Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The physiology of laughter. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![luembers of parliament ever putting on and taking off tlieir spectacles. So long as such movements are unconscious, they facilitate the mental actions. At least this seems a fair inference from the fact that confusion frequently results from imtting a stop to them : -wdtness the case narrated by Sir Walter Scott of his schoolfellow', Avho became unable to say his lesson after the removal of the Avaist- coat-buttoii that he habitually tiugered AA’hile in class. Ihit Avhy do they faci- litate the mental actions 'i Clearly be- cause they draAV oh’ a portion of the surplus nervous excitement. If, as above explained, the quantity of mental energy generated is greater than can find vent along the narroAv channel of thought that is open to it; and if, in consecpience, it is apt to produce confusion by rushing into other channels of thought; th^ by alloAAung it an exit through the motor nerves into the muscular system, the ]u’essurc is diminished, and irrelevant ideas are less likely to intrude upon con- sciousness. This further illustration aauII, I think, justify the position that something may’ be achieved by pursuing in other cases this method of psychological inquiry. Ifor a complete ex])lanation of mental phenomena, it is needful that Ave should trace out all the consequences of any given state of consciousness; and aa’o cannot do this Avithout studying the effects, bodily and mental, as varying in quantity at each other’s ex])ense. Wo should probably learn much if Ave iir every case asked—Where is all the ner- A^ous energy gone 1 SELF-HELP.^ It Avere no ordinary ingratitude to be othei’Avise than thankful to the gatherer of such a fruitful heap of personal ex- amples, encouragements, consolations for strugglers hi the contest of life, as the Avell-read observant industry of the Avriter has brought together in this shigle volume. Is^or is it only for gathering and selecting that our thanks are due. In the fig-orchards of sunny Sicily you shall see peasant girls and boys picking and sorting some dried figs, Avhich the sugar of their OAvn luscious juice as it crystallizes, shall sufficiently preserve for AAunter use. But lest the heap should fester for mere heapiness and sAA^eetness, you shall see them thread the choice fruit upon some single band ; a mere rush sometimes, sometimes a AA'ell-spun thread. The pleasant, manly, straight- foi-Avard, yet not unskilful style of our author is that Avell-spun thread ; and for so stringing his dry-SAveet figs of anecdote and instance, AA^e should fairly thanlc him likeAvise. Be it then clearly understood, that in AA'hat Ave have noAV to say, there lurks no sort of intention ^ Self-Help ; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct. By Samuel Smiles, Author of the Life of George Stephenson. London: J. Murray, 1859. to snarl and snap at the hand Avhich reaches out to us a gift-book so justly AA'elcome. Hercidefe and the Waggoner, is an old fable and a true ; but it is possible to read its moral AAUong. “ Help thyself, and Heaven aauII help thee,” is a sound say- ing, if it be taken to mean, “Effort Avings appealan essentially bad and false one, if construed, “there is no appeal but to thine oaaui effort.” Are there not correctiA^es and qualifications AA'anted, and very much Avanted, in the preaching .of the true doctrine “ HeljA thyself”? From the A^ery first it AA^as ruled by the supreme authority that it is not good for man to be alone. This ruling, AAm take it, has determined not only the undcsirableness, but also the im- possibility of absolute solitude and self- containedness in the true man. Self- help is, by a laAv of most blessed neces- sity, reduced to mean a personal energy in grasping those helps Avhich are not of self nor can be. And unless this be distinctly recognised, Ave think that all the multiform illustrations of character i and conduct, AA'hich such a biographical miscellany as AA'e have before us can afford, must be asserted boldly to nega-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2246797x_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
