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, although very largely influenced by external surroundings, is capable of rising above the impulses from without, leading them to believe in the existence of more than flesh—­of soul and God.  The materialist, so far as natural science is concerned, stands upon logical ground, but no less logical is the foundation of him who believes in human free-will and immortality.  The decision as to the correctness of the beliefs of the materialist or of the theist must be reached by other data than those of natural science.

H.C.  WOOD, M.D.

OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM AND DEMOCRATIC IDEAS.