that side as to prevent any other general direction being followed. A few illustrations of the processes of acquiring volitional obedience to representative cognitions may be now introduced.

WORD OF COMMAND.

§ 13. Obedience to the word of command is an acquisition in the same line as obedience to the whip, but introduces a higher degree of association. The education by which the sight of a whip will compel obedience is on the same plane as that now instanced. In either case, the sight or hearing calls up the pains of disobedience, and stimulates to action to avoid those painsProbably harsh, shrill, sharp tones of the human voice are themselves painful, apart from any associated pain. So also the effect is enhanced by threatening looks. If the contrary effects are discerned when obedience is promptly and correctly rendered, the associating links are readily forged, and by subtle gradations in the voice of the one commanding the child is made very sensitive to conform his conduct to the exact wishes of his governor. If occasionally the original stimulus of punishment is applied, it will reinvigorate the force of subsequent indications of pleasure and displeasure by the voice. With some persons, such a repetition of the harsher stimulus is often required; with others, not at all, according to natural constitution. The first responses to vocal direction are very awkward and slow. The child does not know how to do as he is told; but gradually he finds out what is wanted, and, with the stimulus unabated, he works with facility. Even in mature life, the mind is wholly at a loss when a command is given to do an unaccustomed thing; and if the man has placed himself in a position to render obedience to command, he is perplexed and distressed. If, however, he were told to go thither or come hither, raise the arm or lower it, hold the head erect, eat or drink, walk or run, the frequency with which, in the course of his life, all these have been performed, enables him to respond unhesitatingly. To a child, however, all such acts are, in the first instances, as laboriously done as (and often more so than) the unexpected and unfamiliar injunctions imposed in adult life.

IMITATION.

§ 14. We have noticed that the earliest volitional efforts are of the nature of continuing or abating sucking when the hunger is satisfied. We have noticed next a power of selecting movements

which bring pleasure or avoid pain, the selection being made through association. We then observed how the volition rested upon certain ends as intermediate, and made certain exercises subservient to more ultimate and remote purposes, as when the hands are moved to seize an object in order to convey it to the mouth. The discipline of the word of command marks a further step in volitional association. The performance of an action from seeing another perform it, marks still a further advance. Imitation is not to any great extent instinctive. It does not occur very markedly in the first year of infancy; and, when it does begin, is somewhat slow in its progress. It is illustrated in various movements and combinations of movements, and conspicuously in the articulations of speech. Imitation could not take place without original spontaneity. The process may be exemplified by the case of vocal imitation. Sounds are emitted spontaneously from the vocal organs; they make an impression upon the mind as indicating pleasure or pain. With certain pleasures are associated certain sounds; with certain pains, certain other sounds. When now a sound is heard from some outside source, by association a resemblance is suggested to sounds which the child's own vocal organs have produced; these last, in turn, suggest the movements which are necessary to repeat sounds. They are repeated, and a gradual adaptation takes place between the external sound and the one produced by the vocal organs. First, short syllables easily produced by the voice are acquired (pa, ma, etc.); then two or more syllables conjoined; and so on, till the full command of speech is obtained. After imitation has once been successful, it cannot always be repeated. On the contrary, it usually requires considerable labour to maintain and establish permanently the attainment. Children are very often unable to repeat at the wish a sound which they have shown themselves able to pronounce. Repetition, however, soon strengthens the association and cures the difficulty. In precisely the same way, imitation of movements takes place. A child observes the movements of its own limbs, and establishes an association between the sight of those movements and the efforts put forth to cause them. Seeing movements of others, he compares them with his own, and corresponding movements of his own are repeated and conformed to the external motions. The difficulty of effecting imitation is greatest where the movements to be performed are not within the range of eyesight. A mirror may remedy the difficulty, or the voice of a bystander telling

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whether the movement is correct or not. The teaching of the deaf to speak is the greatest triumph of remote association. There must, of course, be a stimulus to imitation of one sort or another. There must be a pleasure to be derived from the imitative effort. Frequently, imitation may be accelerated by the direction of the voice in tones of command; frequently by mere imitation of the imitation, as of the nurse with the child. Whenever, too, any action seen appears by the associated signs to confer great delight upon the one performing it, and there is any link to connect it with one's own capabilities, imitation is at once prompted. Where there is a strong impulse, the accomplishment is easier, quicker, and more certain. Imitation undoubtedly is, to some extent, a matter of natural capacity. The power to imitate also grows with practice and all the acquired habits. A delicacy of apprehension by ear and eye is reached after long practice, which makes the accuracy of imitation seem wonderful. Where natural bent and great practice are combined we have, perhaps, the most perfect exemplifications of the power.

OBEDIENCE TO WISHES.

§ 15. A further refinement of volitional attainment occurs when a movement is executed in obedience to an idea of that movement. This, however, is only a consequence of the representation of experiences. An experience is recalled, and, with the cognition, is reproduced a stimulus to volition, and if there be sufficient strength of feeling to set activity in motion, the action takes place. This strength of feeling arises in the anticipation or suggestion of some present pleasure to be realised by the act whose idea is before the mind. Out of this ability to be guided in voluntary action by intellectual associations represented comes the full maturity of volition. The simplest form of obedience. yielded to wishes is the volition inspired by an original stimulus of pleasure and pain toward the one and away from the other; but as education progresses obedience to wishes suggested in the vast complication of associations is a matter of greater extent and involving a higher power. The guidance of the associations may take place in two ways. The first of these is the presence of the idea of the action to be performed. There is awakened an idea of going to the other side of the room, taking down and putting on my overcoat which hangs there. There may be present a mental picture of my body rising up, my legs moving

forward and alternating, my hand reaching out to take the coat, my arm swinging it behind my back, and then both arms going into the armholes and adjusting the garment on my person. Supposing there is an adequate motive for doing all this lying behind, as the desire to go out of doors, these successive pictures rise in the mind and become antecedents of the various intermediate and final actions accomplished. This is one method by which representative cognitions act upon volition. As associations become more firmly cemented and more highly representative, an abridgment of this process occurs. The idea of the effect to be produced takes the place of the idea of the movements to be accomplished. For instance, in the example just taken, the idea of the coat on my back and the feeling of warmth consequent thereon would be the intellectual antecedent to the actions necessary to secure the effect; the intermediate associations being integrated, merged, and consolidated, so as to occupy no appreciable portion of our consciousness. This is the highest and most complete development of volitional power. It is scarcely necessary to observe that such is not acquired instantaneously. The number of acquisitions of this character varies with different individuals and different times of life, but in no case can any such become fixed till a considerable amount of representation has taken place. First, simpler movements become involuntary. Then, as the mind grows in complexity, the more complicated operations pass into permanent acquisitions, so that they may be performed with promptness and machine-like precision, the idea of the effect to be produced being sufficient to set a train in motion to proceed infallibly to its end.

GENERAL CONTROL OF FEELINGS.

§ 16. The general control of feelings and thoughts is attained only through the opposition of motives. The one who has the best control over himself is he in whom there is the most complete poise or balance of feelings. So that one emotion or another can be suppressed or excited upon occasion. The direct control of feelings is reached through the voluntary muscles. Indirectly, however, the organs of the body which are not amenable to direct control are affected by various muscular efforts, and with the effects feelings are inflamed. Sobbing is a proper involuntary act, but may be promoted by voluntary movements. Where, however, the organs are far removed from connection with

voluntary muscles, as the heart, there is no voluntary power. Now, when feeling is experienced, it manifests itself through the muscular system in one place or another, and, of course, throughout the regions of the voluntary muscles. The physical effect also pervades the involuntary regions. If, then, upon impulse to movement under strong or weak feeling, a counter feeling is excited from some motive presented by past experience, the former moving toward expression, the latter opposing in case the latter is the stronger, movement is suppressed and outward manifestations are checked. By the checking of external indicia the entire physical system seems affected indirectly; the wave of emotion seems to regurgitate and abate its force, being overbalanced by the contrary feeling. Feelings thus balance each other in various degrees. Frequently there is an alternation of strength, and the will inclines first to one side and then to another. The beginning of a control of the emotions in human beings occurs largely through parental assistance. The child manifests violent emotions prompted by the lawlessness of central power bursting forth at the inspiration of some pleasure or pain, or taking its earliest rise from its own exuberance. These emotions are checked by parental command or physical punishment, and it frequently requires considerable of both to accomplish subjugation. Suppose, however, that in one instance a child's emotion is suppressed by the pain of parental interference. The next time the motive for a similar emotion is present there is an association between the yielding to this emotion and pain of punishment, together, of course, with a representation of that pain in some degree. A counter-motive in a counter-pleasure is thus generated. The represented pain may not be strong enough to overcome the motive to expression. The expression is repeated. If not, the punishment is repeated, the link of connection between the expression of the given emotion and the pain consequent is much strengthened. A third time, the motive to resist and suppress will be far greater. Perhaps a few repetitions will make the counteracting motive so strong as to give it the entire supremacy. In some cases a single infliction of pain is quite sufficient to give full control in a particular case. In all cases much depends upon the uniformity of the sequence of the pain upon the manifestation designed for suppression. Every one is familiar with the bad effect of irregular and variable discipline of a child. If he is forbidden to do a thing and rebuked for doing it once, while the next time he is