SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT.

"Anima non nascitur sed fit," ut ait.--TERTULLIANUS.

"Post quam loquuti sumus de anima rationali, intellectuali
(_immortali_) et quia ad inferiores descendimus jam gradus
animæ, scilicet animæ mortalis quæ animalium est."
--PETRUS GREGORIUS THOLOSANUS.

It must have struck many readers that the action of a mind under
hypnotic influence, be it of another or of self, involves strange
questions as regards Consciousness. For it is very evident from
recorded facts, that people can actually reason and act without waking
consciousness, in a state of mind which resembles instinct, which is a
kind of cerebration, or acting under habits and impressions supplied
by memory and formed by practice, but not according to what we
understand by Reason or Judgment.

All things in nature have their sleep or rest, night is the sleep of
the world, death the repose of Nature or Life--the solid temples, the
great globe itself, dissolve to awaken again; so man hath in him, as
it were, a company of workmen, some of whom labor by day, while others
watch by night, during which time they, unseen, have their fantastic
frolics known as dreams. The Guardian or Master of the daily hours,
appears in a great measure to conform his action closely to average
duties of life, in accordance with those of all other men. He picks
out from the millions of images or ideas in the memory, uses and
becomes familiar with a certain number, and lets the rest sleep. This
master or active agent is probably himself a Master-Idea--the result
of the correlative action of all the others, a kind of consensus made