We thus arrive at the opinion that there is in humanity a sort of general arrangement of ideas and sentiments, by virtue of which all men automatically take the same direction in the same definite circum stances, and judge of surrounding things in an identical manner. It is this natural aptitude that we all possess for vibrating in unison with others, in presence of an external situation, for refracting external impressions in a fashion identical with that of our fellows, that causes us to have within us that notion of right, accord ing to which our judgments and actions should be un consciously directed. There is, then, a common right line, a regular high-road which is, in a measure, the common meridian line along which the emotions, judgments, and actions of human beings are directed and it is this inner notion, that we carry within us, which constitutes the rule of good sense and common sense.
The complete man regularly constituted should, then, in presence of fixed determinate emotional situations, react in an appropriate manner, make the same re flexions, experience the same attractions, and the same repulsions that his fellows experience. This is the happy point of contact which unites all humanity in the same joys and the same sorrows, associates it, under whatever latitude and at whatever epoch we consider it, in the same enthusiasms, the same sympathies and the same aversions.
Every theatre-goer has felt himself moved by the pathetic situations, and has associated his bravos and his tears with those of his neighbours. Every one of us, in solemn moments of the national life, has felt himself thrilled by the general excitement caused by those poignant patriotic emotions that the men of our generation have experienced in sorrowful alternation. Every one who stood upon the Boulevards of Paris in 1859, when the French army marched past, returning from the campaign of Italy, must have participated with all his heart in the general intoxication of victory ; and every one who stood on those same Boulevards a few years after, among anxious and over-excited crowds, when all our disasters were announced, must have felt all hearts beat in unison with his own, and his secret reflected in all faces.
Communication of Automatic Activity to others.— Automatic activity works in human brains according to laws so inevitable and energies so involuntary, that we may count upon it at a given moment, consider it as a living force in the static condition, and excite it without the agency of volition, as we see, for instance, bodies electrified in a certain manner act at a distance upon neighbouring bodies, and modify the dynamic conditions of the electric forces latent in them.
The cerebral automatic activity develops itself also at a distance, passing from one individuality to another by the intervention either of speech, writing, or gestures, which excite the sensorium of the individual addressed ; and the excitement, once communicated, is propagated from point to point, through the plexuses of the cortex in a continuous manner, by the mere automatic forces of the nervous elements, which disengage their latent energies.
Thus it is that human speech provokes in the sot.
sorium of any one who hears it involuntary reflexions, which traverse the brain, and finally produce a unison between him who hears and him who speaks. The art of persuasion has no other physiological raison cf etre than the setting in vibration of the sensitive cords of the emotional regions of the sensorium, and the direct or indirect neutralization of previous prejudices. It is by this process that the act of causing laughter at the proper time, and of turning aside the attention by exciting unexpected sentiments is often a means of disarming one's judges.
It is by setting in motion the automatic forces latent in human brains, that great orators get possession of an attentive audience, subjugate it, and excite in it • involuntary ecstasies of emotion and enthusiasm ; that great writers develop a whole series of unconscious emotions through which their moving recitals hold us spell-bound ; that a word or a phrase evokes a whole series of involuntary ideas, which give rise to a crowd of reflexions and emotions, corresponding to those they wish to inspire in us. It is by virtue of the same general laws of communicated emotion that the perio dical publications of the press, by daily percolating through the minds of their readers, give an automatic direction to their ideas (human laziness being so fond of ready-made phrases), and produce in those who enjoy them that fixed mental direction they unconsciously acquire.
The same automatic tendencies of the human mind to provoke co-ordinated associations of ideas, thoughts and emotions, connected with other thoughts and emo tions by the mysterious links of former relationship, are visible in every-day life, and, by means of words of double meaning—transparent allusions, which, in connec tion with one word, make us think of other words— produce the most unexpected effects, and the most unforeseen mental suggestions.