The mechanism of man : an answer to the question What am I? a popular introduction to mental physiology and psychology

Front matter

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EX BIBLIOTHECA

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Preface

The origin and design of this little book may be briefly stated.

It proposes to inquire if there be any and what evidence that, as a fact in Science, to be proved scientifically, there is in Man something other than his material (that is, his molecular ) structure by which that material structure is intelligently controlled and directed and which is not merely a condition or product of that structure, but a distinct entity.

If such a Something be found, then will come the questions, ivliat is it — what are its qualities, its powers and its capacities ?

If it has a distinct existence and individuality and may reasonably be presumed to survive the structure it inhabits ?

This is the special province of the Science of Psychology.

Physiology investigates the material structure and its functions.

Psychology investigates the forces that move, direct, and control the structure.

LIFE— MIND— SOUL.

But it is impossible to treat of these without having

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before us an outline at least of the mechanism they move.

Consequently, a popular introduction to Psychology would have been imperfect and almost unintelligible without a brief preliminary sketch of the structure so moved and directed.

Hence the enlargement of the original design to the scheme indicated in the title to this book — The Mechanism of Man.

It may, perhaps, be permitted to me to state briefly how so presumptuous an enterprise came to be adventured.

Listening, with the respect that becomes a Student of Science, to the arguments of the great Scientists of our time, I felt my own faith shaken and a rude disturbance of the confidence with which I had hitherto accepted the faith that I had a Soul, and consequently had looked for a life after death. I determined to solve this painful doubt by a formal and careful investigation. As a thinking man, who must have sound reasons based upon sufficient evidence for any belief, I could not be content with the mere assertions of authority on a matter of so great moment. Science has appealed to Nature to prove that Man is but an automaton, and Nature is God's truth. I could not answer the objections of Science save by Science, and therefore the task I proposed to myself was to inquire laboriously and carefully if there be any facts and phenomena from which Science could reasonably deduce the conclusion the Scientists deny, that there is something in the mechanism of Man other than his material body — some intelligent entity , call it what we may, capable of an existence apart from the body.

But what course should such an inquiry take ? Meta-

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V physicians and Mental Philosophers, as hitherto they have pursued it, have given an easy victory to the Physicists because they sought after their knowledge within themselves, instead of noting the action of the intelligent motive forces in others as exhibited in their abnormal as in their normal conditions, and because they preferred a priori argument to investigation by observation, examination, experiment, and the collection of facts. Another path must be pursued in a scientific search after a Soul in Man. It must be conducted by the same methods as the Physicists have so successfully employed to ascertain the facts of their Sciences. They have learned the existence and qualities of the Physical Forces, themselves imperceptible, by observing the action of those forces upon the matter our senses are constructed to perceive. So we can scientifically learn if a Soul is, and what it is, only by investigating the actions of Man and seeing if any of them raise the reasonable inference that there is in him an Intelligent Something other than the material body — call it Soul, or Spirit , or by whatever name we prefer.

The pursuit of such an inquiry, even if it should prove to be of no utility to others, could not fail to be of incalculable advantage to myself. It would compel me to think out the whole subject — as so large and obscure a theme can only be sufficiently examined — by writing upon it. Thought too often cheats itself. It shirks difficulties or overleaps them. It accepts as definite much that is often indistinct and is content not to probe too deeply the fallacies of an argument. But such selfimposition is impossible upon paper. The weak places are mercilessly betrayed ; we are forced to measure the precise extent of our knowledge — the authenticity of

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our intelligence — the worth or worthlessness of the reasonings upon which we have relied. When that writing is addressed to a public not initiated into the mystery of technicalities, and no opportunity is allowed for the concealment of cloudy thoughts under mystical words, the necessity for the employment of plain English enforces upon the writer the formation of definite ideas in his own mind ; for clear speech can come only from clear thought.

More, then, for my own instruction than with any hope to inform others, an adventurous attempt was made to answer the question, “ What am I? ” It was commenced with a firm resolve to throw aside all preconceptions and prejudices, and with no other desire or design than to ascertain the very truth. The Mechanism of Man was examined, with honest purpose to learn what is really known about it, what is doubtful, and what is unknown.

The work was pursued with diligence. As it proceeded, new views and new regions for thought opened at every step. The labour grew. The scheme extended. It was not complete without tracing Man backwards to the very beginning of life, and onwards through growth, maturity, decline, and death. In the examination of the Forces by which the Mechanism of Man is moved, and the manner of their action, a world of new and curious facts presented themselves as being obviously associated with his psychic nature.

The circle of things to be known, of which as yet we know little or nothing, extended as I advanced. Novel conceptions were suggested of the dual nature of Man and of the relationship of the non-material to the material structure. In the end, the great Truth came as a conviction of the Reason by evidence as a fact.

PREFACE.

Vll and not merely as a faith — that Man has a Soul — or, as I should prefer to say — Man is a Soul, of which the material molecular body is but the mechanism through which the Soul, that is himself, maintains communication with the material world.

The facts upon which this conclusion is founded, and the chain of argument by which it was deduced from the facts, were fully and frankly stated in that little book.

Knowing the contempt of the scientific world for that which they call a pseudo-science, as having no real subject matter, and the indifference of the popular world to the questions of which it treated, the profound scepticism of the educated, the bigotry of the halfeducated, and the incapacity of the uneducated to understand so unfamiliar a theme, success was not even hoped for. A very small circle of sympathetic readers, who, having shared my doubts, might possibly be curious to learn how I had resolved them, was the utmost I had anticipated. I dared not look for a more favourable reception from the Reviewers. The subjectmatter of such a book would, I was well aware, be deemed to have no interest for their readers, and as, from the nature of its theme, it could not be reviewed without being read, the labour of reading would not unreasonably be looked upon as wasted. And so it proved. The work came forth, not only without a word of welcome, but without the slightest notice given to it by any of the principal London journals. Even the Spectator, which usually pays more attention to books of this class than any other, put it aside without a word. Of all the daily papers, the Morning Post alone favoured it with a review.

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In tliese unfavourable conditions, tbe surprise was as great to myself as to my Publishers, to find the entire edition of 750 copies exhausted in less than twelve months. Almost unnoticed by the press, and advertised scarcely at all, the almost unprecedented fact occurred, that the sale, at first insignificant, grew week by week in ever-enlarging request, uutil thrice the number printed would not have sufficed for the demand. This was found to be due entirely to the recommendation of the work by one reader to another in multiplying circles.

Nor was the interest it had so unexpectedly excited limited to this country. Communications crowded upon me from all parts of the civilized world, some disputing its conclusions, some commending, some asking explanations, some reporting phenomena and facts, but all exhibiting an eager interest in the subjects treated of, which showed how entirely I had mistaken the apparent conversion of the general mind to Materialism, and magnified the seeming indifference of the world to the existence of Soul. It was plain now that as dogmatic faith had been rudely shaken by Science, the desire had grown to learn if Science could not substitute for that faith some fads, supported by proofs, that Man is not an automaton — that he is something other than his perishing body, and may hope to inherit a hereafter.

It would be affectation to deny that a success, so little anticipated, was very gratifying. But I was conscious also that it was due more to the transcendent importance and interest of its subject than to the treatment of it. The book had unconsciously struck an unsuspected vein in the public mind. It had partially supplied a new need produced by a new phase of opinion. Science had shattered faith in the destinies of humanity, and an

PREFACE.

IX eager welcome was accorded to an honest, however inefficient, attempt to restore by Science what Science had destroyed. This and nothing more was the secret of its strange success. But it was the least of the fruit of the labour bestowed upon the work. The advantage to my own mind of having in this manner thought out the subject, and the clearness of the view of it thus obtained, has been to me of incalculable personal service.

A new edition being thus early called for, I resolved, after some consideration, to extend and recast the entire work. The subject had grown upon me as the task proceeded. One thought had suggested other new thoughts. A more systematic scheme of treatment had occurred to me. Some themes fitly belonging to the subject had been overlooked. Criticism had discovered defects to be removed and omissions to be supplied. Further reflection had changed some of the suggestions offered and modified others. Instead of a new edition, I resolved to recast and rewrite almost the entire of the work, to extend the scheme of it, and to give to it a more appropriate name. It is now in fact, as in title, a new book, increased in bulk by one-fourth, and having three-fourths of it entirely new.

The second volume will, I hope, follow in the course of the present year.

I have only further to add that the establishment of a Psychological Society for the promotion of the Science to which this treatise is designed as an Introduction, then merely in contemplation, is now an accomplished fact. The Psychological Society of Great Britain has been formed with two objects; first, to collect from all authentic sources Facts and Phenomena upon which alone Science can be securely based ; and secondly, to

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elicit by discussion tlie Science that can only be constructed upon facts. The Society is already flourishing, and it invites information and assistance from all quarters.

I venture to prefer the same request on my own behalf. The next and concluding volume will be devoted to an examination of the Mechanism of Man in action. Psychical Facts and Phenomena are the exhibitions of the action of that Mechanism, and they alone will enable us to discover what is the structure of so much of the Mechanism of Man as from its site or formation cannot be examined while at work, and also so much of it as, not being of molecular structure, is imperceptible to the senses. It is by these facts and phenomena that I here propose to prove, in strict accordance with the methods and rules of Science, that Man is not an automaton — that he is something more than body — that, in truth, we are Souls.

Let me add that every duly authenticated psychological fact and phenomenon that can be reported to me by any reader in aid of the array of evidence will be gratefully welcomed.

Temple,

Edward W. Cox.

Preface To What Am I?

( This has been reprinted as presenting fully the scheme of this

treatise.)

The study of Psychology lias not kept pace with the progress of the Physical Sciences. Its Professors can be counted upon the fingers ; its disciples are few ; its literature is scanty and unsatisfactory. To the multitude, even of the educated classes, it is an almost unknown Science.

But what study can rival it in real importance or in interest ? What Science concerns us all so directly and so seriously? For what is Psychology but the Science of Ourselves? Physiology deals with the structure of our bodies and the functions of the various parts of that structure. The Forces that direct its actions are the greater subjects of Psychological Science. The province of Physiology is Body. The province of Psychology is Mind and Soul.

Opponents will say, perhaps, that although it is universally admitted that we have Minds, it is denied by great authorities that we have Souls.

True. And a primary purpose of Psychology is to inquire if there be a Soul in Man, and if such there be, what are its . dwelling, its functions, its capacities, and its immediate destiny, so far, at least, as Science can trace or reasonably conjecture them. Its far future is the province of Theology. My purpose here is to treat the scientific question only.

Of late we may perceive a slight rising of the tide in favour of Psychological inquiry. Phrenology gave to it the first great impulse, by reducing the study of Mind from metaphysics to physics ; from inner consciousness to observation ; from con-

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jecture to fact ; in brief, by applying to tbe Science of Mind the Baconian process of investigation, which has wrought such miracles in all the Physical Sciences.

The small progress made by Psychology and Mental Philosophy, when other Science has been advancing with such giant strides, appears to be the consequence of the obsolete method of investigation pursued by the few who have undertaken the study of them. The Chemist seizes the substance into whose composition and qualities he is desirous to inquire, and applies to it certain tests, by which he transforms it into other substances or reduces it to its elements. The Physiologist takes his organised material, scrutinises it with his microscope, marks its composition and its form, and, to find its functions, he severs a living fibre or a throbbing nerve, and notes what loss of power results from his vivisection. But the Psychologist cannot seize, and confine, and carve, and scrutinise, and torture the material of which Mind and Soul are made. He cannot even discern them by either of his senses, nor with the help of his most powerful instruments. What then remains for him ? How is he to ascertain their existence at all, or to learn what are their structure, qualities, and functions ? Obviously he can do this only by studying their manifestations. Their substance being imponderable and imperceptible, the Psychologist, having no tangible material wherewith to work, can investigate Mind and Soul only by observing the movements they impart to the material organs through which alone they can hold communication'with the material world, and by carefully noting the action of the mechanism they direct.

But, instead of dealing thus with these subjects, Philosophers have been content with consulting only their own inner consciousness, and this being very limited, it has followed, as a necessary consequence, that the nineteenth century sees us but little better acquainted, scientifically, than we were in the ninth century, with Mind and Soul, their structure, functions, and capacities, and their relationship to the body, to each other, and to the world on which they exist.

Nor until this error of procedui’e be distinctly recognised, and Psychology treated in the same fashion as are the Physical Sciences — that is to say, by the gathering together of facts, attested by good and sufficient evidence, trying them by experiments carefully conducted, rejecting nothing on merely a priori argument, nor because of its apparent impossibility, or improba-

Preface To What Am I ?

Xlll bility, or seeming inconsistency with some fact or law already assumed to be true, — can any hope be entertained of substantial progress in this the noblest of the Sciences. We must first observe with care and caution, test with skill, and note with accuracy. Not until facts are accumulated should we venture to assign causes. The golden rule of all true Science is, first, to collect your facts, and then, and not till then, to construct your theory.

Smatterers in Science and the outside world never recognise this rule. When a new fact is observed and asserted, they ask the observer how he explains that new fact, and if he cannot do so, they deny the fact itself.

A fact can only be proved or disproved by experiment. It cannot be answered by argument. Try it for yourself, if you doubt the authority. If it is, you will find it. If it is not, you will do Science a service by dissipating a delusion.

There is but one philosophical method of meeting the assertion of a fact in science, made by credible and competent witnesses, — by yourself making trial of it under the same conditions.

It was with an impression that there are now many persons who desire to obtain some knowledge of Psychology, but who are deterred from its study by the ponderous volumes of abstruse argument, clothed in a difficult and strange nomenclature, to which they are usually referred, and which are intelligible only to the far advanced Philosopher, that the thought occurred to me, if it might not be possible to make a book that should present to the beginner an Introductory outline of the Science of Psychology, written in plain language, such as the ordinary Mind might be enabled to comprehend without much, difficulty.

As I reflected upon it, the design grew. I found that I could not well describe the Mind without also giving some account of the Body. A description of the Anatomy and Physiology of the human structure was of course impracticable within the limits of such a work as I had contemplated. But a rude outline of the general scheme on which that structure is framed appeared to be necessary to the understanding of the construction and functions of those parts of the human organization which are the proper subjects of Psychology.

It then became an obvious suggestion that the design should be completed by making the object of the work to be, a description of A Man, such as would supply to the popular intelligence an appropriate answer to the question, “What am I ? ”

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Tlie plan pursued lias been to divide the entire subject into two parts.

The first part, which occupies this first volume, is devoted to a description of the Human Mechanism — Body — Mind — Soul — merely as it is constructed.

The second part will be devoted to a description of this Machinery in action, and it will embrace all the phenomena of intellectual existence, as distinguished from purely organic life, viewing it in its normal and abnormal conditions, in health and in disease — the manifestations, in fact, alluded to above, from which alone any knowledge can be obtained, or any satisfactory judgment formed, of the being, capacities, functions, and powers of the Forces, whatever they may be, by which the machine is moved to action and by which its actions are directed.

These will be found to be full of the most cuiious interest, not merely from the strange character of many of the facts that •will be gathered together, but by reason of the overwhelming importance of some of the conclusions to which they appear to point.

Among the special conditions of the human organism that will thus pass under review in the second and concluding volume will be those of Sleep and Dream, Insanity, Hallucination, Unconscious Cerebration, Trance, Delirium, Psychic Force, and Natural and Artificial Somnambulism. The near relationship of these conditions to Health and Disease, and the light they cast on many of the seeming mysteries of Mind and Soul, will form a prominent part of the treatment of these themes, lying as they do entirely within the proper province of Psychology.

For it is with Psychology as with Medicine, function is best studied when it is disordered. When the Forces and the frame work together in harmony, it is difficult to discern their precise relationships ; but when the machine is out of gear we are enabled to discover the hidden mechanism by the jarring of the dislocated or broken wheels.

I am not a Scientist, but, if I may without affectation use the term as descriptive of one who recognises scientific rules and methods of research as the only permissible form of inquiry into any region of Nature, I am a Student of Science. And it is in the true spirit of such an one, with a single-minded endeavour to learn the very truth, without prejudice of any kind, that this work has been undertaken.

I have been asked, and shall be asked again, wherefore I do

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XV not remit the question of the existence of Soul to the Theologians, and leave them to do battle with the Materialists.

I fear it is to this erroneous policy that the present prevalence of the doctrine of Materialism is mainly due. The question can never be fought out between the Divine and the Scientist, because they have no common ground upon which to combat. The Scientists unhappily for the most part dispute the Authority which is the basis of the Theologian’s argument. It is consequently impossible that the Scientists can be convinced and converted by the Theologians. Materialism based on Science can be confronted only with its own weapons. He who would do battle with it successfidly must wield arguments scientifically deduced from facts scientifically ascertained. The Divine cannot do this, for he may not abandon the high ground of Authority, whose part it is, not to prove but to declare. I hope, therefore, that I have not taken a useless path, however it may be deemed presumptuous, in thus endeavouring to support the contention for the existence of the Soul by arguments altogether apart from those which the Scientists reject, and based entirely upon that foundation of Fact alone which Science will consent to recognise.

It will be observed that, in the working out of this design, I have ventured to proffer some new suggestions that presented themselves to me as I wrote, the value of which I must leave to be estimated by others. But wherever this was done, I have been careful so to state, that the Reader may take them as suggestions merely, and not as asserted truths. Such are the speculations as to the manner in which the body is builded by the nerve system ; and the proposition that the body is constructed of two germs, and not of one only, as Physiologists have hitherto supposed, with some others. The application of these principles of structure to the practice of medicine is also merely a suggestion of my own, whose worth it is for others to estimate. Throughout I have endeavoured distinctly to indicate what is doubtful and what may be deemed to be established. Doubtless it will surprise many to find how much the former predominates, proving the verity of the remark made above, that Psychology lamentably lags in the rear of the other Sciences.

But let us hope that this reproach will cleave to her no longer. Wherefore should not Psychology be made the especial subject for an Association similar to those which have so greatly promoted the progress of other Sciences of far less interest and

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importance ? The field of research is large enough to be the single business of a Psychological Society, and it needs but a little exertion to secure for it a numerous and influential body of Members.

In the course of the composition of this little book my attention has been often and forcibly directed to the extremely unsatisfactory character of scientific evidence. To a Lawyer, who has imbibed from his youth up the Principles of Evidence, and who has been trained, by experience in Courts of Justice, to the almost instinctive recognition of what does or does not constitute proof, there is nothing so surprising, and at the same time so vexatious, as the almost entire disregard of the plainest principles of Evidence by the votaries of Science, who assert and deny facts, apparently without the slightest conception of the nature or degree of proof necessary to be produced before any asserted fact can be either accepted or rejected. One disputant appears to consider that the mere assertion of some stranger, of whose credibility or otherwise he is wholly ignorant, is of itself sufficient, without examination or cross-examination. Another will reject the testimony of twenty credible men because the fact they assert appears to him to be contrary to some assumed fact or theory which he has hitherto holden to be true. All produce hearsay, apparently without the most distant conception that it is wholly inadmissible as proof, and that it can be accepted only provisionally, for the purpose of directing investigation. Take almost any treatise on any Science and strike the pen through every fact asserted for which no sufficient proof is adduced — such proof as would suffice to convict an offender of the smallest offence before any legal tribunal — and what a skeleton would remain ! This disregard of the most elementary rules of evidence is especially remarkable in works that treat of Physiology, Medicine, and Psychology. Cases are confidently narrated for which no proof whatever is or can be produced, and upon such flimsy materials whole theories will be found to be constructed or opposed. In the following pages I have endeavoured, with what success others must judge, to avoid this frequent error. I have sought to apply to Science the same rules of Evidence that are recognised in Law. The principle which I adopted, and have striven to adhere to, has been to assert nothing as proved , except upon such evidence as a Judge would submit to a Jury, and upon which he would accept their verdict in a matter affecting life or liberty. Science should be content with nothing less than this.

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XVII either for proof or disproof. Hence the continual repetitions of the warning that “this is not proved,” “that is only conjecture,” and such like, with which I have found it necessary so often to intimate to the Reader the boundaries between the known and the unknown, the actual and the merely probable, as they appear in the following pages. It is tedious, hut it was unavoidable.

And in this connection I may, perhaps, he permitted to throw out a suggestion, which has occurred to me when painfully reminded of the disregard of the rules of evidence that prevails in scientific debate. Would it not be possible to apply to scientific inquiries the same system of trial which is found to be so efficient a means of ascertaining truth in disputes referred to the Law ? Would it be altogether visionary to propose the establishment of a Society, to be formed for the express purpose of trying, by a Tribunal of Science, disputed scientific facts, pursuing precisely the same procedure as is so successfully employed in determining other disputed facts. A Judge, a Jury, Advocates on both sides, Witnesses pro and con. examined and cross-examined, speeches to the Jury, a summing-up by the Judge, and a Verdict ; the same rules of evidence to be observed as in a Law Court. The uses of such a Tribunal would be manifest. It would not lack work. A new discovery in Science — a new and important fact — is asserted and contested. Either party to the controversy may challenge the other to investigation by this Tribunal of Science. If the subject should be deemed by the Council of the Society sufficiently important to deserve inquiry, a trial would be awarded. The hearing would be of itself an invaluable teaching to the whole scientific world ; it would deeply interest the outside public, and the verdict would extinguish controversies upon which much thought, time, ink, and temper, might otherwise be wasted.

The scheme is not in itself impracticable. Its benefits, if it could be accomplished, are not doubtful. I submit it to the consideration of other Minds by whom, if this mere hint of it be approved, the scheme might possibly be matured hereafter.

Some novel suggestions, which will doubtless be denounced as heresies by the orthodox Professors of Physiology, will be found in the following pages. But I have been careful to note them as speculations merely, that the most careless Reader may not mistake for assertion, as being positive truth, of that which is intended to be advanced only as more or less probable conjecture of my own.