms are physiological and, although of the greatest importance to public speaking, can not properly be treated in a discussion of psychological phenomena. To be sure, they might with a considerable show of reason be regarded as reflexes of a more fundamental and thoroughly organized character; or the reflexes might be regarded as automatisms a little less rigidly organized and a little more exposed to the direct interference of consciousness.

We need not dwell upon the reflexes, though they are not without interest to the speaker in some respects. As he stands before an audience he is an object of sense to them; he influences them mainly, if not exclusively, through eye and ear sensations, and many of the responses he evokes from them are of the reflex type ; and many of their move-

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