The continuous arc thus established, without employment of the
at present necessary girl, will exactly represent the exquisite
machinery of reflex action which each of us bears about in his own
brain. Here, as in our improved telephone, the announcement itself
establishes the connections needful for farther transmission, without
employing the judgment of any operating official.
By such means power is economized and action becomes extremely swift
and sure. Promptness, too, being of the utmost importance for
protective purposes, creatures which are rich in such instincts have a
large practical advantage over those who lack them. It is often
assumed that brutes alone are instinctive, and that man must
deliberate over each occasion. But this is far from the fact. Probably
at birth man has as many instincts as any other animal. And though as
consciousness awakes and takes control, some of these become
unnecessary and fall away, new ones--as will hereafter be shown--are
continually established, and by them the heavy work of life is for the
most part performed. Personal goodness cannot be rightly understood
till we perceive how it is superposed on a broad reflex mechanism.
IV
But higher in the personal life than unconsciousness, higher than the
reflex instincts, are the conscious experiences.
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