green. MISCELLANEOUS FLOWERS. wax already pressed placed on the paper or cardboard, and the pattern correctly cut. This done, rub some carmine over the centre of the In my last chapter, I gave instructions for petals, softening it off towards the edges, which making liliums; part of this I will devote to should be rubbed very lightly indeed, to pro- the construction of one or two Water Lilies. duce the light shade. Half way down the cenThey require glass shades made expressly for tre of each petal is a small pointed piece of them; rather low round shades, with a reflectThis can either be cut from wax and ing glass at the bottom, to imitate water as near placed on, or rubbed with green powder; or as possible. A group of these, naturally liquid color would answer the purpose in this arranged, with leaves and buds, looks very case. On each side of this strip of green is a charming, forming quite a change in appearance kind of fine fringe tipped with carmine, this is to those flowers that are arranged in the higher cut from a piece of whitewax, the edge being vases. The double white water-lily, Nymphæa colored first. The raised spots are made by alba, looks very well when made. There are placing the point of the bone pin at short distances apart in the petal and pressing it at the same time, taking care not to make holes during the operation. On these an extra touch of color is required. The petals so far done, proceed to curl the edges by rolling small portions of the wax on the fingers by means of the thickest steel pin. The filaments, which are six in number, are made of thin wire neatly covered with a strip of pale green wax. The being in the centre. They are cut from bright anthers are made of a small piece of wax rolled between the fingers and then flattened, placed on the filaments, rubbed over with gum, and dipped in brown powder. When these are done pretty-looking as the white one. The flowers they must be placed on the foundation. See that the petals are arranged as naturally as possible. The Lilium lancifolium album is made in the same way, leaving out the color, instead of which white bloom must be used in the rubbingover process. three rows of petals, and six in each row; the calyx consists of segments the same shape as the petals, but, are dark green outside and white inside. They must be composed of double dark green wax, lined with the thinnest white wax. The petals being made of lily-wax, require a substantial calyx to support them, and should be covered with bloom before they are moulded. There are several rows of stamens, the shortest yellow wax, and moulded in the shape of very small tubes. The single yellow water-lily, Nymphæa lutea, is worth copying, but is not so have round, cup-shaped petals, the outside of This Fuchsias, both single and double, look exceedingly pretty in wax. The flower of the The Turk's Cap Lily, or Lilium Martagon, fuchsia consists of four petals of various colors, looks well in wax. It is of a bright crimson according to the variety, and the corolla. This color. The petals are six in number; there is has four kinds of petals, which are very much no shading required, as they are all the same. like small rose petals in shape. Those of the The stamens are reddish brown. When the white fuchsia are generally rose-colored or pink; pattern is cut and the wax ready, color the and those of the crimson, a deep violet. The petals with a mixture of scarlet and a small stamens should be made of white cotton dipped tion of carmine; then curl them, by using the in gum, a small knot being made at the end of lily-pin dexterously under the back of each. each filament. This, whilst wet, must be dipped In order to get a correct copy a natural flower in powder of whatever color required. The crimson fuchsias with white corollas are very pretty in wax. should be obtained. por The common Garden Lily (Lilium candidum) is pretty for modeling. It is made after the same manner as the others. The petals are white, with a double mark down the centre of cach petal. This is reproduced by placing the pin twice at the back of each. The filaments are pale green with yellow anthers. The Tiger Lily (Lilium tigrinum) looks well in wax. There are the same number of petals in it as in those previously named, of a deep orange color, spotted red with black. The spots must be made of water-color very thickly mixed. The filaments are orange and anthers black. Geraniums are very showy in their appearance among other flowers. They have fine petals, In imitating a scarlet geranium, use scarlet crimson should be mixed. powder, in which a very small proportion of The stamens are made of fine white cotton stiffened. The calyces and stems of pale green wax. The pink and white varieties are equally suitable for modeling. The hop is a great acquisition in a group of flowers, especially for the purpose of covering a basket-handle or the front of a vase: it consists of a great many rows of petals, of a pale green color, tapering in shape. The green foundation | water, or using distilled water, if such a course should be placed a good way down; the stem should be desirable. The pipes conducting and and the wax not too sparingly rolled on it, the the chamber containing the material in use are petals then moulded, commencing at the small- so cold that they convert the moisture of the est end to place them on the stem. White and atmosphere into frost. By extending those yellow jasmine are very pretty in wax, as is also pipes and carrying them through chambers conthe single white clematis: these will all form taining articles to be preserved, refrigerators climbers if required. can be constructed on any scale desired, and Carnations of different shades of color look cars, and even the holds of ships, can be conwell when made, especially the crimson clove verted into refrigerating chambers with the and the white one; there is also a pale yellow utmost ease. Meats can be brought fresh from suitable for wax. The petals are mostly pointed Texas and landed in any northern port in as at the edges. In order to be closely imitated, good, if not better, condition than when killed they must be very carefully cut. The foliage is and put on board. Meats can be purchased in simply cut from two thicknesses of green wax, that State for two cents a pound, and delivered in long narrow strips resembling grass. in this city at a cost not exceeding a cent and a half per pound additional. Dahlias of various color colors are bold looking, perhaps too much so to mix with the more delicate and smaller flowers. The smaller varieties are the most suitable, and look the neatest when made. They should be made of medium wax, and a good-formed one retained to copy from. ARTIFICIAL ICE. A NEW RIVAL TO TEA AND COFFEE.-In a recent number of the Pharmaceutical Journal a paper appears, by Mr. Cook, on the guarana, the seeds of Paullinia sorbilis, which is abundant in the province of the Amazonas. The fruit is scarcely as large as a walnut, and contains five or six seeds, which are roasted, then mixed with water and moulded into a cylindrical form The New York Times states there is on exhibition at the Morgan Iron Works a machine resembling a large sausage, and finally dried in which is daily producing a most superior quality an oven. Before being used it is grated into a of ice, perfectly clear, and more compact than powder, very like powdered cacao in appearance. ice made by natural freezing, and at a cost far Two spoonfuls of the powder are mixed in a less than the cheapest ice ever brought into the tumbler of water, and this drink is regarded as market. The Tellier machine consists of a a stimulant to the nerves, and, like strong tea or steam pump for condensing material used, a coffee, is said to take away the disposition to chamber for the reception of the material in its sleep. The active chemical principle is an alkacondensed form, and tanks which are filled with loid, which Dr. Stenhouse has shown to be water to be converted into ice. The material in identical with theine. Guarana contains more use now is liquid ammonia, known as spirits of than double as much of this alkaloid as good hartshorn in the drug stores. It is introduced black tea, and five times as much as coffee, the into the machine from a cast-iron heater, vapor-proportion being 5.07 per cent. in guarana. It ized at 30 degrees below zero, and in this form is rather a singular coincidence that the same is conducted into hollow iron plates, which are alkaloid should prevail in all the principal subplaced in a tank surrounded by water. The stances employed in a similar manner as beverintense cold evolved rapidly freezes the water, ages in different parts of the world-in the tea and the vapor is returned in its circuit to the of China and India, the coffee of Arabia, the machine, whence it is pumped into a reservoir, cacao of Central America, the mate of South and by means of pressure returned to a liquid America, and the guarana of Brazil. Guarana form, in which condition it again returns to the is a nervous stimulative and restorative. machine, is again vaporized, and performs the same service to an unlimited extent. A machine will make 100 tons per day at a cost of $1.50 per ton. Ice made by these machines is more durable than that made by nature, for this ice is frozen at a temperature from zero to 5 degrees below. The ice is as pure as the Croton, and none of the material used in its manufacture can of glue to which isinglass has been added, and come in contact with it, so that prejudice need is next filtered, while hot, through cloth or a not exist on that score. It can be made per- good sieve. fectly transparent by expelling the air from the GLUE WHICH STANDS MOISTURE.-Dissolve, in about eight fluid ounces of strong methylated spirit, half an ounce of sandarac and mastic; next, add half an ounce of turpentine. This solution is then added to a hot, thick solution Science and UNCONSCIOUS CEREBRATION. I hope to show, not only that these conclusions do not necessarily flow from the premisses, but that, accepting the premisses, we may logically arrive at opposite conclusions. I hope to deduce, from the study of one class of cerebral phenomena, a presumption of the separability of the conscious Self from the thinking brain; and thus, while admitting that "Thought may be a function of Matter," demonstrate that the Self in each of us is not identifiable with that which, for want of a better word, we call "Matter." The immeasurable difference between such a remembering lip-moving Teraph as we have supposed and a conscious Man indicates, as I conceive, the gulf leaped over by those who conclude that, if the brain can be proved to think, the case is closed against believers in the spirituality and immortality of our race. LD Hebrew necromancers were said to obtain oracles by means of Teraphim. A Teraph was the decapitated head of a child, placed on a In brief, it is my aim to draw from such an pillar and compelled by magic to easy and every-day psychological study as may reply to the questions of the sorcerer. Let us be verified by every reader for himself, an argusuppose, for the sake of illustration, that the ment for belief in the entire separability of the legends of such enchantments rest on some conscious self from its thinking organ, the phygroundwork of fact; and that it might be pos- sical brain. Whether we choose still to call the sible, by galvanism or similar agency, to make a one 'Spirit" and the other "Matter," or to human corpse speak, as a dead sheep may be confess that the definitions which our fathers made to bleat. Further, let us suppose that gave to those terms have ceased to be valid in the Teraph only responded to inquiries regard- the light of modern science-that "Matter" ing facts known to the owner of the head while means only "a form of Force," and that living, and therefore (it may be imagined) im- "Spirit" is merely "an unmeaning term for an pressed in some manner upon the brain to be operated on. unknown thing "-this verbal controversy will not in any way affect the drift of our argument. In such a Teraph we should, I conceive, pos- What we need to know is this: Can we face the sess a fair representation of the mental part of real or supposed tendency of science to prove human nature, as it is understood by a school of that "Thought is a Function of Matter," and thinkers, considerable in all ages, but especially yet logically retain faith in personal Immortalso at present. "The brain itself," according to ity? I maintain that we may accept that this doctrine, "the white and grey matter, such doctrine and draw from it an indirect presumpas we see and touch it, irrespective of any tion of immortality, afforded by the proof that imaginary entity beside, performs the functions the conscious self is not identifiable with that of Thought and Memory. To go beyond this Matter which performs the function of Thought, all-sufficient brain, and assume that our con- and of whose dissolution alone we have cogniscious selves are distinct from it, and somewhat else beside the sum-total of its action, is to indulge an hypothesis unsupported by a tittle of scientific evidence. Needless to add, the still further assumption, that the conscious self may possibly survive the dissolution of the brain, is absolutely unwarrantable." zance. My first task must be to describe the psychological facts from which our conclusions are to be drawn, and which seem in themselves sufficiently curious and interesting to deserve more study on their own account than they have yet received. Secondly, I shall simply quote Dr. Carpenter's physiological explanation of these facts. Lastly, I shall, as shortly as possible, endeavor to deduce from them that which appears to me to be their logical inference. It is my very ambitious hope to show, in the following pages, that, should physiology establish the fact that the brain, by its automatic action, performs all the functions which we have been wont to attribute to "Mind," that The phenomena with which we are concerned, great discovery will stand alone, and will not have been often referred to by metaphysicians, determine, as supposed, the further steps of the -Leibnitz and Sir W. Hamilton amongst argument; namely, that our conscious selves others,-under the names of" Latent Thought," are nothing more than the sum of the action of and "Preconscious Activity of the Soul." Dr. our brains during life, and that there is no Carpenter, who has discovered the physiological room to hope that they may survive their disso-explanation of them, and reduced them to harlution. 66 66 mony with other phenomena of the nervous us either asleep or awake, but it seems to be system, has given to them the title of "Uncon- accomplished most perfectly in the former state, scious Cercbration;" and to this name, as fol- when our unconsciousness of it is most comlowing in his steps, I shall in these pages adhere. plete. I am not now referring to the facts of It will probably serve our purpose best, in a somnambulism, of which I must speak by and popular paper like the present, to begin, not by, but of the regular" setting to rights" which with any large generalizations of the subject, happens normally to the healthiest brains, and but with a few familiar and unmistakeable in- with as much regularity as, in a well-appointed stances of mental work performed uncon- household, the chairs and tables are put in their sciously. places before the family come down to breakfast. For example: it is an every-day occurrence to Again there is the ordinary but most mystemost of us to forget a particular word, or a line rious faculty possessed by most persons, of setof poetry, and to remember it some hours later, ting over-night a mental alarum clock, and when we have ceased consciously to seek for it. awaking, at will, at any unaccustomed hour out We try, perhaps anxiously, at first to recover it, of dreamless sleep. Were we up and about our well aware that it lies somewhere hidden in our usual business all night without seeing or hearmemory, but unable to seize it. As the saying ing a timepiece, or looking out at the stars or is, we ransack our brains for it," but failing to the dawn, few of us could guess within two or find it, we at last turn our attention to other three hours of the time. Or again, if we were matters. By and by when, so far as conscious- asleep and dreaming with no intention of rising ness goes, our whole minds are absorbed in a at a particular time, the lapse of hours would be different topic, we exclaim, Eureka! The unknown to us. The count of time in dreams word, or verse, is-So and so." So familiar is is altogether different from that of our waking this phenomenon that we are accustomed in life, and we dream in a few seconds what seem similar straits to say, "Never mind; I shall to be the events of years. Nevertheless, under think of the missing word by and by, when I the conditions mentioned, of a sleep prefaced by am attending to something else;" and we a resolution to waken at a specified hour, we deliberately turn away, not intending finally to arrive at a knowledge of time unattainable to us abandon the pursuit, but precisely as if we were either when awake or when sleeping without possessed of an obedient secretary or librarian, such prior resolution. whom we could order to hunt up a missing document, or turn out a word in a dictionary while we amused ourselves with something else. The more this very common phenomenon is studied, the more I think the observer of his own mental processes will be obliged to concede, that, so far as his own conscious Self is concerned, the research is made absolutely without him. He has neither pain nor pleasure, nor sense of labor in the task, any more than if it were performed by somebody else; and his conscious Self is all the time suffering, enjoying, or laboring on totally different grounds. Such are some of the more striking instances of unconscious cerebration. But the same power is obviously at work during at least half our lives in a way which attracts no attention only because it is so common. If we divide our actions into classes with reference to the Will, we discover that they are of three kinds-the Involuntary (such as the beating of the heart, digestion, &c.), the Voluntary, and the Volitional. The difference between the two latter classes of action is, that Voluntary motions are made by permission of the Will and can be immediately stopped by its exertion, but do not require its conscious activity. Volitional motions on the contrary require the direct exertion of Will. Another and more important phase of unconscious cerebration, is that wherein we find our mental work of any kind, a calculation, an essay, a tale, a composition of music, painting, Now of these three classes of action it would or sculpture, arrange itself in order during an appear that all Voluntary acts, as we have interval either of sleep or wakefulness, during defined them, are accomplished by Unconscious which we had not consciously thought of it at Cerebration. Let us analyze the act of Walking, all. Probably no one has ever written on a sub- for example. We intend to go here or there; ject a little complicated, or otherwise endeavored and in such matters" he who wills the end wills to think out a matter any way obscure, without the means." But we do not deliberately think. perceiving next day that the thing has somehow" Now I shall move my right foot, now I shall taken a new form in his mind since he laid put my left on such a spot." Some unseen down his pen or his pencil after his first effort. guardian of our muscles manages all such It is as if a "Fairy Order" had come in the details, and we go on our way, serenely unconnight and unravelled the tangled skeins of scious (unless we chance to have the gout, or an thought and laid them all neatly out on his ill-fitting boot), that we have any legs at all to table. I have said that this work is done for be directed in the way they should go. If we spin more romances than Dumas, a dramatist who composes more plays than ever did Lope de Vega, a painter who excels equally well in figures, landscapes, cattle, sea-pieces, smiling bits of genre and the most terrific conceptions of horror and torture. Of course, like other artists, he can only reproduce, develop, combine what he has actually experienced or read or heard of. But the enormous versatility and in chance to be tolerably familiar with the road, ing on the mechanical part of all our acts. But we take each turning instinctively, thinking all our Familiar is a great deal more than a walkthe time of something else, and carefully avoid ing dictionary, a housemaid, a valet de place, or puddles or collisions with fellow-passengers, a barrel-organ man. He is a novelist who can without bestowing a thought on the subject. Similarly as soon as we have acquired other arts beside walking, reading, sewing, writing, playing on an instrument, we soon learn to carry on the mechanical part of our tasks with no conscious exertion. We read aloud, taking in the appearance and proper sound of each word and the punctuation of each sentence, and all the time we are not thinking of these matters, but of the argument of the author; or picturing the exhaustible profusion with which he furnishes scene he describes; or, possibly, following a wholly different train of thought. Similarly in writing with "the pen of a ready writer" it would almost seem as if the pen itself took the business of forming the letters and dipping itself in the ink at proper intervals, so engrossed are we in the thoughts which we are trying to express. We unconsciously cerebrate,-while we are all the time consciously buried in our subject, that it will not answer to begin two consecutive sentences in the same way; that we must introduce a query here or an ejaculation there, and close our paragraphs with a sonorous word and not with a preposition. All this we do not do of malice prepense, but because the well-tutored sprite whose business it is to look after our p's and q's, settles it for us as a clerk dees the formal part of a merchant's correspondence. us with fresh pictures for our galleries, and new stories every night from his lending library, would be deemed the greatest of miracles, were it not the commonest of facts. A dull clod of a man, without an ounce of fancy in his conscious hours, lies down like a log at night, and lo! he has got before him the village green where he played as a boy, and the apple-tree blossoms in his father's orchard, and his longdead and half-forgotten mother smiles at him, and he hears her call him "her own little lad," and then he has a vague sense that this is strange, and a whole marvelous story is revealed to him of how his mother has been only supposed to be dead, but has been living in a distant country, and he feels happy and comforted. And then he wakes and wonders how he came to have such a dream! Is he not right to wonder? What is it who is it that wove the tapestry of such thoughts on the walls of his dark soul? Addison says, "There is not a more painful act of the mind than that of invention. Yet in dreams it works with that care and activity that we are not sensible when the faculty is employed" (Spectator, 487). Such are the nightly miracles of Unconscious Cerebration. The laws which govern dreams are still half unexplained, but the most obvious of them singularly illustrate the nature of the processes of the unconscious brain-work which causes Music-playing, however, is of all others the most extraordinary manifestation of the powers of unconscious cerebration. Here we seem not to have one slave but a dozen. Two different lines of hieroglyphics have to be read at once, and the right hand is to be guided to attend to one of them, the left to another. All the ten fingers have their work assigned as quickly as they can move. The mind (or something which does duty as mind) interprets scores of A sharps and B flats and C naturals, into black ivory keys and white ones, crotchets and quavers and demi- them. Much of the labor of our minds, consemi-quavers, rests, and all the other mysteries scious and unconscious, consists in transmuting of music. The feet are not idle, but have some- Sentiments into Ideas. It is not in this little thing to do with the pedals; and, if the instru- essay that the subject can be developed in its ment be a double-actioned harp, a task of push- various branches, the ordinary passions of life, ings and pullings more difficult than that of the the religious and moral sentiments (wherein hands. And all this time the performer, the our translations are the source of all our myths conscious performer, is in a seventh heaven of and half our errors),*-and lastly, insanity, artistic rapture at the results of all this tremen- wherein the false sentiment usually creates the dous business; or perchance lost in a flirtation intellectual delusion. Suffice it that our conwith the individual who turns the leaves of the scious brains are for ever at work of the kind, music-book, and is justly persuaded she is giving him the whole of her soul ! *E. g. Out of the Sentiment of the justice of God come Ideas of a great Final Assize and Day of Judgment. Out of the Sentiment that He is Author of all things, a definite Idea Hitherto we have noticed the brain engaged in its most servile tasks of hunting up lost of six days' world-making," &c. &c. (From a Sermon by words, waking us at the proper hour, and carry-Rev. James Martineau.) |