A writer in an English magazine interestingly writes:  “Intimations reach our consciousness from unconsciousness, that the mind is ready to work, is fresh, is full of ideas.”  “The grounds of our judgment are often knowledge so remote from consciousness that we cannot bring them to view.”  “That the human mind includes an unconscious part; that unconscious events occurring in that part are proximate causes of consciousness; that the greater part of human intuitional action is an effect of an unconscious cause; the truth of these propositions is so deducible from ordinary mental events, and is so near the surface that the failure of deduction to forestall induction in the discerning of it may well excite wonder.”  “Our behavior is influenced by unconscious assumptions respecting our own social and intellectual rank, and that of the one we are addressing.  In company we unconsciously assume a bearing quite different from that of the home circle.  After being raised to a higher rank the whole behavior subtly and unconsciously changes in accordance with it.”  And Schofield adds to the last sentence:  “This is also the case in a minor degree with different styles and qualities of dress and different environments.  Quite unconsciously we change our behavior, carriage, and style, to suit the circumstance.”

Jensen writes:  “When we reflect on anything with the whole force of the mind, we may fall into a state of entire unconsciousness, in which we not only forget the outer world, but also know nothing at all of ourselves and the thoughts passing within us after a time.  We then suddenly awake as from a dream, and usually at the same moment the result of our meditations appears as distinctly in consciousness without our knowing how we reached it.”

Bascom says:  “It is inexplicable how premises which lie below consciousness can sustain conclusions in consciousness; how the mind can wittingly take up a mental movement at an advanced stage, having missed its primary steps.”

Hamilton and other writers have compared the mind’s action to that of a row of billiard balls, of which one is struck and the impetus transmitted throughout the entire row, the result being that only the last ball actually moves, the others remaining in their places.  The last ball represents the conscious thought—­the other stages in the unconscious mentation.  Lewes, speaking of this illustration, says:  “Something like this, Hamilton says, seems often to occur in a train of thought, one idea immediately suggesting another into consciousness—­this suggestion passing through one or more ideas which do not themselves rise into consciousness.  This point, that we are not conscious of the formation of groups, but only of a formed group, may throw light on the existence of unconscious judgments, unconscious reasonings, and unconscious registrations of experience.”

Many writers have related the process by which the unconscious mentation emerges gradually into the field of consciousness, and the discomfort attending the process.  A few examples may prove interesting and instructive.