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310 SOPHIA BRYANT : spell very mechanically ; we even accomplish the routine of thinking mechanically. Certainly the flow of words in public speaking partakes often of the mechanical nature. Unity of organisation seems indeed favourable to the economy of consciousness ; ' and this consideration confirms the view that the deepening of consciousness is a qualitative process per se depending, not on the sweeping action and reaction of centre on centre, but on the transformation of energy within the centre concerned. I suggest, therefore, that life being partly of the nature of highly-organised, fresh and in effect intelligent instinct, and different persons apt to act similarly and with equal freshness under the same circumstances, the one consciously and the other unconsciously the latter action being the more rapid and easy there is reason to think that any part of the mind organ, and the whole of it, may work either instinctively or consciously. In the latter case, energy is transformed within the centres and used up for consciousness, less energy remaining over to work upon allied centres. Thus the wave of disturbance is stilled as it spreads, and so not only should there be less muscular activity, but even the activity of thought itself may be damped to pay the price of a deeper consciousness. To such a conclusion the facts seem at least to point. We look to psycho-physical observation and ex- periment to make the truth clear. Some contrasts of character become immediately explicable, as also contrasts in the mood of the same individual. The shifting nature of such contrasts the modifiability of the extreme types is no less intelligible. If consciousness corresponds to a transformation of energy in the centres, 1 It seems to be indubitably a fact that the most reasonable thing under even new circumstances may be done so that we do not know that we do it until it is done. Moreover it is then done more aptly, more swiftly with less expenditure of time and energy. Here is a test case from my experience, occurring by accident as all valuable test cases in psychology must. One morning, when I was riding a bicycle with confidence through unfrequented streets, a butcher's cart suddenly appeared from a cross street being driven rapidly, as I was riding rapidly, so that we were due to meet at right angles with the utmost precision in the middle of the street. It was quite impossible for either to draw up in time. That is all I knew till the next instant I found myself safely round the corner, and dismounting in a line parallel to the cart which the boy just succeeded in pulling up at that point. I had done exactly the right thing, and to my own considerable astonishment, because I had no idea of the act, and the position was one of which I had never happened to think beforehand. Here then was a highly intelligent action perfectly new, and absolutely unconscious. To persons of a more instinctive type similar experiences may be quite familiar.