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to the special senses, we might say that we did, or did not, hear, see, &c.; or that we did not perceive the effect, or object, in question.

(4) The taking note of difference or agreement among things. People often say they are not conscious of a distinction between two tints, two sounds, two sizes, two persons, &c. So we may be unconscious of agreement, or similarity, in two things that are like. This meaning can be otherwise expressed by saying that the difference is not felt or perceived, that it does not strike us, and so on.

An increase of knowledge respecting some matter is not uncommonly described by the term before us. Some one tells me that he remembers in former days having periods of bodily and mental depression, the cause of which he was then unconscious of, having found out since that the effect was due to the east wind.

(5.) A passive, contemplative, dreaming, indolent existence, as contrasted with the active pursuit of some outward and tangible object, is spoken of as an over-conscious life. I have already had occasion to remark, that the attitude of objectivity suspends or arrests, to a certain degree, the stream of feelings and thoughts, having thereby an anesthetic tendency. The absence of aim leaves the mind a prey to its own inward activity, or occupation with mere ideas, apart from present sensations or actualities.

(6.) Consciousness is put in opposition to latent trains of thought, and to actions that by habit become so mechanical as to be compared with our reflex movements. A rapid intellect, unaccustomed to note the succession of its own thoughts, arrives at remote results, without being able to reproduce the intermediate stages. Something of this is attributed to Newton, who, in the demonstrations of the Principia, leaves wide gaps to be supplied by the mind of the reader. It is thought doubtful if he would have been able himself to quote the intermediate reasonings, unless by an express effort of study. In that last consummation of the acquired habits, when a person can carry on an operation

while the mind is engrossed with something else, we not unfrequently say that the performance is nearly, if not entirely, unconscious. At all events,,wide is the distinction between the state of the beginner, whose whole mind is painfully concentrated upon his first lessons, and the experienced workman whose mind is almost entirely at his disposal for other things. The change may be represented as a transition from intense consciousness to something not far off from total unconsciousness. Compare the child's earliest attempts at a sum, with the arithmetical processes of an experienced ac

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manner.

(7.) One man acts out spontaneous and unthinking impulses, careless and heedless of the result, or the manner of acting, while another is anxious both as to the result and the The difference is described as a less or greater degree of consciousness. If I fire a shot at random, not troubling myself where the ball is to strike, I exemplify the quality in its faint degree. If I have a mark before my eyes, and gaze steadily upon that with intent to strike it, I may be said to be more conscious. If, in addition, I have in my mind certain rules or directions for the attitude I am to assume, and the manner of holding my piece, so as to be observant of my own motions and postures, I am then most conscious of all. It is a practice of some writers to lavish great praise upon actions unencumbered with the thinking of rules, models, or guidance, in the manner of them; and, in styling this last accompaniment being conscious,' they imply a reproach. Nobody denies that it is better if one can work without burdening the attention with the consideration of rules; the only question is what is requisite to have the work well done. The usual course is obviously that mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, to begin in the one predicament, and end in the other; and to stigmatize a recruit at his first day's drill, because he is intensely conscious, is mere childish absurdity.

(8.) It is partly a variety of the same idea when selfexamination as to one's motives, merits, guilt, or innocence,

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is designated consciousness. A man not only acts, but institutes a study of his actions and motives, by comparing them with such and such examples, standards, or rules. We now approach, however, more and more closely to the most special acceptation of the term, namely, the occupation of the intellect with oneself as a subject of consideration or study.

(9.) The indulgence of the emotions that have self for their object is a case for the employment of the same word. The state of self-complacency, or the opposite; the thinking of how we appear in the eyes of others, the hunting for approbation, the mixing up with an operation the view of our own demeanour or merit in it, are to be conscious in one prevalent meaning of the word. A person little given to any one of these emotions, not entertaining them as ends or intruding them into the common business of life, is occasionally described as little conscious.

(10.) The three last meanings brings me to the definition of consciousness that has been adopted by many of the writers on the human mind. Let me quote from Dugald Stewart, "This word denotes the immediate knowledge which the mind has of its sensations and thoughts, and, in general, of all its present operations' (see in Fleming's Vocabulary of Philosophy a number of quotations to the same effect). The study of the human mind is thus said to be an affair of consciousness; implying that the study of the external world does not involve the same property. I shall have to animadvert upon this presently.

(11.) Certain of our beliefs, termed intuitive, are said to be grounded on our consciousness. This also is a signification peculiar to the science of the human mind, and the metaphysical doctrines mixed up with it. Here, however, there is clearly a step in advance upon the definition last quoted; for the mere cognition of our own mental processes does not contain the knowledge involved in those intuitive judgments. When Stewart says, 'The changes which I perceive in the universe impress me with a conviction that some cause must have operated to produce them. Here is an intuitive

judgment involving the simple idea of causation'—he points to something beyond the mere study of the mental operations. It is impossible, by ever so much attention to the phenomena of my own mind, to gather information as to the order of events in the so-called external universe. The best that we can hope for, is to attain a thorough knowledge of our own mental life. It is, therefore, something new and distinct to say that consciousness affirms such judgments as that now quoted. And even as regards certain theories of the mind, such as the liberty of the will, and an innate moral sense, I have lately had to show that something more than a simple act of consciousness at any one moment is requisite.

(12.) It is a natural transition from the foregoing to attach the meaning of Belief generally to the word consciousness. A strong affirmation is now and then expressed by the phrase being conscious of so and so. It is not difficult to show how the term in question has extended itself to signify belief. It is the strong instinctive tendency of our nature to believe a number of things, before we have gone through any large teachings of experience. The believing function is a prominent attribute of mental activity. We are scarcely able to feel or act without the operation of belief, or without making assumptions in anticipation of the reality. We believe first, and prove or disprove afterwards. Far from denying intuitive judgments and assertions to be an original and spontaneous emanation of the mind, I admit that the mind generates them in great profusion; I only refuse to them validity, certainty, or authority, in the absence of good positive evidence.

(13.) Lastly, Memory is occasionally denoted by the same term consciousness. We say, when we do not remember something that has happened, we are not conscious of its having taken place. The connexion of the two meanings is an explicable one, for in order to an abiding and future impression of an object, it is necessary that the first impression should be distinctly conscious, or should fully engross the waking mind for a certain time. If a sound falls unheeded upon my ear, it is only the natural consequence that I should

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not afterwards possess an idea of it. What I remember vividly in after times are those things that have, in their original shock, excited and engrossed me for a considerable period to the exclusion of all else.

2. Such is a tolerably complete enumeration of the significant ideas attached to the name in question. There is a general drift or tendency common to them all. Nevertheless we may class them under distinct heads, inasmuch as there are one or two very decided departures from what is evidently the primitive and radical signification.

First, the capital and pervading idea is the one that we commenced with, of which those that follow as far as the seventh, with the exception of the fifth, are mere ramifications. The word consciousness is identical with mental life, and its various energies, as distinguished from the mere vegetable functions, the condition of sleep, torpor, insensibility, &c. Anything that renders the mental activity more intense, that increases the whirl of the brain (such as feelings of pain and pleasure, mental engrossment with a subject, rapid flow of imagery and ideas) is designated by the positive term; the absence, or the lower shades, are expressed by the negative, or unconsciousness. The act of attending as against listlessness is simply a more intense exercise of the mental functions. Even that more peculiar signification-the observation of rules, examples, &c., in contradistinction to mere unthinking impulse, is really a branch of the same meaning, as implicating a larger amount of mental activity in the case. The more considerations I bring to bear upon a particular action, the more conscious may I be said to be. My mind is wakened up in a greater number of directions; the brain is more heavily taxed, and the ideas that remain will be all the more vivid. Consciousness is thus co-extensive with mental life, and is expressed more or less strongly as that life is considered to rise or fall in degree.

Secondly, there are certain of the meanings (5, 8, 9, 10), pointing to the occupation of the mind with itself, in contrast to being occupied with the object world. The relation of this