MR. CYPLES ON PAIN.
(To TRH EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Stn,—Will you kindly grant me space to say that the couple of sentences quoted in last week's Spectator from the editor of the Contemporary Review's paper on my "Inquiry into the Process 'of Human Experience," do not really give the view as to the causation of pain which is put forward iu the book? They are but incidental observations. What the hypothesis amounts to 'is concisely stated in another part of the above-named paper, as 'follows :—" Pain arises whenever a nervous grouping is made to act in a way of partial repetition of its former full activity."
In trying to prove this, a number of sub-laws are specified; but I cannot expect from you the space needed for stating there in detail. •
One of the sentences quoted in the Spectator is," How comes pain to be, if mind is only constituted in proportionate quant:- fication by the neurotic diagram then existing ?" The question bears ou an investigation running throughout the book, whether mind—when it is actually subsisting—is absolutely dependent on physiological conditioning, or if some of the phenomena do not point to another order of causation coming into play. It will be seen that there is a connection between that inquiry and the view on the subject of pain.
As I have already said, I cannot ask you to allow me here to state the points fully. But since some readers might be misled as to what the hypothesis was which the editor of the Con- temporary Review kindly thought of importance, 1 feel sure that you will let mo make this short explanation.—I am, Sir,
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