rolongation of
time which occurs in the intoxication produced by hasheesh is probably
due to the fact that under the influence of the drug the brain works
very much faster than it habitually does. Having produced a multitude of
images or thoughts in a moment, the organ judges that a corresponding
amount of time has elapsed. Persons are occasionally seen who have the
power of waking at any desired time: going to bed at ten o'clock, they
will rouse themselves at four, five or six in the morning, as they have
made up their minds to do the previous night. The explanation of this
curious faculty seems to be that in these persons the brain-functions go
on with so much regularity during sleep that the brain is enabled to
judge, though unconsciously, when the time fixed upon has arrived, and
by an unconscious effort to recall consciousness.

Of course the subject of automatism might have been discussed at far
greater length than is allowable in the limits of two magazine articles,
but sufficient has probably been said to show the strong current of
modern physiological psychology toward proving that all ordinary mental
actions, except the exercise of the conscious will, are purely physical,
produced by an instrument which works in a method not different from
that in which the glands of the mouth secrete saliva and the tubules of
the stomach gastric juice. Some of my readers may say this is pure
materialism, or at least leads to materialism. No inquirer who pauses to
think how his investigation is going to affect his religious belief is
worthy to be called scientific. The scientist, rightly so called, is a
searcher after truth, whatever may be the results of the discovery of
the truth. Modern science, however, has not proved the truth of
materialism. It has shown that the human organism is a wonderful
machine, but when we come to the further question as to whether this
machine is inhabited by an immortal principle which rules it and directs
it, or whether it simply runs itself, science has not, and probably
cannot, give a definite answer. It has reached its limit of inquiry, and
is unable to cross the chasm that lies beyond. There are men who
believe that there is nothing in the body save the body itself, and that
when that dies all perishes: there are others, like the writer, who
believe that they feel in their mental processes a something which they
call "will," which governs and directs the actions of the machine, and
which, a