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to draw sharp lines of demarcation where in actual life there is gradual transition. The popular way of regarding the relationship of mind and matter, namely, as shading off imperceptibly into each  other, is in marked contrast, for example, with the view of mind-matter relationship which originated with Descartes. According to the latter view, mind and matter are as sharply contrasted as possible. Each constitutes a little world by itself, the one being purely conscious, the other entirely automatic and mechanical. The theory that mind and matter are parallel, but do not interact, has developed from the days of Descartes until it has become the general scientific way of regarding the question. On the other hand, there are eminent psychologists who still believe in the causal efficacy of consciousness. For example, see the chapter on the "Automaton Theory" by Professor James in the most human treatise on psychology in our literature.1 The question is too large to engage us here.2 The  reader is free to reject the foregoing suggestions  in regard to the close relationship of mind and body and yet be ready to follow the general trend of the chapter, the purpose of which is to show the

1 Psychology, vol. i., chap. v.
2 The ablest recent discussion of mind-matter relationship is by Prof. A. C. Strong, Why the Mind Has a Body, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1903.