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diff --git a/old/umem10.txt b/old/umem10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1448da --- /dev/null +++ b/old/umem10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7893 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Unconscious Memory, by Samuel Butler +(#15 in our series by Samuel Butler) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Unconscious Memory + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6605] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 30, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1910 A. C. Fifield edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY + + + + +"As this paper contains nothing which deserves the name either of +experiment or discovery, and as it is, in fact, destitute of every +species of merit, we should have allowed it to pass among the +multitude of those articles which must always find their way into the +collections of a society which is pledged to publish two or three +volumes every year. . . . We wish to raise our feeble voice against +innovations, that can have no other effect than to check the progress +of science, and renew all those wild phantoms of the imagination +which Bacon and Newton put to flight from her temple."--Opening +Paragraph of a Review of Dr. Young's Bakerian Lecture. Edinburgh +Review, January 1803, p. 450. + +"Young's work was laid before the Royal society, and was made the +1801 Bakerian Lecture. But he was before his time. The second +number of the Edinburgh Review contained an article levelled against +him by Henry (afterwards Lord) Brougham, and this was so severe an +attack that Young's ideas were absolutely quenched for fifteen years. +Brougham was then only twenty-four years of age. Young's theory was +reproduced in France by Fresnel. In our days it is the accepted +theory, and is found to explain all the phenomena of light."--Times +Report of a Lecture by Professor Tyndall on Light, April 27, 1880. + + +This Book +Is inscribed to +RICHARD GARNETT, ESQ. +(Of the British Museum) +In grateful acknowledgment of the unwearying kindness with which he +has so often placed at my disposal his varied store of information. + + + +Contents: + Note by R. A. Streatfeild + Introduction by Marcus Hartog + Author's Preface + Unconscious Memory + + + +NOTE + + + +For many years a link in the chain of Samuel Butler's biological +works has been missing. "Unconscious Memory" was originally +published thirty years ago, but for fully half that period it has +been out of print, owing to the destruction of a large number of the +unbound sheets in a fire at the premises of the printers some years +ago. The present reprint comes, I think, at a peculiarly fortunate +moment, since the attention of the general public has of late been +drawn to Butler's biological theories in a marked manner by several +distinguished men of science, notably by Dr. Francis Darwin, who, in +his presidential address to the British Association in 1908, quoted +from the translation of Hering's address on "Memory as a Universal +Function of Original Matter," which Butler incorporated into +"Unconscious Memory," and spoke in the highest terms of Butler +himself. It is not necessary for me to do more than refer to the +changed attitude of scientific authorities with regard to Butler and +his theories, since Professor Marcus Hartog has most kindly consented +to contribute an introduction to the present edition of "Unconscious +Memory," summarising Butler's views upon biology, and defining his +position in the world of science. A word must be said as to the +controversy between Butler and Darwin, with which Chapter IV is +concerned. I have been told that in reissuing the book at all I am +committing a grievous error of taste, that the world is no longer +interested in these "old, unhappy far-off things and battles long +ago," and that Butler himself, by refraining from republishing +"Unconscious Memory," tacitly admitted that he wished the controversy +to be consigned to oblivion. This last suggestion, at any rate, has +no foundation in fact. Butler desired nothing less than that his +vindication of himself against what he considered unfair treatment +should be forgotten. He would have republished "Unconscious Memory" +himself, had not the latter years of his life been devoted to all- +engrossing work in other fields. In issuing the present edition I am +fulfilling a wish that he expressed to me shortly before his death. + +R. A. STREATFEILD. +April, 1910. + + + +INTRODUCTION By Marcus Hartog, M.A. D.Sc., F.L.S., F.R.H.S. + + + +In reviewing Samuel Butler's works, "Unconscious Memory" gives us an +invaluable lead; for it tells us (Chaps. II, III) how the author came +to write the Book of the Machines in "Erewhon" (1872), with its +foreshadowing of the later theory, "Life and Habit," (1878), +"Evolution, Old and New" (1879), as well as "Unconscious Memory" +(1880) itself. His fourth book on biological theory was "Luck? or +Cunning?" (1887). {0a} + +Besides these books, his contributions to biology comprise several +essays: "Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals, contained +in "Selections from Previous Works" (1884) incorporated into "Luck? +or Cunning," "The Deadlock in Darwinism" (Universal Review, April- +June, 1890), republished in the posthumous volume of "Essays on Life, +Art, and Science" (1904), and, finally, some of the "Extracts from +the Notebooks of the late Samuel Butler," edited by Mr. H. Festing +Jones, now in course of publication in the New Quarterly Review. + + +Of all these, "LIFE AND HABIT" (1878) is the most important, the main +building to which the other writings are buttresses or, at most, +annexes. Its teaching has been summarised in "Unconscious Memory" in +four main principles: "(1) the oneness of personality between parent +and offspring; (2) memory on the part of the offspring of certain +actions which it did when in the persons of its forefathers; (3) the +latency of that memory until it is rekindled by a recurrence of the +associated ideas; (4) the unconsciousness with which habitual actions +come to be performed." To these we must add a fifth: the +purposiveness of the actions of living beings, as of the machines +which they make or select. + +Butler tells ("Life and Habit," p. 33) that he sometimes hoped "that +this book would be regarded as a valuable adjunct to Darwinism." He +was bitterly disappointed in the event, for the book, as a whole, was +received by professional biologists as a gigantic joke--a joke, +moreover, not in the best possible taste. True, its central ideas, +largely those of Lamarck, had been presented by Hering in 1870 (as +Butler found shortly after his publication); they had been favourably +received, developed by Haeckel, expounded and praised by Ray +Lankester. Coming from Butler, they met with contumely, even from +such men as Romanes, who, as Butler had no difficulty in proving, +were unconsciously inspired by the same ideas--"Nur mit ein bischen +ander'n Worter." + +It is easy, looking back, to see why "Life and Habit" so missed its +mark. Charles Darwin's presentation of the evolution theory had, for +the first time, rendered it possible for a "sound naturalist" to +accept the doctrine of common descent with divergence; and so given a +real meaning to the term "natural relationship," which had forced +itself upon the older naturalists, despite their belief in special +and independent creations. The immediate aim of the naturalists of +the day was now to fill up the gaps in their knowledge, so as to +strengthen the fabric of a unified biology. For this purpose they +found their actual scientific equipment so inadequate that they were +fully occupied in inventing fresh technique, and working therewith at +facts--save a few critics, such as St. George Mivart, who was +regarded as negligible, since he evidently held a brief for a party +standing outside the scientific world. + +Butler introduced himself as what we now call "The Man in the +Street," far too bare of scientific clothing to satisfy the Mrs. +Grundy of the domain: lacking all recognised tools of science and +all sense of the difficulties in his way, he proceeded to tackle the +problems of science with little save the deft pen of the literary +expert in his hand. His very failure to appreciate the difficulties +gave greater power to his work--much as Tartarin of Tarascon ascended +the Jungfrau and faced successfully all dangers of Alpine travel, so +long as he believed them to be the mere "blagues de reclame" of the +wily Swiss host. His brilliant qualities of style and irony +themselves told heavily against him. Was he not already known for +having written the most trenchant satire that had appeared since +"Gulliver's Travels"? Had he not sneered therein at the very +foundations of society, and followed up its success by a pseudo- +biography that had taken in the "Record" and the "Rock"? In "Life +and Habit," at the very start, he goes out of his way to heap scorn +at the respected names of Marcus Aurelius, Lord Bacon, Goethe, Arnold +of Rugby, and Dr. W. B. Carpenter. He expressed the lowest opinion +of the Fellows of the Royal Society. To him the professional man of +science, with self-conscious knowledge for his ideal and aim, was a +medicine-man, priest, augur--useful, perhaps, in his way, but to be +carefully watched by all who value freedom of thought and person, +lest with opportunity he develop into a persecutor of the worst type. +Not content with blackguarding the audience to whom his work should +most appeal, he went on to depreciate that work itself and its author +in his finest vein of irony. Having argued that our best and highest +knowledge is that of whose possession we are most ignorant, he +proceeds: "Above all, let no unwary reader do me the injustice of +believing in me. In that I write at all I am among the damned." + + +His writing of "EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW" (1879) was due to his +conviction that scant justice had been done by Charles Darwin and +Alfred Wallace and their admirers to the pioneering work of Buffon, +Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck. To repair this he gives a brilliant +exposition of what seemed to him the most valuable portion of their +teachings on evolution. His analysis of Buffon's true meaning, +veiled by the reticences due to the conditions under which he wrote, +is as masterly as the English in which he develops it. His sense of +wounded justice explains the vigorous polemic which here, as in all +his later writings, he carries to the extreme. + +As a matter of fact, he never realised Charles Darwin's utter lack of +sympathetic understanding of the work of his French precursors, let +alone his own grandfather, Erasmus. Yet this practical ignorance, +which to Butler was so strange as to transcend belief, was altogether +genuine, and easy to realise when we recall the position of Natural +Science in the early thirties in Darwin's student days at Cambridge, +and for a decade or two later. Catastropharianism was the tenet of +the day: to the last it commended itself to his Professors of Botany +and Geology,--for whom Darwin held the fervent allegiance of the +Indian scholar, or chela, to his guru. As Geikie has recently +pointed out, it was only later, when Lyell had shown that the breaks +in the succession of the rocks were only partial and local, without +involving the universal catastrophes that destroyed all life and +rendered fresh creations thereof necessary, that any general +acceptance of a descent theory could be expected. We may be very +sure that Darwin must have received many solemn warnings against the +dangerous speculations of the "French Revolutionary School." He +himself was far too busy at the time with the reception and +assimilation of new facts to be awake to the deeper interest of far- +reaching theories. + +It is the more unfortunate that Butler's lack of appreciation on +these points should have led to the enormous proportion of bitter +personal controversy that we find in the remainder of his biological +writings. Possibly, as suggested by George Bernard Shaw, his +acquaintance and admirer, he was also swayed by philosophical +resentment at that banishment of mind from the organic universe, +which was generally thought to have been achieved by Charles Darwin's +theory. Still, we must remember that this mindless view is not +implicit in Charles Darwin's presentment of his own theory, nor was +it accepted by him as it has been by so many of his professed +disciples. + + +"UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY" (1880).--We have already alluded to an +anticipation of Butler's main theses. In 1870 Dr. Ewald Hering, one +of the most eminent physiologists of the day, Professor at Vienna, +gave an Inaugural Address to the Imperial Royal Academy of Sciences: +"Das Gedachtniss als allgemeine Funktion der organisirter Substanz" +("Memory as a Universal Function of Organised Matter"). When "Life +and Habit" was well advanced, Francis Darwin, at the time a frequent +visitor, called Butler's attention to this essay, which he himself +only knew from an article in "Nature." Herein Professor E. Ray +Lankester had referred to it with admiring sympathy in connection +with its further development by Haeckel in a pamphlet entitled "Die +Perigenese der Plastidule." We may note, however, that in his +collected Essays, "The Advancement of Science" (1890), Sir Ray +Lankester, while including this Essay, inserts on the blank page +{0b}--we had almost written "the white sheet"--at the back of it an +apology for having ever advocated the possibility of the transmission +of acquired characters. + +"Unconscious Memory" was largely written to show the relation of +Butler's views to Hering's, and contains an exquisitely written +translation of the Address. Hering does, indeed, anticipate Butler, +and that in language far more suitable to the persuasion of the +scientific public. It contains a subsidiary hypothesis that memory +has for its mechanism special vibrations of the protoplasm, and the +acquired capacity to respond to such vibrations once felt upon their +repetition. I do not think that the theory gains anything by the +introduction of this even as a mere formal hypothesis; and there is +no evidence for its being anything more. Butler, however, gives it a +warm, nay, enthusiastic, reception in Chapter V (Introduction to +Professor Hering's lecture), and in his notes to the translation of +the Address, which bulks so large in this book, but points out that +he was "not committed to this hypothesis, though inclined to accept +it on a prima facie view." Later on, as we shall see, he attached +more importance to it. + +The Hering Address is followed in "Unconscious Memory" by +translations of selected passages from Von Hartmann's "Philosophy of +the Unconscious," and annotations to explain the difference from this +personification of "The Unconscious" as a mighty all-ruling, all- +creating personality, and his own scientific recognition of the great +part played by UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES in the region of mind and +memory. + +These are the essentials of the book as a contribution to biological +philosophy. The closing chapters contain a lucid statement of +objections to his theory as they might be put by a rigid +necessitarian, and a refutation of that interpretation as applied to +human action. + +But in the second chapter Butler states his recession from the strong +logical position he had hitherto developed in his writings from +"Erewhon" onwards; so far he had not only distinguished the living +from the non-living, but distinguished among the latter MACHINES or +TOOLS from THINGS AT LARGE. {0c} Machines or tools are the external +organs of living beings, as organs are their internal machines: they +are fashioned, assembled, or selected by the beings for a purposes so +they have a FUTURE PURPOSE, as well as a PAST HISTORY. "Things at +large" have a past history, but no purpose (so long as some being +does not convert them into tools and give them a purpose): Machines +have a Why? as well as a How?: "things at large" have a How? only. + +In "Unconscious Memory" the allurements of unitary or monistic views +have gained the upper hand, and Butler writes (p. 23):- + + +"The only thing of which I am sure is, that the distinction between +the organic and inorganic is arbitrary; that it is more coherent with +our other ideas, and therefore more acceptable, to start with every +molecule as a living thing, and then deduce death as the breaking up +of an association or corporation, than to start with inanimate +molecules and smuggle life into them; and that, therefore, what we +call the inorganic world must be regarded as up to a certain point +living, and instinct, within certain limits, with consciousness, +volition, and power of concerted action. IT IS ONLY OF LATE, +HOWEVER, THAT I HAVE COME TO THIS OPINION." + + +I have italicised the last sentence, to show that Butler was more or +less conscious of its irreconcilability with much of his most +characteristic doctrine. Again, in the closing chapter, Butler +writes (p. 275):- + + +"We should endeavour to see the so-called inorganic as living in +respect of the qualities it has in common with the organic, rather +than the organic as non-living in respect of the qualities it has in +common with the inorganic." + + +We conclude our survey of this book by mentioning the literary +controversial part chiefly to be found in Chapter IV, but cropping up +elsewhere. It refers to interpolations made in the authorised +translation of Krause's "Life of Erasmus Darwin." Only one side is +presented; and we are not called upon, here or elsewhere, to discuss +the merits of the question. + + +"LUCK, OR CUNNING, as the Main Means of Organic Modification? an +Attempt to throw Additional Light upon the late Mr. Charles Darwin's +Theory of Natural Selection" (1887), completes the series of +biological books. This is mainly a book of strenuous polemic. It +brings out still more forcibly the Hering-Butler doctrine of +continued personality from generation to generation, and of the +working of unconscious memory throughout; and points out that, while +this is implicit in much of the teaching of Herbert Spencer, Romanes, +and others, it was nowhere--even after the appearance of "Life and +Habit"--explicitly recognised by them, but, on the contrary, masked +by inconsistent statements and teaching. Not Luck but Cunning, not +the uninspired weeding out by Natural Selection but the intelligent +striving of the organism, is at the bottom of the useful variety of +organic life. And the parallel is drawn that not the happy accident +of time and place, but the Machiavellian cunning of Charles Darwin, +succeeded in imposing, as entirely his own, on the civilised world an +uninspired and inadequate theory of evolution wherein luck played the +leading part; while the more inspired and inspiring views of the +older evolutionists had failed by the inferiority of their luck. On +this controversy I am bound to say that I do not in the very least +share Butler's opinions; and I must ascribe them to his lack of +personal familiarity with the biologists of the day and their modes +of thought and of work. Butler everywhere undervalues the important +work of elimination played by Natural Selection in its widest sense. + +The "Conclusion" of "Luck, or Cunning?" shows a strong advance in +monistic views, and a yet more marked development in the vibration +hypothesis of memory given by Hering and only adopted with the +greatest reserve in "Unconscious Memory." + + +"Our conception, then, concerning the nature of any matter depends +solely upon its kind and degree of unrest, that is to say, on the +characteristics of the vibrations that are going on within it. The +exterior object vibrating in a certain way imparts some of its +vibrations to our brain; but if the state of the thing itself depends +upon its vibrations, it [the thing] must be considered as to all +intents and purposes the vibrations themselves--plus, of course, the +underlying substance that is vibrating. . . . The same vibrations, +therefore, form the substance remembered, introduce an infinitesimal +dose of it within the brain, modify the substance remembering, and, +in the course of time, create and further modify the mechanism of +both the sensory and the motor nerves. Thought and thing are one. + +"I commend these two last speculations to the reader's charitable +consideration, as feeling that I am here travelling beyond the ground +on which I can safely venture. . . . I believe they are both +substantially true." + + +In 1885 he had written an abstract of these ideas in his notebooks +(see New Quarterly Review, 1910, p. 116), and as in "Luck, or +Cunning?" associated them vaguely with the unitary conceptions +introduced into chemistry by Newlands and Mendelejeff. Judging +himself as an outsider, the author of "Life and Habit" would +certainly have considered the mild expression of faith, "I believe +they are both substantially true," equivalent to one of extreme +doubt. Thus "the fact of the Archbishop's recognising this as among +the number of his beliefs is conclusive evidence, with those who have +devoted attention to the laws of thought, that his mind is not yet +clear" on the matter of the belief avowed (see "Life and Habit," pp. +24, 25). + +To sum up: Butler's fundamental attitude to the vibration hypothesis +was all through that taken in "Unconscious Memory"; he played with it +as a pretty pet, and fancied it more and more as time went on; but +instead of backing it for all he was worth, like the main theses of +"Life and Habit," he put a big stake on it--and then hedged. + + +The last of Butler's biological writings is the Essay, "THE DEADLOCK +IN DARWINISM," containing much valuable criticism on Wallace and +Weismann. It is in allusion to the misnomer of Wallace's book, +"Darwinism," that he introduces the term "Wallaceism" {0d} for a +theory of descent that excludes the transmission of acquired +characters. This was, indeed, the chief factor that led Charles +Darwin to invent his hypothesis of pangenesis, which, unacceptable as +it has proved, had far more to recommend it as a formal hypothesis +than the equally formal germ-plasm hypothesis of Weismann. + + +The chief difficulty in accepting the main theses of Butler and +Hering is one familiar to every biologist, and not at all difficult +to understand by the layman. Everyone knows that the complicated +beings that we term "Animals" and "Plants," consist of a number of +more or less individualised units, the cells, each analogous to a +simpler being, a Protist--save in so far as the character of the cell +unit of the Higher being is modified in accordance with the part it +plays in that complex being as a whole. Most people, too, are +familiar with the fact that the complex being starts as a single +cell, separated from its parent; or, where bisexual reproduction +occurs, from a cell due to the fusion of two cells, each detached +from its parent. Such cells are called "Germ-cells." The germ-cell, +whether of single or of dual origin, starts by dividing repeatedly, +so as to form the PRIMARY EMBRYONIC CELLS, a complex mass of cells, +at first essentially similar, which, however, as they go on +multiplying, undergo differentiations and migrations, losing their +simplicity as they do so. Those cells that are modified to take part +in the proper work of the whole are called tissue-cells. In virtue +of their activities, their growth and reproductive power are limited- +-much more in Animals than in Plants, in Higher than in Lower beings. +It is these tissues, or some of them, that receive the impressions +from the outside which leave the imprint of memory. Other cells, +which may be closely associated into a continuous organ, or more or +less surrounded by tissue-cells, whose part it is to nourish them, +are called "secondary embryonic cells," or "germ-cells." The germ- +cells may be differentiated in the young organism at a very early +stage, but in Plants they are separated at a much later date from the +less isolated embryonic regions that provide for the Plant's +branching; in all cases we find embryonic and germ-cells screened +from the life processes of the complex organism, or taking no very +obvious part in it, save to form new tissues or new organs, notably +in Plants. + + +Again, in ourselves, and to a greater or less extent in all Animals, +we find a system of special tissues set apart for the reception and +storage of impressions from the outer world, and for guiding the +other organs in their appropriate responses--the "Nervous System"; +and when this system is ill-developed or out of gear the remaining +organs work badly from lack of proper skilled guidance and co- +ordination. How can we, then, speak of "memory" in a germ-cell which +has been screened from the experiences of the organism, which is too +simple in structure to realise them if it were exposed to them? My +own answer is that we cannot form any theory on the subject, the only +question is whether we have any right to INFER this "memory" from the +BEHAVIOUR of living beings; and Butler, like Hering, Haeckel, and +some more modern authors, has shown that the inference is a very +strong presumption. Again, it is easy to over-value such complex +instruments as we possess. The possessor of an up-to-date camera, +well instructed in the function and manipulation of every part, but +ignorant of all optics save a hand-to-mouth knowledge of the +properties of his own lens, might say that a priori no picture could +be taken with a cigar-box perforated by a pin-hole; and our ignorance +of the mechanism of the Psychology of any organism is greater by many +times than that of my supposed photographer. We know that Plants are +able to do many things that can only be accounted for by ascribing to +them a "psyche," and these co-ordinated enough to satisfy their +needs; and yet they possess no central organ comparable to the brain, +no highly specialised system for intercommunication like our nerve +trunks and fibres. As Oscar Hertwig says, we are as ignorant of the +mechanism of the development of the individual as we are of that of +hereditary transmission of acquired characters, and the absence of +such mechanism in either case is no reason for rejecting the proven +fact. + +However, the relations of germ and body just described led Jager, +Nussbaum, Galton, Lankester, and, above all, Weismann, to the view +that the germ-cells or "stirp" (Galton) were IN the body, but not OF +it. Indeed, in the body and out of it, whether as reproductive cells +set free, or in the developing embryo, they are regarded as forming +one continuous homogeneity, in contrast to the differentiation of the +body; and it is to these cells, regarded as a continuum, that the +terms stirp, germ-plasm, are especially applied. Yet on this view, +so eagerly advocated by its supporters, we have to substitute for the +hypothesis of memory, which they declare to have no real meaning +here, the far more fantastic hypotheses of Weismann: by these they +explain the process of differentiation in the young embryo into new +germ and body; and in the young body the differentiation of its +cells, each in due time and place, into the varied tissue cells and +organs. Such views might perhaps be acceptable if it could be shown +that over each cell-division there presided a wise all-guiding genie +of transcending intellect, to which Clerk-Maxwell's sorting demons +were mere infants. Yet these views have so enchanted many +distinguished biologists, that in dealing with the subject they have +actually ignored the existence of equally able workers who hesitate +to share the extremest of their views. The phenomenon is one well +known in hypnotic practice. So long as the non-Weismannians deal +with matters outside this discussion, their existence and their work +is rated at its just value; but any work of theirs on this point so +affects the orthodox Weismannite (whether he accept this label or +reject it does not matter), that for the time being their existence +and the good work they have done are alike non-existent. {0e} + +Butler founded no school, and wished to found none. He desired that +what was true in his work should prevail, and he looked forward +calmly to the time when the recognition of that truth and of his +share in advancing it should give him in the lives of others that +immortality for which alone he craved. + +Lamarckian views have never lacked defenders here and in America. Of +the English, Herbert Spencer, who however, was averse to the +vitalistic attitude, Vines and Henslow among botanists, Cunningham +among zoologists, have always resisted Weismannism; but, I think, +none of these was distinctly influenced by Hering and Butler. In +America the majority of the great school of palaeontologists have +been strong Lamarckians, notably Cope, who has pointed out, moreover, +that the transformations of energy in living beings are peculiar to +them. + +We have already adverted to Haeckel's acceptance and development of +Hering's ideas in his "Perigenese der Plastidule." Oscar Hertwig has +been a consistent Lamarckian, like Yves Delage of the Sorbonne, and +these occupy pre-eminent positions not only as observers, but as +discriminating theorists and historians of the recent progress of +biology. We may also cite as a Lamarckian--of a sort--Felix Le +Dantec, the leader of the chemico-physical school of the present day. + +But we must seek elsewhere for special attention to the points which +Butler regarded as the essentials of "Life and Habit." In 1893 Henry +P. Orr, Professor of Biology in the University of Louisiana, +published a little book entitled "A Theory of Heredity." Herein he +insists on the nervous control of the whole body, and on the +transmission to the reproductive cells of such stimuli, received by +the body, as will guide them on their path until they shall have +acquired adequate experience of their own in the new body they have +formed. I have found the name of neither Butler nor Hering, but the +treatment is essentially on their lines, and is both clear and +interesting. + +In 1896 I wrote an essay on "The Fundamental Principles of Heredity," +primarily directed to the man in the street. This, after being held +over for more than a year by one leading review, was "declined with +regret," and again after some weeks met the same fate from another +editor. It appeared in the pages of "Natural Science" for October, +1897, and in the "Biologisches Centralblatt" for the same year. I +reproduce its closing paragraph:- + + +"This theory [Hering-Butler's] has, indeed, a tentative character, +and lacks symmetrical completeness, but is the more welcome as not +aiming at the impossible. A whole series of phenomena in organic +beings are correlated under the term of MEMORY, CONSCIOUS AND +UNCONSCIOUS, PATENT AND LATENT. . . . Of the order of unconscious +memory, latent till the arrival of the appropriate stimulus, is all +the co-operative growth and work of the organism, including its +development from the reproductive cells. Concerning the modus +operandi we know nothing: the phenomena may be due, as Hering +suggests, to molecular vibrations, which must be at least as distinct +from ordinary physical disturbances as Rontgen's rays are from +ordinary light; or it may be correlated, as we ourselves are inclined +to think, with complex chemical changes in an intricate but orderly +succession. For the present, at least, the problem of heredity can +only be elucidated by the light of mental, and not material +processes." + + +It will be seen that I express doubts as to the validity of Hering's +invocation of molecular vibrations as the mechanism of memory, and +suggest as an alternative rhythmic chemical changes. This view has +recently been put forth in detail by J. J. Cunningham in his essay on +the "Hormone {0f} Theory of Heredity," in the Archiv fur +Entwicklungsmechanik (1909), but I have failed to note any direct +effect of my essay on the trend of biological thought. + +Among post-Darwinian controversies the one that has latterly assumed +the greatest prominence is that of the relative importance of small +variations in the way of more or less "fluctuations," and of +"discontinuous variations," or "mutations," as De Vries has called +them. Darwin, in the first four editions of the "Origin of Species," +attached more importance to the latter than in subsequent editions; +he was swayed in his attitude, as is well known, by an article of the +physicist, Fleeming Jenkin, which appeared in the North British +Review. The mathematics of this article were unimpeachable, but they +were founded on the assumption that exceptional variations would only +occur in single individuals, which is, indeed, often the case among +those domesticated races on which Darwin especially studied the +phenomena of variation. Darwin was no mathematician or physicist, +and we are told in his biography that he regarded every tool-shop +rule or optician's thermometer as an instrument of precision: so he +appears to have regarded Fleeming Jenkin's demonstration as a +mathematical deduction which he was bound to accept without +criticism. + +Mr. William Bateson, late Professor of Biology in the University of +Cambridge, as early as 1894 laid great stress on the importance of +discontinuous variations, collecting and collating the known facts in +his "Materials for the Study of Variations"; but this important work, +now become rare and valuable, at the time excited so little interest +as to be 'remaindered' within a very few years after publication. + +In 1901 Hugo De Vries, Professor of Botany in the University of +Amsterdam, published "Die Mutationstheorie," wherein he showed that +mutations or discontinuous variations in various directions may +appear simultaneously in many individuals, and in various directions. +In the gardener's phrase, the species may take to sporting in various +directions at the same time, and each sport may be represented by +numerous specimens. + +De Vries shows the probability that species go on for long periods +showing only fluctuations, and then suddenly take to sporting in the +way described, short periods of mutation alternating with long +intervals of relative constancy. It is to mutations that De Vries +and his school, as well as Luther Burbank, the great former of new +fruit- and flower-plants, look for those variations which form the +material of Natural Selection. In "God the Known and God the +Unknown," which appeared in the Examiner (May, June, and July), 1879, +but though then revised was only published posthumously in 1909, +Butler anticipates this distinction:- + + +"Under these circumstances organism must act in one or other of these +two ways: it must either change slowly and continuously with the +surroundings, paying cash for everything, meeting the smallest change +with a corresponding modification, so far as is found convenient, or +it must put off change as long as possible, and then make larger and +more sweeping changes. + +"Both these courses are the same in principle, the difference being +one of scale, and the one being a miniature of the other, as a ripple +is an Atlantic wave in little; both have their advantages and +disadvantages, so that most organisms will take the one course for +one set of things and the other for another. They will deal promptly +with things which they can get at easily, and which lie more upon the +surface; THOSE, HOWEVER, WHICH ARE MORE TROUBLESOME TO REACH, AND LIE +DEEPER, WILL BE HANDLED UPON MORE CATACLYSMIC PRINCIPLES, BEING +ALLOWED LONGER PERIODS OF REPOSE FOLLOWED BY SHORT PERIODS OF GREATER +ACTIVITY . . . it may be questioned whether what is called a sport is +not the organic expression of discontent which has been long felt, +but which has not been attended to, nor been met step by step by as +much small remedial modification as was found practicable: so that +when a change does come it comes by way of revolution. Or, again +(only that it comes to much the same thing), it may be compared to +one of those happy thoughts which sometimes come to us unbidden after +we have been thinking for a long time what to do, or how to arrange +our ideas, and have yet been unable to come to any conclusion" (pp. +14, 15). {0g} + +We come to another order of mind in Hans Driesch. At the time he +began his work biologists were largely busy in a region indicated by +Darwin, and roughly mapped out by Haeckel--that of phylogeny. From +the facts of development of the individual, from the comparison of +fossils in successive strata, they set to work at the construction of +pedigrees, and strove to bring into line the principles of +classification with the more or less hypothetical "stemtrees." +Driesch considered this futile, since we never could reconstruct from +such evidence anything certain in the history of the past. He +therefore asserted that a more complete knowledge of the physics and +chemistry of the organic world might give a scientific explanation of +the phenomena, and maintained that the proper work of the biologist +was to deepen our knowledge in these respects. He embodied his +views, seeking the explanation on this track, filling up gaps and +tracing projected roads along lines of probable truth in his +"Analytische Theorie der organische Entwicklung." But his own work +convinced him of the hopelessness of the task he had undertaken, and +he has become as strenuous a vitalist as Butler. The most complete +statement of his present views is to be found in "The Philosophy of +Life" (1908-9), being the Giffold Lectures for 1907-8. Herein he +postulates a quality ("psychoid") in all living beings, directing +energy and matter for the purpose of the organism, and to this he +applies the Aristotelian designation "Entelechy." The question of +the transmission of acquired characters is regarded as doubtful, and +he does not emphasise--if he accepts--the doctrine of continuous +personality. His early youthful impatience with descent theories and +hypotheses has, however, disappeared. + +In the next work the influence of Hering and Butler is definitely +present and recognised. In 1906 Signor Eugenio Rignano, an engineer +keenly interested in all branches of science, and a little later the +founder of the international review, Rivista di Scienza (now simply +called Scientia), published in French a volume entitled "Sur la +transmissibilite des Caracteres acquis--Hypothese d'un Centro- +epigenese." Into the details of the author's work we will not enter +fully. Suffice it to know that he accepts the Hering-Butler theory, +and makes a distinct advance on Hering's rather crude hypothesis of +persistent vibrations by suggesting that the remembering centres +store slightly different forms of energy, to give out energy of the +same kind as they have received, like electrical accumulators. The +last chapter, "Le Phenomene mnemonique et le Phenomene vital," is +frankly based on Hering. + +In "The Lesson of Evolution" (1907, posthumous, and only published +for private circulation) Frederick Wollaston Hutton, F.R.S., late +Professor of Biology and Geology, first at Dunedin and after at +Christchurch, New Zealand, puts forward a strongly vitalistic view, +and adopts Hering's teaching. After stating this he adds, "The same +idea of heredity being due to unconscious memory was advocated by Mr. +Samuel Butler in his "Life and Habit." + +Dr. James Mark Baldwin, Stuart Professor of Psychology in Princeton +University, U.S.A., called attention early in the 90's to a reaction +characteristic of all living beings, which he terms the "Circular +Reaction." We take his most recent account of this from his +"Development and Evolution" (1902):- {0h} + + +"The general fact is that the organism reacts by concentration upon +the locality stimulated for the CONTINUANCE of the conditions, +movements, stimulations, WHICH ARE VITALLY BENEFICIAL, and for the +cessation of the conditions, movements, stimulations WHICH ARE +VITALLY DEPRESSING." + + +This amounts to saying in the terminology of Jenning (see below) that +the living organism alters its "physiological states" either for its +direct benefit, or for its indirect benefit in the reduction of +harmful conditions. + +Again:- + + +"This form of concentration of energy on stimulated localities, with +the resulting renewal through movement of conditions that are +pleasure-giving and beneficial, and the consequent repetition of the +movements is called 'circular reaction.'" + + +Of course, the inhibition of such movements as would be painful on +repetition is merely the negative case of the circular reaction. We +must not put too much of our own ideas into the author's mind; he +nowhere says explicitly that the animal or plant shows its sense and +does this because it likes the one thing and wants it repeated, or +dislikes the other and stops its repetition, as Butler would have +said. Baldwin is very strong in insisting that no full explanation +can be given of living processes, any more than of history, on purely +chemico-physical grounds. + +The same view is put differently and independently by H. S. Jennings, +{0i} who started his investigations of living Protista, the simplest +of living beings, with the idea that only accurate and ample +observation was needed to enable us to explain all their activities +on a mechanical basis, and devised ingenious models of protoplastic +movements. He was led, like Driesch, to renounce such efforts as +illusory, and has come to the conviction that in the behaviour of +these lowly beings there is a purposive and a tentative character--a +method of "trial and error"--that can only be interpreted by the +invocation of psychology. He points out that after stimulation the +"state" of the organism may be altered, so that the response to the +same stimulus on repetition is other. Or, as he puts it, the first +stimulus has caused the organism to pass into a new "physiological +state." As the change of state from what we may call the "primary +indifferent state" is advantageous to the organism, we may regard +this as equivalent to the doctrine of the "circular reaction," and +also as containing the essence of Semon's doctrine of "engrams" or +imprints which we are about to consider. We cite one passage which +for audacity of thought (underlying, it is true, most guarded +expression) may well compare with many of the boldest flights in +"Life and Habit":- + + +"It may be noted that regulation in the manner we have set forth is +what, in the behaviour of higher organisms, at least, is called +intelligence [the examples have been taken from Protista, Corals, and +the Lowest Worms]. If the same method of regulation is found in +other fields, there is no reason for refusing to compare the action +to intelligence. Comparison of the regulatory processes that are +shown in internal physiological changes and in regeneration to +intelligence seems to be looked upon sometimes as heretical and +unscientific. Yet intelligence is a name applied to processes that +actually exist in the regulation of movements, and there is, a +priori, no reason why similar processes should not occur in +regulation in other fields. When we analyse regulation objectively +there seems indeed reason to think that the processes are of the same +character in behaviour as elsewhere. If the term intelligence be +reserved for the subjective accompaniments of such regulation, then +of course we have no direct knowledge of its existence in any of the +fields of regulation outside of the self, and in the self perhaps +only in behaviour. But in a purely objective consideration there +seems no reason to suppose that regulation in behaviour +(intelligence) is of a fundamentally different character from +regulation elsewhere." ("Method of Regulation," p. 492.) + + +Jennings makes no mention of questions of the theory of heredity. He +has made some experiments on the transmission of an acquired +character in Protozoa; but it was a mutilation-character, which is, +as has been often shown, {0j} not to the point. + + +One of the most obvious criticisms of Hering's exposition is based +upon the extended use he makes of the word "Memory": this he had +foreseen and deprecated. + + +"We have a perfect right," he says, "to extend our conception of +memory so as to make it embrace involuntary [and also unconscious] +reproductions of sensations, ideas, perceptions, and efforts; but we +find, on having done so, that we have so far enlarged her boundaries +that she proves to be an ultimate and original power, the source and, +at the same time, the unifying bond, of our whole conscious life." +("Unconscious Memory," p. 68.) + + +This sentence, coupled with Hering's omission to give to the concept +of memory so enlarged a new name, clear alike of the limitations and +of the stains of habitual use, may well have been the inspiration of +the next work on our list. Richard Semon is a professional zoologist +and anthropologist of such high status for his original observations +and researches in the mere technical sense, that in these countries +he would assuredly have been acclaimed as one of the Fellows of the +Royal Society who were Samuel Butler's special aversion. The full +title of his book is "DIE MNEME als erhaltende Prinzip im Wechsel des +organischen Geschehens" (Munich, Ed. 1, 1904; Ed. 2, 1908). We may +translate it "MNEME, a Principle of Conservation in the +Transformations of Organic Existence." + +From this I quote in free translation the opening passage of Chapter +II:- + + +"We have shown that in very many cases, whether in Protist, Plant, or +Animal, when an organism has passed into an indifferent state after +the reaction to a stimulus has ceased, its irritable substance has +suffered a lasting change: I call this after-action of the stimulus +its 'imprint' or 'engraphic' action, since it penetrates and imprints +itself in the organic substance; and I term the change so effected an +'imprint' or 'engram' of the stimulus; and the sum of all the +imprints possessed by the organism may be called its 'store of +imprints,' wherein we must distinguish between those which it has +inherited from its forbears and those which it has acquired itself. +Any phenomenon displayed by an organism as the result either of a +single imprint or of a sum of them, I term a 'mnemic phenomenon'; and +the mnemic possibilities of an organism may be termed, collectively, +its 'MNEME.' + +"I have selected my own terms for the concepts that I have just +defined. On many grounds I refrain from making any use of the good +German terms 'Gedachtniss, Erinnerungsbild.' The first and chiefest +ground is that for my purpose I should have to employ the German +words in a much wider sense than what they usually convey, and thus +leave the door open to countless misunderstandings and idle +controversies. It would, indeed, even amount to an error of fact to +give to the wider concept the name already current in the narrower +sense--nay, actually limited, like 'Erinnerungsbild,' to phenomena of +consciousness. . . . In Animals, during the course of history, one +set of organs has, so to speak, specialised itself for the reception +and transmission of stimuli--the Nervous System. But from this +specialisation we are not justified in ascribing to the nervous +system any monopoly of the function, even when it is as highly +developed as in Man. . . . Just as the direct excitability of the +nervous system has progressed in the history of the race, so has its +capacity for receiving imprints; but neither susceptibility nor +retentiveness is its monopoly; and, indeed, retentiveness seems +inseparable from susceptibility in living matter." + + +Semen here takes the instance of stimulus and imprint actions +affecting the nervous system of a dog + + +"who has up till now never experienced aught but kindness from the +Lord of Creation, and then one day that he is out alone is pelted +with stones by a boy. . . . Here he is affected at once by two sets +of stimuli: (1) the optic stimulus of seeing the boy stoop for +stones and throw them, and (2) the skin stimulus of the pain felt +when they hit him. Here both stimuli leave their imprints; and the +organism is permanently changed in relation to the recurrence of the +stimuli. Hitherto the sight of a human figure quickly stooping had +produced no constant special reaction. Now the reaction is constant, +and may remain so till death. . . . The dog tucks in its tail +between its legs and takes flight, often with a howl [as of] pain." + +"Here we gain on one side a deeper insight into the imprint action of +stimuli. It reposes on the lasting change in the conditions of the +living matter, so that the repetition of the immediate or synchronous +reaction to its first stimulus (in this case the stooping of the boy, +the flying stones, and the pain on the ribs), no longer demands, as +in the original state of indifference, the full stimulus a, but may +be called forth by a partial or different stimulus, b (in this case +the mere stooping to the ground). I term the influences by which +such changed reaction are rendered possible, 'outcome-reactions,' and +when such influences assume the form of stimuli, 'outcome-stimuli.' + + +They are termed "outcome" ("ecphoria") stimuli, because the author +regards them and would have us regard them as the outcome, +manifestation, or efference of an imprint of a previous stimulus. We +have noted that the imprint is equivalent to the changed +"physiological state" of Jennings. Again, the capacity for gaining +imprints and revealing them by outcomes favourable to the individual +is the "circular reaction" of Baldwin, but Semon gives no reference +to either author. {0k} + +In the preface to his first edition (reprinted in the second) Semon +writes, after discussing the work of Hering and Haeckel:- + + +"The problem received a more detailed treatment in Samuel Butler's +book, 'Life and Habit,' published in 1878. Though he only made +acquaintance with Hering's essay after this publication, Butler gave +what was in many respects a more detailed view of the coincidences of +these different phenomena of organic reproduction than did Hering. +With much that is untenable, Butler's writings present many a +brilliant idea; yet, on the whole, they are rather a retrogression +than an advance upon Hering. Evidently they failed to exercise any +marked influence upon the literature of the day." + + +This judgment needs a little examination. Butler claimed, justly, +that his "Life and Habit" was an advance on Hering in its dealing +with questions of hybridity, and of longevity puberty and sterility. +Since Semon's extended treatment of the phenomena of crosses might +almost be regarded as the rewriting of the corresponding section of +"Life and Habit" in the "Mneme" terminology, we may infer that this +view of the question was one of Butler's "brilliant ideas." That +Butler shrank from accepting such a formal explanation of memory as +Hering did with his hypothesis should certainly be counted as a +distinct "advance upon Hering," for Semon also avoids any attempt at +an explanation of "Mneme." I think, however, we may gather the real +meaning of Semon's strictures from the following passages:- + + +"I refrain here from a discussion of the development of this theory +of Lamarck's by those Neo-Lamarckians who would ascribe to the +individual elementary organism an equipment of complex psychical +powers--so to say, anthropomorphic perception and volitions. This +treatment is no longer directed by the scientific principle of +referring complex phenomena to simpler laws, of deducing even human +intellect and will from simpler elements. On the contrary, they +follow that most abhorrent method of taking the most complex and +unresolved as a datum, and employing it as an explanation. The +adoption of such a method, as formerly by Samuel Butler, and recently +by Pauly, I regard as a big and dangerous step backward" (ed. 2, pp. +380-1, note). + + +Thus Butler's alleged retrogressions belong to the same order of +thinking that we have seen shared by Driesch, Baldwin, and Jennings, +and most explicitly avowed, as we shall see, by Francis Darwin. +Semon makes one rather candid admission, "The impossibility of +interpreting the phenomena of physiological stimulation by those of +direct reaction, and the undeception of those who had put faith in +this being possible, have led many on the BACKWARD PATH OF VITALISM." +Semon assuredly will never be able to complete his theory of "Mneme" +until, guided by the experience of Jennings and Driesch, he forsakes +the blind alley of mechanisticism and retraces his steps to +reasonable vitalism. + + +But the most notable publications bearing on our matter are +incidental to the Darwin Celebrations of 1908-9. Dr. Francis Darwin, +son, collaborator, and biographer of Charles Darwin, was selected to +preside over the Meeting of the British Association held in Dublin in +1908, the jubilee of the first publications on Natural Selection by +his father and Alfred Russel Wallace. In this address we find the +theory of Hering, Butler, Rignano, and Semon taking its proper place +as a vera causa of that variation which Natural Selection must find +before it can act, and recognised as the basis of a rational theory +of the development of the individual and of the race. The organism +is essentially purposive: the impossibility of devising any adequate +accounts of organic form and function without taking account of the +psychical side is most strenuously asserted. And with our regret +that past misunderstandings should be so prominent in Butler's works, +it was very pleasant to hear Francis Darwin's quotation from Butler's +translation of Hering {0l} followed by a personal tribute to Butler +himself. + +In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and +of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the "Origin of +Species," at the suggestion of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, +the University Press published during the current year a volume +entitled "Darwin and Modern Science," edited by Mr. A. C. Seward, +Professor of Botany in the University. Of the twenty-nine essays by +men of science of the highest distinction, one is of peculiar +interest to the readers of Samuel Butler: "Heredity and Variation in +Modern Lights," by Professor W. Bateson, F.R.S., to whose work on +"Discontinuous Variations" we have already referred. Here once more +Butler receives from an official biologist of the first rank full +recognition for his wonderful insight and keen critical power. This +is the more noteworthy because Bateson has apparently no faith in the +transmission of acquired characters; but such a passage as this would +have commended itself to Butler's admiration:- + + +"All this indicates a definiteness and specific order in heredity, +and therefore in variation. This order cannot by the nature of the +case be dependent on Natural Selection for its existence, but must be +a consequence of the fundamental chemical and physical nature of +living things. The study of Variation had from the first shown that +an orderliness of this kind was present. The bodies and properties +of living things are cosmic, not chaotic. No matter how low in the +scale we go, never do we find the slightest hint of a diminution in +that all-pervading orderliness, nor can we conceive an organism +existing for one moment in any other state." + + +We have now before us the materials to determine the problem of +Butler's relation to biology and to biologists. He was, we have +seen, anticipated by Hering; but his attitude was his own, fresh and +original. He did not hamper his exposition, like Hering, by a +subsidiary hypothesis of vibrations which may or may not be true, +which burdens the theory without giving it greater carrying power or +persuasiveness, which is based on no objective facts, and which, as +Semon has practically demonstrated, is needless for the detailed +working out of the theory. Butler failed to impress the biologists +of his day, even those on whom, like Romanes, he might have +reasonably counted for understanding and for support. But he kept +alive Hering's work when it bade fair to sink into the limbo of +obsolete hypotheses. To use Oliver Wendell Holmes's phrase, he +"depolarised" evolutionary thought. We quote the words of a young +biologist, who, when an ardent and dogmatic Weismannist of the most +pronounced type, was induced to read "Life and Habit": "The book was +to me a transformation and an inspiration." Such learned writings as +Semon's or Hering's could never produce such an effect: they do not +penetrate to the heart of man; they cannot carry conviction to the +intellect already filled full with rival theories, and with the +unreasoned faith that to-morrow or next day a new discovery will +obliterate all distinction between Man and his makings. The mind +must needs be open for the reception of truth, for the rejection of +prejudice; and the violence of a Samuel Butler may in the future as +in the past be needed to shatter the coat of mail forged by too +exclusively professional a training. + + +MARCUS HARTOG +Cork, April, 1910 + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + + +Not finding the "well-known German scientific journal Kosmos" {0m} +entered in the British Museum Catalogue, I have presented the Museum +with a copy of the number for February 1879, which contains the +article by Dr. Krause of which Mr. Charles Darwin has given a +translation, the accuracy of which is guaranteed--so he informs us-- +by the translator's "scientific reputation together with his +knowledge of German." {0n} + +I have marked the copy, so that the reader can see at a glance what +passages has been suppressed and where matter has been interpolated. + +I have also present a copy of "Erasmus Darwin." I have marked this +too, so that the genuine and spurious passages can be easily +distinguished. + +I understand that both the "Erasmus Darwin" and the number of Kosmos +have been sent to the Keeper of Printed Books, with instructions that +they shall be at once catalogued and made accessible to readers, and +do not doubt that this will have been done before the present volume +is published. The reader, therefore, who may be sufficiently +interested in the matter to care to see exactly what has been done +will now have an opportunity of doing so. + +October 25, 1880. + + + +CHAPTER I + + + +Introduction--General ignorance on the subject of evolution at the +time the "Origin of Species" was published in 1859. + +There are few things which strike us with more surprise, when we +review the course taken by opinion in the last century, than the +suddenness with which belief in witchcraft and demoniacal possession +came to an end. This has been often remarked upon, but I am not +acquainted with any record of the fact as it appeared to those under +whose eyes the change was taking place, nor have I seen any +contemporary explanation of the reasons which led to the apparently +sudden overthrow of a belief which had seemed hitherto to be deeply +rooted in the minds of almost all men. As a parallel to this, though +in respect of the rapid spread of an opinion, and not its decadence, +it is probable that those of our descendants who take an interest in +ourselves will note the suddenness with which the theory of +evolution, from having been generally ridiculed during a period of +over a hundred years, came into popularity and almost universal +acceptance among educated people. + +It is indisputable that this has been the case; nor is it less +indisputable that the works of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace have been +the main agents in the change that has been brought about in our +opinions. The names of Cobden and Bright do not stand more +prominently forward in connection with the repeal of the Corn Laws +than do those of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace in connection with the +general acceptance of the theory of evolution. There is no living +philosopher who has anything like Mr. Darwin's popularity with +Englishmen generally; and not only this, but his power of fascination +extends all over Europe, and indeed in every country in which +civilisation has obtained footing: not among the illiterate masses, +though these are rapidly following the suit of the educated classes, +but among experts and those who are most capable of judging. France, +indeed--the country of Buffon and Lamarck--must be counted an +exception to the general rule, but in England and Germany there are +few men of scientific reputation who do not accept Mr. Darwin as the +founder of what is commonly called "Darwinism," and regard him as +perhaps the most penetrative and profound philosopher of modern +times. + +To quote an example from the last few weeks only, {2} I have observed +that Professor Huxley has celebrated the twenty-first year since the +"Origin of Species" was published by a lecture at the Royal +Institution, and am told that he described Mr. Darwin's candour as +something actually "terrible" (I give Professor Huxley's own word, as +reported by one who heard it); and on opening a small book entitled +"Degeneration," by Professor Ray Lankester, published a few days +before these lines were written, I find the following passage amid +more that is to the same purport:- + + +"Suddenly one of those great guesses which occasionally appear in the +history of science was given to the science of biology by the +imaginative insight of that greatest of living naturalists--I would +say that greatest of living men--Charles Darwin."--Degeneration, p. +10. + + +This is very strong language, but it is hardly stronger than that +habitually employed by the leading men of science when they speak of +Mr. Darwin. To go farther afield, in February 1879 the Germans +devoted an entire number of one of their scientific periodicals {3} +to the celebration of Mr. Darwin's seventieth birthday. There is no +other Englishman now living who has been able to win such a +compliment as this from foreigners, who should be disinterested +judges. + +Under these circumstances, it must seem the height of presumption to +differ from so great an authority, and to join the small band of +malcontents who hold that Mr. Darwin's reputation as a philosopher, +though it has grown up with the rapidity of Jonah's gourd, will yet +not be permanent. I believe, however, that though we must always +gladly and gratefully owe it to Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace that the +public mind has been brought to accept evolution, the admiration now +generally felt for the "Origin of Species" will appear as +unaccountable to our descendants some fifty or eighty years hence as +the enthusiasm of our grandfathers for the poetry of Dr. Erasmus +Darwin does to ourselves; and as one who has yielded to none in +respect of the fascination Mr. Darwin has exercised over him, I would +fain say a few words of explanation which may make the matter clearer +to our future historians. I do this the more readily because I can +at the same time explain thus better than in any other way the steps +which led me to the theory which I afterwards advanced in "Life and +Habit." + +This last, indeed, is perhaps the main purpose of the earlier +chapters of this book. I shall presently give a translation of a +lecture by Professor Ewald Hering of Prague, which appeared ten years +ago, and which contains so exactly the theory I subsequently +advocated myself, that I am half uneasy lest it should be supposed +that I knew of Professor Hering's work and made no reference to it. +A friend to whom I submitted my translation in MS., asking him how +closely he thought it resembled "Life and Habit," wrote back that it +gave my own ideas almost in my own words. As far as the ideas are +concerned this is certainly the case, and considering that Professor +Hering wrote between seven and eight years before I did, I think it +due to him, and to my readers as well as to myself, to explain the +steps which led me to my conclusions, and, while putting Professor +Hering's lecture before them, to show cause for thinking that I +arrived at an almost identical conclusion, as it would appear, by an +almost identical road, yet, nevertheless, quite independently, I must +ask the reader, therefore, to regard these earlier chapters as in +some measure a personal explanation, as well as a contribution to the +history of an important feature in the developments of the last +twenty years. I hope also, by showing the steps by which I was led +to my conclusions, to make the conclusions themselves more acceptable +and easy of comprehension. + +Being on my way to New Zealand when the "Origin of Species" appeared, +I did not get it till 1860 or 1861. When I read it, I found "the +theory of natural selection" repeatedly spoken of as though it were a +synonym for "the theory of descent with modification"; this is +especially the case in the recapitulation chapter of the work. I +failed to see how important it was that these two theories--if indeed +"natural selection" can be called a theory--should not be confounded +together, and that a "theory of descent with modification" might be +true, while a "theory of descent with modification through natural +selection" {4} might not stand being looked into. + +If any one had asked me to state in brief what Mr. Darwin's theory +was, I am afraid I might have answered "natural selection," or +"descent with modification," whichever came first, as though the one +meant much the same as the other. I observe that most of the leading +writers on the subject are still unable to catch sight of the +distinction here alluded to, and console myself for my want of acumen +by reflecting that, if I was misled, I was misled in good company. + +I--and I may add, the public generally--failed also to see what the +unaided reader who was new to the subject would be almost certain to +overlook. I mean, that, according to Mr. Darwin, the variations +whose accumulation resulted in diversity of species and genus were +indefinite, fortuitous, attributable but in small degree to any known +causes, and without a general principle underlying them which would +cause them to appear steadily in a given direction for many +successive generations and in a considerable number of individuals at +the same time. We did not know that the theory of evolution was one +that had been quietly but steadily gaining ground during the last +hundred years. Buffon we knew by name, but he sounded too like +"buffoon" for any good to come from him. We had heard also of +Lamarck, and held him to be a kind of French Lord Monboddo; but we +knew nothing of his doctrine save through the caricatures promulgated +by his opponents, or the misrepresentations of those who had another +kind of interest in disparaging him. Dr. Erasmus Darwin we believed +to be a forgotten minor poet, but ninety-nine out of every hundred of +us had never so much as heard of the "Zoonomia." We were little +likely, therefore, to know that Lamarck drew very largely from +Buffon, and probably also from Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and that this +last-named writer, though essentially original, was founded upon +Buffon, who was greatly more in advance of any predecessor than any +successor has been in advance of him. + +We did not know, then, that according to the earlier writers the +variations whose accumulation results in species were not fortuitous +and definite, but were due to a known principle of universal +application--namely, "sense of need"--or apprehend the difference +between a theory of evolution which has a backbone, as it were, in +the tolerably constant or slowly varying needs of large numbers of +individuals for long periods together, and one which has no such +backbone, but according to which the progress of one generation is +always liable to be cancelled and obliterated by that of the next. +We did not know that the new theory in a quiet way professed to tell +us less than the old had done, and declared that it could throw +little if any light upon the matter which the earlier writers had +endeavoured to illuminate as the central point in their system. We +took it for granted that more light must be being thrown instead of +less; and reading in perfect good faith, we rose from our perusal +with the impression that Mr. Darwin was advocating the descent of all +existing forms of life from a single, or from, at any rate, a very +few primordial types; that no one else had done this hitherto, or +that, if they had, they had got the whole subject into a mess, which +mess, whatever it was--for we were never told this--was now being +removed once for all by Mr. Darwin. + +The evolution part of the story, that is to say, the fact of +evolution, remained in our minds as by far the most prominent feature +in Mr. Darwin's book; and being grateful for it, we were very ready +to take Mr. Darwin's work at the estimate tacitly claimed for it by +himself, and vehemently insisted upon by reviewers in influential +journals, who took much the same line towards the earlier writers on +evolution as Mr. Darwin himself had taken. But perhaps nothing more +prepossessed us in Mr. Darwin's favour than the air of candour that +was omnipresent throughout his work. The prominence given to the +arguments of opponents completely carried us away; it was this which +threw us off our guard. It never occurred to us that there might be +other and more dangerous opponents who were not brought forward. Mr. +Darwin did not tell us what his grandfather and Lamarck would have +had to say to this or that. Moreover, there was an unobtrusive +parade of hidden learning and of difficulties at last overcome which +was particularly grateful to us. Whatever opinion might be +ultimately come to concerning the value of his theory, there could be +but one about the value of the example he had set to men of science +generally by the perfect frankness and unselfishness of his work. +Friends and foes alike combined to do homage to Mr. Darwin in this +respect. + +For, brilliant as the reception of the "Origin of Species" was, it +met in the first instance with hardly less hostile than friendly +criticism. But the attacks were ill-directed; they came from a +suspected quarter, and those who led them did not detect more than +the general public had done what were the really weak places in Mr. +Darwin's armour. They attacked him where he was strongest; and above +all, they were, as a general rule, stamped with a disingenuousness +which at that time we believed to be peculiar to theological writers +and alien to the spirit of science. Seeing, therefore, that the men +of science ranged themselves more and more decidedly on Mr. Darwin's +side, while his opponents had manifestly--so far as I can remember, +all the more prominent among them--a bias to which their hostility +was attributable, we left off looking at the arguments against +"Darwinism," as we now began to call it, and pigeon-holed the matter +to the effect that there was one evolution, and that Mr. Darwin was +its prophet. + +The blame of our errors and oversights rests primarily with Mr. +Darwin himself. The first, and far the most important, edition of +the "Origin of Species" came out as a kind of literary Melchisedec, +without father and without mother in the works of other people. Here +is its opening paragraph:- + + +"When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle' as naturalist, I was much struck with +certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South +America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past +inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw +some light on the origin of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it +has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return +home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might be made out on +this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting upon all sorts +of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five +years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up +some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the +conclusions which then seemed to me probable: from that period to +the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that +I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give +them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision." +{8a} + + +In the latest edition this passage remains unaltered, except in one +unimportant respect. What could more completely throw us off the +scent of the earlier writers? If they had written anything worthy of +our attention, or indeed if there had been any earlier writers at +all, Mr. Darwin would have been the first to tell us about them, and +to award them their due meed of recognition. But, no; the whole +thing was an original growth in Mr. Darwin's mind, and he had never +so much as heard of his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin. + +Dr. Krause, indeed, thought otherwise. In the number of Kosmos for +February 1879 he represented Mr. Darwin as in his youth approaching +the works of his grandfather with all the devotion which people +usually feel for the writings of a renowned poet. {8b} This should +perhaps be a delicately ironical way of hinting that Mr. Darwin did +not read his grandfather's books closely; but I hardly think that Dr. +Krause looked at the matter in this light, for he goes on to say that +"almost every single work of the younger Darwin may be paralleled by +at least a chapter in the works of his ancestor: the mystery of +heredity, adaptation, the protective arrangements of animals and +plants, sexual selection, insectivorous plants, and the analysis of +the emotions and sociological impulses; nay, even the studies on +infants are to be found already discussed in the pages of the elder +Darwin." {8c} + +Nevertheless, innocent as Mr. Darwin's opening sentence appeared, it +contained enough to have put us upon our guard. When he informed us +that, on his return from a long voyage, "it occurred to" him that the +way to make anything out about his subject was to collect and reflect +upon the facts that bore upon it, it should have occurred to us in +our turn, that when people betray a return of consciousness upon such +matters as this, they are on the confines of that state in which +other and not less elementary matters will not "occur to" them. The +introduction of the word "patiently" should have been conclusive. I +will not analyse more of the sentence, but will repeat the next two +lines:- "After five years of work, I allowed myself to speculate upon +the subject, and drew up some short notes." We read this, thousands +of us, and were blind. + +If Dr. Erasmus Darwin's name was not mentioned in the first edition +of the "Origin of Species," we should not be surprised at there being +no notice taken of Buffon, or at Lamarck's being referred to only +twice--on the first occasion to be serenely waved aside, he and all +his works; {9a} on the second, {9b} to be commended on a point of +detail. The author of the "Vestiges of Creation" was more widely +known to English readers, having written more recently and nearer +home. He was dealt with summarily, on an early and prominent page, +by a misrepresentation, which was silently expunged in later editions +of the "Origin of Species." In his later editions (I believe first +in his third, when 6000 copies had been already sold), Mr. Darwin did +indeed introduce a few pages in which he gave what he designated as a +"brief but imperfect sketch" of the progress of opinion on the origin +of species prior to the appearance of his own work; but the general +impression which a book conveys to, and leaves upon, the public is +conveyed by the first edition--the one which is alone, with rare +exceptions, reviewed; and in the first edition of the "Origin of +Species" Mr. Darwin's great precursors were all either ignored or +misrepresented. Moreover, the "brief but imperfect sketch," when it +did come, was so very brief, but, in spite of this (for this is what +I suppose Mr. Darwin must mean), so very imperfect, that it might as +well have been left unwritten for all the help it gave the reader to +see the true question at issue between the original propounders of +the theory of evolution and Mr. Charles Darwin himself. + +That question is this: Whether variation is in the main attributable +to a known general principle, or whether it is not?--whether the +minute variations whose accumulation results in specific and generic +differences are referable to something which will ensure their +appearing in a certain definite direction, or in certain definite +directions, for long periods together, and in many individuals, or +whether they are not?--whether, in a word, these variations are in +the main definite or indefinite? + +It is observable that the leading men of science seem rarely to +understand this even now. I am told that Professor Huxley, in his +recent lecture on the coming of age of the "Origin of Species," never +so much as alluded to the existence of any such division of opinion +as this. He did not even, I am assured, mention "natural selection," +but appeared to believe, with Professor Tyndall, {10a} that +"evolution" is "Mr. Darwin's theory." In his article on evolution in +the latest edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," I find only a +veiled perception of the point wherein Mr. Darwin is at variance with +his precursors. Professor Huxley evidently knows little of these +writers beyond their names; if he had known more, it is impossible he +should have written that "Buffon contributed nothing to the general +doctrine of evolution," {10b} and that Erasmus Darwin, "though a +zealous evolutionist, can hardly be said to have made any real +advance on his predecessors." {11} The article is in a high degree +unsatisfactory, and betrays at once an amount of ignorance and of +perception which leaves an uncomfortable impression. + +If this is the state of things that prevails even now, it is not +surprising that in 1860 the general public should, with few +exceptions, have known of only one evolution, namely, that propounded +by Mr. Darwin. As a member of the general public, at that time +residing eighteen miles from the nearest human habitation, and three +days' journey on horseback from a bookseller's shop, I became one of +Mr. Darwin's many enthusiastic admirers, and wrote a philosophical +dialogue (the most offensive form, except poetry and books of travel +into supposed unknown countries, that even literature can assume) +upon the "Origin of Species." This production appeared in the Press, +Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1861 or 1862, but I have long lost the +only copy I had. + + + +CHAPTER II + + + +How I came to write "Life and Habit," and the circumstances of its +completion. + +It was impossible, however, for Mr. Darwin's readers to leave the +matter as Mr. Darwin had left it. We wanted to know whence came that +germ or those germs of life which, if Mr. Darwin was right, were once +the world's only inhabitants. They could hardly have come hither +from some other world; they could not in their wet, cold, slimy state +have travelled through the dry ethereal medium which we call space, +and yet remained alive. If they travelled slowly, they would die; if +fast, they would catch fire, as meteors do on entering the earth's +atmosphere. The idea, again, of their having been created by a +quasi-anthropomorphic being out of the matter upon the earth was at +variance with the whole spirit of evolution, which indicated that no +such being could exist except as himself the result, and not the +cause, of evolution. Having got back from ourselves to the monad, we +were suddenly to begin again with something which was either +unthinkable, or was only ourselves again upon a larger scale--to +return to the same point as that from which we had started, only made +harder for us to stand upon. + +There was only one other conception possible, namely, that the germs +had been developed in the course of time from some thing or things +that were not what we called living at all; that they had grown up, +in fact, out of the material substances and forces of the world in +some manner more or less analogous to that in which man had been +developed from themselves. + +I first asked myself whether life might not, after all, resolve +itself into the complexity of arrangement of an inconceivably +intricate mechanism. Kittens think our shoe-strings are alive when +they see us lacing them, because they see the tag at the end jump +about without understanding all the ins and outs of how it comes to +do so. "Of course," they argue, "if we cannot understand how a thing +comes to move, it must move of itself, for there can be no motion +beyond our comprehension but what is spontaneous; if the motion is +spontaneous, the thing moving must he alive, for nothing can move of +itself or without our understanding why unless it is alive. +Everything that is alive and not too large can be tortured, and +perhaps eaten; let us therefore spring upon the tag" and they spring +upon it. Cats are above this; yet give the cat something which +presents a few more of those appearances which she is accustomed to +see whenever she sees life, and she will fall as easy a prey to the +power which association exercises over all that lives as the kitten +itself. Show her a toy-mouse that can run a few yards after being +wound up; the form, colour, and action of a mouse being here, there +is no good cat which will not conclude that so many of the +appearances of mousehood could not be present at the same time +without the presence also of the remainder. She will, therefore, +spring upon the toy as eagerly as the kitten upon the tag. + +Suppose the toy more complex still, so that it might run a few yards, +stop, and run on again without an additional winding up; and suppose +it so constructed that it could imitate eating and drinking, and +could make as though the mouse were cleaning its face with its paws. +Should we not at first be taken in ourselves, and assume the presence +of the remaining facts of life, though in reality they were not +there? Query, therefore, whether a machine so complex as to be +prepared with a corresponding manner of action for each one of the +successive emergencies of life as it arose, would not take us in for +good and all, and look so much as if it were alive that, whether we +liked it or not, we should be compelled to think it and call it so; +and whether the being alive was not simply the being an exceedingly +complicated machine, whose parts were set in motion by the action +upon them of exterior circumstances; whether, in fact, man was not a +kind of toy-mouse in the shape of a man, only capable of going for +seventy or eighty years, instead of half as many seconds, and as much +more versatile as he is more durable? Of course I had an uneasy +feeling that if I thus made all plants and men into machines, these +machines must have what all other machines have if they are machines +at all--a designer, and some one to wind them up and work them; but I +thought this might wait for the present, and was perfectly ready +then, as now, to accept a designer from without, if the facts upon +examination rendered such a belief reasonable. + +If, then, men were not really alive after all, but were only machines +of so complicated a make that it was less trouble to us to cut the +difficulty and say that that kind of mechanism was "being alive," why +should not machines ultimately become as complicated as we are, or at +any rate complicated enough to be called living, and to be indeed as +living as it was in the nature of anything at all to be? If it was +only a case of their becoming more complicated, we were certainly +doing our best to make them so. + +I do not suppose I at that time saw that this view comes to much the +same as denying that there are such qualities as life and +consciousness at all, and that this, again, works round to the +assertion of their omnipresence in every molecule of matter, inasmuch +as it destroys the separation between the organic and inorganic, and +maintains that whatever the organic is the inorganic is also. Deny +it in theory as much as we please, we shall still always feel that an +organic body, unless dead, is living and conscious to a greater or +less degree. Therefore, if we once break down the wall of partition +between the organic and inorganic, the inorganic must be living and +conscious also, up to a certain point. + +I have been at work on this subject now for nearly twenty years, what +I have published being only a small part of what I have written and +destroyed. I cannot, therefore, remember exactly how I stood in +1863. Nor can I pretend to see far into the matter even now; for +when I think of life, I find it so difficult, that I take refuge in +death or mechanism; and when I think of death or mechanism, I find it +so inconceivable, that it is easier to call it life again. The only +thing of which I am sure is, that the distinction between the organic +and inorganic is arbitrary; that it is more coherent with our other +ideas, and therefore more acceptable, to start with every molecule as +a living thing, and then deduce death as the breaking up of an +association or corporation, than to start with inanimate molecules +and smuggle life into them; and that, therefore, what we call the +inorganic world must be regarded as up to a certain point living, and +instinct, within certain limits, with consciousness, volition, and +power of concerted action. It is only of late, however, that I have +come to this opinion. + +One must start with a hypothesis, no matter how much one distrusts +it; so I started with man as a mechanism, this being the strand of +the knot that I could then pick at most easily. Having worked upon +it a certain time, I drew the inference about machines becoming +animate, and in 1862 or 1863 wrote the sketch of the chapter on +machines which I afterwards rewrote in "Erewhon." This sketch +appeared in the Press, Canterbury, N.Z., June 13, 1863; a copy of it +is in the British Museum. + +I soon felt that though there was plenty of amusement to be got out +of this line, it was one that I should have to leave sooner or later; +I therefore left it at once for the view that machines were limbs +which we had made, and carried outside our bodies instead of +incorporating them with ourselves. A few days or weeks later than +June 13, 1863, I published a second letter in the Press putting this +view forward. Of this letter I have lost the only copy I had; I have +not seen it for years. The first was certainly not good; the second, +if I remember rightly, was a good deal worse, though I believed more +in the views it put forward than in those of the first letter. I had +lost my copy before I wrote "Erewhon," and therefore only gave a +couple of pages to it in that book; besides, there was more amusement +in the other view. I should perhaps say there was an intermediate +extension of the first letter which appeared in the Reasoner, July 1, +1865. + +In 1870 and 1871, when I was writing "Erewhon," I thought the best +way of looking at machines was to see them as limbs which we had made +and carried about with us or left at home at pleasure. I was not, +however, satisfied, and should have gone on with the subject at once +if I had not been anxious to write "The Fair Haven," a book which is +a development of a pamphlet I wrote in New Zealand and published in +London in 1865. + +As soon as I had finished this, I returned to the old subject, on +which I had already been engaged for nearly a dozen years as +continuously as other business would allow, and proposed to myself to +see not only machines as limbs, but also limbs as machines. I felt +immediately that I was upon firmer ground. The use of the word +"organ" for a limb told its own story; the word could not have become +so current under this meaning unless the idea of a limb as a tool or +machine had been agreeable to common sense. What would follow, then, +if we regarded our limbs and organs as things that we had ourselves +manufactured for our convenience? + +The first question that suggested itself was, how did we come to make +them without knowing anything about it? And this raised another, +namely, how comes anybody to do anything unconsciously? The answer +"habit" was not far to seek. But can a person be said to do a thing +by force of habit or routine when it is his ancestors, and not he, +that has done it hitherto? Not unless he and his ancestors are one +and the same person. Perhaps, then, they ARE the same person after +all. What is sameness? I remembered Bishop Butler's sermon on +"Personal Identity," read it again, and saw very plainly that if a +man of eighty may consider himself identical with the baby from whom +he has developed, so that he may say, "I am the person who at six +months old did this or that," then the baby may just as fairly claim +identity with its father and mother, and say to its parents on being +born, "I was you only a few months ago." By parity of reasoning each +living form now on the earth must be able to claim identity with each +generation of its ancestors up to the primordial cell inclusive. + +Again, if the octogenarian may claim personal identity with the +infant, the infant may certainly do so with the impregnate ovum from +which it has developed. If so, the octogenarian will prove to have +been a fish once in this his present life. This is as certain as +that he was living yesterday, and stands on exactly the same +foundation. + +I am aware that Professor Huxley maintains otherwise. He writes: +"It is not true, for example, . . . that a reptile was ever a fish, +but it is true that the reptile embryo" (and what is said here of the +reptile holds good also for the human embryo), "at one stage of its +development, is an organism, which, if it had an independent +existence, must be classified among fishes." {17} + +This is like saying, "It is not true that such and such a picture was +rejected for the Academy, but it is true that it was submitted to the +President and Council of the Royal Academy, with a view to acceptance +at their next forthcoming annual exhibition, and that the President +and Council regretted they were unable through want of space, &c., +&c." --and as much more as the reader chooses. I shall venture, +therefore, to stick to it that the octogenarian was once a fish, or +if Professor Huxley prefers it, "an organism which must be classified +among fishes." + +But if a man was a fish once, he may have been a fish a million times +over, for aught he knows; for he must admit that his conscious +recollection is at fault, and has nothing whatever to do with the +matter, which must be decided, not, as it were, upon his own evidence +as to what deeds he may or may not recollect having executed, but by +the production of his signatures in court, with satisfactory proof +that he has delivered each document as his act and deed. + +This made things very much simpler. The processes of embryonic +development, and instinctive actions, might be now seen as +repetitions of the same kind of action by the same individual in +successive generations. It was natural, therefore, that they should +come in the course of time to be done unconsciously, and a +consideration of the most obvious facts of memory removed all further +doubt that habit--which is based on memory--was at the bottom of all +the phenomena of heredity. + +I had got to this point about the spring of 1874, and had begun to +write, when I was compelled to go to Canada, and for the next year +and a half did hardly any writing. The first passage in "Life and +Habit" which I can date with certainty is the one on page 52, which +runs as follows:- + + +"It is one against legion when a man tries to differ from his own +past selves. He must yield or die if he wants to differ widely, so +as to lack natural instincts, such as hunger or thirst, and not to +gratify them. It is more righteous in a man that he should 'eat +strange food,' and that his cheek should 'so much as lank not,' than +that he should starve if the strange food be at his command. His +past selves are living in him at this moment with the accumulated +life of centuries. 'Do this, this, this, which we too have done, and +found out profit in it,' cry the souls of his forefathers within him. +Faint are the far ones, coming and going as the sound of bells wafted +on to a high mountain; loud and clear are the near ones, urgent as an +alarm of fire." + + +This was written a few days after my arrival in Canada, June 1874. I +was on Montreal mountain for the first time, and was struck with its +extreme beauty. It was a magnificent Summer's evening; the noble St. +Lawrence flowed almost immediately beneath, and the vast expanse of +country beyond it was suffused with a colour which even Italy cannot +surpass. Sitting down for a while, I began making notes for "Life +and Habit," of which I was then continually thinking, and had written +the first few lines of the above, when the bells of Notre Dame in +Montreal began to ring, and their sound was carried to and fro in a +remarkably beautiful manner. I took advantage of the incident to +insert then and there the last lines of the piece just quoted. I +kept the whole passage with hardly any alteration, and am thus able +to date it accurately. + +Though so occupied in Canada that writing a book was impossible, I +nevertheless got many notes together for future use. I left Canada +at the end of 1875, and early in 1876 began putting these notes into +more coherent form. I did this in thirty pages of closely written +matter, of which a pressed copy remains in my commonplace-book. I +find two dates among them--the first, "Sunday, Feb. 6, 1876"; and the +second, at the end of the notes, "Feb. 12, 1876." + +From these notes I find that by this time I had the theory contained +in "Life and Habit" completely before me, with the four main +principles which it involves, namely, the oneness of personality +between parents and offspring; memory on the part of offspring of +certain actions which it did when in the persons of its forefathers; +the latency of that memory until it is rekindled by a recurrence of +the associated ideas; and the unconsciousness with which habitual +actions come to be performed. + +The first half-page of these notes may serve as a sample, and runs +thus:- + + +"Those habits and functions which we have in common with the lower +animals come mainly within the womb, or are done involuntarily, as +our [growth of] limbs, eyes, &c., and our power of digesting food, +&c. . . . + +"We say of the chicken that it knows how to run about as soon as it +is hatched, . . . but had it no knowledge before it was hatched? + +"It knew how to make a great many things before it was hatched. + +"It grew eyes and feathers and bones. + +"Yet we say it knew nothing about all this. + +"After it is born it grows more feathers, and makes its bones larger, +and develops a reproductive system. + +"Again we say it knows nothing about all this. + +"What then does it know? + +"Whatever it does not know so well as to be unconscious of knowing +it. + +"Knowledge dwells upon the confines of uncertainty. + +"When we are very certain, we do not know that we know. When we will +very strongly, we do not know that we will." + + +I then began my book, but considering myself still a painter by +profession, I gave comparatively little time to writing, and got on +but slowly. I left England for North Italy in the middle of May 1876 +and returned early in August. It was perhaps thus that I failed to +hear of the account of Professor Hering's lecture given by Professor +Ray Lankester in Nature, July 13 1876; though, never at that time +seeing Nature, I should probably have missed it under any +circumstances. On my return I continued slowly writing. By August +1877 I considered that I had to all intents and purposes completed my +book. My first proof bears date October 13, 1877. + +At this time I had not been able to find that anything like what I +was advancing had been said already. I asked many friends, but not +one of them knew of anything more than I did; to them, as to me, it +seemed an idea so new as to be almost preposterous; but knowing how +things turn up after one has written, of the existence of which one +had not known before, I was particularly careful to guard against +being supposed to claim originality. I neither claimed it nor wished +for it; for if a theory has any truth in it, it is almost sure to +occur to several people much about the same time, and a reasonable +person will look upon his work with great suspicion unless he can +confirm it with the support of others who have gone before him. +Still I knew of nothing in the least resembling it, and was so afraid +of what I was doing, that though I could see no flaw in the argument, +nor any loophole for escape from the conclusion it led to, yet I did +not dare to put it forward with the seriousness and sobriety with +which I should have treated the subject if I had not been in +continual fear of a mine being sprung upon me from some unexpected +quarter. I am exceedingly glad now that I knew nothing of Professor +Hering's lecture, for it is much better that two people should think +a thing out as far as they can independently before they become aware +of each other's works but if I had seen it, I should either, as is +most likely, not have written at all, or I should have pitched my +book in another key. + +Among the additions I intended making while the book was in the +press, was a chapter on Mr. Darwin's provisional theory of +Pangenesis, which I felt convinced must be right if it was Mr. +Darwin's, and which I was sure, if I could once understand it, must +have an important bearing on "Life and Habit." I had not as yet seen +that the principle I was contending for was Darwinian, not Neo- +Darwinian. My pages still teemed with allusions to "natural +selection," and I sometimes allowed myself to hope that "Life and +Habit" was going to be an adjunct to Darwinism which no one would +welcome more gladly than Mr. Darwin himself. At this time I had a +visit from a friend, who kindly called to answer a question of mine, +relative, if I remember rightly, to "Pangenesis." He came, September +26, 1877. One of the first things he said was, that the theory which +had pleased him more than anything he had heard of for some time was +one referring all life to memory. I said that was exactly what I was +doing myself, and inquired where he had met with his theory. He +replied that Professor Ray Lankester had written a letter about it in +Nature some time ago, but he could not remember exactly when, and had +given extracts from a lecture by Professor Ewald Hering, who had +originated the theory. I said I should not look at it, as I had +completed that part of my work, and was on the point of going to +press. I could not recast my work if, as was most likely, I should +find something, when I saw what Professor Hering had said, which +would make me wish to rewrite my own book; it was too late in the day +and I did not feel equal to making any radical alteration; and so the +matter ended with very little said upon either side. I wrote, +however, afterwards to my friend asking him to tell me the number of +Nature which contained the lecture if he could find it, but he was +unable to do so, and I was well enough content. + +A few days before this I had met another friend, and had explained to +him what I was doing. He told me I ought to read Professor Mivart's +"Genesis of Species," and that if I did so I should find there were +two sides to "natural selection." Thinking, as so many people do-- +and no wonder--that "natural selection" and evolution were much the +same thing, and having found so many attacks upon evolution produce +no effect upon me, I declined to read it. I had as yet no idea that +a writer could attack Neo-Darwinism without attacking evolution. But +my friend kindly sent me a copy; and when I read it, I found myself +in the presence of arguments different from those I had met with +hitherto, and did not see my way to answering them. I had, however, +read only a small part of Professor Mivart's work, and was not fully +awake to the position, when the friend referred to in the preceding +paragraph called on me. + +When I had finished the "Genesis of Species," I felt that something +was certainly wanted which should give a definite aim to the +variations whose accumulation was to amount ultimately to specific +and generic differences, and that without this there could have been +no progress in organic development. I got the latest edition of the +"Origin of Species" in order to see how Mr. Darwin met Professor +Mivart, and found his answers in many respects unsatisfactory. I had +lost my original copy of the "Origin of Species," and had not read +the book for some years. I now set about reading it again, and came +to the chapter on instinct, where I was horrified to find the +following passage:- + + +"But it would be a serious error to suppose that the greater number +of instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation and then +transmitted by inheritance to the succeeding generations. It can be +clearly shown that the most wonderful instincts with which we are +acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could not +possibly have been acquired by habit." {23a} + + +This showed that, according to Mr. Darwin, I had fallen into serious +error, and my faith in him, though somewhat shaken, was far too great +to be destroyed by a few days' course of Professor Mivart, the full +importance of whose work I had not yet apprehended. I continued to +read, and when I had finished the chapter felt sure that I must +indeed have been blundering. The concluding words, "I am surprised +that no one has hitherto advanced this demonstrative case of neuter +insects against the well-known doctrine of inherited habit as +advanced by Lamarck," {23b} were positively awful. There was a quiet +consciousness of strength about them which was more convincing than +any amount of more detailed explanation. This was the first I had +heard of any doctrine of inherited habit as having been propounded by +Lamarck (the passage stands in the first edition, "the well-known +doctrine of Lamarck," p. 242); and now to find that I had been only +busying myself with a stale theory of this long-since exploded +charlatan--with my book three parts written and already in the press- +-it was a serious scare. + +On reflection, however, I was again met with the overwhelming weight +of the evidence in favour of structure and habit being mainly due to +memory. I accordingly gathered as much as I could second-hand of +what Lamarck had said, reserving a study of his "Philosophie +Zoologique" for another occasion, and read as much about ants and +bees as I could find in readily accessible works. In a few days I +saw my way again; and now, reading the "Origin of Species" more +closely, and I may say more sceptically, the antagonism between Mr. +Darwin and Lamarck became fully apparent to me, and I saw how +incoherent and unworkable in practice the later view was in +comparison with the earlier. Then I read Mr. Darwin's answers to +miscellaneous objections, and was met, and this time brought up, by +the passage beginning "In the earlier editions of this work," {24a} +&c., on which I wrote very severely in "Life and Habit"; {24b} for I +felt by this time that the difference of opinion between us was +radical, and that the matter must be fought out according to the +rules of the game. After this I went through the earlier part of my +book, and cut out the expressions which I had used inadvertently, and +which were inconsistent with a teleological view. This necessitated +only verbal alterations; for, though I had not known it, the spirit +of the book was throughout teleological. + +I now saw that I had got my hands full, and abandoned my intention of +touching upon "Pangenesis." I took up the words of Mr. Darwin quoted +above, to the effect that it would be a serious error to ascribe the +greater number of instincts to transmitted habit. I wrote chapter +xi. of "Life and Habit," which is headed "Instincts as Inherited +Memory"; I also wrote the four subsequent chapters, "Instincts of +Neuter Insects," "Lamarck and Mr. Darwin," "Mr. Mivart and Mr. +Darwin," and the concluding chapter, all of them in the month of +October and the early part of November 1877, the complete book +leaving the binder's hands December 4, 1877, but, according to trade +custom, being dated 1878. It will be seen that these five concluding +chapters were rapidly written, and this may account in part for the +directness with which I said anything I had to say about Mr. Darwin; +partly this, and partly I felt I was in for a penny and might as well +be in for a pound. I therefore wrote about Mr. Darwin's work exactly +as I should about any one else's, bearing in mind the inestimable +services he had undoubtedly--and must always be counted to have-- +rendered to evolution. + + + +CHAPTER III + + + +How I came to write "Evolution, Old and New"--Mr Darwin's "brief but +imperfect" sketch of the opinions of the writers on evolution who had +preceded him--The reception which "Evolution, Old and New," met with. + +Though my book was out in 1877, it was not till January 1878 that I +took an opportunity of looking up Professor Ray Lankester's account +of Professor Hering's lecture. I can hardly say how relieved I was +to find that it sprung no mine upon me, but that, so far as I could +gather, Professor Hering and I had come to pretty much the same +conclusion. I had already found the passage in Dr. Erasmus Darwin +which I quoted in "Evolution, Old and New," but may perhaps as well +repeat it here. It runs - + + +"Owing to the imperfection of language, the offspring is termed a new +animal; but is, in truth, a branch or elongation of the parent, since +a part of the embryon animal is or was a part of the parent, and, +therefore, in strict language, cannot be said to be entirely new at +the time of its production, and, therefore, it may retain some of the +habits of the parent system." {26} + + +When, then, the Athenaeum reviewed "Life and Habit" (January 26, +1878), I took the opportunity to write to that paper, calling +attention to Professor Hering's lecture, and also to the passage just +quoted from Dr. Erasmus Darwin. The editor kindly inserted my letter +in his issue of February 9, 1878. I felt that I had now done all in +the way of acknowledgment to Professor Hering which it was, for the +time, in my power to do. + +I again took up Mr. Darwin's "Origin of Species," this time, I admit, +in a spirit of scepticism. I read his "brief but imperfect" sketch +of the progress of opinion on the origin of species, and turned to +each one of the writers he had mentioned. First, I read all the +parts of the "Zoonomia" that were not purely medical, and was +astonished to find that, as Dr. Krause has since said in his essay on +Erasmus Darwin, "HE WAS THE FIRST WHO PROPOSED AND PERSISTENTLY +CARRIED OUT A WELL-ROUNDED THEORY WITH REGARD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF +THE LIVING WORLD" {27} (italics in original). + +This is undoubtedly the case, and I was surprised at finding +Professor Huxley say concerning this very eminent man that he could +"hardly be said to have made any real advance upon his predecessors." +Still more was I surprised at remembering that, in the first edition +of the "Origin of Species," Dr. Erasmus Darwin had never been so much +as named; while in the "brief but imperfect" sketch he was dismissed +with a line of half-contemptuous patronage, as though the mingled +tribute of admiration and curiosity which attaches to scientific +prophecies, as distinguished from discoveries, was the utmost he was +entitled to. "It is curious," says Mr. Darwin innocently, in the +middle of a note in the smallest possible type, "how largely my +grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous +grounds of opinion of Lamarck in his 'Zoonomia' (vol. i. pp. 500- +510), published in 1794"; this was all he had to say about the +founder of "Darwinism," until I myself unearthed Dr. Erasmus Darwin, +and put his work fairly before the present generation in "Evolution, +Old and New." Six months after I had done this, I had the +satisfaction of seeing that Mr. Darwin had woke up to the propriety +of doing much the same thing, and that he had published an +interesting and charmingly written memoir of his grandfather, of +which more anon. + +Not that Dr. Darwin was the first to catch sight of a complete theory +of evolution. Buffon was the first to point out that, in view of the +known modifications which had been effected among our domesticated +animals and cultivated plants, the ass and the horse should be +considered as, in all probability, descended from a common ancestor; +yet, if this is so, he writes--if the point "were once gained that +among animals and vegetables there had been, I do not say several +species, but even a single one, which had been produced in the course +of direct descent from another species; if, for example, it could be +once shown that the ass was but a degeneration from the horse, then +there is no further limit to be set to the power of Nature, and we +should not be wrong in supposing that, with sufficient time, she has +evolved all other organised forms from one primordial type" {28a} (et +l'on n'auroit pas tort de supposer, que d'un seul etre elle a su +tirer avec le temps tous les autres etres organises). + +This, I imagine, in spite of Professor Huxley's dictum, is +contributing a good deal to the general doctrine of evolution; for +though Descartes and Leibnitz may have thrown out hints pointing more +or less broadly in the direction of evolution, some of which +Professor Huxley has quoted, he has adduced nothing approaching to +the passage from Buffon given above, either in respect of the +clearness with which the conclusion intended to be arrived at is +pointed out, or the breadth of view with which the whole ground of +animal and vegetable nature is covered. The passage referred to is +only one of many to the same effect, and must be connected with one +quoted in "Evolution, Old and New," {28b} from p. 13 of Buffon's +first volume, which appeared in 1749, and than which nothing can well +point more plainly in the direction of evolution. It is not easy, +therefore, to understand why Professor Huxley should give 1753-78 as +the date of Buffon's work, nor yet why he should say that Buffon was +"at first a partisan of the absolute immutability of species," {29a} +unless, indeed, we suppose he has been content to follow that very +unsatisfactory writer, Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire (who falls into +this error, and says that Buffon's first volume on animals appeared +1753), without verifying him, and without making any reference to +him. + +Professor Huxley quotes a passage from the "Palingenesie +Philosophique" of Bonnet, of which he says that, making allowance for +his peculiar views on the subject of generation, they bear no small +resemblance to what is understood by "evolution" at the present day. +The most important parts of the passage quoted are as follows:- + + +"Should I be going too far if I were to conjecture that the plants +and animals of the present day have arisen by a sort of natural +evolution from the organised beings which peopled the world in its +original state as it left the hands of the Creator? . . . In the +outset organised beings were probably very different from what they +are now--as different as the original world is from our present one. +We have no means of estimating the amount of these differences, but +it is possible that even our ablest naturalist, if transplanted to +the original world, would entirely fail to recognise our plants and +animals therein." {29b} + + +But this is feeble in comparison with Buffon, and did not appear till +1769, when Buffon had been writing on evolution for fully twenty +years with the eyes of scientific Europe upon him. Whatever +concession to the opinion of Buffon Bonnet may have been inclined to +make in 1769, in 1764, when he published his "Contemplation de la +Nature," and in 1762 when his "Considerations sur les Corps Organes" +appeared, he cannot be considered to have been a supporter of +evolution. I went through these works in 1878 when I was writing +"Evolution, Old and New," to see whether I could claim him as on my +side; but though frequently delighted with his work, I found it +impossible to press him into my service. + +The pre-eminent claim of Buffon to be considered as the father of the +modern doctrine of evolution cannot be reasonably disputed, though he +was doubtless led to his conclusions by the works of Descartes and +Leibnitz, of both of whom he was an avowed and very warm admirer. +His claim does not rest upon a passage here or there, but upon the +spirit of forty quartos written over a period of about as many years. +Nevertheless he wrote, as I have shown in "Evolution, Old and New," +of set purpose enigmatically, whereas there was no beating about the +bush with Dr. Darwin. He speaks straight out, and Dr. Krause is +justified in saying of him "THAT HE WAS THE FIRST WHO PROPOSED AND +PERSISTENTLY CARRIED OUT A WELL-ROUNDED THEORY" of evolution. + +I now turned to Lamarck. I read the first volume of the "Philosophie +Zoologique," analysed it and translated the most important parts. +The second volume was beside my purpose, dealing as it does rather +with the origin of life than of species, and travelling too fast and +too far for me to be able to keep up with him. Again I was +astonished at the little mention Mr. Darwin had made of this +illustrious writer, at the manner in which he had motioned him away, +as it were, with his hand in the first edition of the "Origin of +Species," and at the brevity and imperfection of the remarks made +upon him in the subsequent historical sketch. + +I got Isidore Geoffroy's "Histoire Naturelle Generale," which Mr. +Darwin commends in the note on the second page of the historical +sketch, as giving "an excellent history of opinion" upon the subject +of evolution, and a full account of Buffon's conclusions upon the +same subject. This at least is what I supposed Mr. Darwin to mean. +What he said was that Isidore Geoffroy gives an excellent history of +opinion on the subject of the date of the first publication of +Lamarck, and that in his work there is a full account of Buffon's +fluctuating conclusions upon THE SAME SUBJECT. {31} But Mr. Darwin +is a more than commonly puzzling writer. I read what M. Geoffroy had +to say upon Buffon, and was surprised to find that, after all, +according to M. Geoffroy, Buffon, and not Lamarck, was the founder of +the theory of evolution. His name, as I have already said, was never +mentioned in the first edition of the "Origin of Species." + +M. Geoffroy goes into the accusations of having fluctuated in his +opinions, which he tells us have been brought against Buffon, and +comes to the conclusion that they are unjust, as any one else will do +who turns to Buffon himself. Mr. Darwin, however, in the "brief but +imperfect sketch," catches at the accusation, and repeats it while +saying nothing whatever about the defence. The following is still +all he says: "The first author who in modern times has treated" +evolution "in a scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions +fluctuated greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on +the causes or means of the transformation of species, I need not here +enter on details." On the next page, in the note last quoted, Mr. +Darwin originally repeated the accusation of Buffon's having been +fluctuating in his opinions, and appeared to give it the imprimatur +of Isidore Geoffroy's approval; the fact being that Isidore Geoffroy +only quoted the accusation in order to refute it; and though, I +suppose, meaning well, did not make half the case he might have done, +and abounds with misstatements. My readers will find this matter +particularly dealt with in "Evolution, Old and New," Chapter X. + +I gather that some one must have complained to Mr. Darwin of his +saying that Isidore Geoffroy gave an account of Buffon's "fluctuating +conclusions" concerning evolution, when he was doing all he knew to +maintain that Buffon's conclusions did not fluctuate; for I see that +in the edition of 1876 the word "fluctuating" has dropped out of the +note in question, and we now learn that Isidore Geoffroy gives "a +full account of Buffon's conclusions," without the "fluctuating." +But Buffon has not taken much by this, for his opinions are still +left fluctuating greatly at different periods on the preceding page, +and though he still was the first to treat evolution in a scientific +spirit, he still does not enter upon the causes or means of the +transformation of species. No one can understand Mr. Darwin who does +not collate the different editions of the "Origin of Species" with +some attention. When he has done this, he will know what Newton +meant by saying he felt like a child playing with pebbles upon the +seashore. + +One word more upon this note before I leave it. Mr. Darwin speaks of +Isidore Geoffroy's history of opinion as "excellent," and his account +of Buffon's opinions as "full." I wonder how well qualified he is to +be a judge of these matters? If he knows much about the earlier +writers, he is the more inexcusable for having said so little about +them. If little, what is his opinion worth? + +To return to the "brief but imperfect sketch." I do not think I can +ever again be surprised at anything Mr. Darwin may say or do, but if +I could, I should wonder how a writer who did not "enter upon the +causes or means of the transformation of species," and whose opinions +"fluctuated greatly at different periods," can be held to have +treated evolution "in a scientific spirit." Nevertheless, when I +reflect upon the scientific reputation Mr. Darwin has attained, and +the means by which he has won it, I suppose the scientific spirit +must be much what he here implies. I see Mr. Darwin says of his own +father, Dr. Robert Darwin of Shrewsbury, that he does not consider +him to have had a scientific mind. Mr. Darwin cannot tell why he +does not think his father's mind to have been fitted for advancing +science, "for he was fond of theorising, and was incomparably the +best observer" Mr. Darwin ever knew. {33a} From the hint given in +the "brief but imperfect sketch," I fancy I can help Mr. Darwin to +see why he does not think his father's mind to have been a scientific +one. It is possible that Dr. Robert Darwin's opinions did not +fluctuate sufficiently at different periods, and that Mr. Darwin +considered him as having in some way entered upon the causes or means +of the transformation of species. Certainly those who read Mr. +Darwin's own works attentively will find no lack of fluctuation in +his case; and reflection will show them that a theory of evolution +which relies mainly on the accumulation of accidental variations +comes very close to not entering upon the causes or means of the +transformation of species. {33b} + +I have shown, however, in "Evolution, Old and New," that the +assertion that Buffon does not enter on the causes or means of the +transformation of species is absolutely without foundation, and that, +on the contrary, he is continually dealing with this very matter, and +devotes to it one of his longest and most important chapters, {33c} +but I admit that he is less satisfactory on this head than either Dr. +Erasmus Darwin or Lamarck. + +As a matter of fact, Buffon is much more of a Neo-Darwinian than +either Dr. Erasmus Darwin or Lamarck, for with him the variations are +sometimes fortuitous. In the case of the dog, he speaks of them as +making their appearance "BY SOME CHANCE common enough with Nature," +{33d} and being perpetuated by man's selection. This is exactly the +"if any slight favourable variation HAPPEN to arise" of Mr. Charles +Darwin. Buffon also speaks of the variations among pigeons arising +"par hasard." But these expressions are only ships; his main cause +of variation is the direct action of changed conditions of existence, +while with Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck the action of the +conditions of existence is indirect, the direct action being that of +the animals or plants themselves, in consequence of changed sense of +need under changed conditions. + +I should say that the sketch so often referred to is at first sight +now no longer imperfect in Mr. Darwin's opinion. It was "brief but +imperfect" in 1861 and in 1866, but in 1876 I see that it is brief +only. Of course, discovering that it was no longer imperfect, I +expected to find it briefer. What, then, was my surprise at finding +that it had become rather longer? I have found no perfectly +satisfactory explanation of this inconsistency, but, on the whole, +incline to think that the "greatest of living men" felt himself +unequal to prolonging his struggle with the word "but," and resolved +to lay that conjunction at all hazards, even though the doing so +might cost him the balance of his adjectives; for I think he must +know that his sketch is still imperfect. + +From Isidore Geoffroy I turned to Buffon himself, and had not long to +wait before I felt that I was now brought into communication with the +master-mind of all those who have up to the present time busied +themselves with evolution. For a brief and imperfect sketch of him, +I must refer my readers to "Evolution, Old and New." + +I have no great respect for the author of the "Vestiges of Creation," +who behaved hardly better to the writers upon whom his own work was +founded than Mr. Darwin himself has done. Nevertheless, I could not +forget the gravity of the misrepresentation with which he was +assailed on page 3 of the first edition of the "Origin of Species," +nor impugn the justice of his rejoinder in the following year, {34} +when he replied that it was to be regretted Mr. Darwin had read his +work "almost as much amiss as if, like its declared opponents, he had +an interest in misrepresenting it." {35a} I could not, again, forget +that, though Mr. Darwin did not venture to stand by the passage in +question, it was expunged without a word of apology or explanation of +how it was that he had come to write it. A writer with any claim to +our consideration will never fall into serious error about another +writer without hastening to make a public apology as soon as he +becomes aware of what he has done. + +Reflecting upon the substance of what I have written in the last few +pages, I thought it right that people should have a chance of knowing +more about the earlier writers on evolution than they were likely to +hear from any of our leading scientists (no matter how many lectures +they may give on the coming of age of the "Origin of Species") except +Professor Mivart. A book pointing the difference between +teleological and non-teleological views of evolution seemed likely to +be useful, and would afford me the opportunity I wanted for giving a +resume of the views of each one of the three chief founders of the +theory, and of contrasting them with those of Mr. Charles Darwin, as +well as for calling attention to Professor Hering's lecture. I +accordingly wrote "Evolution, Old and New," which was prominently +announced in the leading literary periodicals at the end of February, +or on the very first days of March 1879, {35b} as "a comparison of +the theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, with that of +Mr. Charles Darwin, with copious extracts from the works of the three +first-named writers." In this book I was hardly able to conceal the +fact that, in spite of the obligations under which we must always +remain to Mr. Darwin, I had lost my respect for him and for his work. + +I should point out that this announcement, coupled with what I had +written in "Life and Habit," would enable Mr. Darwin and his friends +to form a pretty shrewd guess as to what I was likely to say, and to +quote from Dr. Erasmus Darwin in my forthcoming book. The +announcement, indeed, would tell almost as much as the book itself to +those who knew the works of Erasmus Darwin. + +As may be supposed, "Evolution, Old and New," met with a very +unfavourable reception at the hands of many of its reviewers. The +Saturday Review was furious. "When a writer," it exclaimed, "who has +not given as many weeks to the subject as Mr. Darwin has given years, +is not content to air his own crude though clever fallacies, but +assumes to criticise Mr. Darwin with the superciliousness of a young +schoolmaster looking over a boy's theme, it is difficult not to take +him more seriously than he deserves or perhaps desires. One would +think that Mr. Butler was the travelled and laborious observer of +Nature, and Mr. Darwin the pert speculator who takes all his facts at +secondhand." {36} + +The lady or gentleman who writes in such a strain as this should not +be too hard upon others whom she or he may consider to write like +schoolmasters. It is true I have travelled--not much, but still as +much as many others, and have endeavoured to keep my eyes open to the +facts before me; but I cannot think that I made any reference to my +travels in "Evolution, Old and New." I did not quite see what that +had to do with the matter. A man may get to know a good deal without +ever going beyond the four-mile radius from Charing Cross. Much less +did I imply that Mr. Darwin was pert: pert is one of the last words +that can be applied to Mr. Darwin. Nor, again, had I blamed him for +taking his facts at secondhand; no one is to be blamed for this, +provided he takes well-established facts and acknowledges his +sources. Mr. Darwin has generally gone to good sources. The ground +of complaint against him is that he muddied the water after he had +drawn it, and tacitly claimed to be the rightful owner of the spring, +on the score of the damage he had effected. + +Notwithstanding, however, the generally hostile, or more or less +contemptuous, reception which "Evolution, Old and New," met with, +there were some reviews--as, for example, those in the Field, {37a} +the Daily Chronicle, {37b} the Athenaeum, {37c} the Journal of +Science, {37d} the British Journal of Homaeopathy, {37e} the Daily +News, {37f} the Popular Science Review {37g}--which were all I could +expect or wish. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + +The manner in which Mr. Darwin met "Evolution, Old and New." + +By far the most important notice of "Evolution, Old and New," was +that taken by Mr. Darwin himself; for I can hardly be mistaken in +believing that Dr. Krause's article would have been allowed to repose +unaltered in the pages of the well-known German scientific journal, +Kosmos, unless something had happened to make Mr. Darwin feel that +his reticence concerning his grandfather must now be ended + +Mr. Darwin, indeed, gives me the impression of wishing me to +understand that this is not the case. At the beginning of this year +he wrote to me, in a letter which I will presently give in full, that +he had obtained Dr. Krause's consent for a translation, and had +arranged with Mr. Dallas, before my book was "announced." "I +remember this," he continues, "because Mr. Dallas wrote to tell me of +the advertisement." But Mr. Darwin is not a clear writer, and it is +impossible to say whether he is referring to the announcement of +"Evolution, Old and New"--in which case he means that the +arrangements for the translation of Dr. Krause's article were made +before the end of February 1879, and before any public intimation +could have reached him as to the substance of the book on which I was +then engaged--or to the advertisements of its being now published, +which appeared at the beginning of May; in which case, as I have said +above, Mr. Darwin and his friends had for some time had full +opportunity of knowing what I was about. I believe, however, Mr. +Darwin to intend that he remembered the arrangements having been made +before the beginning of May--his use of the word "announced," instead +of "advertised," being an accident; but let this pass. + +Some time after Mr. Darwin's work appeared in November 1879, I got +it, and looking at the last page of the book, I read as follows:- + + +"They" (the elder Darwin and Lamarck) "explain the adaptation to +purpose of organisms by an obscure impulse or sense of what is +purpose-like; yet even with regard to man we are in the habit of +saying, that one can never know what so-and-so is good for. The +purpose-like is that which approves itself, and not always that which +is struggled for by obscure impulses and desires. Just in the same +way the beautiful is what pleases." + + +I had a sort of feeling as though the writer of the above might have +had "Evolution, Old and New," in his mind, but went on to the next +sentence, which ran - + + +"Erasmus Darwin's system was in itself a most significant first step +in the path of knowledge which his grandson has opened up for us, but +to wish to revive it at the present day, as has actually been +seriously attempted, shows a weakness of thought and a mental +anachronism which no one can envy." + + +"That's me," said I to myself promptly. I noticed also the position +in which the sentence stood, which made it both one of the first that +would be likely to catch a reader's eye, and the last he would carry +away with him. I therefore expected to find an open reply to some +parts of "Evolution, Old and New," and turned to Mr. Darwin's +preface. + +To my surprise, I there found that what I had been reading could not +by any possibility refer to me, for the preface ran as follows:- + + +"In the February number of a well-known German scientific journal, +Kosmos, {39} Dr. Ernest Krause published a sketch of the 'Life of +Erasmus Darwin,' the author of the 'Zoonomia,' 'Botanic Garden,' and +other works. This article bears the title of a 'Contribution to the +History of the Descent Theory'; and Dr. Krause has kindly allowed my +brother Erasmus and myself to have a translation made of it for +publication in this country." + + +Then came a note as follows:- + + +"Mr. Dallas has undertaken the translation, and his scientific +reputation, together with his knowledge of German, is a guarantee for +its accuracy." + + +I ought to have suspected inaccuracy where I found so much +consciousness of accuracy, but I did not. However this may be, Mr. +Darwin pins himself down with every circumstance of preciseness to +giving Dr. Krause's article as it appeared in Kosmos,--the whole +article, and nothing but the article. No one could know this better +than Mr. Darwin. + +On the second page of Mr. Darwin's preface there is a small-type note +saying that my work, "Evolution, Old and New," had appeared since the +publication of Dr. Krause's article. Mr. Darwin thus distinctly +precludes his readers from supposing that any passage they might meet +with could have been written in reference to, or by the light of, my +book. If anything appeared condemnatory of that book, it was an +undesigned coincidence, and would show how little worthy of +consideration I must be when my opinions were refuted in advance by +one who could have no bias in regard to them. + +Knowing that if the article I was about to read appeared in February, +it must have been published before my book, which was not out till +three months later, I saw nothing in Mr. Darwin's preface to complain +of, and felt that this was only another instance of my absurd vanity +having led me to rush to conclusions without sufficient grounds,--as +if it was likely, indeed, that Mr. Darwin should think what I had +said of sufficient importance to be affected by it. It was plain +that some one besides myself, of whom I as yet knew nothing, had been +writing about the elder Darwin, and had taken much the same line +concerning him that I had done. It was for the benefit of this +person, then, that Dr. Krause's paragraph was intended. I returned +to a becoming sense of my own insignificance, and began to read what +I supposed to be an accurate translation of Dr. Krause's article as +it originally appeared, before "Evolution, Old and New," was +published. + +On pp. 3 and 4 of Dr. Krause's part of Mr. Darwin's book (pp. 133 and +134 of the book itself), I detected a sub-apologetic tone which a +little surprised me, and a notice of the fact that Coleridge when +writing on Stillingfleet had used the word "Darwinising." Mr. R. +Garnett had called my attention to this, and I had mentioned it in +"Evolution, Old and New," but the paragraph only struck me as being a +little odd. + +When I got a few pages farther on (p. 147 of Mr. Darwin's book), I +found a long quotation from Buffon about rudimentary organs, which I +had quoted in "Evolution, Old and New." I observed that Dr. Krause +used the same edition of Buffon that I did, and began his quotation +two lines from the beginning of Buffon's paragraph, exactly as I had +done; also that he had taken his nominative from the omitted part of +the sentence across a full stop, as I had myself taken it. A little +lower I found a line of Buffon's omitted which I had given, but I +found that at that place I had inadvertently left two pair of +inverted commas which ought to have come out, {41} having intended to +end my quotation, but changed my mind and continued it without +erasing the commas. It seemed to me that these commas had bothered +Dr. Krause, and made him think it safer to leave something out, for +the line he omits is a very good one. I noticed that he translated +"Mais comme nous voulons toujours tout rapporter a un certain but," +"But we, always wishing to refer," &c., while I had it, "But we, ever +on the look-out to refer," &c.; and "Nous ne faisons pas attention +que nous alterons la philosophie," "We fail to see that thus we +deprive philosophy of her true character," whereas I had "We fail to +see that we thus rob philosophy of her true character." This last +was too much; and though it might turn out that Dr. Krause had quoted +this passage before I had done so, had used the same edition as I +had, had begun two lines from the beginning of a paragraph as I had +done, and that the later resemblances were merely due to Mr. Dallas +having compared Dr. Krause's German translation of Buffon with my +English, and very properly made use of it when he thought fit, it +looked prima facie more as though my quotation had been copied in +English as it stood, and then altered, but not quite altered enough. +This, in the face of the preface, was incredible; but so many points +had such an unpleasant aspect, that I thought it better to send for +Kosmos and see what I could make out. + +At this time I knew not one word of German. On the same day, +therefore, that I sent for Kosmos I began acquire that language, and +in the fortnight before Kosmos came had got far enough forward for +all practical purposes--that is to say, with the help of a +translation and a dictionary, I could see whether or no a German +passage was the same as what purported to be its translation. + +When Kosmos came I turned to the end of the article to see how the +sentence about mental anachronism and weakness of thought looked in +German. I found nothing of the kind, the original article ended with +some innocent rhyming doggerel about somebody going on and exploring +something with eagle eye; but ten lines from the end I found a +sentence which corresponded with one six pages from the end of the +English translation. After this there could be little doubt that the +whole of these last six English pages were spurious matter. What +little doubt remained was afterwards removed by my finding that they +had no place in any part of the genuine article. I looked for the +passage about Coleridge's using the word "Darwinising"; it was not to +be found in the German. I looked for the piece I had quoted from +Buffon about rudimentary organs; but there was nothing of it, nor +indeed any reference to Buffon. It was plain, therefore, that the +article which Mr. Darwin had given was not the one he professed to be +giving. I read Mr. Darwin's preface over again to see whether he +left himself any loophole. There was not a chink or cranny through +which escape was possible. The only inference that could be drawn +was either that some one had imposed upon Mr. Darwin, or that Mr. +Darwin, although it was not possible to suppose him ignorant of the +interpolations that had been made, nor of the obvious purpose of the +concluding sentence, had nevertheless palmed off an article which had +been added to and made to attack "Evolution, Old and New," as though +it were the original article which appeared before that book was +written. I could not and would not believe that Mr. Darwin had +condescended to this. Nevertheless, I saw it was necessary to sift +the whole matter, and began to compare the German and the English +articles paragraph by paragraph. + +On the first page I found a passage omitted from the English, which +with great labour I managed to get through, and can now translate as +follows:- + + +"Alexander Von Humboldt used to take pleasure in recounting how +powerfully Forster's pictures of the South Sea Islands and St. +Pierre's illustrations of Nature had provoked his ardour for travel +and influenced his career as a scientific investigator. How much +more impressively must the works of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, with their +reiterated foreshadowing of a more lofty interpretation of Nature, +have affected his grandson, who in his youth assuredly approached +them with the devotion due to the works of a renowned poet." {43} + + +I then came upon a passage common to both German and English, which +in its turn was followed in the English by the sub-apologetic +paragraph which I had been struck with on first reading, and which +was not in the German, its place being taken by a much longer passage +which had no place in the English. A little farther on I was amused +at coming upon the following, and at finding it wholly transformed in +the supposed accurate translation + + +"How must this early and penetrating explanation of rudimentary +organs have affected the grandson when he read the poem of his +ancestor! But indeed the biological remarks of this accurate +observer in regard to certain definite natural objects must have +produced a still deeper impression upon him, pointing, as they do, to +questions which hay attained so great a prominence at the present +day; such as, Why is any creature anywhere such as we actually see it +and nothing else? Why has such and such a plant poisonous juices? +Why has such and such another thorns? Why have birds and fishes +light-coloured breasts and dark backs, and, Why does every creature +resemble the one from which it sprung?" {44a} + + +I will not weary the reader with further details as to the omissions +from and additions to the German text. Let it suffice that the so- +called translation begins on p. 131 and ends on p. 216 of Mr. +Darwin's book. There is new matter on each one of the pp. 132-139, +while almost the whole of pp. 147-152 inclusive, and the whole of pp. +211-216 inclusive, are spurious--that is to say, not what the purport +to be, not translations from an article that was published in +February 1879, and before "Evolution, Old and New," but +interpolations not published till six months after that book. + +Bearing in mind the contents of two of the added passages and the +tenor of the concluding sentence quoted above, {44b} I could no +longer doubt that the article had been altered by the light of and +with a view to "Evolution, Old and New." + +The steps are perfectly clear. First Dr. Krause published his +article in Kosmos and my book was announced (its purport being thus +made obvious), both in the month of February 1879. Soon afterwards +arrangements were made for a translation of Dr. Krause's essay, and +were completed by the end of April. Then my book came out, and in +some way or other Dr. Krause happened to get hold of it. He helped +himself--not to much, but to enough; made what other additions to and +omissions from his article he thought would best meet "Evolution, Old +and New," and then fell to condemning that book in a finale that was +meant to be crushing. Nothing was said about the revision which Dr. +Krause's work had undergone, but it was expressly and particularly +declared in the preface that the English translation was an accurate +version of what appeared in the February number of Kosmos, and no +less expressly and particularly stated that my book was published +subsequently to this. Both these statements are untrue; they are in +Mr. Darwin's favour and prejudicial to myself. + +All this was done with that well-known "happy simplicity" of which +the Pall Mall Gazette, December 12, 1879, declared that Mr. Darwin +was "a master." The final sentence, about the "weakness of thought +and mental anachronism which no one can envy," was especially +successful. The reviewer in the Pall Mall Gazette just quoted from +gave it in full, and said that it was thoroughly justified. He then +mused forth a general gnome that the "confidence of writers who deal +in semi-scientific paradoxes is commonly in inverse proportion to +their grasp of the subject." Again my vanity suggested to me that I +was the person for whose benefit this gnome was intended. My vanity, +indeed, was well fed by the whole transaction; for I saw that not +only did Mr. Darwin, who should be the best judge, think my work +worth notice, but that he did not venture to meet it openly. As for +Dr. Krause's concluding sentence, I thought that when a sentence had +been antedated the less it contained about anachronism the better. + +Only one of the reviews that I saw of Mr. Darwin's "Life of Erasmus +Darwin" showed any knowledge of the facts. The Popular Science +Review for January 1880, in flat contradiction to Mr. Darwin's +preface, said that only part of Dr. Krause's article was being given +by Mr. Darwin. This reviewer had plainly seen both Kosmos and Mr. +Darwin's book. + +In the same number of the Popular Science Review, and immediately +following the review of Mr. Darwin's book, there is a review of +"Evolution, Old and New." The writer of this review quotes the +passage about mental anachronism as quoted by the reviewer in the +Pall Mall Gazette, and adds immediately: "This anachronism has been +committed by Mr. Samuel Butler in a . . . little volume now before +us, and it is doubtless to this, WHICH APPEARED WHILE HIS OWN WORK +WAS IN PROGRESS [italics mine] that Dr. Krause alludes in the +foregoing passage." Considering that the editor of the Popular +Science Review and the translator of Dr. Krause's article for Mr. +Darwin are one and the same person, it is likely the Popular Science +Review is well informed in saying that my book appeared before Dr. +Krause's article had been transformed into its present shape, and +that my book was intended by the passage in question. + +Unable to see any way of escaping from a conclusion which I could not +willingly adopt, I thought it best to write to Mr. Darwin, stating +the facts as they appeared to myself, and asking an explanation, +which I would have gladly strained a good many points to have +accepted. It is better, perhaps, that I should give my letter and +Darwin's answer in full. My letter ran thus:- + + +January 2, 1880. + +CHARLES DARWIN, ESQ., F.R.S., &c. + +Dear Sir,--Will you kindly refer me to the edition of Kosmos which +contains the text of Dr. Krause's article on Dr. Erasmus Darwin, as +translated by Mr. W. S. Dallas? + +I have before me the last February number of Kosmos, which appears by +your preface to be the one from which Mr. Dallas has translated, but +his translation contains long and important passages which are not in +the February number of Kosmos, while many passages in the original +article are omitted in the translation. + +Among the passages introduced are the last six pages of the English +article, which seem to condemn by anticipation the position I have +taken as regards Dr. Erasmus Darwin in my book, "Evolution, Old and +New," and which I believe I was the first to take. The concluding, +and therefore, perhaps, most prominent sentence of the translation +you have given to the public stands thus:- + +"Erasmus Darwin's system was in itself a most significant first step +in the path of knowledge which his grandson has opened up for us, but +to wish to revive it at the present day, as has actually been +seriously attempted, shows a weakness of thought and a mental +anachronism which no man can envy." + +The Kosmos which has been sent me from Germany contains no such +passage. + +As you have stated in your preface that my book, "Evolution, Old and +New," appeared subsequently to Dr. Krause's article, and as no +intimation is given that the article has been altered and added to +since its original appearance, while the accuracy of the translation +as though from the February number of Kosmos is, as you expressly +say, guaranteed by Mr. Dallas's "scientific reputation together with +his knowledge of German," your readers will naturally suppose that +all they read in the translation appeared in February last, and +therefore before "Evolution, Old and New," was written, and therefore +independently of, and necessarily without reference to, that book. + +I do not doubt that this was actually the case, but have failed to +obtain the edition which contains the passage above referred to, and +several others which appear in the translation. + +I have a personal interest in this matter, and venture, therefore, to +ask for the explanation which I do not doubt you will readily give +me.--Yours faithfully, + +S. BUTLER. + + +The following is Mr. Darwin's answer:- + + +January 3, 1880. + +My Dear Sir, Dr. Krause, soon after the appearance of his article in +Kosmos told me that he intended to publish it separately and to alter +it considerably, and the altered MS. was sent to Mr. Dallas for +translation. This is so common a practice that it never occurred to +me to state that the article had been modified; but now I much regret +that I did not do so. The original will soon appear in German, and I +believe will be a much larger book than the English one; for, with +Dr. Krause's consent, many long extracts from Miss Seward were +omitted (as well as much other matter), from being in my opinion +superfluous for the English reader. I believe that the omitted parts +will appear as notes in the German edition. Should there be a +reprint of the English Life I will state that the original as it +appeared in Kosmos was modified by Dr. Krause before it was +translated. I may add that I had obtained Dr. Krause's consent for a +translation, and had arranged with Mr. Dallas before your book was +announced. I remember this because Mr. Dallas wrote to tell me of +the advertisement.--I remain, yours faithfully, + +C. DARWIN." + + +This was not a letter I could accept. If Mr. Darwin had said that by +some inadvertence, which he was unable to excuse or account for, a +blunder had been made which he would at once correct so far as was in +his power by a letter to the Times or the Athenaeum, and that a +notice of the erratum should be printed on a flyleaf and pasted into +all unsold copies of the "Life of Erasmus Darwin," there would have +been no more heard about the matter from me; but when Mr. Darwin +maintained that it was a common practice to take advantage of an +opportunity of revising a work to interpolate a covert attack upon an +opponent, and at the same time to misdate the interpolated matter by +expressly stating that it appeared months sooner than it actually +did, and prior to the work which it attacked; when he maintained that +what was being done was "so common a practice that it never +occurred," to him--the writer of some twenty volumes--to do what all +literary men must know to be inexorably requisite, I thought this was +going far beyond what was permissible in honourable warfare, and that +it was time, in the interests of literary and scientific morality, +even more than in my own, to appeal to public opinion. I was +particularly struck with the use of the words "it never occurred to +me," and felt how completely of a piece it was with the opening +paragraph of the "Origin of Species." It was not merely that it did +not occur to Mr. Darwin to state that the article had been modified +since it was written--this would have been bad enough under the +circumstances but that it did occur to him to go out of his way to +say what was not true. There was no necessity for him to have said +anything about my book. It appeared, moreover, inadequate to tell me +that if a reprint of the English Life was wanted (which might or +might not be the case, and if it was not the case, why, a shrug of +the shoulders, and I must make the best of it), Mr. Darwin might +perhaps silently omit his note about my book, as he omitted his +misrepresentation of the author of the "Vestiges of Creation," and +put the words "revised and corrected by the author" on his title- +page. + +No matter how high a writer may stand, nor what services he may have +unquestionably rendered, it cannot be for the general well-being that +he should be allowed to set aside the fundamental principles of +straightforwardness and fair play. When I thought of Buffon, of Dr. +Erasmus Darwin, of Lamarck and even of the author of the "Vestiges of +Creation," to all of whom Mr. Darwin had dealt the same measure which +he was now dealing to myself; when I thought of these great men, now +dumb, who had borne the burden and heat of the day, and whose laurels +had been filched from them; of the manner, too, in which Mr. Darwin +had been abetted by those who should have been the first to detect +the fallacy which had misled him; of the hotbed of intrigue which +science has now become; of the disrepute into which we English must +fall as a nation if such practices as Mr. Darwin had attempted in +this case were to be tolerated;--when I thought of all this, I felt +that though prayers for the repose of dead men's souls might be +unavailing, yet a defence of their work and memory, no matter against +what odds, might avail the living, and resolved that I would do my +utmost to make my countrymen aware of the spirit now ruling among +those whom they delight to honour. + +At first I thought I ought to continue the correspondence privately +with Mr. Darwin, and explain to him that his letter was insufficient, +but on reflection I felt that little good was likely to come of a +second letter, if what I had already written was not enough. I +therefore wrote to the Athenaeum and gave a condensed account of the +facts contained in the last ten or a dozen pages. My letter appeared +January 31, 1880. {50} + +The accusation was a very grave one; it was made in a very public +place. I gave my name; I adduced the strongest prima facie grounds +for the acceptance of my statements; but there was no rejoinder, and +for the best of all reasons--that no rejoinder was possible. +Besides, what is the good of having a reputation for candour if one +may not stand upon it at a pinch? I never yet knew a person with an +especial reputation for candour without finding sooner or later that +he had developed it as animals develop their organs, through "sense +of need." Not only did Mr. Darwin remain perfectly quiet, but all +reviewers and litterateurs remained perfectly quiet also. It seemed- +-though I do not for a moment believe that this is so--as if public +opinion rather approved of what Mr. Darwin had done, and of his +silence than otherwise. I saw the "Life of Erasmus Darwin" more +frequently and more prominently advertised now than I had seen it +hitherto--perhaps in the hope of selling off the adulterated copies, +and being able to reprint the work with a corrected title page. +Presently I saw Professor Huxley hastening to the rescue with his +lecture on the coming of age of the "Origin of Species," and by May +it was easy for Professor Ray Lankester to imply that Mr. Darwin was +the greatest of living men. I have since noticed two or three other +controversies raging in the Athenaeum and Times; in each of these +cases I saw it assumed that the defeated party, when proved to have +publicly misrepresented his adversary, should do his best to correct +in public the injury which he had publicly inflicted, but I noticed +that in none of them had the beaten side any especial reputation for +candour. This probably made all the difference. But however this +may be, Mr. Darwin left me in possession of the field, in the hope, +doubtless, that the matter would blow over--which it apparently soon +did. Whether it has done so in reality or no, is a matter which +remains to be seen. My own belief is that people paid no attention +to what I said, as believing it simply incredible, and that when they +come to know that it is true, they will think as I do concerning it. + +From ladies and gentlemen of science I admit that I have no +expectations. There is no conduct so dishonourable that people will +not deny it or explain it away, if it has been committed by one whom +they recognise as of their own persuasion. It must be remembered +that facts cannot be respected by the scientist in the same way as by +other people. It is his business to familiarise himself with facts, +and, as we all know, the path from familiarity to contempt is an easy +one. + +Here, then, I take leave of this matter for the present. If it +appears that I have used language such as is rarely seen in +controversy, let the reader remember that the occasion is, so far as +I know, unparalleled for the cynicism and audacity with which the +wrong complained of was committed and persisted in. I trust, +however, that, though not indifferent to this, my indignation has +been mainly roused, as when I wrote "Evolution, Old and New," before +Mr. Darwin had given me personal ground of complaint against him, by +the wrongs he has inflicted on dead men, on whose behalf I now fight, +as I trust that some one--whom I thank by anticipation--may one day +fight on mine. + + + +CHAPTER V + + + +Introduction to Professor Hering's lecture. + +After I had finished "Evolution, Old and New," I wrote some articles +for the Examiner, {52} in which I carried out the idea put forward in +"Life and Habit," that we are one person with our ancestors. It +follows from this, that all living animals and vegetables, being--as +appears likely if the theory of evolution is accepted--descended from +a common ancestor, are in reality one person, and unite to form a +body corporate, of whose existence, however, they are unconscious. +There is an obvious analogy between this and the manner in which the +component cells of our bodies unite to form our single individuality, +of which it is not likely they have a conception, and with which they +have probably only the same partial and imperfect sympathy as we, the +body corporate, have with them. In the articles above alluded to I +separated the organic from the inorganic, and when I came to rewrite +them, I found that this could not be done, and that I must +reconstruct what I had written. I was at work on this--to which I +hope to return shortly--when Dr. Krause's' "Erasmus Darwin," with its +preliminary notice by Mr. Charles Darwin, came out, and having been +compelled, as I have shown above, by Dr. Krause's work to look a +little into the German language, the opportunity seemed favourable +for going on with it and becoming acquainted with Professor Hering's +lecture. I therefore began to translate his lecture at once, with +the kind assistance of friends whose patience seemed inexhaustible, +and found myself well rewarded for my trouble. + +Professor Hering and I, to use a metaphor of his own, are as men who +have observed the action of living beings upon the stage of the +world, he from the point of view at once of a spectator and of one +who has free access to much of what goes on behind the scenes, I from +that of a spectator only, with none but the vaguest notion of the +actual manner in which the stage machinery is worked. If two men so +placed, after years of reflection, arrive independently of one +another at an identical conclusion as regards the manner in which +this machinery must have been invented and perfected, it is natural +that each should take a deep interest in the arguments of the other, +and be anxious to put them forward with the utmost possible +prominence. It seems to me that the theory which Professor Hering +and I are supporting in common, is one the importance of which is +hardly inferior to that of the theory of evolution itself--for it +puts the backbone, as it were, into the theory of evolution. I shall +therefore make no apology for laying my translation of Professor +Hering's work before my reader. + +Concerning the identity of the main idea put forward in "Life and +Habit" with that of Professor Hering's lecture, there can hardly, I +think, be two opinions. We both of us maintain that we grow our +limbs as we do, and possess the instincts we possess, because we +remember having grown our limbs in this way, and having had these +instincts in past generations when we were in the persons of our +forefathers--each individual life adding a small (but so small, in +any one lifetime, as to be hardly appreciable) amount of new +experience to the general store of memory; that we have thus got into +certain habits which we can now rarely break; and that we do much of +what we do unconsciously on the same principle as that (whatever it +is) on which we do all other habitual actions, with the greater ease +and unconsciousness the more often we repeat them. Not only is the +main idea the same, but I was surprised to find how often Professor +Hering and I had taken the same illustrations with which to point our +meaning. + +Nevertheless, we have each of us left undealt with some points which +the other has treated of. Professor Hering, for example, goes into +the question of what memory is, and this I did not venture to do. I +confined myself to saying that whatever memory was, heredity was +also. Professor Hering adds that memory is due to vibrations of the +molecules of the nerve fibres, which under certain circumstances +recur, and bring about a corresponding recurrence of visible action. + +This approaches closely to the theory concerning the physics of +memory which has been most generally adopted since the time of +Bonnet, who wrote as follows:- + + +"The soul never has a new sensation but by the inter position of the +senses. This sensation has been originally attached to the motion of +certain fibres. Its reproduction or recollection by the senses will +then be likewise connected with these same fibres." . . . {54a} + + +And again:- + + +"It appeared to me that since this memory is connected with the body, +it must depend upon some change which must happen to the primitive +state of the sensible fibres by the action of objects. I have, +therefore, admitted as probable that the state of the fibres on which +an object has acted is not precisely the same after this action as it +was before I have conjectured that the sensible fibres experience +more or less durable modifications, which constitute the physics of +memory and recollection." {54b} + + +Professor Hering comes near to endorsing this view, and uses it for +the purpose of explaining personal identity. This, at least, is what +he does in fact, though perhaps hardly in words. I did not say more +upon the essence of personality than that it was inseparable from the +idea that the various phases of our existence should have flowed one +out of the other, "in what we see as a continuous, though it may be +at times a very troubled, stream" {55} but I maintained that the +identity between two successive generations was of essentially the +same kind as that existing between an infant and an octogenarian. I +thus left personal identity unexplained, though insisting that it was +the key to two apparently distinct sets of phenomena, the one of +which had been hitherto considered incompatible with our ideas +concerning it. Professor Hering insists on this too, but he gives us +farther insight into what personal identity is, and explains how it +is that the phenomena of heredity are phenomena also of personal +identity. + +He implies, though in the short space at his command he has hardly +said so in express terms, that personal identity as we commonly think +of it--that is to say, as confined to the single life of the +individual--consists in the uninterruptedness of a sufficient number +of vibrations, which have been communicated from molecule to molecule +of the nerve fibres, and which go on communicating each one of them +its own peculiar characteristic elements to the new matter which we +introduce into the body by way of nutrition. These vibrations may be +so gentle as to be imperceptible for years together; but they are +there, and may become perceived if they receive accession through the +running into them of a wave going the same way as themselves, which +wave has been set up in the ether by exterior objects and has been +communicated to the organs of sense. + +As these pages are on the point of leaving my hands, I see the +following remarkable passage in Mind for the current month, and +introduce it parenthetically here:- + + +"I followed the sluggish current of hyaline material issuing from +globules of most primitive living substance. Persistently it +followed its way into space, conquering, at first, the manifold +resistances opposed to it by its watery medium. Gradually, however, +its energies became exhausted, till at last, completely overwhelmed, +it stopped, an immovable projection stagnated to death-like rigidity. +Thus for hours, perhaps, it remained stationary, one of many such +rays of some of the many kinds of protoplasmic stars. By degrees, +then, or perhaps quite suddenly, HELP WOULD COME TO IT FROM FOREIGN +BUT CONGRUOUS SOURCES. IT WOULD SEEM TO COMBINE WITH OUTSIDE +COMPLEMENTAL MATTER drifted to it at random. Slowly it would regain +thereby its vital mobility. Shrinking at first, but gradually +completely restored and reincorporated into the onward tide of life, +it was ready to take part again in the progressive flow of a new +ray." {56} + + +To return to the end of the last paragraph but one. If this is so-- +but I should warn the reader that Professor Hering is not responsible +for this suggestion, though it seems to follow so naturally from what +he has said that I imagine he intended the inference to be drawn,--if +this is so, assimilation is nothing else than the communication of +its own rhythms from the assimilating to the assimilated substance, +to the effacement of the vibrations or rhythms heretofore existing in +this last; and suitability for food will depend upon whether the +rhythms of the substance eaten are such as to flow harmoniously into +and chime in with those of the body which has eaten it, or whether +they will refuse to act in concert with the new rhythms with which +they have become associated, and will persist obstinately in pursuing +their own course. In this case they will either be turned out of the +body at once, or will disconcert its arrangements, with perhaps fatal +consequences. This comes round to the conclusion I arrived at in +"Life and Habit," that assimilation was nothing but the imbuing of +one thing with the memories of another. (See "Life and Habit," pp. +136, 137, 140, &c.) + +It will be noted that, as I resolved the phenomena of heredity into +phenomena of personal identity, and left the matter there, so +Professor Hering resolves the phenomena of personal identity into the +phenomena of a living mechanism whose equilibrium is disturbed by +vibrations of a certain character--and leaves it there. We now want +to understand more about the vibrations. + +But if, according to Professor Hering, the personal identity of the +single life consists in the uninterruptedness of vibrations, so also +do the phenomena of heredity. For not only may vibrations of a +certain violence or character be persistent unperceived for many +years in a living body, and communicate themselves to the matter it +has assimilated, but they may, and will, under certain circumstances, +extend to the particle which is about to leave the parent body as the +germ of its future offspring. In this minute piece of matter there +must, if Professor Hering is right, be an infinity of rhythmic +undulations incessantly vibrating with more or less activity, and +ready to be set in more active agitation at a moment's warning, under +due accession of vibration from exterior objects. On the occurrence +of such stimulus, that is to say, when a vibration of a suitable +rhythm from without concurs with one within the body so as to augment +it, the agitation may gather such strength that the touch, as it +were, is given to a house of cards, and the whole comes toppling +over. This toppling over is what we call action; and when it is the +result of the disturbance of certain usual arrangements in certain +usual ways, we call it the habitual development and instinctive +characteristics of the race. In either case, then, whether we +consider the continued identity of the individual in what we call his +single life, or those features in his offspring which we refer to +heredity, the same explanation of the phenomena is applicable. It +follows from this as a matter of course, that the continuation of +life or personal identity in the individual and the race are +fundamentally of the same kind, or, in other words, that there is a +veritable prolongation of identity or oneness of personality between +parents and offspring. Professor Hering reaches his conclusion by +physical methods, while I reached mine, as I am told, by +metaphysical. I never yet could understand what "metaphysics" and +"metaphysical" mean; but I should have said I reached it by the +exercise of a little common sense while regarding certain facts which +are open to every one. There is, however, so far as I can see, no +difference in the conclusion come to. + +The view which connects memory with vibrations may tend to throw +light upon that difficult question, the manner in which neuter bees +acquire structures and instincts, not one of which was possessed by +any of their direct ancestors. Those who have read "Life and Habit" +may remember, I suggested that the food prepared in the stomachs of +the nurse-bees, with which the neuter working bees are fed, might +thus acquire a quasi-seminal character, and be made a means of +communicating the instincts and structures in question. {58} If +assimilation be regarded as the receiving by one substance of the +rhythms or undulations from another, the explanation just referred to +receives an accession of probability. + +If it is objected that Professor Hering's theory as to continuity of +vibrations being the key to memory and heredity involves the action +of more wheels within wheels than our imagination can come near to +comprehending, and also that it supposes this complexity of action as +going on within a compass which no unaided eye can detect by reason +of its littleness, so that we are carried into a fairy land with +which sober people should have nothing to do, it may be answered that +the case of light affords us an example of our being truly aware of a +multitude of minute actions, the hundred million millionth part of +which we should have declared to be beyond our ken, could we not +incontestably prove that we notice and count them all with a very +sufficient and creditable accuracy. + +"Who would not," {59a} says Sir John Herschel, "ask for demonstration +when told that a gnat's wing, in its ordinary flight, beats many +hundred times in a second? or that there exist animated and regularly +organised beings many thousands of whose bodies laid close together +would not extend to an inch? But what are these to the astonishing +truths which modern optical inquiries have disclosed, which teach us +that every point of a medium through which a ray of light passes is +affected with a succession of periodical movements, recurring +regularly at equal intervals, no less than five hundred millions of +millions of times in a second; that it is by such movements +communicated to the nerves of our eyes that we see; nay, more, that +it is the DIFFERENCE in the frequency of their recurrence which +affects us with the sense of the diversity of colour; that, for +instance, in acquiring the sensation of redness, our eyes are +affected four hundred and eighty-two millions of millions of times; +of yellowness, five hundred and forty-two millions of millions of +times; and of violet, seven hundred and seven millions of millions of +times per second? {59b} Do not such things sound more like the +ravings of madmen than the sober conclusions of people in their +waking senses? They are, nevertheless, conclusions to which any one +may most certainly arrive who will only be at the pains of examining +the chain of reasoning by which they have been obtained." + +A man counting as hard as he can repeat numbers one after another, +and never counting more than a hundred, so that he shall have no long +words to repeat, may perhaps count ten thousand, or a hundred a +hundred times over, in an hour. At this rate, counting night and +day, and allowing no time for rest or refreshment, he would count one +million in four days and four hours, or say four days only. To count +a million a million times over, he would require four million days, +or roughly ten thousand years; for five hundred millions of millions, +he must have the utterly unrealisable period of five million years. +Yet he actually goes through this stupendous piece of reckoning +unconsciously hour after hour, day after day, it may be for eighty +years, OFTEN IN EACH SECOND of daylight; and how much more by +artificial or subdued light I do not know. He knows whether his eye +is being struck five hundred millions of millions of times, or only +four hundred and eighty-two millions of millions of times. He thus +shows that he estimates or counts each set of vibrations, and +registers them according to his results. If a man writes upon the +back of a British Museum blotting-pad of the common nonpareil +pattern, on which there are some thousands of small spaces each +differing in colour from that which is immediately next to it, his +eye will, nevertheless, without an effort assign its true colour to +each one of these spaces. This implies that he is all the time +counting and taking tally of the difference in the numbers of the +vibrations from each one of the small spaces in question. Yet the +mind that is capable of such stupendous computations as these so long +as it knows nothing about them, makes no little fuss about the +conscious adding together of such almost inconceivably minute numbers +as, we will say, 2730169 and 5790135--or, if these be considered too +large, as 27 and 19. Let the reader remember that he cannot by any +effort bring before his mind the units, not in ones, BUT IN MILLIONS +OF MILLIONS of the processes which his visual organs are undergoing +second after second from dawn till dark, and then let him demur if he +will to the possibility of the existence in a germ, of currents and +undercurrents, and rhythms and counter rhythms, also by the million +of millions--each one of which, on being overtaken by the rhythm from +without that chimes in with and stimulates it, may be the beginning +of that unsettlement of equilibrium which results in the crash of +action, unless it is timely counteracted. + +If another objector maintains that the vibrations within the germ as +above supposed must be continually crossing and interfering with one +another in such a manner as to destroy the continuity of any one +series, it may be replied that the vibrations of the light proceeding +from the objects that surround us traverse one another by the +millions of millions every second yet in no way interfere with one +another. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the difficulties of +the theory towards which I suppose Professor Hering to incline are +like those of all other theories on the same subject--almost +inconceivably great. + +In "Life and Habit" I did not touch upon these vibrations, knowing +nothing about them. Here, then, is one important point of +difference, not between the conclusions arrived at, but between the +aim and scope of the work that Professor Hering and I severally +attempted. Another difference consists in the points at which we +have left off. Professor Hering, having established his main thesis, +is content. I, on the other hand, went on to maintain that if vigour +was due to memory, want of vigour was due to want of memory. Thus I +was led to connect memory with the phenomena of hybridism and of old +age; to show that the sterility of certain animals under +domestication is only a phase of, and of a piece with, the very +common sterility of hybrids--phenomena which at first sight have no +connection either with each other or with memory, but the connection +between which will never be lost sight of by those who have once laid +hold of it. I also pointed out how exactly the phenomena of +development agreed with those of the abeyance and recurrence of +memory, and the rationale of the fact that puberty in so many animals +and plants comes about the end of development. The principle +underlying longevity follows as a matter of course. I have no idea +how far Professor Hering would agree with me in the position I have +taken in respect of these phenomena, but there is nothing in the +above at variance with his lecture. + +Another matter on which Professor Hering has not touched is the +bearing of his theory on that view of evolution which is now commonly +accepted. It is plain he accepts evolution, but it does not appear +that he sees how fatal his theory is to any view of evolution except +a teleological one--the purpose residing within the animal and not +without it. There is, however, nothing in his lecture to indicate +that he does not see this. + +It should be remembered that the question whether memory is due to +the persistence within the body of certain vibrations, which have +been already set up within the bodies of its ancestors, is true or +no, will not affect the position I took up in "Life and Habit." In +that book I have maintained nothing more than that whatever memory is +heredity is also. I am not committed to the vibration theory of +memory, though inclined to accept it on a prima facie view. All I am +committed to is, that if memory is due to persistence of vibrations, +so is heredity; and if memory is not so due, then no more is +heredity. + +Finally, I may say that Professor Hering's lecture, the passage +quoted from Dr. Erasmus Darwin on p. 26 of this volume, and a few +hints in the extracts from Mr. Patrick Mathew which I have quoted in +"Evolution, Old and New," are all that I yet know of in other writers +as pointing to the conclusion that the phenomena of heredity are +phenomena also of memory. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + +Professor Ewald Hering "On Memory." + +I will now lay before the reader a translation of Professor Hering's +own words. I have had it carefully revised throughout by a gentleman +whose native language is German, but who has resided in England for +many years past. The original lecture is entitled "On Memory as a +Universal Function of Organised Matter," and was delivered at the +anniversary meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna, +May 30, 1870. {63} It is as follows:- + +"When the student of Nature quits the narrow workshop of his own +particular inquiry, and sets out upon an excursion into the vast +kingdom of philosophical investigation, he does so, doubtless, in the +hope of finding the answer to that great riddle, to the solution of a +small part of which he devotes his life. Those, however, whom he +leaves behind him still working at their own special branch of +inquiry, regard his departure with secret misgivings on his behalf, +while the born citizens of the kingdom of speculation among whom he +would naturalise himself, receive him with well-authorised distrust. +He is likely, therefore, to lose ground with the first, while not +gaining it with the second. + +The subject to the consideration of which I would now solicit your +attention does certainly appear likely to lure us on towards the +flattering land of speculation, but bearing in mind what I have just +said, I will beware of quitting the department of natural science to +which I have devoted myself hitherto. I shall, however, endeavour to +attain its highest point, so as to take a freer view of the +surrounding territory. + +It will soon appear that I should fail in this purpose if my remarks +were to confine themselves solely to physiology. I hope to show how +far psychological investigations also afford not only permissible, +but indispensable, aid to physiological inquiries. + +Consciousness is an accompaniment of that animal and human +organisation and of that material mechanism which it is the province +of physiology to explore; and as long as the atoms of the brain +follow their due course according to certain definite laws, there +arises an inner life which springs from sensation and idea, from +feeling and will. + +We feel this in our own cases; it strikes us in our converse with +other people; we can see it plainly in the more highly organised +animals; even the lowest forms of life bear traces of it; and who can +draw a line in the kingdom of organic life, and say that it is here +the soul ceases? + +With what eyes, then, is physiology to regard this two-fold life of +the organised world? Shall she close them entirely to one whole side +of it, that she may fix them more intently on the other? + +So long as the physiologist is content to be a physicist, and nothing +more--using the word "physicist" in its widest signification--his +position in regard to the organic world is one of extreme but +legitimate one-sidedness. As the crystal to the mineralogist or the +vibrating string to the acoustician, so from this point of view both +man and the lower animals are to the physiologist neither more nor +less than the matter of which they consist. That animals feel desire +and repugnance, that the material mechanism of the human frame is in +chose connection with emotions of pleasure or pain, and with the +active idea-life of consciousness--this cannot, in the eyes of the +physicist, make the animal or human body into anything more than what +it actually is. To him it is a combination of matter, subjected to +the same inflexible laws as stones and plants--a material +combination, the outward and inward movements of which interact as +cause and effect, and are in as close connection with each other and +with their surroundings as the working of a machine with the +revolutions of the wheels that compose it. + +Neither sensation, nor idea, nor yet conscious will, can form a link +in this chain of material occurrences which make up the physical life +of an organism. If I am asked a question and reply to it, the +material process which the nerve fibre conveys from the organ of +hearing to the brain must travel through my brain as an actual and +material process before it can reach the nerves which will act upon +my organs of speech. It cannot, on reaching a given place in the +brain, change then and there into an immaterial something, and turn +up again some time afterwards in another part of the brain as a +material process. The traveller in the desert might as well hope, +before he again goes forth into the wilderness of reality, to take +rest and refreshment in the oasis with which the Fata Morgana illudes +him; or as well might a prisoner hope to escape from his prison +through a door reflected in a mirror. + +So much for the physiologist in his capacity of pure physicist. As +long as he remains behind the scenes in painful exploration of the +details of the machinery--as long as he only observes the action of +the players from behind the stage--so long will he miss the spirit of +the performance, which is, nevertheless, caught easily by one who +sees it from the front. May he not, then, for once in a way, be +allowed to change his standpoint? True, he came not to see the +representation of an imaginary world; he is in search of the actual; +but surely it must help him to a comprehension of the dramatic +apparatus itself, and of the manner in which it is worked, if he were +to view its action from in front as well as from behind, or at least +allow himself to hear what sober-minded spectators can tell him upon +the subject. + +There can be no question as to the answer; and hence it comes that +psychology is such an indispensable help to physiology, whose fault +it only in small part is that she has hitherto made such little use +of this assistance; for psychology has been late in beginning to till +her fertile field with the plough of the inductive method, and it is +only from ground so tilled that fruits can spring which can be of +service to physiology. + +If, then, the student of nervous physiology takes his stand between +the physicist and the psychologist, and if the first of these rightly +makes the unbroken causative continuity of all material processes an +axiom of his system of investigation, the prudent psychologist, on +the other hand, will investigate the laws of conscious life according +to the inductive method, and will hence, as much as the physicist, +make the existence of fixed laws his initial assumption. If, again, +the most superficial introspection teaches the physiologist that his +conscious life is dependent upon the mechanical adjustments of his +body, and that inversely his body is subjected with certain +limitations to his will, then it only remains for him to make one +assumption more, namely, THAT THIS MUTUAL INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN THE +SPIRITUAL AND THE MATERIAL IS ITSELF ALSO DEPENDENT ON LAW, and he +has discovered the bond by which the science of matter and the +science of consciousness are united into a single whole. + +Thus regarded, the phenomena of consciousness become functions of the +material changes of organised substance, and inversely--though this +is involved in the use of the word "function"--the material processes +of brain substance become functions of the phenomena of +consciousness. For when two variables are so dependent upon one +another in the changes they undergo in accordance with fixed laws +that a change in either involves simultaneous and corresponding +change in the other, the one is called a function of the other. + +This, then, by no means implies that the two variables above-named-- +matter and consciousness--stand in the relation of cause and effect, +antecedent and consequence, to one another. For on this subject we +know nothing. + +The materialist regards consciousness as a product or result of +matter, while the idealist holds matter to be a result of +consciousness, and a third maintains that matter and spirit are +identical; with all this the physiologist, as such, has nothing +whatever to do; his sole concern is with the fact that matter and +consciousness are functions one of the other. + +By the help of this hypothesis of the functional interdependence of +matter and spirit, modern physiology is enabled to bring the +phenomena of consciousness within the domain of her investigations +without leaving the terra firma of scientific methods. The +physiologist, as physicist, can follow the ray of light and the wave +of sound or heat till they reach the organ of sense. He can watch +them entering upon the ends of the nerves, and finding their way to +the cells of the brain by means of the series of undulations or +vibrations which they establish in the nerve filaments. Here, +however, he loses all trace of them. On the other hand, still +looking with the eyes of a pure physicist, he sees sound waves of +speech issue from the mouth of a speaker; he observes the motion of +his own limbs, and finds how this is conditional upon muscular +contractions occasioned by the motor nerves, and how these nerves are +in their turn excited by the cells of the central organ. But here +again his knowledge comes to an end. True, he sees indications of +the bridge which is to carry him from excitation of the sensory to +that of the motor nerves in the labyrinth of intricately interwoven +nerve cells, but he knows nothing of the inconceivably complex +process which is introduced at this stage. Here the physiologist +will change his standpoint; what matter will not reveal to his +inquiry, he will find in the mirror, as it were, of consciousness; by +way of a reflection, indeed, only, but a reflection, nevertheless, +which stands in intimate relation to the object of his inquiry. When +at this point he observes how one idea gives rise to another, how +closely idea is connected with sensation and sensation with will, and +how thought, again, and feeling are inseparable from one another, he +will be compelled to suppose corresponding successions of material +processes, which generate and are closely connected with one another, +and which attend the whole machinery of conscious life, according to +the law of the functional interdependence of matter and +consciousness. + + +After this explanation I shall venture to regard under a single +aspect a great series of phenomena which apparently have nothing to +do with one another, and which belong partly to the conscious and +partly to the unconscious life of organised beings. I shall regard +them as the outcome of one and the same primary force of organised +matter--namely, its memory or power of reproduction. + +The word "memory" is often understood as though it meant nothing more +than our faculty of intentionally reproducing ideas or series of +ideas. But when the figures and events of bygone days rise up again +unbidden in our minds, is not this also an act of recollection or +memory? We have a perfect right to extend our conception of memory +so as to make it embrace involuntary reproductions, of sensations, +ideas, perceptions, and efforts; but we find, on having done so, that +we have so far enlarged her boundaries that she proves to be an +ultimate and original power, the source, and at the same time the +unifying bond, of our whole conscious life. + +We know that when an impression, or a series of impressions, has been +made upon our senses for a long time, and always in the same way, it +may come to impress itself in such a manner upon the so-called sense- +memory that hours afterwards, and though a hundred other things have +occupied our attention meanwhile, it will yet return suddenly to our +consciousness with all the force and freshness of the original +sensation. A whole group of sensations is sometimes reproduced in +its due sequence as regards time and space, with so much reality that +it illudes us, as though things were actually present which have long +ceased to be so. We have here a striking proof of the fact that +after both conscious sensation and perception have been extinguished, +their material vestiges yet remain in our nervous system by way of a +change in its molecular or atomic disposition, {69} that enables the +nerve substance to reproduce all the physical processes of the +original sensation, and with these the corresponding psychical +processes of sensation and perception. + +Every hour the phenomena of sense-memory are present with each one of +us, but in a less degree than this. We are all at times aware of a +host of more or less faded recollections of earlier impressions, +which we either summon intentionally or which come upon us +involuntarily. Visions of absent people come and go before us as +faint and fleeting shadows, and the notes of long-forgotten melodies +float around us, not actually heard, but yet perceptible. + +Some things and occurrences, especially if they have happened to us +only once and hurriedly, will be reproducible by the memory in +respect only of a few conspicuous qualities; in other cases those +details alone will recur to us which we have met with elsewhere, and +for the reception of which the brain is, so to speak, attuned. These +last recollections find themselves in fuller accord with our +consciousness, and enter upon it more easily and energetically; hence +also their aptitude for reproduction is enhanced; so that what is +common to many things, and is therefore felt and perceived with +exceptional frequency, becomes reproduced so easily that eventually +the actual presence of the corresponding external stimuli is no +longer necessary, and it will recur on the vibrations set up by faint +stimuli from within. {70} Sensations arising in this way from +within, as, for example, an idea of whiteness, are not, indeed, +perceived with the full freshness of those raised by the actual +presence of white light without us, but they are of the same kind; +they are feeble repetitions of one and the same material brain +process--of one and the same conscious sensation. Thus the idea of +whiteness arises in our mind as a faint, almost extinct, sensation. + +In this way those qualities which are common to many things become +separated, as it were, in our memory from the objects with which they +were originally associated, and attain an independent existence in +our consciousness as IDEAS and CONCEPTIONS, and thus the whole rich +superstructure of our ideas and conceptions is built up from +materials supplied by memory. + +On examining more closely, we see plainly that memory is a faculty +not only of our conscious states, but also, and much more so, of our +unconscious ones. I was conscious of this or that yesterday, and am +again conscious of it to-day. Where has it been meanwhile? It does +not remain continuously within my consciousness, nevertheless it +returns after having quitted it. Our ideas tread but for a moment +upon the stage of consciousness, and then go back again behind the +scenes, to make way for others in their place. As the player is only +a king when he is on the stage, so they too exist as ideas so long +only as they are recognised. How do they live when they are off the +stage? For we know that they are living somewhere; give them their +cue and they reappear immediately. They do not exist continuously as +ideas; what is continuous is the special disposition of nerve +substance in virtue of which this substance gives out to-day the same +sound which it gave yesterday if it is rightly struck. {71} +Countless reproductions of organic processes of our brain connect +themselves orderly together, so that one acts as a stimulus to the +next, but a phenomenon of consciousness is not necessarily attached +to every link in the chain. From this it arises that a series of +ideas may appear to disregard the order that would be observed in +purely material processes of brain substance unaccompanied by +consciousness; but on the other hand it becomes possible for a long +chain of recollections to have its due development without each link +in the chain being necessarily perceived by ourselves. One may +emerge from the bosom of our unconscious thoughts without fully +entering upon the stage of conscious perception; another dies away in +unconsciousness, leaving no successor to take its place. Between the +"me" of to-day and the "me" of yesterday lie night and sleep, abysses +of unconsciousness; nor is there any bridge but memory with which to +span them. Who can hope after this to disentangle the infinite +intricacy of our inner life? For we can only follow its threads so +far as they have strayed over within the bounds of consciousness. We +might as well hope to familiarise ourselves with the world of forms +that teem within the bosom of the sea by observing the few that now +and again come to the surface and soon return into the deep. + +The bond of union, therefore, which connects the individual phenomena +of our consciousness lies in our unconscious world; and as we know +nothing of this but what investigation into the laws of matter teach +us--as, in fact, for purely experimental purposes, "matter" and the +"unconscious" must be one and the same thing--so the physiologist has +a full right to denote memory as, in the wider sense of the word, a +function of brain substance, whose results, it is true, fall, as +regards one part of them, into the domain of consciousness, while +another and not less essential part escapes unperceived as purely +material processes. + +The perception of a body in space is a very complicated process. I +see suddenly before me, for example, a white ball. This has the +effect of conveying to me more than a mere sensation of whiteness. I +deduce the spherical character of the ball from the gradations of +light and shade upon its surface. I form a correct appreciation of +its distance from my eye, and hence again I deduce an inference as to +the size of the ball. What an expenditure of sensations, ideas, and +inferences is found to be necessary before all this can be brought +about; yet the production of a correct perception of the ball was the +work only of a few seconds, and I was unconscious of the individual +processes by means of which it was effected, the result as a whole +being alone present in my consciousness. + +The nerve substance preserves faithfully the memory of habitual +actions. {72} Perceptions which were once long and difficult, +requiring constant and conscious attention, come to reproduce +themselves in transient and abridged guise, without such duration and +intensity that each link has to pass over the threshold of our +consciousness. + +We have chains of material nerve processes to which eventually a link +becomes attached that is attended with conscious perception. This is +sufficiently established from the standpoint of the physiologist, and +is also proved by our unconsciousness of many whole series of ideas +and of the inferences we draw from them. If the soul is not to ship +through the fingers of physiology, she must hold fast to the +considerations suggested by our unconscious states. As far, however, +as the investigations of the pure physicist are concerned, the +unconscious and matter are one and the same thing, and the physiology +of the unconscious is no "philosophy of the unconscious." + +By far the greater number of our movements are the result of long and +arduous practice. The harmonious cooperation of the separate +muscles, the finely adjusted measure of participation which each +contributes to the working of the whole, must, as a rule, have been +laboriously acquired, in respect of most of the movements that are +necessary in order to effect it. How long does it not take each note +to find its way from the eyes to the fingers of one who is beginning +to learn the pianoforte; and, on the other hand, what an astonishing +performance is the playing of the professional pianist. The sight of +each note occasions the corresponding movement of the fingers with +the speed of thought--a hurried glance at the page of music before +him suffices to give rise to a whole series of harmonies; nay, when a +melody has been long practised, it can be played even while the +player's attention is being given to something of a perfectly +different character over and above his music. + +The will need now no longer wend its way to each individual finger +before the desired movements can be extorted from it; no longer now +does a sustained attention keep watch over the movements of each +limb; the will need exercise a supervising control only. At the word +of command the muscles become active, with a due regard to time and +proportion, and go on working, so long as they are bidden to keep in +their accustomed groove, while a slight hint on the part of the will, +will indicate to them their further journey. How could all this be +if every part of the central nerve system, by means of which movement +is effected, were not able {74a} to reproduce whole series of +vibrations, which at an earlier date required the constant and +continuous participation of consciousness, but which are now set in +motion automatically on a mere touch, as it were, from consciousness- +-if it were not able to reproduce them the more quickly and easily in +proportion to the frequency of the repetitions--if, in fact, there +was no power of recollecting earlier performances? Our perceptive +faculties must have remained always at their lowest stage if we had +been compelled to build up consciously every process from the details +of the sensation-causing materials tendered to us by our senses; nor +could our voluntary movements have got beyond the helplessness of the +child, if the necessary impulses could only be imparted to every +movement through effort of the will and conscious reproduction of all +the corresponding ideas--if, in a word, the motor nerve system had +not also its memory, {74b} though that memory is unperceived by +ourselves. The power of this memory is what is called "the force of +habit." + +It seems, then, that we owe to memory almost all that we either have +or are; that our ideas and conceptions are its work, and that our +every perception, thought, and movement is derived from this source. +Memory collects the countless phenomena of our existence into a +single whole; and as our bodies would be scattered into the dust of +their component atoms if they were not held together by the +attraction of matter, so our consciousness would be broken up into as +many fragments as we had lived seconds but for the binding and +unifying force of memory. + +We have already repeatedly seen that the reproductions of organic +processes, brought about by means of the memory of the nervous +system, enter but partly within the domain of consciousness, +remaining unperceived in other and not less important respects. This +is also confirmed by numerous facts in the life of that part of the +nervous system which ministers almost exclusively to our unconscious +life processes. For the memory of the so-called sympathetic +ganglionic system is no less rich than that of the brain and spinal +marrow, and a great part of the medical art consists in making wise +use of the assistance thus afforded us. + +To bring, however, this part of my observations to a close, I will +take leave of the nervous system, and glance hurriedly at other +phases of organised matter, where we meet with the same powers of +reproduction, but in simpler guise. + +Daily experience teaches us that a muscle becomes the stronger the +more we use it. The muscular fibre, which in the first instance may +have answered but feebly to the stimulus conducted to it by the motor +nerve, does so with the greater energy the more often it is +stimulated, provided, of course, that reasonable times are allowed +for repose. After each individual action it becomes more capable, +more disposed towards the same kind of work, and has a greater +aptitude for repetition of the same organic processes. It gains also +in weight, for it assimilates more matter than when constantly at +rest. We have here, in its simplest form, and in a phase which comes +home most closely to the comprehension of the physicist, the same +power of reproduction which we encountered when we were dealing with +nerve substance, but under such far more complicated conditions. And +what is known thus certainly from muscle substance holds good with +greater or less plainness for all our organs. More especially may we +note the fact, that after increased use, alternated with times of +repose, there accrues to the organ in all animal economy an increased +power of execution with an increased power of assimilation and a gain +in size. + +This gain in size consists not only in the enlargement of the +individual cells or fibres of which the organ is composed, but in the +multiplication of their number; for when cells have grown to a +certain size they give rise to others, which inherit more or less +completely the qualities of those from which they came, and therefore +appear to be repetitions of the same cell. This growth, and +multiplication of cells is only a special phase of those manifold +functions which characterise organised matter, and which consist not +only in what goes on within the cell substance as alterations or +undulatory movement of the molecular disposition, but also in that +which becomes visible outside the cells as change of shape, +enlargement, or subdivision. Reproduction of performance, therefore, +manifests itself to us as reproduction of the cells themselves, as +may be seen most plainly in the case of plants, whose chief work +consists in growth, whereas with animal organism other faculties +greatly preponderate. + +Let us now take a brief survey of a class of facts in the case of +which we may most abundantly observe the power of memory in organised +matter. We have ample evidence of the fact that characteristics of +an organism may descend to offspring which the organism did not +inherit, but which it acquired owing to the special circumstances +under which it lived; and that, in consequence, every organism +imparts to the germ that issues from it a small heritage of +acquisitions which it has added during its own lifetime to the gross +inheritance of its race. + +When we reflect that we are dealing with the heredity of acquired +qualities which came to development in the most diverse parts of the +parent organism, it must seem in a high degree mysterious how those +parts can have any kind of influence upon a germ which develops +itself in an entirely different place. Many mystical theories have +been propounded for the elucidation of this question, but the +following reflections may serve to bring the cause nearer to the +comprehension of the physiologist. + +The nerve substance, in spite of its thousandfold subdivision as +cells and fibres, forms, nevertheless, a united whole, which is +present directly in all organs--nay, as more recent histology +conjectures, in each cell of the more important organs--or is at +least in ready communication with them by means of the living, +irritable, and therefore highly conductive substance of other cells. +Through the connection thus established all organs find themselves in +such a condition of more or less mutual interdependence upon one +another, that events which happen to one are repeated in others, and +a notification, however slight, of a vibration set up {77} in one +quarter is at once conveyed even to the farthest parts of the body. +With this easy and rapid intercourse between all parts is associated +the more difficult communication that goes on by way of the +circulation of sap or blood. + +We see, further, that the process of the development of all germs +that are marked out for independent existence causes a powerful +reaction, even from the very beginning of that existence, on both the +conscious and unconscious life of the whole organism. We may see +this from the fact that the organ of reproduction stands in closer +and more important relation to the remaining parts, and especially to +the nervous system, than do the other organs; and, inversely, that +both the perceived and unperceived events affecting the whole +organism find a more marked response in the reproductive system than +elsewhere. + +We can now see with sufficient plainness in what the material +connection is established between the acquired peculiarities of an +organism, and the proclivity on the part of the germ in virtue of +which it develops the special characteristics of its parent. + +The microscope teaches us that no difference can be perceived between +one germ and another; it cannot, however, be objected on this account +that the determining cause of its ulterior development must be +something immaterial, rather than the specific kind of its material +constitution. + +The curves and surfaces which the mathematician conceives, or finds +conceivable, are more varied and infinite than the forms of animal +life. Let us suppose an infinitely small segment to be taken from +every possible curve; each one of these will appear as like every +other as one germ is to another, yet the whole of every curve lies +dormant, as it were, in each of them, and if the mathematician +chooses to develop it, it will take the path indicated by the +elements of each segment. + +It is an error, therefore, to suppose that such fine distinctions as +physiology must assume lie beyond the limits of what is conceivable +by the human mind. An infinitely small change of position on the +part of a point, or in the relations of the parts of a segment of a +curve to one another, suffices to alter the law of its whole path, +and so in like manner an infinitely small influence exercised by the +parent organism on the molecular disposition of the germ {78} may +suffice to produce a determining effect upon its whole farther +development. + +What is the descent of special peculiarities but a reproduction on +the part of organised matter of processes in which it once took part +as a germ in the germ-containing organs of its parent, and of which +it seems still to retain a recollection that reappears when time and +the occasion serve, inasmuch as it responds to the same or like +stimuli in a like way to that in which the parent organism responded, +of which it was once part, and in the events of whose history it was +itself also an accomplice? {79} When an action through long habit or +continual practice has become so much a second nature to any +organisation that its effects will penetrate, though ever so faintly, +into the germ that lies within it, and when this last comes to find +itself in a new sphere, to extend itself, and develop into a new +creature--(the individual parts of which are still always the +creature itself and flesh of its flesh, so that what is reproduced is +the same being as that in company with which the germ once lived, and +of which it was once actually a part)--all this is as wonderful as +when a grey-haired man remembers the events of his own childhood; but +it is not more so. Whether we say that the same organised substance +is again reproducing its past experience, or whether we prefer to +hold that an offshoot or part of the original substance has waxed and +developed itself since separation from the parent stock, it is plain +that this will constitute a difference of degree, not kind. + +When we reflect upon the fact that unimportant acquired +characteristics can be reproduced in offspring, we are apt to forget +that offspring is only a full-sized reproduction of the parent--a +reproduction, moreover, that goes as far as possible into detail. We +are so accustomed to consider family resemblance a matter of course, +that we are sometimes surprised when a child is in some respect +unlike its parent; surely, however, the infinite number of points in +respect of which parents and children resemble one another is a more +reasonable ground for our surprise. + +But if the substance of the germ can reproduce characteristics +acquired by the parent during its single life, how much more will it +not be able to reproduce those that were congenital to the parent, +and which have happened through countless generations to the +organised matter of which the germ of to-day is a fragment? We +cannot wonder that action already taken on innumerable past occasions +by organised matter is more deeply impressed upon the recollection of +the germ to which it gives rise than action taken once only during a +single lifetime. {80a} + +We must bear in mind that every organised being now in existence +represents the last link of an inconceivably long series of +organisms, which come down in a direct line of descent, and of which +each has inherited a part of the acquired characteristics of its +predecessor. Everything, furthermore, points in the direction of our +believing that at the beginning of this chain there existed an +organism of the very simplest kind, something, in fact, like those +which we call organised germs. The chain of living beings thus +appears to be the magnificent achievement of the reproductive power +of the original organic structure from which they have all descended. +As this subdivided itself and transmitted its characteristics {80b} +to its descendants, these acquired new ones, and in their turn +transmitted them--all new germs transmitting the chief part of what +had happened to their predecessors, while the remaining part lapsed +out of their memory, circumstances not stimulating it to reproduce +itself. + +An organised being, therefore, stands before us a product of the +unconscious memory of organised matter, which, ever increasing and +ever dividing itself, ever assimilating new matter and returning it +in changed shape to the inorganic world, ever receiving some new +thing into its memory, and transmitting its acquisitions by the way +of reproduction, grows continually richer and richer the longer it +lives. + +Thus regarded, the development of one of the more highly organised +animals represents a continuous series of organised recollections +concerning the past development of the great chain of living forms, +the last link of which stands before us in the particular animal we +may be considering. As a complicated perception may arise by means +of a rapid and superficial reproduction of long and laboriously +practised brain processes, so a germ in the course of its development +hurries through a series of phases, hinting at them only. Often and +long foreshadowed in theories of varied characters, this conception +has only now found correct exposition from a naturalist of our own +time. {81} For Truth hides herself under many disguises from those +who seek her, but in the end stands unveiled before the eyes of him +whom she has chosen. + +Not only is there a reproduction of form, outward and inner +conformation of body, organs, and cells, but the habitual actions of +the parent are also reproduced. The chicken on emerging from the +eggshell runs off as its mother ran off before it; yet what an +extraordinary complication of emotions and sensations is necessary in +order to preserve equilibrium in running. Surely the supposition of +an inborn capacity for the reproduction of these intricate actions +can alone explain the facts. As habitual practice becomes a second +nature to the individual during his single lifetime, so the often- +repeated action of each generation becomes a second nature to the +race. + +The chicken not only displays great dexterity in the performance of +movements for the effecting of which it has an innate capacity, but +it exhibits also a tolerably high perceptive power. It immediately +picks up any grain that may be thrown to it. Yet, in order to do +this, more is wanted than a mere visual perception of the grains; +there must be an accurate apprehension of the direction and distance +of the precise spot in which each grain is lying, and there must be +no less accuracy in the adjustment of the movements of the head and +of the whole body. The chicken cannot have gained experience in +these respects while it was still in the egg. It gained it rather +from the thousands of thousands of beings that have lived before it, +and from which it is directly descended. + +The memory of organised substance displays itself here in the most +surprising fashion. The gentle stimulus of the light proceeding from +the grain that affects the retina of the chicken, {82} gives occasion +for the reproduction of a many-linked chain of sensations, +perceptions, and emotions, which were never yet brought together in +the case of the individual before us. We are accustomed to regard +these surprising performances of animals as manifestations of what we +call instinct, and the mysticism of natural philosophy has ever shown +a predilection for this theme; but if we regard instinct as the +outcome of the memory or reproductive power of organised substance, +and if we ascribe a memory to the race as we already ascribe it to +the individual, then instinct becomes at once intelligible, and the +physiologist at the same time finds a point of contact which will +bring it into connection with the great series of facts indicated +above as phenomena of the reproductive faculty. Here, then, we have +a physical explanation which has not, indeed, been given yet, but the +time for which appears to be rapidly approaching. + +When, in accordance with its instinct, the caterpillar becomes a +chrysalis, or the bird builds its nest, or the bee its cell, these +creatures act consciously and not as blind machines. They know how +to vary their proceedings within certain limits in conformity with +altered circumstances, and they are thus liable to make mistakes. +They feel pleasure when their work advances and pain if it is +hindered; they learn by the experience thus acquired, and build on a +second occasion better than on the first; but that even in the outset +they hit so readily upon the most judicious way of achieving their +purpose, and that their movements adapt themselves so admirably and +automatically to the end they have in view--surely this is owing to +the inherited acquisitions of the memory of their nerve substance, +which requires but a touch and it will fall at once to the most +appropriate kind of activity, thinking always, and directly, of +whatever it is that may be wanted. + +Man can readily acquire surprising kinds of dexterity if he confines +his attention to their acquisition. Specialisation is the mother of +proficiency. He who marvels at the skill with which the spider +weaves her web should bear in mind that she did not learn her art all +on a sudden, but that innumerable generations of spiders acquired it +toilsomely and step by step--this being about all that, as a general +rule, they did acquire. Man took to bows and arrows if his nets +failed him--the spider starved. Thus we see the body and--what most +concerns us--the whole nervous system of the new-born animal +constructed beforehand, and, as it were, ready attuned for +intercourse with the outside world in which it is about to play its +part, by means of its tendency to respond to external stimuli in the +same manner as it has often heretofore responded in the persons of +its ancestors. + +We naturally ask whether the brain and nervous system of the human +infant are subjected to the principles we have laid down above? Man +certainly finds it difficult to acquire arts of which the lower +animals are born masters; but the brain of man at birth is much +farther from its highest development than is the brain of an animal. +It not only grows for a longer time, but it becomes stronger than +that of other living beings. The brain of man may be said to be +exceptionally young at birth. The lower animal is born precocious, +and acts precociously; it resembles those infant prodigies whose +brain, as it were, is born old into the world, but who, in spite of, +or rather in addition to, their rich endowment at birth, in after +life develop as much mental power as others who were less splendidly +furnished to start with, but born with greater freshness of youth. +Man's brain, and indeed his whole body, affords greater scope for +individuality, inasmuch as a relatively greater part of it is of +post-natal growth. It develops under the influence of impressions +made by the environment upon its senses, and thus makes its +acquisitions in a more special and individual manner, whereas the +animal receives them ready made, and of a more final, stereotyped +character. + +Nevertheless, it is plain we must ascribe both to the brain and body +of the new-born infant a far-reaching power of remembering or +reproducing things which have already come to their development +thousands of times over in the persons of its ancestors. It is in +virtue of this that it acquires proficiency in the actions necessary +for its existence--so far as it was not already at birth proficient +in them--much more quickly and easily than would be otherwise +possible; but what we call instinct in the case of animals takes in +man the looser form of aptitude, talent, and genius. {84} Granted +that certain ideas are not innate, yet the fact of their taking form +so easily and certainly from out of the chaos of his sensations, is +due not to his own labour, but to that of the brain substance of the +thousands of thousands of generations from whom he is descended. +Theories concerning the development of individual consciousness which +deny heredity or the power of transmission, and insist upon an +entirely fresh start for every human soul, as though the infinite +number of generations that have gone before us might as well have +never lived for all the effect they have had upon ourselves,--such +theories will contradict the facts of our daily experience at every +touch and turn. + +The brain processes and phenomena of consciousness which ennoble man +in the eyes of his fellows have had a less ancient history than those +connected with his physical needs. Hunger and the reproductive +instinct affected the oldest and simplest forms of the organic world. +It is in respect of these instincts, therefore, and of the means to +gratify them, that the memory of organised substance is strongest-- +the impulses and instincts that arise hence having still paramount +power over the minds of men. The spiritual life has been superadded +slowly; its most splendid outcome belongs to the latest epoch in the +history of organised matter, nor has any very great length of time +elapsed since the nervous system was first crowned with the glory of +a large and well-developed brain. + +Oral tradition and written history have been called the memory of +man, and this is not without its truth. But there is another and a +living memory in the innate reproductive power of brain substance, +and without this both writings and oral tradition would be without +significance to posterity. The most sublime ideas, though never so +immortalised in speech or letters, are yet nothing for heads that are +out of harmony with them; they must be not only heard, but +reproduced; and both speech and writing would be in vain were there +not an inheritance of inward and outward brain development, growing +in correspondence with the inheritance of ideas that are handed down +from age to age, and did not an enhanced capacity for their +reproduction on the part of each succeeding generation accompany the +thoughts that have been preserved in writing. Man's conscious memory +comes to an end at death, but the unconscious memory of Nature is +true and ineradicable: whoever succeeds in stamping upon her the +impress of his work, she will remember him to the end of time. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + +Introduction to a translation of the chapter upon instinct in Von +Hartmann's "Philosophy of the Unconscious." + +I am afraid my readers will find the chapter on instinct from Von +Hartmann's "Philosophy of the Unconscious," which will now follow, as +distasteful to read as I did to translate, and would gladly have +spared it them if I could. At present, the works of Mr. Sully, who +has treated of the "Philosophy of the Unconscious" both in the +Westminster Review (vol. xlix. N.S.) and in his work "Pessimism," are +the best source to which English readers can have recourse for +information concerning Von Hartmann. Giving him all credit for the +pains he has taken with an ungrateful, if not impossible subject, I +think that a sufficient sample of Von Hartmann's own words will be a +useful adjunct to Mr. Sully's work, and may perhaps save some readers +trouble by resolving them to look no farther into the "Philosophy of +the Unconscious." Over and above this, I have been so often told +that the views concerning unconscious action contained in the +foregoing lecture and in "Life and Habit" are only the very fallacy +of Von Hartmann over again, that I should like to give the public an +opportunity of seeing whether this is so or no, by placing the two +contending theories of unconscious action side by side. I hope that +it will thus be seen that neither Professor Hering nor I have fallen +into the fallacy of Von Hartmann, but that rather Von Hartmann has +fallen into his fallacy through failure to grasp the principle which +Professor Hering has insisted upon, and to connect heredity with +memory. + +Professor Hering's philosophy of the unconscious is of extreme +simplicity. He rests upon a fact of daily and hourly experience, +namely, that practice makes things easy that were once difficult, and +often results in their being done without any consciousness of +effort. But if the repetition of an act tends ultimately, under +certain circumstances, to its being done unconsciously, so also is +the fact of an intricate and difficult action being done +unconsciously an argument that it must have been done repeatedly +already. As I said in "Life and Habit," it is more easy to suppose +that occasions on which such an action has been performed have not +been wanting, even though we do not see when and where they were, +than that the facility which we observe should have been attained +without practice and memory (p. 56). + +There can be nothing better established or more easy, whether to +understand or verify, than the unconsciousness with which habitual +actions come to be performed. If, however, it is once conceded that +it is the manner of habitual action generally, then all a priori +objection to Professor Hering's philosophy of the unconscious is at +an end. The question becomes one of fact in individual cases, and of +degree. + +How far, then, does the principle of the convertibility, as it were, +of practice and unconsciousness extend? Can any line be drawn beyond +which it shall cease to operate? If not, may it not have operated +and be operating to a vast and hitherto unsuspected extent? This is +all, and certainly it is sufficiently simple. I sometimes think it +has found its greatest stumbling-block in its total want of mystery, +as though we must be like those conjurers whose stock in trade is a +small deal table and a kitchen-chair with bare legs, and who, with +their parade of "no deception" and "examine everything for +yourselves," deceive worse than others who make use of all manner of +elaborate paraphernalia. It is true we require no paraphernalia, and +we produce unexpected results, but we are not conjuring. + +To turn now to Von Hartmann. When I read Mr. Sully's article in the +Westminster Review, I did not know whether the sense of mystification +which it produced in me was wholly due to Von Hartmann or no; but on +making acquaintance with Von Hartmann himself, I found that Mr. Sully +has erred, if at all, in making him more intelligible than he +actually is. Von Hartmann has not got a meaning. Give him Professor +Hering's key and he might get one, but it would be at the expense of +seeing what approach he had made to a system fallen to pieces. +Granted that in his details and subordinate passages he often both +has and conveys a meaning, there is, nevertheless, no coherence +between these details, and the nearest approach to a broad conception +covering the work which the reader can carry away with him is at once +so incomprehensible and repulsive, that it is difficult to write +about it without saying more perhaps than those who have not seen the +original will accept as likely to be true. The idea to which I refer +is that of an unconscious clairvoyance, which, from the language +continually used concerning it, must be of the nature of a person, +and which is supposed to take possession of living beings so fully as +to be the very essence of their nature, the promoter of their +embryonic development, and the instigator of their instinctive +actions. This approaches closely to the personal God of Mosaic and +Christian theology, with the exception that the word "clairvoyance" +{89} is substituted for God, and that the God is supposed to be +unconscious. + +Mr. Sully says:- + + +"When we grasp it [the philosophy of Von Hartmann] as a whole, it +amounts to nothing more than this, that all or nearly all the +phenomena of the material and spiritual world rest upon and result +from a mysterious, unconscious being, though to call it being is +really to add on an idea not immediately contained within the all- +sufficient principle. But what difference is there between this and +saying that the phenomena of the world at large come we know not +whence? . . . The unconscious, therefore, tends to be simple phrase +and nothing more . . . No doubt there are a number of mental +processes . . . of which we are unconscious . . . but to infer from +this that they are due to an unconscious power, and to proceed to +demonstrate them in the presence of the unconscious through all +nature, is to make an unwarrantable saltus in reasoning. What, in +fact, is this 'unconscious' but a high-sounding name to veil our +ignorance? Is the unconscious any better explanation of phenomena we +do not understand than the 'devil-devil' by which Australian tribes +explain the Leyden jar and its phenomena? Does it increase our +knowledge to know that we do not know the origin of language or the +cause of instinct? . . . Alike in organic creation and the evolution +of history 'performances and actions'--the words are those of +Strauss--are ascribed to an unconscious, which can only belong to a +conscious being. {90a} + +. . . . . + +"The difficulties of the system advance as we proceed. {90b} +Subtract this questionable factor--the unconscious from Hartmann's +'Biology and Psychology,' and the chapters remain pleasant and +instructive reading. But with the third part of his work--the +Metaphysic of the Unconscious--our feet are clogged at every step. +We are encircled by the merest play of words, the most unsatisfactory +demonstrations, and most inconsistent inferences. The theory of +final causes has been hitherto employed to show the wisdom of the +world; with our Pessimist philosopher it shows nothing but its +irrationality and misery. Consciousness has been generally supposed +to be the condition of all happiness and interest in life; here it +simply awakens us to misery, and the lower an animal lies in the +scale of conscious life, the better and the pleasanter its lot. + +. . . . . + +"Thus, then, the universe, as an emanation of the unconscious, has +been constructed. {90c} Throughout it has been marked by design, by +purpose, by finality; throughout a wonderful adaptation of means to +ends, a wonderful adjustment and relativity in different portions has +been noticed--and all this for what conclusion? Not, as in the hands +of the natural theologians of the eighteenth century, to show that +the world is the result of design, of an intelligent, beneficent +Creator, but the manifestation of a Being whose only predicates are +negatives, whose very essence is to be unconscious. It is not only +like ancient Athens, to an unknown, but to an unknowing God, that +modern Pessimism rears its altar. Yet surely the fact that the +motive principle of existence moves in a mysterious way outside our +consciousness no way requires that the All-one Being should be +himself unconscious. + + +I believe the foregoing to convey as correct an idea of Von +Hartmann's system as it is possible to convey, and will leave it to +the reader to say how much in common there is between this and the +lecture given in the preceding chapter, beyond the fact that both +touch upon unconscious actions. The extract which will form my next +chapter is only about a thirtieth part of the entire "Philosophy of +the Unconscious," but it will, I believe, suffice to substantiate the +justice of what Mr. Sully has said in the passages above quoted. + +As regards the accuracy of the translation, I have submitted all +passages about which I was in the least doubtful to the same +gentleman who revised my translation of Professor Hering's lecture; I +have also given the German wherever I thought the reader might be +glad to see it. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + +Translation of the chapter on "The Unconscious in Instinct," from Von +Hartmann's "Philosophy of the Unconscious." + +Von Hartmann's chapter on instinct is as follows:- + +Instinct is action taken in pursuance of a purpose but without +conscious perception of what the purpose is. {92a} + +A purposive action, with consciousness of the purpose and where the +course taken is the result of deliberation is not said to be +instinctive; nor yet, again, is blind aimless action, such as +outbreaks of fury on the part of offended or otherwise enraged +animals. I see no occasion for disturbing the commonly received +definition of instinct as given above; for those who think they can +refer all the so-called ordinary instincts of animals to conscious +deliberation ipso facto deny that there is such a thing as instinct +at all, and should strike the word out of their vocabulary. But of +this more hereafter. + +Assuming, then, the existence of instinctive action as above defined, +it can be explained as - + +I. A mere necessary consequence of bodily organisation. {92b} + +II. A mechanism of brain or mind contrived by nature. + +III. The outcome of an unconscious activity of mind. + +In neither of the two first cases is there any scope for the idea of +purpose; in the third, purpose must be present immediately before the +action. In the two first cases, action is supposed to be brought +about by means of an initial arrangement, either of bodily or mental +mechanism, purpose being conceived of as existing on a single +occasion only--that is to say, in the determination of the initial +arrangement. In the third, purpose is conceived as present in every +individual instance. Let us proceed to the consideration of these +three cases. + +Instinct is not a mere consequence of bodily organisation; for - + +(a.) Bodies may be alike, yet they may be endowed with different +instincts. + +All spiders have the same spinning apparatus, but one kind weaves +radiating webs, another irregular ones, while a third makes none at +all, but lives in holes, whose walls it overspins, and whose entrance +it closes with a door. Almost all birds have a like organisation for +the construction of their nests (a beak and feet), but how infinitely +do their nests vary in appearance, mode of construction, attachment +to surrounding objects (they stand, are glued on, hang, &c.), +selection of site (caves, holes, corners, forks of trees, shrubs, the +ground), and excellence of workmanship; how often, too, are they not +varied in the species of a single genus, as of parus. Many birds, +moreover, build no nest at all. The difference in the songs of birds +are in like manner independent of the special construction of their +voice apparatus, nor do the modes of nest construction that obtain +among ants and bees depend upon their bodily organisation. +Organisation, as a general rule, only renders the bird capable of +singing, as giving it an apparatus with which to sing at all, but it +has nothing to do with the specific character of the execution . . . +The nursing, defence, and education of offspring cannot be considered +as in any way more dependent upon bodily organisation; nor yet the +sites which insects choose for the laying of their eggs; nor, again, +the selection of deposits of spawn, of their own species, by male +fish for impregnation. The rabbit burrows, the hare does not, though +both have the same burrowing apparatus. The hare, however, has less +need of a subterranean place of refuge by reason of its greater +swiftness. Some birds, with excellent powers of flight, are +nevertheless stationary in their habits, as the secretary falcon and +certain other birds of prey; while even such moderate fliers as +quails are sometimes known to make very distant migrations. + +(b.) Like instincts may be found associated with unlike organs. + +Birds with and without feet adapted for climbing live in trees; so +also do monkeys with and without flexible tails, squirrels, sloths, +pumas, &c. Mole-crickets dig with a well-pronounced spade upon their +fore-feet, while the burying-beetle does the same thing though it has +no special apparatus whatever. The mole conveys its winter provender +in pockets, an inch wide, long and half an inch wide within its +cheeks; the field-mouse does so without the help of any such +contrivance. The migratory instinct displays itself with equal +strength in animals of widely different form, by whatever means they +may pursue their journey, whether by water, land, or air. + +It is clear, therefore, that instinct is in great measure independent +of bodily organisation. Granted, indeed, that a certain amount of +bodily apparatus is a sine qua non for any power of execution at all- +-as, for example, that there would be no ingenious nest without +organs more or less adapted for its construction, no spinning of a +web without spinning glands--nevertheless, it is impossible to +maintain that instinct is a consequence of organisation. The mere +existence of the organ does not constitute even the smallest +incentive to any corresponding habitual activity. A sensation of +pleasure must at least accompany the use of the organ before its +existence can incite to its employment. And even so when a sensation +of pleasure has given the impulse which is to render it active, it is +only the fact of there being activity at all, and not the special +characteristics of the activity, that can be due to organisation. +The reason for the special mode of the activity is the very problem +that we have to solve. No one will call the action of the spider +instinctive in voiding the fluid from her spinning gland when it is +too full, and therefore painful to her; nor that of the male fish +when it does what amounts to much the same thing as this. The +instinct and the marvel lie in the fact that the spider spins +threads, and proceeds to weave her web with them, and that the male +fish will only impregnate ova of his own species. + +Another proof that the pleasure felt in the employment of an organ is +wholly inadequate to account for this employment is to be found in +the fact that the moral greatness of instinct, the point in respect +of which it most commands our admiration, consists in the obedience +paid to its behests, to the postponement of all personal well-being, +and at the cost, it may be, of life itself. If the mere pleasure of +relieving certain glands from overfulness were the reason why +caterpillars generally spin webs, they would go on spinning until +they had relieved these glands, but they would not repair their work +as often as any one destroyed it, and do this again and again until +they die of exhaustion. The same holds good with the other instincts +that at first sight appear to be inspired only by a sensation of +pleasure; for if we change the circumstances, so as to put self- +sacrifice in the place of self-interest, it becomes at once apparent +that they have a higher source than this. We think, for example, +that birds pair for the sake of mere sexual gratification; why, then, +do they leave off pairing as soon as they have laid the requisite +number of eggs? That there is a reproductive instinct over and above +the desire for sexual gratification appears from the fact that if a +man takes an egg out of the nest, the birds will come together again +and the hen will lay another egg; or, if they belong to some of the +more wary species, they will desert their nest, and make preparation +for an entirely new brood. A female wryneck, whose nest was daily +robbed of the egg she laid in it, continued to lay a new one, which +grew smaller and smaller, till, when she had laid her twenty-ninth +egg, she was found dead upon her nest. If an instinct cannot stand +the test of self-sacrifice--if it is the simple outcome of a desire +for bodily gratification--then it is no true instinct, and is only so +called erroneously. + +Instinct is not a mechanism of brain or mind implanted in living +beings by nature; for, if it were, then instinctive action without +any, even unconscious, activity of mind, and with no conception +concerning the purpose of the action, would be executed mechanically, +the purpose having been once for all thought out by Nature or +Providence, which has so organised the individual that it acts +henceforth as a purely mechanical medium. We are now dealing with a +psychical organisation as the cause instinct, as we were above +dealing with a physical. psychical organisation would be a +conceivable explanation and we need look no farther if every instinct +once belonging to an animal discharged its functions in an unvarying +manner. But this is never found to be the case, for instincts vary +when there arises a sufficient motive for varying them. This proves +that special exterior circumstances enter into the matter, and that +these circumstances are the very things that render the attainment of +the purpose possible through means selected by the instinct. Here +first do we find instinct acting as though it were actually design +with action following at its heels, for until the arrival of the +motive, the instinct remains late and discharges no function +whatever. The motive enters by way of an idea received into the mind +through the instrumentality of the senses, and there is a constant +connection between instinct in action and all sensual images which +give information that an opportunity has arisen for attaining the +ends proposed to itself by the instinct. + +The psychical mechanism of this constant connection must also be +looked for. It may help us here to turn to the piano for an +illustration. The struck keys are the motives, the notes that sound +in consequence are the instincts in action. This illustration might +perhaps be allowed to pass (if we also suppose that entirely +different keys can give out the same sound) if instincts could only +be compared with DISTINCTLY TUNED notes, so that one and the same +instinct acted always in the same manner on the rising of the motive +which should set it in action. This, however, is not so; for it is +the blind unconscious purpose of the instinct that is alone constant, +the instinct itself--that is to say, the will to make use of certain +means--varying as the means that can be most suitably employed vary +under varying circumstances. + +In this we condemn the theory which refuses to recognise unconscious +purpose as present in each individual case of instinctive action. +For he who maintains instinct to be the result of a mechanism of +mind, must suppose a special and constant mechanism for each +variation and modification of the instinct in accordance with +exterior circumstances, {97} that is to say, a new string giving a +note with a new tone must be inserted, and this would involve the +mechanism in endless complication. But the fact that the purpose is +constant notwithstanding all manner of variation in the means chosen +by the instinct, proves that there is no necessity for the +supposition of such an elaborate mental mechanism--the presence of an +unconscious purpose being sufficient to explain the facts. The +purpose of the bird, for example, that has laid her eggs is constant, +and consists in the desire to bring her young to maturity. When the +temperature of the air is insufficient to effect this, she sits upon +her eggs, and only intermits her sittings in the warmest countries; +the mammal, on the other hand, attains the fulfilment of its +instinctive purpose without any co-operation on its own part. In +warm climates many birds only sit by night, and small exotic birds +that have built in aviaries kept at a high temperature sit little +upon their eggs or not at all. How inconceivable is the supposition +of a mechanism that impels the bird to sit as soon as the temperature +falls below a certain height! How clear and simple, on the other +hand, is the view that there is an unconscious purpose constraining +the volition of the bird to the use of the fitting means, of which +process, however, only the last link, that is to say, the will +immediately preceding the action falls within the consciousness of +the bird! + +In South Africa the sparrow surrounds her nest with thorns as a +defence against apes and serpents. The eggs of the cuckoo, as +regards size, colour, and marking, invariably resemble those of the +birds in whose nests she lays. Sylvia ruja, for example, lays a +white egg with violet spots; Sylvia hippolais, a red one with black +spots; Regulus ignicapellus, a cloudy red; but the cuckoo's egg is in +each case so deceptive an imitation of its model, that it can hardly +be distinguished except by the structure of its shell. + +Huber contrived that his bees should be unable to build in their +usual instinctive manner, beginning from above and working downwards; +on this they began building from below, and again horizontally. The +outermost cells that spring from the top of the hive or abut against +its sides are not hexagonal, but pentagonal, so as to gain in +strength, being attached with one base instead of two sides. In +autumn bees lengthen their existing honey cells if these are +insufficient, but in the ensuing spring they again shorten them in +order to get greater roadway between the combs. When the full combs +have become too heavy, they strengthen the walls of the uppermost or +bearing cells by thickening them with wax and propolis. If larvae of +working bees are introduced into the cells set apart for drones, the +working bees will cover these cells with the flat lids usual for this +kind of larvae, and not with the round ones that are proper for +drones. In autumn, as a general rule, bees kill their drones, but +they refrain from doing this when they have lost their queen, and +keep them to fertilise the young queen, who will be developed from +larvae that would otherwise have become working bees. Huber observed +that they defend the entrance of their hive against the inroads of +the sphinx moth by means of skilful constructions made of wax and +propolis. They only introduce propolis when they want it for the +execution of repairs, or for some other special purpose. Spiders and +caterpillars also display marvellous dexterity in the repair of their +webs if they have been damaged, and this requires powers perfectly +distinct from those requisite for the construction of a new one. + +The above examples might be multiplied indefinitely, but they are +sufficient to establish the fact that instincts are not capacities +rolled, as it were, off a reel mechanically, according to an +invariable system, but that they adapt themselves most closely to the +circumstances of each case, and are capable of such great +modification and variation that at times they almost appear to cease +to be instinctive. + +Many will, indeed, ascribe these modifications to conscious +deliberation on the part of the animals themselves, and it is +impossible to deny that in the case of the more intellectually gifted +animals there may be such a thing as a combination of instinctive +faculty and conscious reflection. I think, however, the examples +already cited are enough to show that often where the normal and the +abnormal action springs from the same source, without any +complication with conscious deliberation, they are either both +instinctive or both deliberative. {99} Or is that which prompts the +bee to build hexagonal prisms in the middle of her comb something of +an actually distinct character from that which impels her to build +pentagonal ones at the sides? Are there two separate kinds of thing, +one of which induces birds under certain circumstances to sit upon +their eggs, while another leads them under certain other +circumstances to refrain from doing so? And does this hold good also +with bees when they at one time kill their brethren without mercy and +at another grant them their lives? Or with birds when they construct +the kind of nest peculiar to their race, and, again, any special +provision which they may think fit under certain circumstances to +take? If it is once granted that the normal and the abnormal +manifestations of instinct--and they are often incapable of being +distinguished--spring from a single source, then the objection that +the modification is due to conscious knowledge will be found to be a +suicidal one later on, so far as it is directed against instinct +generally. It may be sufficient here to point out, in anticipation +of remarks that will be found in later chapters, that instinct and +the power of organic development involve the same essential +principle, though operating under different circumstances--the two +melting into one another without any definite boundary between them. +Here, then, we have conclusive proof that instinct does not depend +upon organisation of body or brain, but that, more truly, the +organisation is due to the nature and manner of the instinct. + +On the other hand, we must now return to a closer consideration of +the conception of a psychical mechanism. {100} And here we find that +this mechanism, in spite of its explaining so much, is itself so +obscure that we can hardly form any idea concerning it. The motive +enters the mind by way of a conscious sensual impression; this is the +first link of the process; the last link {101} appears as the +conscious motive of an action. Both, however, are entirely unlike, +and neither has anything to do with ordinary motivation, which +consists exclusively in the desire that springs from a conception +either of pleasure or dislike--the former prompting to the attainment +of any object, the latter to its avoidance. In the case of instinct, +pleasure is for the most part a concomitant phenomenon; but it is not +so always, as we have already seen, inasmuch as the consummation and +highest moral development of instinct displays itself in self- +sacrifice. + +The true problem, however, lies far deeper than this. For every +conception of a pleasure proves that we have experienced this +pleasure already. But it follows from this, that when the pleasure +was first felt there must have been will present, in the +gratification of which will the pleasure consisted; the question, +therefore, arises, whence did the will come before the pleasure that +would follow on its gratification was known, and before bodily pain, +as, for example, of hunger, rendered relief imperative? Yet we may +see that even though an animal has grown up apart from any others of +its kind, it will yet none the less manifest the instinctive impulses +of its race, though experience can have taught it nothing whatever +concerning the pleasure that will ensue upon their gratification. As +regards instinct, therefore, there must be a causal connection +between the motivating sensual conception and the will to perform the +instinctive action, and the pleasure of the subsequent gratification +has nothing to do with the matter. We know by the experience of our +own instincts that this causal connection does not lie within our +consciousness; {102a} therefore, if it is to be a mechanism of any +kind, it can only be either an unconscious mechanical induction and +metamorphosis of the vibrations of the conceived motive into the +vibrations of the conscious action in the brain, or an unconscious +spiritual mechanism. + +In the first case, it is surely strange that this process should go +on unconsciously, though it is so powerful in its effects that the +will resulting from it overpowers every other consideration, every +other kind of will, and that vibrations of this kind, when set up in +the brain, become always consciously perceived; nor is it easy to +conceive in what way this metamorphosis can take place so that the +constant purpose can be attained under varying circumstances by the +resulting will in modes that vary with variation of the special +features of each individual case. + +But if we take the other alternative, and suppose an unconscious +mental mechanism, we cannot legitimately conceive of the process +going on in this as other than what prevails in all mental mechanism, +namely, than as by way of idea and will. We are, therefore, +compelled to imagine a causal connection between the consciously +recognised motive and the will to do the instinctive action, through +unconscious idea and will; nor do I know how this connection can be +conceived as being brought about more simply than through a conceived +and willed purpose. {102b} Arrived at this point, however, we have +attained the logical mechanism peculiar to and inseparable from all +mind, and find unconscious purpose to be an indispensable link in +every instinctive action. With this, therefore, the conception of a +mental mechanism, dead and predestined from without, has disappeared, +and has become transformed into the spiritual life inseparable from +logic, so that we have reached the sole remaining requirement for the +conception of an actual instinct, which proves to be a conscious +willing of the means towards an unconsciously willed purpose. This +conception explains clearly and without violence all the problems +which instinct presents to us; or more truly, all that was +problematical about instinct disappears when its true nature has been +thus declared. If this work were confined to the consideration of +instinct alone, the conception of an unconscious activity of mind +might excite opposition, inasmuch as it is one with which our +educated public is not yet familiar; but in a work like the present, +every chapter of which adduces fresh facts in support of the +existence of such an activity and of its remarkable consequences, the +novelty of the theory should be taken no farther into consideration. + +Though I so confidently deny that instinct is the simple action of a +mechanism which has been contrived once for all, I by no means +exclude the supposition that in the constitution of the brain, the +ganglia, and the whole body, in respect of morphological as well as +molecular-physiological condition, certain predispositions can be +established which direct the unconscious intermediaries more readily +into one channel than into another. This predisposition is either +the result of a habit which keeps continually cutting for itself a +deeper and deeper channel, until in the end it leaves indelible +traces whether in the individual or in the race, or it is expressly +called into being by the unconscious formative principle in +generation, so as to facilitate action in a given direction. This +last will be the case more frequently in respect of exterior +organisation--as, for example, with the weapons or working organs of +animals--while to the former must be referred the molecular condition +of brain and ganglia which bring about the perpetually recurring +elements of an instinct such as the hexagonal shape of the cells of +bees. We shall presently see that by individual character we mean +the sum of the individual methods of reaction against all possible +motives, and that this character depends essentially upon a +constitution of mind and body acquired in some measure through habit +by the individual, but for the most part inherited. But an instinct +is also a mode of reaction against certain motives; here, too, then, +we are dealing with character, though perhaps not so much with that +of the individual as of the race; for by character in regard to +instinct we do not intend the differences that distinguish +individuals, but races from one another. If any one chooses to +maintain that such a predisposition for certain kinds of activity on +the part of brain and body constitutes a mechanism, this may in one +sense be admitted; but as against this view it must be remarked - + +1. That such deviations from the normal scheme of an instinct as +cannot be referred to conscious deliberation are not provided for by +any predisposition in this mechanism. + +2. That heredity is only possible under the circumstances of a +constant superintendence of the embryonic development by a purposive +unconscious activity of growth. It must be admitted, however, that +this is influenced in return by the predisposition existing in the +germ. + +3. That the impressing of the predisposition upon the individual +from whom it is inherited can only be effected by long practice, +consequently the instinct without auxiliary mechanism {105a} is the +originating cause of the auxiliary mechanism. + +4. That none of those instinctive actions that are performed rarely, +or perhaps once only, in the lifetime of any individual--as, for +example, those connected with the propagation and metamorphoses of +the lower forms of life, and none of those instinctive omissions of +action, neglect of which necessarily entails death--can be conceived +as having become engrained into the character through habit; the +ganglionic constitution, therefore, that predisposes the animal +towards them must have been fashioned purposively. + +5. That even the presence of an auxiliary mechanism {105b} does not +compel the unconscious to a particular corresponding mode of +instinctive action, but only predisposes it. This is shown by the +possibility of departure from the normal type of action, so that the +unconscious purpose is always stronger than the ganglionic +constitution, and takes any opportunity of choosing from several +similar possible courses the one that is handiest and most convenient +to the constitution of the individual. + +We now approach the question that I have reserved for our final one,- +-Is there, namely, actually such a thing as instinct, {105c} or are +all so-called instinctive actions only the results of conscious +deliberation? + +In support of the second of these two views, it may be alleged that +the more limited is the range of the conscious mental activity of any +living being, the more fully developed in proportion to its entire +mental power is its performance commonly found to be in respect of +its own limited and special instinctive department. This holds as +good with the lower animals as with men, and is explained by the fact +that perfection of proficiency is only partly dependent upon natural +capacity, but is in great measure due to practice and cultivation of +the original faculty. A philologist, for example, is unskilled in +questions of jurisprudence; a natural philosopher or mathematician, +in philology; an abstract philosopher, in poetical criticism. Nor +has this anything to do with the natural talents of the several +persons, but follows as a consequence of their special training. The +more special, therefore, is the direction in which the mental +activity of any living being is exercised, the more will the whole +developing and practising power of the mind be brought to bear upon +this one branch, so that it is not surprising if the special power +comes ultimately to bear an increased proportion to the total power +of the individual, through the contraction of the range within which +it is exercised. + +Those, however, who apply this to the elucidation of instinct should +not forget the words, "in proportion to the entire mental power of +the animal in question," and should bear in mind that the entire +mental power becomes less and less continually as we descend the +scale of animal life, whereas proficiency in the performance of an +instinctive action seems to be much of a muchness in all grades of +the animal world. As, therefore, those performances which +indisputably proceed from conscious deliberation decrease +proportionately with decrease of mental power, while nothing of the +kind is observable in the case of instinct--it follows that instinct +must involve some other principle than that of conscious +intelligence. We see, moreover, that actions which have their source +in conscious intelligence are of one and the same kind, whether among +the lower animals or with mankind--that is to say, that they are +acquired by apprenticeship or instruction and perfected by practice; +so that the saying, "Age brings wisdom," holds good with the brutes +as much as with ourselves. Instinctive actions, on the contrary, +have a special and distinct character, in that they are performed +with no less proficiency by animals that have been reared in solitude +than by those that have been instructed by their parents, the first +essays of a hitherto unpractised animal being as successful as its +later ones. There is a difference in principle here which cannot be +mistaken. Again, we know by experience that the feebler and more +limited an intelligence is, the more slowly do ideas act upon it, +that is to say, the slower and more laborious is its conscious +thought. So long as instinct does not come into play, this holds +good both in the case of men of different powers of comprehension and +with animals; but with instinct all is changed, for it is the +speciality of instinct never to hesitate or loiter, but to take +action instantly upon perceiving that the stimulating motive has made +its appearance. This rapidity in arriving at a resolution is common +to the instinctive actions both of the highest and the lowest +animals, and indicates an essential difference between instinct and +conscious deliberation. + +Finally, as regards perfection of the power of execution, a glance +will suffice to show the disproportion that exists between this and +the grade of intellectual activity on which an animal may be +standing. Take, for instance, the caterpillar of the emperor moth +(Saturnia pavonia minor). It eats the leaves of the bush upon which +it was born; at the utmost has just enough sense to get on to the +lower sides of the leaves if it begins to rain, and from time to time +changes its skin. This is its whole existence, which certainly does +not lead us to expect a display of any, even the most limited, +intellectual power. When, however, the time comes for the larva of +this moth to become a chrysalis, it spins for itself a double cocoon, +fortified with bristles that point outwards, so that it can be opened +easily from within, though it is sufficiently impenetrable from +without. If this contrivance were the result of conscious +reflection, we should have to suppose some such reasoning process as +the following to take place in the mind of the caterpillar:- "I am +about to become a chrysalis, and, motionless as I must be, shall be +exposed to many different kinds of attack. I must therefore weave +myself a web. But when I am a moth I shall not be able, as some +moths are, to find my way out of it by chemical or mechanical means; +therefore I must leave a way open for myself. In order, however, +that my enemies may not take advantage of this, I will close it with +elastic bristles, which I can easily push asunder from within, but +which, upon the principle of the arch, will resist all pressure from +without." Surely this is asking rather too much from a poor +caterpillar; yet the whole of the foregoing must be thought out if a +correct result is to be arrived at. + +This theoretical separation of instinct from conscious intelligence +can be easily misrepresented by opponents of my theory, as though a +separation in practice also would be necessitated in consequence. +This is by no means my intention. On the contrary, I have already +insisted at some length that both the two kinds of mental activity +may co-exist in all manner of different proportions, so that there +may be every degree of combination, from pure instinct to pure +deliberation. We shall see, however, in a later chapter, that even +in the highest and most abstract activity of human consciousness +there are forces at work that are of the highest importance, and are +essentially of the same kind as instinct. + +On the other hand, the most marvellous displays of instinct are to be +found not only in plants, but also in those lowest organisms of the +simplest bodily form which are partly unicellular, and in respect of +conscious intelligence stand far below the higher plants--to which, +indeed, any kind of deliberative faculty is commonly denied. Even in +the case of those minute microscopic organisms that baffle our +attempts to classify them either as animals or vegetables, we are +still compelled to admire an instinctive, purposive behaviour, which +goes far beyond a mere reflex responsive to a stimulus from without; +all doubt, therefore, concerning the actual existence of an instinct +must be at an end, and the attempt to deduce it as a consequence of +conscious deliberation be given up as hopeless. I will here adduce +an instance as extraordinary as any we yet know of, showing, as it +does, that many different purposes, which in the case of the higher +animals require a complicated system of organs of motion, can be +attained with incredibly simple means. + +Arcella vulgaris is a minute morsel of protoplasm, which lives in a +concave-convex, brown, finely reticulated shell, through a circular +opening in the concave side of which it can project itself by +throwing out pseudopodia. If we look through the microscope at a +drop of water containing living arcellae, we may happen to see one of +them lying on its back at the bottom of the drop, and making +fruitless efforts for two or three minutes to lay hold of some fixed +point by means of a pseudopodium. After this there will appear +suddenly from two to five, but sometimes more, dark points in the +protoplasm at a small distance from the circumference, and, as a +rule, at regular distances from one another. These rapidly develop +themselves into well-defined spherical air vesicles, and come +presently to fill a considerable part of the hollow of the shell, +thereby driving part of the protoplasm outside it. After from five +to twenty minutes, the specific gravity of the arcella is so much +lessened that it is lifted by the water with its pseudopodia, and +brought up against the upper surface of the water-drop, on which it +is able to travel. In from five to ten minutes the vesicles will now +disappear, the last small point vanishing with a jerk. If, however, +the creature has been accidentally turned over during its journey, +and reaches the top of the water-drop with its back uppermost, the +vesicles will continue growing only on one side, while they diminish +on the other; by this means the shell is brought first into an +oblique and then into a vertical position, until one of the +pseudopodia obtains a footing and the whole turns over. From the +moment the animal has obtained foothold, the bladders become +immediately smaller, and after they have disappeared the experiment +may be repeated at pleasure. + +The positions of the protoplasm which the vesicles fashion change +continually; only the grainless protoplasm of the pseudopodia +develops no air. After long and fruitless efforts a manifest fatigue +sets in; the animal gives up the attempt for a time, and resumes it +after an interval of repose. + +Engelmann, the discoverer of these phenomena, says (Pfluger's Archiv +fur Physologie, Bd. II.): "The changes in volume in all the vesicles +of the same animal are for the most part synchronous, effected in the +same manner, and of like size. There are, however, not a few +exceptions; it often happens that some of them increase or diminish +in volume much faster than others; sometimes one may increase while +another diminishes; all the changes, however, are throughout +unquestionably intentional. The object of the air-vesicles is to +bring the animal into such a position that it can take fast hold of +something with its pseudopodia. When this has been obtained, the air +disappears without our being able to discover any other reason for +its disappearance than the fact that it is no longer needed. . . . +If we bear these circumstances in mind, we can almost always tell +whether an arcella will develop air-vesicles or no; and if it has +already developed them, we can tell whether they will increase or +diminish . . . The arcellae, in fact, in this power of altering their +specific gravity possess a mechanism for raising themselves to the +top of the water, or lowering themselves to the bottom at will. They +use this not only in the abnormal circumstances of their being under +microscopical observation, but at all times, as may be known by our +being always able to find some specimens with air-bladders at the top +of the water in which they live." + +If what has been already advanced has failed to convince the reader +of the hopelessness of attempting to explain instinct as a mode of +conscious deliberation, he must admit that the following +considerations are conclusive. It is most certain that deliberation +and conscious reflection can only take account of such data as are +consciously perceived; if, then, it can be shown that data absolutely +indispensable for the arrival at a just conclusion cannot by any +possibility have been known consciously, the result can no longer be +held as having had its source in conscious deliberation. It is +admitted that the only way in which consciousness can arrive at a +knowledge of exterior facts is by way of an impression made upon the +senses. We must, therefore, prove that a knowledge of the facts +indispensable for arrival at a just conclusion could not have been +thus acquired. This may be done as follows: {111} for, Firstly, the +facts in question lie in the future, and the present gives no ground +for conjecturing the time and manner of their subsequent development. + +Secondly, they are manifestly debarred from the category of +perceptions perceived through the senses, inasmuch as no information +can be derived concerning them except through experience of similar +occurrences in time past, and such experience is plainly out of the +question. + +It would not affect the argument if, as I think likely, it were to +turn out, with the advance of our physiological knowledge, that all +the examples of the first case that I am about to adduce reduce +themselves to examples of the second, as must be admitted to have +already happened in respect of many that I have adduced hitherto. +For it is hardly more difficult to conceive of a priori knowledge, +disconnected from any impression made upon the senses, than of +knowledge which, it is true, does at the present day manifest itself +upon the occasion of certain general perceptions, but which can only +be supposed to be connected with these by means of such a chain of +inferences and judiciously applied knowledge as cannot be believed to +exist when we have regard to the capacity and organisation of the +animal we may be considering. + +An example of the first case is supplied by the larva of the stag- +beetle in its endeavour to make itself a convenient hole in which to +become a chrysalis. The female larva digs a hole exactly her own +size, but the male makes one as long again as himself, so as to allow +for the growth of his horns, which will be about the same length as +his body. A knowledge of this circumstance is indispensable if the +result achieved is to be considered as due to reflection, yet the +actual present of the larva affords it no ground for conjecturing +beforehand the condition in which it will presently find itself. + +As regards the second case, ferrets and buzzards fall forthwith upon +blind worms or other non-poisonous snakes, and devour them then and +there. But they exhibit the greatest caution in laying hold of +adders, even though they have never before seen one, and will +endeavour first to bruise their heads, so as to avoid being bitten. +As there is nothing in any other respect alarming in the adder, a +conscious knowledge of the danger of its bite is indispensable, if +the conduct above described is to be referred to conscious +deliberation. But this could only have been acquired through +experience, and the possibility of such experience may be controlled +in the case of animals that have been kept in captivity from their +youth up, so that the knowledge displayed can be ascertained to be +independent of experience. On the other hand, both the above +illustrations afford evidence of an unconscious perception of the +facts, and prove the existence of a direct knowledge underivable from +any sensual impression or from consciousness. + +This has always been recognised, {113} and has been described under +the words "presentiment" or "foreboding." These words, however, +refer, on the one hand, only to an unknowable in the future, +separated from us by space, and not to one that is actually present; +on the other hand, they denote only the faint, dull, indefinite echo +returned by consciousness to an invariably distinct state of +unconscious knowledge. Hence the word "presentiment," which carries +with it an idea of faintness and indistinctness, while, however, it +may be easily seen that sentiment destitute of all, even unconscious, +ideas can have no influence upon the result, for knowledge can only +follow upon an idea. A presentiment that sounds in consonance with +our consciousness can indeed, under certain circumstances, become +tolerably definite, so that in the case of man it can be expressed in +thought and language; but experience teaches us that even among +ourselves this is not so when instincts special to the human race +come into play; we see rather that the echo of our unconscious +knowledge which finds its way into our consciousness is so weak that +it manifests itself only in the accompanying feelings or frame of +mind, and represents but an infinitely small fraction of the sum of +our sensations. It is obvious that such a faintly sympathetic +consciousness cannot form a sufficient foundation for a +superstructure of conscious deliberation; on the other hand, +conscious deliberation would be unnecessary, inasmuch as the process +of thinking must have been already gone through unconsciously, for +every faint presentiment that obtrudes itself upon our consciousness +is in fact only the consequence of a distinct unconscious knowledge, +and the knowledge with which it is concerned is almost always an idea +of the purpose of some instinctive action, or of one most intimately +connected therewith. Thus, in the case of the stag-beetle, the +purpose consists in the leaving space for the growth of the horns; +the means, in the digging the hole of a sufficient size; and the +unconscious knowledge, in prescience concerning the future +development of the horns. + +Lastly, all instinctive actions give us an impression of absolute +security and infallibility. With instinct the will is never +hesitating or weak, as it is when inferences are being drawn +consciously. We never find instinct making mistakes; we cannot, +therefore, ascribe a result which is so invariably precise to such an +obscure condition of mind as is implied when the word presentiment is +used; on the contrary, this absolute certainty is so characteristic a +feature of instinctive actions, that it constitutes almost the only +well-marked point of distinction between these and actions that are +done upon reflection. But from this it must again follow that some +principle lies at the root of instinct other than that which +underlies reflective action, and this can only be looked for in a +determination of the will through a process that lies in the +unconscious, {115a} to which this character of unhesitating +infallibility will attach itself in all our future investigations. + +Many will be surprised at my ascribing to instinct an unconscious +knowledge, arising out of no sensual impression, and yet invariably +accurate. This, however, is not a consequence of my theory +concerning instinct; it is the foundation on which that theory is +based, and is forced upon us by facts. I must therefore adduce +examples. And to give a name to the unconscious knowledge, which is +not acquired through impression made upon the senses, but which will +be found to be in our possession, though attained without the +instrumentality of means, {115b} I prefer the word "clairvoyance" +{115c} to "presentiment," which, for reasons already given, will not +serve me. This word, therefore, will be here employed throughout, as +above defined. + +Let us now consider examples of the instincts of self-preservation, +subsistence, migration, and the continuation of the species. Most +animals know their natural enemies prior to experience of any hostile +designs upon themselves. A flight of young pigeons, even though they +have no old birds with them, will become shy, and will separate from +one another on the approach of a bird of prey. Horses and cattle +that come from countries where there are no lions become unquiet and +display alarm as soon as they are aware that a lion is approaching +them in the night. Horses going along a bridle-path that used to +leave the town at the back of the old dens of the carnivora in the +Berlin Zoological Gardens were often terrified by the propinquity of +enemies who were entirely unknown to them. Sticklebacks will swim +composedly among a number of voracious pike, knowing, as they do, +that the pike will not touch them. For if a pike once by mistake +swallows a stickleback, the stickleback will stick in its throat by +reason of the spine it carries upon its back, and the pike must +starve to death without being able to transmit his painful experience +to his descendants. In some countries there are people who by choice +eat dog's flesh; dogs are invariably savage in the presence of these +persons, as recognising in them enemies at whose hands they may one +day come to harm. This is the more wonderful inasmuch as dog's fat +applied externally (as when rubbed upon boots) attracts dogs by its +smell. Grant saw a young chimpanzee throw itself into convulsions of +terror at the sight of a large snake; and even among ourselves a +Gretchen can often detect a Mephistopheles. An insect of the genius +bombyx will seize another of the genus parnopaea, and kill it +wherever it finds it, without making any subsequent use of the body; +but we know that the last-named insect lies in wait for the eggs of +the first, and is therefore the natural enemy of its race. The +phenomenon known to stockdrivers and shepherds as "das Biesen des +Viehes" affords another example. For when a "dassel" or "bies" fly +draws near the herd, the cattle become unmanageable and run about +among one another as though they were mad, knowing, as they do, that +the larvae from the eggs which the fly will lay upon them will +presently pierce their hides and occasion them painful sores. These +"dassel" flies--which have no sting--closely resemble another kind of +gadfly which has a sting. Nevertheless, this last kind is little +feared by cattle, while the first is so to an inordinate extent. The +laying of the eggs upon the skin is at the time quite painless, and +no ill consequences follow until long afterwards, so that we cannot +suppose the cattle to draw a conscious inference concerning the +connection that exists between the two. I have already spoken of the +foresight shown by ferrets and buzzards in respect of adders; in like +manner a young honey-buzzard, on being shown a wasp for the first +time, immediately devoured it after having squeezed the sting from +its body. No animal, whose instinct has not been vitiated by +unnatural habits, will eat poisonous plants. Even when apes have +contracted bad habits through their having been brought into contact +with mankind, they can still be trusted to show us whether certain +fruits found in their native forests are poisonous or no; for if +poisonous fruits are offered them they will refuse them with loud +cries. Every animal will choose for its sustenance exactly those +animal or vegetable substances which agree best with its digestive +organs, without having received any instruction on the matter, and +without testing them beforehand. Even, indeed, though we assume that +the power of distinguishing the different kinds of food is due to +sight and not to smell, it remains none the less mysterious how the +animal can know what it is that will agree with it. Thus the kid +which Galen took prematurely from its mother smelt at all the +different kinds of food that were set before it, but drank only the +milk without touching anything else. The cherry-finch opens a +cherry-stone by turning it so that her beak can hit the part where +the two sides join, and does this as much with the first stone she +cracks as with the last. Fitchets, martens, and weasels make small +holes on the opposite sides of an egg which they are about to suck, +so that the air may come in while they are sucking. Not only do +animals know the food that will suit them best, but they find out the +most suitable remedies when they are ill, and constantly form a +correct diagnosis of their malady with a therapeutical knowledge +which they cannot possibly have acquired. Dogs will often eat a +great quantity of grass--particularly couch-grass--when they are +unwell, especially after spring, if they have worms, which thus pass +from them entangled in the grass, or if they want to get fragments of +bone from out of their stomachs. As a purgative they make use of +plants that sting. Hens and pigeons pick lime from walls and +pavements if their food does not afford them lime enough to make +their eggshells with. Little children eat chalk when suffering from +acidity of the stomach, and pieces of charcoal if they are troubled +with flatulence. We may observe these same instincts for certain +kinds of food or drugs even among grown-up people, under +circumstances in which their unconscious nature has unusual power; +as, for example, among women when they are pregnant, whose capricious +appetites are probably due to some special condition of the foetus, +which renders a certain state of the blood desirable. Field-mice +bite off the germs of the corn which they collect together, in order +to prevent its growing during the winter. Some days before the +beginning of cold weather the squirrel is most assiduous in +augmenting its store, and then closes its dwelling. Birds of passage +betake themselves to warmer countries at times when there is still no +scarcity of food for them here, and when the temperature is +considerably warmer than it will be when they return to us. The same +holds good of the time when animals begin to prepare their winter +quarters, which beetles constantly do during the very hottest days of +autumn. When swallows and storks find their way back to their native +places over distances of hundreds of miles, and though the aspect of +the country is reversed, we say that this is due to the acuteness of +their perception of locality; but the same cannot be said of dogs, +which, though they have been carried in a bag from one place to +another that they do not know, and have been turned round and round +twenty times over, have still been known to find their way home. +Here we can say no more than that their instinct has conducted them-- +that the clairvoyance of the unconscious has allowed them to +conjecture their way. {119a} + +Before an early winter, birds of passage collect themselves in +preparation for their flight sooner than usual; but when the winter +is going to be mild, they will either not migrate at all, or travel +only a small distance southward. When a hard winter is coming, +tortoises will make their burrows deeper. If wild geese, cranes, +etc., soon return from the countries to which they had betaken +themselves at the beginning of spring, it is a sign that a hot and +dry summer is about to ensue in those countries, and that the drought +will prevent their being able to rear their young. In years of +flood, beavers construct their dwellings at a higher level than +usual, and shortly before an inundation the field-mice in Kamtschatka +come out of their holes in large bands. If the summer is going to be +dry, spiders may be seen in May and April, hanging from the ends of +threads several feet in length. If in winter spiders are seen +running about much, fighting with one another and preparing new webs, +there will be cold weather within the next nine days, or from that to +twelve: when they again hide themselves there will be a thaw. I +have no doubt that much of this power of prophesying the weather is +due to a perception of certain atmospheric conditions which escape +ourselves, but this perception can only have relation to a certain +actual and now present condition of the weather; and what can the +impression made by this have to do with their idea of the weather +that will ensue? No one will ascribe to animals a power of +prognosticating the weather months beforehand by means of inferences +drawn logically from a series of observations, {119b} to the extent +of being able to foretell floods. It is far more probable that the +power of perceiving subtle differences of actual atmospheric +condition is nothing more than the sensual perception which acts as +motive--for a motive must assuredly be always present--when an +instinct comes into operation. It continues to hold good, therefore, +that the power of foreseeing the weather is a case of unconscious +clairvoyance, of which the stork which takes its departure for the +south four weeks earlier than usual knows no more than does the stag +when before a cold winter he grows himself a thicker pelt than is his +wont. On the one hand, animals have present in their consciousness a +perception of the actual state of the weather; on the other, their +ensuing action is precisely such as it would be if the idea present +with them was that of the weather that is about to come. This they +cannot consciously have; the only natural intermediate link, +therefore, between their conscious knowledge and their action is +supplied by unconscious idea, which, however, is always accurately +prescient, inasmuch as it contains something which is neither given +directly to the animal through sensual perception, nor can be deduced +inferentially through the understanding. + +Most wonderful of all are the instincts connected with the +continuation of the species. The males always find out the females +of their own kind, but certainly not solely through their resemblance +to themselves. With many animals, as, for example, parasitic crabs, +the sexes so little resemble one another that the male would be more +likely to seek a mate from the females of a thousand other species +than from his own. Certain butterflies are polymorphic, and not only +do the males and females of the same species differ, but the females +present two distinct forms, one of which as a general rule mimics the +outward appearance of a distant but highly valued species; yet the +males will pair only with the females of their own kind, and not with +the strangers, though these may be very likely much more like the +males themselves. Among the insect species of the strepsiptera, the +female is a shapeless worm which lives its whole life long in the +hind body of a wasp; its head, which is of the shape of a lentil, +protrudes between two of the belly rings of the wasp, the rest of the +body being inside. The male, which only lives for a few hours, and +resembles a moth, nevertheless recognises his mate in spite of these +adverse circumstances, and fecundates her. + +Before any experience of parturition, the knowledge that it is +approaching drives all mammals into solitude, and bids them prepare a +nest for their young in a hole or in some other place of shelter. +The bird builds her nest as soon as she feels the eggs coming to +maturity within her. Snails, land-crabs, tree-frogs, and toads, all +of them ordinarily dwellers upon land, now betake themselves to the +water; sea-tortoises go on shore, and many saltwater fishes come up +into the rivers in order to lay their eggs where they can alone find +the requisites for their development. Insects lay their eggs in the +most varied kinds of situations,--in sand, on leaves, under the hides +and horny substances of other animals; they often select the spot +where the larva will be able most readily to find its future +sustenance, as in autumn upon the trees that will open first in the +coming spring, or in spring upon the blossoms that will first bear +fruit in autumn, or in the insides of those caterpillars which will +soonest as chrysalides provide the parasitic larva at once with food +and with protection. Other insects select the sites from which they +will first get forwarded to the destination best adapted for their +development. Thus some horseflies lay their eggs upon the lips of +horses or upon parts where they are accustomed to lick themselves. +The eggs get conveyed hence into the entrails, the proper place for +their development,--and are excreted upon their arrival at maturity. +The flies that infest cattle know so well how to select the most +vigorous and healthiest beasts, that cattle-dealers and tanners place +entire dependence upon them, and prefer those beasts and hides that +are most scarred by maggots. This selection of the best cattle by +the help of these flies is no evidence in support of the conclusion +that the flies possess the power of making experiments consciously +and of reflecting thereupon, even though the men whose trade it is to +do this recognise them as their masters. The solitary wasp makes a +hole several inches deep in the sand, lays her egg, and packs along +with it a number of green maggots that have no legs, and which, being +on the point of becoming chrysalides, are well nourished and able to +go a long time without food; she packs these maggots so closely +together that they cannot move nor turn into chrysalides, and just +enough of them to support the larva until it becomes a chrysalis. A +kind of bug (cerceris bupresticida), which itself lives only upon +pollen, lays her eggs in an underground cell, and with each one of +them she deposits three beetles, which she has lain in wait for and +captured when they were still weak through having only just left off +being chrysalides. She kills these beetles, and appears to smear +them with a fluid whereby she preserves them fresh and suitable for +food. Many kinds of wasps open the cells in which their larvae are +confined when these must have consumed the provision that was left +with them. They supply them with more food, and again close the +cell. Ants, again, hit always upon exactly the right moment for +opening the cocoons in which their larvae are confined and for +setting them free, the larva being unable to do this for itself. Yet +the life of only a few kinds of insects lasts longer than a single +breeding season. What then can they know about the contents of their +eggs and the fittest place for their development? What can they know +about the kind of food the larva will want when it leaves the egg--a +food so different from their own? What, again, can they know about +the quantity of food that will be necessary? How much of all this at +least can they know consciously? Yet their actions, the pains they +take, and the importance they evidently attach to these matters, +prove that they have a foreknowledge of the future: this knowledge +therefore can only be an unconscious clairvoyance. For clairvoyance +it must certainly be that inspires the will of an animal to open +cells and cocoons at the very moment that the larva is either ready +for more food or fit for leaving the cocoon. The eggs of the cuckoo +do not take only from two to three days to mature in her ovaries, as +those of most birds do, but require from eleven to twelve; the +cuckoo, therefore, cannot sit upon her own eggs, for her first egg +would be spoiled before the last was laid. She therefore lays in +other birds' nests--of course laying each egg in a different nest. +But in order that the birds may not perceive her egg to be a stranger +and turn it out of the nest, not only does she lay an egg much +smaller than might be expected from a bird of her size (for she only +finds her opportunity among small birds), but, as already said, she +imitates the other eggs in the nest she has selected with surprising +accuracy in respect both of colour and marking. As the cuckoo +chooses the nest some days beforehand, it may be thought, if the nest +is an open one, that the cuckoo looks upon the colour of the eggs +within it while her own is in process of maturing inside her, and +that it is thus her egg comes to assume the colour of the others; but +this explanation will not hold good for nests that are made in the +holes of trees, as that of sylvia phaenicurus, or which are oven- +shaped with a narrow entrance, as with sylvia rufa. In these cases +the cuckoo can neither slip in nor look in, and must therefore lay +her egg outside the nest and push it inside with her beak; she can +therefore have no means of perceiving through her senses what the +eggs already in the nest are like. If, then, in spite of all this, +her egg closely resembles the others, this can only have come about +through an unconscious clairvoyance which directs the process that +goes on within the ovary in respect of colour and marking. + +An important argument in support of the existence of a clairvoyance +in the instincts of animals is to be found in the series of facts +which testify to the existence of a like clairvoyance, under certain +circumstances, even among human beings, while the self-curative +instincts of children and of pregnant women have been already +mentioned. Here, however, {124} in correspondence with the higher +stage of development which human consciousness has attained, a +stronger echo of the unconscious clairvoyance commonly resounds +within consciousness itself, and this is represented by a more or +less definite presentiment of the consequences that will ensue. It +is also in accord with the greater independence of the human +intellect that this kind of presentiment is not felt exclusively +immediately before the carrying out of an action, but is occasionally +disconnected from the condition that an action has to be performed +immediately, and displays itself simply as an idea independently of +conscious will, provided only that the matter concerning which the +presentiment is felt is one which in a high degree concerns the will +of the person who feels it. In the intervals of an intermittent +fever or of other illness, it not unfrequently happens that sick +persons can accurately foretell the day of an approaching attack and +how long it will last. The same thing occurs almost invariably in +the case of spontaneous, and generally in that of artificial, +somnambulism; certainly the Pythia, as is well known, used to +announce the date of her next ecstatic state. In like manner the +curative instinct displays itself in somnambulists, and they have +been known to select remedies that have been no less remarkable for +the success attending their employment than for the completeness with +which they have run counter to received professional opinion. The +indication of medicinal remedies is the only use which respectable +electro-biologists will make of the half-sleeping, half-waking +condition of those whom they are influencing. "People in perfectly +sound health have been known, before childbirth or at the +commencement of an illness, to predict accurately their own +approaching death. The accomplishment of their predictions can +hardly be explained as the result of mere chance, for if this were +all, the prophecy should fail at least as often as not, whereas the +reverse is actually the case. Many of these persons neither desire +death nor fear it, so that the result cannot be ascribed to +imagination." So writes the celebrated physiologist, Burdach, from +whose chapter on presentiment in his work "Bhicke in's Leben" a great +part of my most striking examples is taken. This presentiment of +deaths, which is the exception among men, is quite common with +animals, even though they do not know nor understand what death is. +When they become aware that their end is approaching, they steal away +to outlying and solitary places. This is why in cities we so rarely +see the dead body or skeleton of a cat. We can only suppose that the +unconscious clairvoyance, which is of essentially the same kind +whether in man or beast, calls forth presentiments of different +degrees of definiteness, so that the cat is driven to withdraw +herself through a mere instinct without knowing why she does so, +while in man a definite perception is awakened of the fact that he is +about to die. Not only do people have presentiments concerning their +own death, but there are many instances on record in which they have +become aware of that of those near and dear to them, the dying person +having appeared in a dream to friend or wife or husband. Stories to +this effect prevail among all nations, and unquestionably contain +much truth. Closely connected with this is the power of second +sight, which existed formerly in Scotland, and still does so in the +Danish islands. This power enables certain people without any +ecstasy, but simply through their keener perception, to foresee +coming events, or to tell what is going on in foreign countries on +matters in which they are deeply interested, such as deaths, battles, +conflagrations (Swedenborg foretold the burning of Stockholm), the +arrival or the doings of friends who are at a distance. With many +persons this clairvoyance is confined to a knowledge of the death of +their acquaintances or fellow-townspeople. There have been a great +many instances of such death-prophetesses, and, what is most +important, some cases have been verified in courts of law. I may +say, in passing, that this power of second sight is found in persons +who are in ecstatic states, in the spontaneous or artificially +induced somnambulism of the higher kinds of waking dreams, as well as +in lucid moments before death. These prophetic glimpses, by which +the clairvoyance of the unconscious reveals itself to consciousness, +{126} are commonly obscure because in the brain they must assume a +form perceptible by the senses, whereas the unconscious idea can have +nothing to do with any form of sensual impression: it is for this +reason that humours, dreams, and the hallucinations of sick persons +can so easily have a false signification attached to them. The +chances of error and self-deception that arise from this source, the +ease with which people may be deceived intentionally, and the +mischief which, as a general rule, attends a knowledge of the future, +these considerations place beyond all doubt the practical unwisdom of +attempts to arrive at certainty concerning the future. This, +however, cannot affect the weight which in theory should be attached +to phenomena of this kind, and must not prevent us from recognising +the positive existence of the clairvoyance whose existence I am +maintaining, though it is often hidden under a chaos of madness and +imposture. + +The materialistic and rationalistic tendencies of the present day +lead most people either to deny facts of this kind in toto, or to +ignore them, inasmuch as they are inexplicable from a materialistic +standpoint, and cannot be established by the inductive or +experimental method--as though this last were not equally impossible +in the case of morals, social science, and politics. A mind of any +candour will only be able to deny the truths of this entire class of +phenomena so long as it remains in ignorance of the facts that have +been related concerning them; but, again, a continuance in this +ignorance can only arise from unwillingness to be convinced. I am +satisfied that many of those who deny all human power of divination +would come to another, and, to say the least, more cautious +conclusion if they would be at the pains of further investigation; +and I hold that no one, even at the present day, need be ashamed of +joining in with an opinion which was maintained by all the great +spirits of antiquity except Epicurus--an opinion whose possible truth +hardly one of our best modern philosophers has ventured to +contravene, and which the champions of German enlightenment were so +little disposed to relegate to the domain of old wives' tales, that +Goethe furnishes us with an example of second sight that fell within +his own experience, and confirms it down to its minutest details. + +Although I am far from believing that the kind of phenomena above +referred to form in themselves a proper foundation for a +superstructure of scientific demonstration, I nevertheless find them +valuable as a completion and further confirmation of the series of +phenomena presented to us by the clairvoyance which we observe in +human and animal instinct. Even though they only continue this +series {128} through the echo that is awakened within our +consciousness, they as powerfully support the account which +instinctive actions give concerning their own nature, as they are +themselves supported by the analogy they present to the clairvoyance +observable in instinct. This, then, as well as my desire not to lose +an opportunity of protesting against a modern prejudice, must stand +as my reason for having allowed myself to refer, in a scientific +work, to a class of phenomena which has fallen at present into so +much discredit. + +I will conclude with a few words upon a special kind of instinct +which has a very instructive bearing upon the subject generally, and +shows how impossible it is to evade the supposition of an unconscious +clairvoyance on the part of instinct. In the examples adduced +hitherto, the action of each individual has been done on the +individual's own behalf, except in the case of instincts connected +with the continuation of the species, where the action benefits +others--that is to say, the offspring of the creature performing it. + +We must now examine the cases in which a solidarity of instinct is +found to exist between several individuals, so that, on the one hand, +the action of each redounds to the common welfare, and, on the other, +it becomes possible for a useful purpose to be achieved through the +harmonious association of individual workers. This community of +instinct exists also among the higher animals, but here it is harder +to distinguish from associations originating through conscious will, +inasmuch as speech supplies the means of a more perfect +intercommunication of aim and plan. We shall, however, definitely +recognise {129} this general effect of a universal instinct in the +origin of speech and in the great political and social movements in +the history of the world. Here we are concerned only with the +simplest and most definite examples that can be found anywhere, and +therefore we will deal in preference with the lower animals, among +which, in the absence of voice, the means of communicating thought, +mimicry, and physiognomy, are so imperfect that the harmony and +interconnection of the individual actions cannot in its main points +be ascribed to an understanding arrived at through speech. Huber +observed that when a new comb was being constructed a number of the +largest working-bees, that were full of honey, took no part in the +ordinary business of the others, but remained perfectly aloof. +Twenty-four hours afterwards small plates of wax had formed under +their bellies. The bee drew these off with her hind-feet, masticated +them, and made them into a band. The small plates of wax thus +prepared were then glued to the roof of the hive one on the top of +the other. When one of the bees of this kind had used up her plates +of wax, another followed her and carried the same work forward in the +same way. A thin rough vertical wall, half a line in thickness and +fastened to the sides of the hive, was thus constructed. On this, +one of the smaller working-bees whose belly was empty came, and after +surveying the wall, made a flat half-oval excavation in the middle of +one of its sides; she piled up the wax thus excavated round the edge +of the excavation. After a short time she was relieved by another +like herself, till more than twenty followed one another in this way. +Meanwhile another bee began to make a similar hollow on the other +side of the wall, but corresponding only with the rim of the +excavation on this side. Presently another bee began a second hollow +upon the same side, each bee being continually relieved by others. +Other bees kept coming up and bringing under their bellies plates of +wax, with which they heightened the edge of the small wall of wax. +In this, new bees were constantly excavating the ground for more +cells, while others proceeded by degrees to bring those already begun +into a perfectly symmetrical shape, and at the same time continued +building up the prismatic walls between them. Thus the bees worked +on opposite sides of the wall of wax, always on the same plan and in +the closest correspondence with those upon the other side, until +eventually the cells on both sides were completed in all their +wonderful regularity and harmony of arrangement, not merely as +regards those standing side by side, but also as regards those which +were upon the other side of their pyramidal base. + +Let the reader consider how animals that are accustomed to confer +together, by speech or otherwise, concerning designs which they may +be pursuing in common, will wrangle with thousandfold diversity of +opinion; let him reflect how often something has to be undone, +destroyed, and done over again; how at one time too many hands come +forward, and at another too few; what running to and fro there is +before each has found his right place; how often too many, and again +too few, present themselves for a relief gang; and how we find all +this in the concerted works of men, who stand so far higher than bees +in the scale of organisation. We see nothing of the kind among bees. +A survey of their operations leaves rather the impression upon us as +though an invisible master-builder had prearranged a scheme of action +for the entire community, and had impressed it upon each individual +member, as though each class of workers had learnt their appointed +work by heart, knew their places and the numbers in which they should +relieve each other, and were informed instantaneously by a secret +signal of the moment when their action was wanted. This, however, is +exactly the manner in which an instinct works; and as the intention +of the entire community is instinctively present in the unconscious +clairvoyance {131a} of each individual bee, so the possession of this +common instinct impels each one of them to the discharge of her +special duties when the right moment has arrived. It is only thus +that the wonderful tranquillity and order which we observe could be +attained. What we are to think concerning this common instinct must +be reserved for explanation later on, but the possibility of its +existence is already evident, inasmuch {131b} as each individual has +an unconscious insight concerning the plan proposed to itself by the +community, and also concerning the means immediately to be adopted +through concerted action--of which, however, only the part requiring +his own co-operation is present in the consciousness of each. Thus, +for example, the larva of the bee itself spins the silky chamber in +which it is to become a chrysalis, but other bees must close it with +its lid of wax. The purpose of there being a chamber in which the +larva can become a chrysalis must be present in the minds of each of +these two parties to the transaction, but neither of them acts under +the influence of conscious will, except in regard to his own +particular department. I have already mentioned the fact that the +larva, after its metamorphosis, must be freed from its cell by other +bees, and have told how the working-bees in autumn kill the drones, +so that they may not have to feed a number of useless mouths +throughout the winter, and how they only spare them when they are +wanted in order to fecundate a new queen. Furthermore, the working- +bees build cells in which the eggs laid by the queen may come to +maturity, and, as a general rule, make just as many chambers as the +queen lays eggs; they make these, moreover, in the same order as that +in which the queen lays her eggs, namely, first for the working-bees, +then for the drones, and lastly for the queens. In the polity of the +bees, the working and the sexual capacities, which were once united, +are now personified in three distinct kinds of individual, and these +combine with an inner, unconscious, spiritual union, so as to form a +single body politic, as the organs of a living body combine to form +the body itself. + +In this chapter, therefore, we have arrived at the following +conclusions:- + +Instinct is not the result of conscious deliberation; {132} it is not +a consequence of bodily organisation; it is not a mere result of a +mechanism which lies in the organisation of the brain; it is not the +operation of dead mechanism, glued on, as it were, to the soul, and +foreign to its inmost essence; but it is the spontaneous action of +the individual, springing from his most essential nature and +character. The purpose to which any particular kind of instinctive +action is subservient is not the purpose of a soul standing outside +the individual and near akin to Providence--a purpose once for all +thought out, and now become a matter of necessity to the individual, +so that he can act in no other way, though it is engrafted into his +nature from without, and not natural to it. The purpose of the +instinct is in each individual case thought out and willed +unconsciously by the individual, and afterwards the choice of means +adapted to each particular case is arrived at unconsciously. A +knowledge of the purpose is often absolutely unattainable {133} by +conscious knowledge through sensual perception. Then does the +peculiarity of the unconscious display itself in the clairvoyance of +which consciousness perceives partly only a faint and dull, and +partly, as in the case of man, a more or less definite echo by way of +sentiment, whereas the instinctive action itself--the carrying out of +the means necessary for the achievement of the unconscious purpose-- +falls always more clearly within consciousness, inasmuch as due +performance of what is necessary would be otherwise impossible. +Finally, the clairvoyance makes itself perceived in the concerted +action of several individuals combining to carry out a common but +unconscious purpose. + +Up to this point we have encountered clairvoyance as a fact which we +observe but cannot explain, and the reader may say that he prefers to +take his stand here, and be content with regarding instinct simply as +a matter of fact, the explanation of which is at present beyond our +reach. Against this it must be urged, firstly, that clairvoyance is +not confined to instinct, but is found also in man; secondly, that +clairvoyance is by no means present in all instincts, and that +therefore our experience shows us clairvoyance and instinct as two +distinct things--clairvoyance being of great use in explaining +instinct, but instinct serving nothing to explain clairvoyance; +thirdly and lastly, that the clairvoyance of the individual will not +continue to be so incomprehensible to us, but will be perfectly well +explained in the further course of our investigation, while we must +give up all hope of explaining instinct in any other way. + +The conception we have thus arrived at enables us to regard instinct +as the innermost kernel, so to speak, of every living being. That +this is actually the case is shown by the instincts of self- +preservation and of the continuation of the species which we observe +throughout creation, and by the heroic self-abandonment with which +the individual will sacrifice welfare, and even life, at the bidding +of instinct. We see this when we think of the caterpillar, and how +she repairs her cocoon until she yields to exhaustion; of the bird, +and how she will lay herself to death; of the disquiet and grief +displayed by all migratory animals if they are prevented from +migrating. A captive cuckoo will always die at the approach of +winter through despair at being unable to fly away; so will the +vineyard snail if it is hindered of its winter sleep. The weakest +mother will encounter an enemy far surpassing her in strength, and +suffer death cheerfully for her offspring's sake. Every year we see +fresh cases of people who have been unfortunate going mad or +committing suicide. Women who have survived the Caesarian operation +allow themselves so little to be deterred from further childbearing +through fear of this frightful and generally fatal operation, that +they will undergo it no less than three times. Can we suppose that +what so closely resembles demoniacal possession can have come about +through something engrafted on to the soul as a mechanism foreign to +its inner nature, {135} or through conscious deliberation which +adheres always to a bare egoism, and is utterly incapable of such +self-sacrifice for the sake of offspring as is displayed by the +procreative and maternal instincts? + +We have now, finally, to consider how it arises that the instincts of +any animal species are so similar within the limits of that species-- +a circumstance which has not a little contributed to the engrafted- +mechanism theory. But it is plain that like causes will be followed +by like effects; and this should afford sufficient explanation. The +bodily mechanism, for example, of all the individuals of a species is +alike; so again are their capabilities and the outcomes of their +conscious intelligence--though this, indeed, is not the case with +man, nor in some measure even with the highest animals; and it is +through this want of uniformity that there is such a thing as +individuality. The external conditions of all the individuals of a +species are also tolerably similar, and when they differ essentially, +the instincts are likewise different--a fact in support of which no +examples are necessary. From like conditions of mind and body (and +this includes like predispositions of brain and ganglia) and like +exterior circumstances, like desires will follow as a necessary +logical consequence. Again, from like desires and like inward and +outward circumstances, a like choice of means--that is to say, like +instincts--must ensue. These last two steps would not be conceded +without restriction if the question were one involving conscious +deliberation, but as these logical consequences are supposed to +follow from the unconscious, which takes the right step unfailingly +without vacillation or delay so long as the premises are similar, the +ensuing desires and the instincts to adopt the means for their +gratification will be similar also. + +Thus the view which we have taken concerning instinct explains the +very last point which it may be thought worth while to bring forward +in support of the opinions of our opponents. + +I will conclude this chapter with the words of Schelling: +"Thoughtful minds will hold the phenomena of animal instinct to +belong to the most important of all phenomena, and to be the true +touchstone of a durable philosophy." + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + +Remarks upon Von Hartmann's position in regard to instinct. + +Uncertain how far the foregoing chapter is not better left without +comment of any kind, I nevertheless think that some of my readers may +be helped by the following extracts from the notes I took while +translating. I will give them as they come, without throwing them +into connected form. + + +Von Hartmann defines instinct as action done with a purpose, but +without consciousness of purpose. + +The building of her nest by a bird is an instinctive action; it is +done with a purpose, but it is arbitrary to say that the bird has no +knowledge of that purpose. Some hold that birds when they are +building their nest know as well that they mean to bring up a family +in it as a young married couple do when they build themselves a +house. This is the conclusion which would be come to by a plain +person on a prima facie view of the facts, and Von Hartmann shows no +reason for modifying it. + +A better definition of instinct would be that it is inherited +knowledge in respect of certain facts, and of the most suitable +manner in which to deal with them. + + +Von Hartmann speaks of "a mechanism of brain or mind" contrived by +nature, and again of "a psychical organisation," as though it were +something distinct from a physical organisation. + +We can conceive of such a thing as mechanism of brain, for we have +seen brain and handled it; but until we have seen a mind and handled +it, or at any rate been enabled to draw inferences which will warrant +us in conceiving of it as a material substance apart from bodily +substance, we cannot infer that it has an organisation apart from +bodily organisation. Does Von Hartmann mean that we have two bodies- +-a body-body, and a soul-body? + + +He says that no one will call the action of the spider instinctive in +voiding the fluids from its glands when they are too full. Why not? + + +He is continually personifying instinct; thus he speaks of the "ends +proposed to itself by the instinct," of "the blind unconscious +purpose of the instinct," of "an unconscious purpose constraining the +volition of the bird," of "each variation and modification of the +instinct," as though instinct, purpose, and, later on, clairvoyance, +were persons, and not words characterising a certain class of +actions. The ends are proposed to itself by the animal, not by the +instinct. Nothing but mischief can come of a mode of expression +which does not keep this clearly in view. + + +It must not be supposed that the same cuckoo is in the habit of +laying in the nests of several different species, and of changing the +colour of her eggs according to that of the eggs of the bird in whose +nest she lays. I have inquired from Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe of the +ornithological department at the British Museum, who kindly gives it +me as his opinion that though cuckoos do imitate the eggs of the +species on whom they foist their young ones, yet one cuckoo will +probably lay in the nests of one species also, and will stick to that +species for life. If so, the same race of cuckoos may impose upon +the same species for generations together. The instinct will even +thus remain a very wonderful one, but it is not at all inconsistent +with the theory put forward by Professor Hering and myself. + + +Returning to the idea of psychical mechanism, he admits that "it is +itself so obscure that we can hardly form any idea concerning it," +{139a} and then goes on to claim for it that it explains a great many +other things. This must have been the passage which Mr. Sully had in +view when he very justly wrote that Von Hartmann "dogmatically closes +the field of physical inquiry, and takes refuge in a phantom which +explains everything, simply because it is itself incapable of +explanation." + + +According to Von Hartmann {139b} the unpractised animal manifests its +instinct as perfectly as the practised. This is not the case. The +young animal exhibits marvellous proficiency, but it gains by +experience. I have watched sparrows, which I can hardly doubt to be +young ones, spend a whole month in trying to build their nest, and +give it up in the end as hopeless. I have watched three such cases +this spring in a tree not twenty feet from my own window and on a +level with my eye, so that I have been able to see what was going on +at all hours of the day. In each case the nest was made well and +rapidly up to a certain point, and then got top-heavy and tumbled +over, so that little was left on the tree: it was reconstructed and +reconstructed over and over again, always with the same result, till +at last in all three cases the birds gave up in despair. I believe +the older and stronger birds secure the fixed and best sites, driving +the younger birds to the trees, and that the art of building nests in +trees is dying out among house-sparrows. + + +He declares that instinct is not due to organisation so much as +organisation to instinct. {140} The fact is, that neither can claim +precedence of or pre-eminence over the other. Instinct and +organisation are only mind and body, or mind and matter; and these +are not two separable things, but one and inseparable, with, as it +were, two sides; the one of which is a function of the other. There +was never yet either matter without mind, however low, nor mind, +however high, without a material body of some sort; there can be no +change in one without a corresponding change in the other; neither +came before the other; neither can either cease to change or cease to +be; for "to be" is to continue changing, so that "to be" and "to +change" are one. + + +Whence, he asks, comes the desire to gratify an instinct before +experience of the pleasure that will ensue on gratification? This is +a pertinent question, but it is met by Professor Hering with the +answer that this is due to memory--to the continuation in the germ of +vibrations that were vibrating in the body of the parent, and which, +when stimulated by vibrations of a suitable rhythm, become more and +more powerful till they suffice to set the body in visible action. +For my own part I only venture to maintain that it is due to memory, +that is to say, to an enduring sense on the part of the germ of the +action it took when in the persons of its ancestors, and of the +gratification which ensued thereon. This meets Von Hartmann's whole +difficulty. + + +The glacier is not snow. It is snow packed tight into a small +compass, and has thus lost all trace of its original form. How +incomplete, however, would be any theory of glacial action which left +out of sight the origin of the glacier in snow! Von Hartmann loses +sight of the origin of instinctive in deliberative actions because +the two classes of action are now in many respects different. His +philosophy of the unconscious fails to consider what is the normal +process by means of which such common actions as we can watch, and +whose history we can follow, have come to be done unconsciously. + + +He says, {141} "How inconceivable is the supposition of a mechanism, +&c., &c.; how clear and simple, on the other hand, is the view that +there is an unconscious purpose constraining the volition of the bird +to the use of the fitting means." Does he mean that there is an +actual thing--an unconscious purpose--something outside the bird, as +it were a man, which lays hold of the bird and makes it do this or +that, as a master makes a servant do his bidding? If so, he again +personifies the purpose itself, and must therefore embody it, or be +talking in a manner which plain people cannot understand. If, on the +other hand, he means "how simple is the view that the bird acts +unconsciously," this is not more simple than supposing it to act +consciously; and what ground has he for supposing that the bird is +unconscious? It is as simple, and as much in accordance with the +facts, to suppose that the bird feels the air to be colder, and knows +that she must warm her eggs if she is to hatch them, as consciously +as a mother knows that she must not expose her new-born infant to the +cold. + + +On page 99 of this book we find Von Hartmann saying that if it is +once granted that the normal and abnormal manifestations of instinct +spring from a single source, then the objection that the modification +is due to conscious knowledge will be found to be a suicidal one +later on, in so far as it is directed against instinct generally. I +understand him to mean that if we admit instinctive action, and the +modifications of that action which more nearly resemble results of +reason, to be actions of the same ultimate kind differing in degree +only, and if we thus attempt to reduce instinctive action to the +prophetic strain arising from old experience, we shall be obliged to +admit that the formation of the embryo is ultimately due to +reflection--which he seems to think is a reductio ad absurdum of the +argument. + +Therefore, he concludes, if there is to be only one source, the +source must be unconscious, and not conscious. We reply, that we do +not see the absurdity of the position which we grant we have been +driven to. We hold that the formation of the embryo IS ultimately +due to reflection and design. + + +The writer of an article in the Times, April 1, 1880, says that +servants must be taught their calling before they can practise it; +but, in fact, they can only be taught their calling by practising it. +So Von Hartmann says animals must feel the pleasure consequent on +gratification of an instinct before they can be stimulated to act +upon the instinct by a knowledge of the pleasure that will ensue. +This sounds logical, but in practice a little performance and a +little teaching--a little sense of pleasure and a little connection +of that pleasure with this or that practice,--come up simultaneously +from something that we cannot see, the two being so small and so much +abreast, that we do not know which is first, performance or teaching; +and, again, action, or pleasure supposed as coming from the action. + + +"Geistes-mechanismus" comes as near to "disposition of mind," or, +more shortly, "disposition," as so unsatisfactory a word can come to +anything. Yet, if we translate it throughout by "disposition," we +shall see how little we are being told. + +We find on page 114 that "all instinctive actions give us an +impression of absolute security and infallibility"; that "the will is +never weak or hesitating, as it is when inferences are being drawn +consciously." "We never," Von Hartmann continues, "find instinct +making mistakes." Passing over the fact that instinct is again +personified, the statement is still incorrect. Instinctive actions +are certainly, as a general rule, performed with less uncertainty +than deliberative ones; this is explicable by the fact that they have +been more often practised, and thus reduced more completely to a +matter of routine; but nothing is more certain than that animals +acting under the guidance of inherited experience or instinct +frequently make mistakes which with further practice they correct. +Von Hartmann has abundantly admitted that the manner of an +instinctive action is often varied in correspondence with variation +in external circumstances. It is impossible to see how this does not +involve both possibility of error and the connection of instinct with +deliberation at one and the same time. The fact is simply this--when +an animal finds itself in a like position with that in which it has +already often done a certain thing in the persons of its forefathers, +it will do this thing well and easily: when it finds the position +somewhat, but not unrecognisably, altered through change either in +its own person or in the circumstances exterior to it, it will vary +its action with greater or less ease according to the nature of the +change in the position: when the position is gravely altered the +animal either bungles or is completely thwarted. + + +Not only does Von Hartmann suppose that instinct may, and does, +involve knowledge antecedent to, and independent of, experience--an +idea as contrary to the tendency of modern thought as that of +spontaneous generation, with which indeed it is identical though +presented in another shape--but he implies by his frequent use of the +word "unmittelbar" that a result can come about without any cause +whatever. So he says, "Um fur die unbewusster Erkenntniss, welche +nicht durch sinnliche Wahrnehmung erworben, sondern als unmittelbar +Besitz," &c. {144a} Because he does not see where the experience can +have been gained, he cuts the knot, and denies that there has been +experience. We say, Look more attentively and you will discover the +time and manner in which the experience was gained. + + +Again, he continually assumes that animals low down in the scale of +life cannot know their own business because they show no sign of +knowing ours. See his remarks on Saturnia pavonia minor (page 107), +and elsewhere on cattle and gadflies. The question is not what can +they know, but what does their action prove to us that they do know. +With each species of animal or plant there is one profession only, +and it is hereditary. With us there are many professions, and they +are not hereditary; so that they cannot become instinctive, as they +would otherwise tend to do. + + +He attempts {144b} to draw a distinction between the causes that have +produced the weapons and working instruments of animals, on the one +hand, and those that lead to the formation of hexagonal cells by +bees, &c., on the other. No such distinction can be justly drawn. + + +The ghost-stories which Von Hartmann accepts will hardly be accepted +by people of sound judgment. There is one well-marked distinctive +feature between the knowledge manifested by animals when acting +instinctively and the supposed knowledge of seers and clairvoyants. +In the first case, the animal never exhibits knowledge except upon +matters concerning which its race has been conversant for +generations; in the second, the seer is supposed to do so. In the +first case, a new feature is invariably attended with disturbance of +the performance and the awakening of consciousness and deliberation, +unless the new matter is too small in proportion to the remaining +features of the case to attract attention, or unless, though really +new, it appears so similar to an old feature as to be at first +mistaken for it; with the second, it is not even professed that the +seer's ancestors have had long experience upon the matter concerning +which the seer is supposed to have special insight, and I can imagine +no more powerful a priori argument against a belief in such stories. + + +Close upon the end of his chapter Von Hartmann touches upon the one +matter which requires consideration. He refers the similarity of +instinct that is observable among all species to the fact that like +causes produce like effects; and I gather, though he does not +expressly say so, that he considers similarity of instinct in +successive generations to be referable to the same cause as +similarity of instinct between all the contemporary members of a +species. He thus raises the one objection against referring the +phenomena of heredity to memory which I think need be gone into with +any fulness. I will, however, reserve this matter for my concluding +chapters. + +Von Hartmann concludes his chapter with a quotation from Schelling, +to the effect that the phenomena of animal instinct are the true +touchstone of a durable philosophy; by which I suppose it is intended +to say that if a system or theory deals satisfactorily with animal +instinct, it will stand, but not otherwise. I can wish nothing +better than that the philosophy of the unconscious advanced by Von +Hartmann be tested by this standard. + + + +CHAPTER X + + + +Recapitulation and statement of an objection. + +The true theory of unconscious action, then, is that of Professor +Hering, from whose lecture it is no strained conclusion to gather +that he holds the action of all living beings, from the moment of +their conception to that of their fullest development, to be founded +in volition and design, though these have been so long lost sight of +that the work is now carried on, as it were, departmentally and in +due course according to an official routine which can hardly now be +departed from. + +This involves the older "Darwinism" and the theory of Lamarck, +according to which the modification of living forms has been effected +mainly through the needs of the living forms themselves, which vary +with varying conditions, the survival of the fittest (which, as I see +Mr. H. B. Baildon has just said, "sometimes comes to mean merely the +survival of the survivors" {146}) being taken almost as a matter of +course. According to this view of evolution, there is a remarkable +analogy between the development of living organs or tools and that of +those organs or tools external to the body which has been so rapid +during the last few thousand years. + +Animals and plants, according to Professor Hering, are guided +throughout their development, and preserve the due order in each step +which they take, through memory of the course they took on past +occasions when in the persons of their ancestors. I am afraid I have +already too often said that if this memory remains for long periods +together latent and without effect, it is because the undulations of +the molecular substance of the body which are its supposed +explanation are during these periods too feeble to generate action, +until they are augmented in force through an accession of suitable +undulations issuing from exterior objects; or, in other words, until +recollection is stimulated by a return of the associated ideas. On +this the eternal agitation becomes so much enhanced, that equilibrium +is visibly disturbed, and the action ensues which is proper to the +vibration of the particular substance under the particular +conditions. This, at least, is what I suppose Professor Hering to +intend. + +Leaving the explanation of memory on one side, and confining +ourselves to the fact of memory only, a caterpillar on being just +hatched is supposed, according to this theory, to lose its memory of +the time it was in the egg, and to be stimulated by an intense but +unconscious recollection of the action taken by its ancestors when +they were first hatched. It is guided in the course it takes by the +experience it can thus command. Each step it takes recalls a new +recollection, and thus it goes through its development as a performer +performs a piece of music, each bar leading his recollection to the +bar that should next follow. + +In "Life and Habit" will be found examples of the manner in which +this view solves a number of difficulties for the explanation of +which the leading men of science express themselves at a loss. The +following from Professor Huxley's recent work upon the crayfish may +serve for an example. Professor Huxley writes:- + + +"It is a widely received notion that the energies of living matter +have a tendency to decline and finally disappear, and that the death +of the body as a whole is a necessary correlate of its life. That +all living beings sooner or later perish needs no demonstration, but +it would be difficult to find satisfactory grounds for the belief +that they needs must do so. The analogy of a machine, that sooner or +later must be brought to a standstill by the wear and tear of its +parts, does not hold, inasmuch as the animal mechanism is continually +renewed and repaired; and though it is true that individual +components of the body are constantly dying, yet their places are +taken by vigorous successors. A city remains notwithstanding the +constant death-rate of its inhabitants; and such an organism as a +crayfish is only a corporate unity, made up of innumerable partially +independent individualities."--The Crayfish, p. 127. + + +Surely the theory which I have indicated above makes the reason plain +why no organism can permanently outlive its experience of past lives. +The death of such a body corporate as the crayfish is due to the +social condition becoming more complex than there is memory of past +experience to deal with. Hence social disruption, insubordination, +and decay. The crayfish dies as a state dies, and all states that we +have heard of die sooner or later. There are some savages who have +not yet arrived at the conception that death is the necessary end of +all living beings, and who consider even the gentlest death from old +age as violent and abnormal; so Professor Huxley seems to find a +difficulty in seeing that though a city commonly outlives many +generations of its citizens, yet cities and states are in the end no +less mortal than individuals. "The city," he says, "remains." Yes, +but not for ever. When Professor Huxley can find a city that will +last for ever, he may wonder that a crayfish does not last for ever. + +I have already here and elsewhere said all that I can yet bring +forward in support of Professor Hering's theory; it now remains for +me to meet the most troublesome objection to it that I have been able +to think of--an objection which I had before me when I wrote "Life +and Habit," but which then as now I believe to be unsound. Seeing, +however, as I have pointed out at the end of the preceding chapter, +that Von Hartmann has touched upon it, and being aware that a +plausible case can be made out for it, I will state it and refute it +here. When I say refute it, I do not mean that I shall have done +with it--for it is plain that it opens up a vaster question in the +relations between the so-called organic and inorganic worlds--but +that I will refute the supposition that it any way militates against +Professor Hering's theory. + +Why, it may be asked, should we go out of our way to invent +unconscious memory--the existence of which must at the best remain an +inference {149}--when the observed fact that like antecedents are +invariably followed by like consequents should be sufficient for our +purpose? Why should the fact that a given kind of chrysalis in a +given condition will always become a butterfly within a certain time +be connected with memory, when it is not pretended that memory has +anything to do with the invariableness with which oxygen and hydrogen +when mixed in certain proportions make water? + +We assume confidently that if a drop of water were decomposed into +its component parts, and if these were brought together again, and +again decomposed and again brought together any number of times over, +the results would be invariably the same, whether decomposition or +combination, yet no one will refer the invariableness of the action +during each repetition, to recollection by the gaseous molecules of +the course taken when the process was last repeated. On the +contrary, we are assured that molecules in some distant part of the +world, which had never entered into such and such a known combination +themselves, nor held concert with other molecules that had been so +combined, and which, therefore, could have had no experience and no +memory, would none the less act upon one another in that one way in +which other like combinations of atoms have acted under like +circumstances, as readily as though they had been combined and +separated and recombined again a hundred or a hundred thousand times. +It is this assumption, tacitly made by every man, beast, and plant in +the universe, throughout all time and in every action of their lives, +that has made any action possible, lying, as it does, at the root of +all experience. + +As we admit of no doubt concerning the main result, so we do not +suppose an alternative to lie before any atom of any molecule at any +moment during the process of their combination. This process is, in +all probability, an exceedingly complicated one, involving a +multitude of actions and subordinate processes, which follow one upon +the other, and each one of which has a beginning, a middle, and an +end, though they all come to pass in what appears to be an instant of +time. Yet at no point do we conceive of any atom as swerving ever +such a little to right or left of a determined course, but invest +each one of them with so much of the divine attributes as that with +it there shall be no variableness, neither shadow of turning. + +We attribute this regularity of action to what we call the necessity +of things, as determined by the nature of the atoms and the +circumstances in which they are placed. We say that only one +proximate result can ever arise from any given combination. If, +then, so great uniformity of action as nothing can exceed is +manifested by atoms to which no one will impute memory, why this +desire for memory, as though it were the only way of accounting for +regularity of action in living beings? Sameness of action may be +seen abundantly where there is no room for anything that we can +consistently call memory. In these cases we say that it is due to +sameness of substance in same circumstances. + +The most cursory reflection upon our actions will show us that it is +no more possible for living action to have more than one set of +proximate consequents at any given time than for oxygen and hydrogen +when mixed in the proportions proper for the formation of water. +Why, then, not recognise this fact, and ascribe repeated similarity +of living action to the reproduction of the necessary antecedents, +with no more sense of connection between the steps in the action, or +memory of similar action taken before, than we suppose on the part of +oxygen and hydrogen molecules between the several occasions on which +they may have been disunited and reunited? + +A boy catches the measles not because he remembers having caught them +in the persons of his father and mother, but because he is a fit soil +for a certain kind of seed to grow upon. In like manner he should be +said to grow his nose because he is a fit combination for a nose to +spring from. Dr. X---'s father died of angina pectoris at the age of +forty-nine; so did Dr. X---. Can it be pretended that Dr. X--- +remembered having died of angina pectoris at the age of forty-nine +when in the person of his father, and accordingly, when he came to be +forty-nine years old himself, died also? For this to hold, Dr. X--- +'s father must have begotten him after he was dead; for the son could +not remember the father's death before it happened. + +As for the diseases of old age, so very commonly inherited, they are +developed for the most part not only long after the average age of +reproduction, but at a time when no appreciable amount of memory of +any previous existence can remain; for a man will not have many male +ancestors who become parents at over sixty years old, nor female +ancestors who did so at over forty. By our own showing, therefore, +recollection can have nothing to do with the matter. Yet who can +doubt that gout is due to inheritance as much as eyes and noses? In +what respects do the two things differ so that we should refer the +inheritance of eyes and noses to memory, while denying any connection +between memory and gout? We may have a ghost of a pretence for +saying that a man grew a nose by rote, or even that he catches the +measles or whooping-cough by rote during his boyhood; but do we mean +to say that he develops the gout by rote in his old age if he comes +of a gouty family? If, then, rote and red-tape have nothing to do +with the one, why should they with the other? + +Remember also the cases in which aged females develop male +characteristics. Here are growths, often of not inconsiderable +extent, which make their appearance during the decay of the body, and +grow with greater and greater vigour in the extreme of old age, and +even for days after death itself. It can hardly be doubted that an +especial tendency to develop these characteristics runs as an +inheritance in certain families; here then is perhaps the best case +that can be found of a development strictly inherited, but having +clearly nothing whatever to do with memory. Why should not all +development stand upon the same footing? + +A friend who had been arguing with me for some time as above, +concluded with the following words:- + +"If you cannot be content with the similar action of similar +substances (living or non-living) under similar circumstances--if you +cannot accept this as an ultimate fact, but consider it necessary to +connect repetition of similar action with memory before you can rest +in it and be thankful--be consistent, and introduce this memory which +you find so necessary into the inorganic world also. Either say that +a chrysalis becomes a butterfly because it is the thing that it is, +and, being that kind of thing, must act in such and such a manner and +in such a manner only, so that the act of one generation has no more +to do with the act of the next than the fact of cream being churned +into butter in a dairy one day has to do with other cream being +churnable into butter in the following week--either say this, or else +develop some mental condition--which I have no doubt you will be very +well able to do if you feel the want of it--in which you can make out +a case for saying that oxygen and hydrogen on being brought together, +and cream on being churned, are in some way acquainted with, and +mindful of, action taken by other cream and other oxygen and hydrogen +on past occasions." + +I felt inclined to reply that my friend need not twit me with being +able to develop a mental organism if I felt the need of it, for his +own ingenious attack on my position, and indeed every action of his +life was but an example of this omnipresent principle. + +When he was gone, however, I thought over what he had been saying. I +endeavoured to see how far I could get on without volition and +memory, and reasoned as follows:- A repetition of like antecedents +will be certainly followed by a repetition of like consequents, +whether the agents be men and women or chemical substances. "If +there be two cowards perfectly similar in every respect, and if they +be subjected in a perfectly similar way to two terrifying agents, +which are themselves perfectly similar, there are few who will not +expect a perfect similarity in the running away, even though ten +thousand years intervene between the original combination and its +repetition." {153} Here certainly there is no coming into play of +memory, more than in the pan of cream on two successive churning +days, yet the action is similar. + +A clerk in an office has an hour in the middle of the day for dinner. +About half-past twelve he begins to feel hungry; at once he takes +down his hat and leaves the office. He does not yet know the +neighbourhood, and on getting down into the street asks a policeman +at the corner which is the best eating-house within easy distance. +The policeman tells him of three houses, one of which is a little +farther off than the other two, but is cheaper. Money being a +greater object to him than time, the clerk decides on going to the +cheaper house. He goes, is satisfied, and returns. + +Next day he wants his dinner at the same hour, and--it will be said-- +remembering his satisfaction of yesterday, will go to the same place +as before. But what has his memory to do with it? Suppose him to +have entirely forgotten all the circumstances of the preceding day +from the moment of his beginning to feel hungry onward, though in +other respects sound in mind and body, and unchanged generally. At +half-past twelve he would begin to be hungry; but his beginning to be +hungry cannot be connected with his remembering having begun to be +hungry yesterday. He would begin to be hungry just as much whether +he remembered or no. At one o'clock he again takes down his hat and +leaves the office, not because he remembers having done so yesterday, +but because he wants his hat to go out with. Being again in the +street, and again ignorant of the neighbourhood (for he remembers +nothing of yesterday), he sees the same policeman at the corner of +the street, and asks him the same question as before; the policeman +gives him the same answer, and money being still an object to him, +the cheapest eating-house is again selected; he goes there, finds the +same menu, makes the same choice for the same reasons, eats, is +satisfied, and returns. + +What similarity of action can be greater than this, and at the same +time more incontrovertible? But it has nothing to do with memory; on +the contrary, it is just because the clerk has no memory that his +action of the second day so exactly resembles that of the first. As +long as he has no power of recollecting, he will day after day repeat +the same actions in exactly the same way, until some external +circumstances, such as his being sent away, modify the situation. +Till this or some other modification occurs, he will day after day go +down into the street without knowing where to go; day after day he +will see the same policeman at the corner of the same street, and +(for we may as well suppose that the policeman has no memory too) he +will ask and be answered, and ask and be answered, till he and the +policeman die of old age. This similarity of action is plainly due +to that--whatever it is--which ensures that like persons or things +when placed in like circumstances shall behave in like manner. + +Allow the clerk ever such a little memory, and the similarity of +action will disappear; for the fact of remembering what happened to +him on the first day he went out in search of dinner will be a +modification in him in regard to his then condition when he next goes +out to get his dinner. He had no such memory on the first day, and +he has upon the second. Some modification of action must ensue upon +this modification of the actor, and this is immediately observable. +He wants his dinner, indeed, goes down into the street, and sees the +policeman as yesterday, but he does not ask the policeman; he +remembers what the policeman told him and what he did, and therefore +goes straight to the eating-house without wasting time: nor does he +dine off the same dish two days running, for he remembers what he had +yesterday and likes variety. If, then, similarity of action is +rather hindered than promoted by memory, why introduce it into such +cases as the repetition of the embryonic processes by successive +generations? The embryos of a well-fixed breed, such as the goose, +are almost as much alike as water is to water, and by consequence one +goose comes to be almost as like another as water to water. Why +should it not be supposed to become so upon the same grounds--namely, +that it is made of the same stuffs, and put together in like +proportions in the same manner? + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + +On Cycles. + +The one faith on which all normal living beings consciously or +unconsciously act, is that like antecedents will be followed by like +consequents. This is the one true and catholic faith, +undemonstrable, but except a living being believe which, without +doubt it shall perish everlastingly. In the assurance of this all +action is taken. + +But if this fundamental article is admitted, and it cannot be +gainsaid, it follows that if ever a complete cycle were formed, so +that the whole universe of one instant were to repeat itself +absolutely in a subsequent one, no matter after what interval of +time, then the course of the events between these two moments would +go on repeating itself for ever and ever afterwards in due order, +down to the minutest detail, in an endless series of cycles like a +circulating decimal. For the universe comprises everything; there +could therefore be no disturbance from without. Once a cycle, always +a cycle. + +Let us suppose the earth, of given weight, moving with given momentum +in a given path, and under given conditions in every respect, to find +itself at any one time conditioned in all these respects as it was +conditioned at some past moment; then it must move exactly in the +same path as the one it took when at the beginning of the cycle it +has just completed, and must therefore in the course of time fulfil a +second cycle, and therefore a third, and so on for ever and ever, +with no more chance of escape than a circulating decimal has, if the +circumstances have been reproduced with perfect accuracy. + +We see something very like this actually happen in the yearly +revolutions of the planets round the sun. But the relations between, +we will say, the earth and the sun are not reproduced absolutely. +These relations deal only with a small part of the universe, and even +in this small part the relation of the parts inter se has never yet +been reproduced with the perfection of accuracy necessary for our +argument. They are liable, moreover, to disturbance from events +which may or may not actually occur (as, for example, our being +struck by a comet, or the sun's coming within a certain distance of +another sun), but of which, if they do occur, no one can foresee the +effects. Nevertheless the conditions have been so nearly repeated +that there is no appreciable difference in the relations between the +earth and sun on one New Year's Day and on another, nor is there +reason for expecting such change within any reasonable time. + +If there is to be an eternal series of cycles involving the whole +universe, it is plain that not one single atom must be excluded. +Exclude a single molecule of hydrogen from the ring, or vary the +relative positions of two molecules only, and the charm is broken; an +element of disturbance has been introduced, of which the utmost that +can be said is that it may not prevent the ensuing of a long series +of very nearly perfect cycles before similarity in recurrence is +destroyed, but which must inevitably prevent absolute identity of +repetition. The movement of the series becomes no longer a cycle, +but spiral, and convergent or divergent at a greater or less rate +according to circumstances. We cannot conceive of all the atoms in +the universe standing twice over in absolutely the same relation each +one of them to every other. There are too many of them and they are +too much mixed; but, as has been just said, in the planets and their +satellites we do see large groups of atoms whose movements recur with +some approach to precision. The same holds good also with certain +comets and with the sun himself. The result is that our days and +nights and seasons follow one another with nearly perfect regularity +from year to year, and have done so for as long time as we know +anything for certain. A vast preponderance of all the action that +takes place around us is cycular action. + +Within the great cycle of the planetary revolution of our own earth, +and as a consequence thereof, we have the minor cycle of the +phenomena of the seasons; these generate atmospheric cycles. Water +is evaporated from the ocean and conveyed to mountain ranges, where +it is cooled, and whence it returns again to the sea. This cycle of +events is being repeated again and again with little appreciable +variation. The tides and winds in certain latitudes go round and +round the world with what amounts to continuous regularity.--There +are storms of wind and rain called cyclones. In the case of these, +the cycle is not very complete, the movement, therefore, is spiral, +and the tendency to recur is comparatively soon lost. It is a common +saying that history repeats itself, so that anarchy will lead to +despotism and despotism to anarchy; every nation can point to +instances of men's minds having gone round and round so nearly in a +perfect cycle that many revolutions have occurred before the +cessation of a tendency to recur. Lastly, in the generation of +plants and animals we have, perhaps, the most striking and common +example of the inevitable tendency of all action to repeat itself +when it has once proximately done so. Let only one living being have +once succeeded in producing a being like itself, and thus have +returned, so to speak, upon itself, and a series of generations must +follow of necessity, unless some matter interfere which had no part +in the original combination, and, as it may happen, kill the first +reproductive creature or all its descendants within a few +generations. If no such mishap occurs as this, and if the recurrence +of the conditions is sufficiently perfect, a series of generations +follows with as much certainty as a series of seasons follows upon +the cycle of the relations between the earth and sun. Let the first +periodically recurring substance--we will say A--be able to recur or +reproduce itself, not once only, but many times over, as A1, A2, &c.; +let A also have consciousness and a sense of self-interest, which +qualities must, ex hypothesi, be reproduced in each one of its +offspring; let these get placed in circumstances which differ +sufficiently to destroy the cycle in theory without doing so +practically--that is to say, to reduce the rotation to a spiral, but +to a spiral with so little deviation from perfect cycularity as for +each revolution to appear practically a cycle, though after many +revolutions the deviation becomes perceptible; then some such +differentiations of animal and vegetable life as we actually see +follow as matters of course. A1 and A2 have a sense of self-interest +as A had, but they are not precisely in circumstances similar to A's, +nor, it may be, to each other's; they will therefore act somewhat +differently, and every living being is modified by a change of +action. Having become modified, they follow the spirit of A's action +more essentially in begetting a creature like themselves than in +begetting one like A; for the essence of A's act was not the +reproduction of A, but the reproduction of a creature like the one +from which it sprung--that is to say, a creature bearing traces in +its body of the main influences that have worked upon its parent. + +Within the cycle of reproduction there are cycles upon cycles in the +life of each individual, whether animal or plant. Observe the action +of our lungs and heart, how regular it is, and how a cycle having +been once established, it is repeated many millions of times in an +individual of average health and longevity. Remember also that it is +this periodicity--this inevitable tendency of all atoms in +combination to repeat any combination which they have once repeated, +unless forcibly prevented from doing so--which alone renders nine- +tenths of our mechanical inventions of practical use to us. There is +no internal periodicity about a hammer or a saw, but there is in the +steam-engine or watermill when once set in motion. The actions of +these machines recur in a regular series, at regular intervals, with +the unerringness of circulating decimals. + +When we bear in mind, then, the omnipresence of this tendency in the +world around us, the absolute freedom from exception which attends +its action, the manner in which it holds equally good upon the +vastest and the smallest scale, and the completeness of its accord +with our ideas of what must inevitably happen when a like combination +is placed in circumstances like those in which it was placed before-- +when we bear in mind all this, is it possible not to connect the +facts together, and to refer cycles of living generations to the same +unalterableness in the action of like matter under like circumstances +which makes Jupiter and Saturn revolve round the sun, or the piston +of a steam-engine move up and down as long as the steam acts upon it? + +But who will attribute memory to the hands of a clock, to a piston- +rod, to air or water in a storm or in course of evaporation, to the +earth and planets in their circuits round the sun, or to the atoms of +the universe, if they too be moving in a cycle vaster than we can +take account of? {160} And if not, why introduce it into the +embryonic development of living beings, when there is not a particle +of evidence in support of its actual presence, when regularity of +action can be ensured just as well without it as with it, and when at +the best it is considered as existing under circumstances which it +baffles us to conceive, inasmuch as it is supposed to be exercised +without any conscious recollection? Surely a memory which is +exercised without any consciousness of recollecting is only a +periphrasis for the absence of any memory at all. + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + +Refutation--Memory at once a promoter and a disturber of uniformity +of action and structure. + +To meet the objections in the two foregoing chapters, I need do +little more than show that the fact of certain often inherited +diseases and developments, whether of youth or old age, being +obviously not due to a memory on the part of offspring of like +diseases and developments in the parents, does not militate against +supposing that embryonic and youthful development generally is due to +memory. + +This is the main part of the objection; the rest resolves itself into +an assertion that there is no evidence in support of instinct and +embryonic development being due to memory, and a contention that the +necessity of each particular moment in each particular case is +sufficient to account for the facts without the introduction of +memory. + +I will deal with these two last points briefly first. As regards the +evidence in support of the theory that instinct and growth are due to +a rapid unconscious memory of past experiences and developments in +the persons of the ancestors of the living form in which they appear, +I must refer my readers to "Life and Habit," and to the translation +of Professor Hering's lecture given in this volume. I will only +repeat here that a chrysalis, we will say, is as much one and the +same person with the chrysalis of its preceding generation, as this +last is one and the same person with the egg or caterpillar from +which it sprang. You cannot deny personal identity between two +successive generations without sooner or later denying it during the +successive stages in the single life of what we call one individual; +nor can you admit personal identity through the stages of a long and +varied life (embryonic and postnatal) without admitting it to endure +through an endless series of generations. + +The personal identity of successive generations being admitted, the +possibility of the second of two generations remembering what +happened to it in the first is obvious. The a priori objection, +therefore, is removed, and the question becomes one of fact--does the +offspring act as if it remembered? + +The answer to this question is not only that it does so act, but that +it is not possible to account for either its development or its early +instinctive actions upon any other hypothesis than that of its +remembering, and remembering exceedingly well. + +The only alternative is to declare with Von Hartmann that a living +being may display a vast and varied information concerning all manner +of details, and be able to perform most intricate operations, +independently of experience and practice. Once admit knowledge +independent of experience, and farewell to sober sense and reason +from that moment. + +Firstly, then, we show that offspring has had every facility for +remembering; secondly, that it shows every appearance of having +remembered; thirdly, that no other hypothesis except memory can be +brought forward, so as to account for the phenomena of instinct and +heredity generally, which is not easily reducible to an absurdity. +Beyond this we do not care to go, and must allow those to differ from +us who require further evidence. + +As regards the argument that the necessity of each moment will +account for likeness of result, without there being any need for +introducing memory, I admit that likeness of consequents is due to +likeness of antecedents, and I grant this will hold as good with +embryos as with oxygen and hydrogen gas; what will cover the one will +cover the other, for time writs of the laws common to all matter run +within the womb as freely as elsewhere; but admitting that there are +combinations into which living beings enter with a faculty called +memory which has its effect upon their conduct, and admitting that +such combinations are from time to time repeated (as we observe in +the case of a practised performer playing a piece of music which he +has committed to memory), then I maintain that though, indeed, the +likeness of one performance to its immediate predecessor is due to +likeness of the combinations immediately preceding the two +performances, yet memory plays so important a part in both these +combinations as to make it a distinguishing feature in them, and +therefore proper to be insisted upon. We do not, for example, say +that Herr Joachim played such and such a sonata without the music, +because he was such and such an arrangement of matter in such and +such circumstances, resembling those under which he played without +music on some past occasion. This goes without saying; we say only +that he played the music by heart or by memory, as he had often +played it before. + +To the objector that a caterpillar becomes a chrysalis not because it +remembers and takes the action taken by its fathers and mothers in +due course before it, but because when matter is in such a physical +and mental state as to be called caterpillar, it must perforce assume +presently such another physical and mental state as to be called +chrysalis, and that therefore there is no memory in the case--to this +objector I rejoin that the offspring caterpillar would not have +become so like the parent as to make the next or chrysalis stage a +matter of necessity, unless both parent and offspring had been +influenced by something that we usually call memory. For it is this +very possession of a common memory which has guided the offspring +into the path taken by, and hence to a virtually same condition with, +the parent, and which guided the parent in its turn to a state +virtually identical with a corresponding state in the existence of +its own parent. To memory, therefore, the most prominent place in +the transaction is assigned rightly. + +To deny that will guided by memory has anything to do with the +development of embryos seems like denying that a desire to obstruct +has anything to do with the recent conduct of certain members in the +House of Commons. What should we think of one who said that the +action of these gentlemen had nothing to do with a desire to +embarrass the Government, but was simply the necessary outcome of the +chemical and mechanical forces at work, which being such and such, +the action which we see is inevitable, and has therefore nothing to +do with wilful obstruction? We should answer that there was +doubtless a great deal of chemical and mechanical action in the +matter; perhaps, for aught we knew or cared, it was all chemical and +mechanical; but if so, then a desire to obstruct parliamentary +business is involved in certain kinds of chemical and mechanical +action, and that the kinds involving this had preceded the recent +proceedings of the members in question. If asked to prove this, we +can get no further than that such action as has been taken has never +yet been seen except as following after and in consequence of a +desire to obstruct; that this is our nomenclature, and that we can no +more be expected to change it than to change our mother tongue at the +bidding of a foreigner. + +A little reflection will convince the reader that he will be unable +to deny will and memory to the embryo without at the same time +denying their existence everywhere, and maintaining that they have no +place in the acquisition of a habit, nor indeed in any human action. +He will feel that the actions, and the relation of one action to +another which he observes in embryos is such as is never seen except +in association with and as a consequence of will and memory. He will +therefore say that it is due to will and memory. To say that these +are the necessary outcome of certain antecedents is not to destroy +them: granted that they are--a man does not cease to be a man when +we reflect that he has had a father and mother, nor do will and +memory cease to be will and memory on the ground that they cannot +come causeless. They are manifest minute by minute to the perception +of all sane people, and this tribunal, though not infallible, is +nevertheless our ultimate court of appeal--the final arbitrator in +all disputed cases. + +We must remember that there is no action, however original or +peculiar, which is not in respect of far the greater number of its +details founded upon memory. If a desperate man blows his brains +out--an action which he can do once in a lifetime only, and which +none of his ancestors can have done before leaving offspring--still +nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of the movements necessary +to achieve his end consist of habitual movements--movements, that is +to say, which were once difficult, but which have been practised and +practised by the help of memory until they are now performed +automatically. We can no more have an action than a creative effort +of the imagination cut off from memory. Ideas and actions seem +almost to resemble matter and force in respect of the impossibility +of originating or destroying them; nearly all that are, are memories +of other ideas and actions, transmitted but not created, disappearing +but not perishing. + +It appears, then, that when in Chapter X. we supposed the clerk who +wanted his dinner to forget on a second day the action he had taken +the day before, we still, without perhaps perceiving it, supposed him +to be guided by memory in all the details of his action, such as his +taking down his hat and going out into the street. We could not, +indeed, deprive him of all memory without absolutely paralysing his +action. + +Nevertheless new ideas, new faiths, and new actions do in the course +of time come about, the living expressions of which we may see in the +new forms of life which from time to time have arisen and are still +arising, and in the increase of our own knowledge and mechanical +inventions. But it is only a very little new that is added at a +time, and that little is generally due to the desire to attain an end +which cannot be attained by any of the means for which there exists a +perceived precedent in the memory. When this is the case, either the +memory is further ransacked for any forgotten shreds of details, a +combination of which may serve the desired purpose; or action is +taken in the dark, which sometimes succeeds and becomes a fertile +source of further combinations; or we are brought to a dead stop. +All action is random in respect of any of the minute actions which +compose it that are not done in consequence of memory, real or +supposed. So that random, or action taken in the dark, or illusion, +lies at the very root of progress. + +I will now consider the objection that the phenomena of instinct and +embryonic development ought not to be ascribed to memory, inasmuch as +certain other phenomena of heredity, such as gout, cannot be ascribed +to it. + +Those who object in this way forget that our actions fall into two +main classes: those which we have often repeated before by means of +a regular series of subordinate actions beginning and ending at a +certain tolerably well-defined point--as when Herr Joachim plays a +sonata in public, or when we dress or undress ourselves; and actions +the details of which are indeed guided by memory, but which in their +general scope and purpose are new--as when we are being married or +presented at court. + +At each point in any action of the first of the two kinds above +referred to there is a memory (conscious or unconscious according to +the less or greater number of times the action has been repeated), +not only of the steps in the present and previous performances which +have led up to the particular point that may be selected, but also of +the particular point itself; there is, therefore, at each point in a +habitual performance a memory at once of like antecedents and of a +like present. + +If the memory, whether of the antecedent or the present, were +absolutely perfect; if the vibration (according to Professor Hering) +on each repetition existed in its full original strength and without +having been interfered with by any other vibration; and if, again, +the new wave running into it from exterior objects on each repetition +of the action were absolutely identical in character with the wave +that ran in upon the last occasion, then there would be no change in +the action and no modification or improvement could take place. For +though indeed the latest performance would always have one memory +more than the latest but one to guide it, yet the memories being +identical, it would not matter how many or how few they were. + +On any repetition, however, the circumstances, external or internal, +or both, never are absolutely identical: there is some slight +variation in each individual case, and some part of this variation is +remembered, with approbation or disapprobation as the case may be. + +The fact, therefore, that on each repetition of the action there is +one memory more than on the last but one, and that this memory is +slightly different from its predecessor, is seen to be an inherent +and, ex hypothesi, necessarily disturbing factor in all habitual +action--and the life of an organism should be regarded as the +habitual action of a single individual, namely, of the organism +itself, and of its ancestors. This is the key to accumulation of +improvement, whether in the arts which we assiduously practise during +our single life, or in the structures and instincts of successive +generations. The memory does not complete a true circle, but is, as +it were, a spiral slightly divergent therefrom. It is no longer a +perfectly circulating decimal. Where, on the other hand, there is no +memory of a like present, where, in fact, the memory is not, so to +speak, spiral, there is no accumulation of improvement. The effect +of any variation is not transmitted, and is not thus pregnant of +still further change. + +As regards the second of the two classes of actions above referred +to--those, namely, which are not recurrent or habitual, AND AT NO +POINT OF WHICH IS THERE A MEMORY OF A PAST PRESENT LIKE THE ONE WHICH +IS PRESENT NOW--there will have been no accumulation of strong and +well-knit memory as regards the action as a whole, but action, if +taken at all, will be taken upon disjointed fragments of individual +actions (our own and those of other people) pieced together with a +result more or less satisfactory according to circumstances. + +But it does not follow that the action of two people who have had +tolerably similar antecedents and are placed in tolerably similar +circumstances should be more unlike each other in this second case +than in the first. On the contrary, nothing is more common than to +observe the same kind of people making the same kind of mistake when +placed for the first time in the same kind of new circumstances. I +did not say that there would be no sameness of action without memory +of a like present. There may be sameness of action proceeding from a +memory, conscious or unconscious, of like antecedents, and A PRESENCE +ONLY OF LIKE PRESENTS WITHOUT RECOLLECTION OF THE SAME. + +The sameness of action of like persons placed under like +circumstances for the first time, resembles the sameness of action of +inorganic matter under the same combinations. Let us for the moment +suppose what we call non-living substances to be capable of +remembering their antecedents, and that the changes they undergo are +the expressions of their recollections. Then I admit, of course, +that there is not memory in any cream, we will say, that is about to +be churned of the cream of the preceding week, but the common absence +of such memory from each week's cream is an element of sameness +between the two. And though no cream can remember having been +churned before, yet all cream in all time has had nearly identical +antecedents, and has therefore nearly the same memories, and nearly +the same proclivities. Thus, in fact, the cream of one week is as +truly the same as the cream of another week from the same cow, +pasture, &c., as anything is ever the same with anything; for the +having been subjected to like antecedents engenders the closest +similarity that we can conceive of, if the substances were like to +start with. + +The manifest absence of any connecting memory (or memory of like +presents) from certain of the phenomena of heredity, such as, for +example, the diseases of old age, is now seen to be no valid reason +for saying that such other and far more numerous and important +phenomena as those of embryonic development are not phenomena of +memory. Growth and the diseases of old age do indeed, at first +sight, appear to stand on the same footing, but reflection shows us +that the question whether a certain result is due to memory or no +must be settled not by showing that combinations into which memory +does not certainly enter may yet generate like results, and therefore +considering the memory theory disposed of, but by the evidence we may +be able to adduce in support of the fact that the second agent has +actually remembered the conduct of the first, inasmuch as he cannot +be supposed able to do what it is plain he can do, except under the +guidance of memory or experience, and can also be shown to have had +every opportunity of remembering. When either of these tests fails, +similarity of action on the part of two agents need not be connected +with memory of a like present as well as of like antecedents, but +must, or at any rate may, be referred to memory of like antecedents +only. + +Returning to a parenthesis a few pages back, in which I said that +consciousness of memory would be less or greater according to the +greater or fewer number of times that the act had been repeated, it +may be observed as a corollary to this, that the less consciousness +of memory the greater the uniformity of action, and vice versa. For +the less consciousness involves the memory's being more perfect, +through a larger number (generally) of repetitions of the act that is +remembered; there is therefore a less proportionate difference in +respect of the number of recollections of this particular act between +the most recent actor and the most recent but one. This is why very +old civilisations, as those of many insects, and the greater number +of now living organisms, appear to the eye not to change at all. + +For example, if an action has been performed only ten times, we will +say by A, B, C, &c., who are similar in all respects, except that A +acts without recollection, B with recollection of A's action, C with +recollection of both B's and A's, while J remembers the course taken +by A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I--the possession of a memory by B +will indeed so change his action, as compared with A's, that it may +well be hardly recognisable. We saw this in our example of the clerk +who asked the policeman the way to the eating-house on one day, but +did not ask him the next, because he remembered; but C's action will +not be so different from B's as B's from A's, for though C will act +with a memory of two occasions on which the action has been +performed, while B recollects only the original performance by A, yet +B and C both act with the guidance of a memory and experience of some +kind, while A acted without any. Thus the clerk referred to in +Chapter X. will act on the third day much as he acted on the second-- +that is to say, he will see the policeman at the corner of the +street, but will not question him. + +When the action is repeated by J for the tenth time, the difference +between J's repetition of it and I's will be due solely to the +difference between a recollection of nine past performances by J +against only eight by I, and this is so much proportionately less +than the difference between a recollection of two performances and of +only one, that a less modification of action should be expected. At +the same time consciousness concerning an action repeated for the +tenth time should be less acute than on the first repetition. +Memory, therefore, though tending to disturb similarity of action +less and less continually, must always cause some disturbance. At +the same time the possession of a memory on the successive +repetitions of an action after the first, and, perhaps, the first two +or three, during which the recollection may be supposed still +imperfect, will tend to ensure uniformity, for it will be one of the +elements of sameness in the agents--they both acting by the light of +experience and memory. + +During the embryonic stages and in childhood we are almost entirely +under the guidance of a practised and powerful memory of +circumstances which have been often repeated, not only in detail and +piecemeal, but as a whole, and under many slightly varying +conditions; thus the performance has become well averaged and matured +in its arrangements, so as to meet all ordinary emergencies. We +therefore act with great unconsciousness and vary our performances +little. Babies are much more alike than persons of middle age. + +Up to the average age at which our ancestors have had children during +many generations, we are still guided in great measure by memory; but +the variations in external circumstances begin to make themselves +perceptible in our characters. In middle life we live more and more +continually upon the piecing together of details of memory drawn from +our personal experience, that is to say, upon the memory of our own +antecedents; and this resembles the kind of memory we hypothetically +attached to cream a little time ago. It is not surprising, then, +that a son who has inherited his father's tastes and constitution, +and who lives much as his father had done, should make the same +mistakes as his father did when he reaches his father's age--we will +say of seventy--though he cannot possibly remember his father's +having made the mistakes. It were to be wished we could, for then we +might know better how to avoid gout, cancer, or what not. And it is +to be noticed that the developments of old age are generally things +we should be glad enough to avoid if we knew how to do so. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + +Conclusion. + +If we observed the resemblance between successive generations to be +as close as that between distilled water and distilled water through +all time, and if we observed that perfect unchangeableness in the +action of living beings which we see in what we call chemical and +mechanical combinations, we might indeed suspect that memory had as +little place among the causes of their action as it can have in +anything, and that each repetition, whether of a habit or the +practice of art, or of an embryonic process in successive +generations, was an original performance, for all that memory had to +do with it. I submit, however, that in the case of the reproductive +forms of life we see just so much variety, in spite of uniformity, as +is consistent with a repetition involving not only a nearly perfect +similarity in the agents and their circumstances, but also the little +departure therefrom that is inevitably involved in the supposition +that a memory of like presents as well as of like antecedents (as +distinguished from a memory of like antecedents only) has played a +part in their development--a cyclonic memory, if the expression may +be pardoned. + +There is life infinitely lower and more minute than any which our +most powerful microscopes reveal to us, but let us leave this upon +one side and begin with the amoeba. Let us suppose that this +structureless morsel of protoplasm is, for all its structurelessness, +composed of an infinite number of living molecules, each one of them +with hopes and fears of its own, and all dwelling together like Tekke +Turcomans, of whom we read that they live for plunder only, and that +each man of them is entirely independent, acknowledging no +constituted authority, but that some among them exercise a tacit and +undefined influence over the others. Let us suppose these molecules +capable of memory, both in their capacity as individuals, and as +societies, and able to transmit their memories to their descendants, +from the traditions of the dimmest past to the experiences of their +own lifetime. Some of these societies will remain simple, as having +had no history, but to the greater number unfamiliar, and therefore +striking, incidents will from time to time occur, which, when they do +not disturb memory so greatly as to kill, will leave their impression +upon it. The body or society will remember these incidents, and be +modified by them in its conduct, and therefore more or less in its +internal arrangements, which will tend inevitably to specialisation. +This memory of the most striking events of varied lifetimes I +maintain, with Professor Hering, to be the differentiating cause, +which, accumulated in countless generations, has led up from the +amoeba to man. If there had been no such memory, the amoeba of one +generation would have exactly resembled time amoeba of the preceding, +and a perfect cycle would have been established; the modifying +effects of an additional memory in each generation have made the +cycle into a spiral, and into a spiral whose eccentricity, in the +outset hardly perceptible, is becoming greater and greater with +increasing longevity and more complex social and mechanical +inventions. + +We say that the chicken grows the horny tip to its beak with which it +ultimately pecks its way out of its shell, because it remembers +having grown it before, and the use it made of it. We say that it +made it on the same principles as a man makes a spade or a hammer, +that is to say, as the joint result both of desire and experience. +When I say experience, I mean experience not only of what will be +wanted, but also of the details of all the means that must be taken +in order to effect this. Memory, therefore, is supposed to guide the +chicken not only in respect of the main design, but in respect also +of every atomic action, so to speak, which goes to make up the +execution of this design. It is not only the suggestion of a plan +which is due to memory, but, as Professor Hering has so well said, it +is the binding power of memory which alone renders any consolidation +or coherence of action possible, inasmuch as without this no action +could have parts subordinate one to another, yet bearing upon a +common end; no part of an action, great or small, could have +reference to any other part, much less to a combination of all the +parts; nothing, in fact, but ultimate atoms of actions could ever +happen--these bearing the same relation to such an action, we will +say, as a railway journey from London to Edinburgh as a single +molecule of hydrogen to a gallon of water. If asked how it is that +the chicken shows no sign of consciousness concerning this design, +nor yet of the steps it is taking to carry it out, we reply that such +unconsciousness is usual in all cases where an action, and the design +which prompts it, have been repeated exceedingly often. If, again, +we are asked how we account for the regularity with which each step +is taken in its due order, we answer that this too is characteristic +of actions that are done habitually--they being very rarely misplaced +in respect of any part. + +When I wrote "Life and Habit," I had arrived at the conclusion that +memory was the most essential characteristic of life, and went so far +as to say, "Life is that property of matter whereby it can remember-- +matter which can remember is living." I should perhaps have written, +"Life is the being possessed of a memory--the life of a thing at any +moment is the memories which at that moment it retains"; and I would +modify the words that immediately follow, namely, "Matter which +cannot remember is dead"; for they imply that there is such a thing +as matter which cannot remember anything at all, and this on fuller +consideration I do not believe to be the case; I can conceive of no +matter which is not able to remember a little, and which is not +living in respect of what it can remember. I do not see how action +of any kind is conceivable without the supposition that every atom +retains a memory of certain antecedents. I cannot, however, at this +point, enter upon the reasons which have compelled me to this +conclusion. Whether these would be deemed sufficient or no, at any +rate we cannot believe that a system of self-reproducing associations +should develop from the simplicity of the amoeba to the complexity of +the human body without the presence of that memory which can alone +account at once for the resemblances and the differences between +successive generations, for the arising and the accumulation of +divergences--for the tendency to differ and the tendency not to +differ. + +At parting, therefore, I would recommend the reader to see every atom +in the universe as living and able to feel and to remember, but in a +humble way. He must have life eternal, as well as matter eternal; +and the life and the matter must be joined together inseparably as +body and soul to one another. Thus he will see God everywhere, not +as those who repeat phrases conventionally, but as people who would +have their words taken according to their most natural and legitimate +meaning; and he will feel that the main difference between him and +many of those who oppose him lies in the fact that whereas both he +and they use the same language, his opponents only half mean what +they say, while he means it entirely. + +The attempt to get a higher form of a life from a lower one is in +accordance with our observation and experience. It is therefore +proper to be believed. The attempt to get it from that which has +absolutely no life is like trying to get something out of nothing. +The millionth part of a farthing put out to interest at ten per cent, +will in five hundred years become over a million pounds, and so long +as we have any millionth of a millionth of the farthing to start +with, our getting as many million pounds as we have a fancy for is +only a question of time, but without the initial millionth of a +millionth of a millionth part, we shall get no increment whatever. A +little leaven will leaven the whole lump, but there must be SOME +leaven. + +I will here quote two passages from an article already quoted from on +page 55 of this book. They run:- + + +"We are growing conscious that our earnest and most determined +efforts to make motion produce sensation and volition have proved a +failure, and now we want to rest a little in the opposite, much less +laborious conjecture, and allow any kind of motion to start into +existence, or at least to receive its specific direction from +psychical sources; sensation and volition being for the purpose +quietly insinuated into the constitution of the ultimately moving +particles." {177a} + + +And:- + + +"In this light it can remain no longer surprising that we actually +find motility and sensibility so intimately interblended in nature." +{177b} + + +We should endeavour to see the so-called inorganic as living, in +respect of the qualities it has in common with the organic, rather +than the organic as non-living in respect of the qualities it has in +common with the inorganic. True, it would be hard to place one's +self on the same moral platform as a stone, but this is not +necessary; it is enough that we should feel the stone to have a moral +platform of its own, though that platform embraces little more than a +profound respect for the laws of gravitation, chemical affinity, &c. +As for the difficulty of conceiving a body as living that has not got +a reproductive system--we should remember that neuter insects are +living but are believed to have no reproductive system. Again, we +should bear in mind that mere assimilation involves all the +essentials of reproduction, and that both air and water possess this +power in a very high degree. The essence of a reproductive system, +then, is found low down in the scheme of nature. + +At present our leading men of science are in this difficulty; on the +one hand their experiments and their theories alike teach them that +spontaneous generation ought not to be accepted; on the other, they +must have an origin for the life of the living forms, which, by their +own theory, have been evolved, and they can at present get this +origin in no other way than by the Deus ex machina method, which they +reject as unproved, or a spontaneous generation of living from non- +living matter, which is no less foreign to their experience. As a +general rule, they prefer the latter alternative. So Professor +Tyndall, in his celebrated article (Nineteenth Century, November +1878), wrote:- + +"It is generally conceded (and seems to be a necessary inference from +the lessons of science) that SPONTANEOUS GENERATION MUST AT ONE TIME +HAVE TAKEN PLACE" (italics mine). + +No inference can well be more unnecessary or unscientific. I suppose +spontaneous generation ceases to be objectionable if it was "only a +very little one," and came off a long time ago in a foreign country. +The proper inference is, that there is a low kind of livingness in +every atom of matter. Life eternal is as inevitable a conclusion as +matter eternal. + +It should not be doubted that wherever there is vibration or motion +there is life and memory, and that there is vibration and motion at +all times in all things. + +The reader who takes the above position will find that he can explain +the entry of what he calls death among what he calls the living, +whereas he could by no means introduce life into his system if he +started without it. Death is deducible; life is not deducible. +Death is a change of memories; it is not the destruction of all +memory. It is as the liquidation of one company, each member of +which will presently join a new one, and retain a trifle even of the +old cancelled memory, by way of greater aptitude for working in +concert with other molecules. This is why animals feed on grass and +on each other, and cannot proselytise or convert the rude ground +before it has been tutored in the first principles of the higher +kinds of association. + +Again, I would recommend the reader to beware of believing anything +in this book unless he either likes it, or feels angry at being told +it. If required belief in this or that makes a man angry, I suppose +he should, as a general rule, swallow it whole then and there upon +the spot, otherwise he may take it or leave it as he likes. I have +not gone far for my facts, nor yet far from them; all on which I rest +are as open to the reader as to me. If I have sometimes used hard +terms, the probability is that I have not understood them, but have +done so by a slip, as one who has caught a bad habit from the company +he has been lately keeping. They should be skipped. + +Do not let him be too much cast down by the bad language with which +professional scientists obscure the issue, nor by their seeming to +make it their business to fog us under the pretext of removing our +difficulties. It is not the ratcatcher's interest to catch all the +rats; and, as Handel observed so sensibly, "Every professional +gentleman must do his best for to live." The art of some of our +philosophers, however, is sufficiently transparent, and consists too +often in saying "organism which must be classified among fishes," +instead of "fish," {179a} and then proclaiming that they have "an +ineradicable tendency to try to make things clear." {179b} + +If another example is required, here is the following from an article +than which I have seen few with which I more completely agree, or +which have given me greater pleasure. If our men of science would +take to writing in this way, we should be glad enough to follow them. +The passage I refer to runs thus:- + + +"Professor Huxley speaks of a 'verbal fog by which the question at +issue may be hidden'; is there no verbal fog in the statement that +THE AETIOLOGY OF CRAYFISHES RESOLVES ITSELF INTO A GRADUAL EVOLUTION +IN THE COURSE OF THE MESOSOIC AND SUBSEQUENT EPOCHS OF THE WORLD'S +HISTORY OF THESE ANIMALS FROM A PRIMITIVE ASTACOMORPHOUS FORM? Would +it be fog or light that would envelop the history of man if we said +that the existence of man was explained by the hypothesis of his +gradual evolution from a primitive anthropomorphous form? I should +call this fog, not light." {180} + + +Especially let him mistrust those who are holding forth about +protoplasm, and maintaining that this is the only living substance. +Protoplasm may be, and perhaps is, the MOST living part of an +organism, as the most capable of retaining vibrations, but this is +the utmost that can be claimed for it. + +Having mentioned protoplasm, I may ask the reader to note the +breakdown of that school of philosophy which divided the ego from the +non ego. The protoplasmists, on the one hand, are whittling away at +the ego, till they have reduced it to a little jelly in certain parts +of the body, and they will whittle away this too presently, if they +go on as they are doing now. + +Others, again, are so unifying the ego and the non ego, that with +them there will soon be as little of the non ego left as there is of +the ego with their opponents. Both, however, are so far agreed as +that we know not where to draw the line between the two, and this +renders nugatory any system which is founded upon a distinction +between them. + +The truth is, that all classification whatever, when we examine its +raison d'etre closely, is found to be arbitrary--to depend on our +sense of our own convenience, and not on any inherent distinction in +the nature of the things themselves. Strictly speaking, there is +only one thing and one action. The universe, or God, and the action +of the universe as a whole. + +Lastly, I may predict with some certainty that before long we shall +find the original Darwinism of Dr. Erasmus Darwin (with an infusion +of Professor Hering into the bargain) generally accepted instead of +the neo-Darwinism of to-day, and that the variations whose +accumulation results in species will be recognised as due to the +wants and endeavours of the living forms in which they appear, +instead of being ascribed to chance, or, in other words, to unknown +causes, as by Mr. Charles Darwin's system. We shall have some +idyllic young naturalist bringing up Dr. Erasmus Darwin's note on +Trapa natans, {181a} and Lamarck's kindred passage on the descent of +Ranunculus hederaceus from Ranunculus aquatilis {181b} as fresh +discoveries, and be told, with much happy simplicity, that those +animals and plants which have felt the need of such or such a +structure have developed it, while those which have not wanted it +have gone without it. Thus, it will be declared, every leaf we see +around us, every structure of the minutest insect, will bear witness +to the truth of the "great guess" of the greatest of naturalists +concerning the memory of living matter. + +I dare say the public will not object to this, and am very sure that +none of the admirers of Mr. Charles Darwin or Mr. Wallace will +protest against it; but it may be as well to point out that this was +not the view of the matter taken by Mr. Wallace in 1858 when he and +Mr. Darwin first came forward as preachers of natural selection. At +that time Mr. Wallace saw clearly enough the difference between the +theory of "natural selection" and that of Lamarck. He wrote:- + + +"The hypothesis of Lamarck--that progressive changes in species have +been produced by the attempts of animals to increase the development +of their own organs, and thus modify their structure and habits--has +been repeatedly and easily refuted by all writers on the subject of +varieties and species, . . . but the view here developed tenders such +an hypothesis quite unnecessary. . . . The powerful retractile +talons of the falcon and the cat tribes have not been produced or +increased by the volition of those animals, neither did the giraffe +acquire its long neck by desiring to reach the foliage of the more +lofty shrubs, and constantly stretching its neck for this purpose, +but because any varieties which occurred among its antitypes with a +longer neck than usual AT ONCE SECURED A FRESH RANGE OF PASTURE OVER +THE SAME GROUND AS THEIR SHORTER-NECKED COMPANIONS, AND ON THE FIRST +SCARCITY OF FOOD WERE THEREBY ENABLED TO OUTLIVE THEM" (italics in +original). {182a} + + +This is absolutely the neo-Darwinian doctrine, and a denial of the +mainly fortuitous character of the variations in animal and vegetable +forms cuts at its root. That Mr. Wallace, after years of reflection, +still adhered to this view, is proved by his heading a reprint of the +paragraph just quoted from {182b} with the words "Lamarck's +hypothesis very different from that now advanced"; nor do any of his +more recent works show that he has modified his opinion. It should +be noted that Mr. Wallace does not call his work "Contributions to +the Theory of Evolution," but to that of "Natural Selection." + +Mr. Darwin, with characteristic caution, only commits himself to +saying that Mr. Wallace has arrived at ALMOST (italics mine) the same +general conclusions as he, Mr. Darwin, has done; {182c} but he still, +as in 1859, declares that it would be "a serious error to suppose +that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in +one generation, and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding +generations," {183a} and he still comprehensively condemns the "well- +known doctrine of inherited habit, as advanced by Lamarck." {183b} + +As for the statement in the passage quoted from Mr. Wallace, to the +effect that Lamarck's hypothesis "has been repeatedly and easily +refuted by all writers on the subject of varieties and species," it +is a very surprising one. I have searched Evolution literature in +vain for any refutation of the Erasmus Darwinian system (for this is +what Lamarck's hypothesis really is) which need make the defenders of +that system at all uneasy. The best attempt at an answer to Erasmus +Darwin that has yet been made is "Paley's Natural Theology," which +was throughout obviously written to meet Buffon and the "Zoonomia." +It is the manner of theologians to say that such and such an +objection "has been refuted over and over again," without at the same +time telling us when and where; it is to be regretted that Mr. +Wallace has here taken a leaf out of the theologians' book. His +statement is one which will not pass muster with those whom public +opinion is sure in the end to follow. + +Did Mr. Herbert Spencer, for example, "repeatedly and easily refute" +Lamarck's hypothesis in his brilliant article in the Leader, March +20, 1852? On the contrary, that article is expressly directed +against those "who cavalierly reject the hypothesis of Lamarck and +his followers." This article was written six years before the words +last quoted from Mr. Wallace; how absolutely, however, does the word +"cavalierly" apply to them! + +Does Isidore Geoffroy, again, bear Mr. Wallace's assertion out +better? In 1859--that is to say, but a short time after Mr. Wallace +had written--he wrote as follows:- + + +"Such was the language which Lamarck heard during his protracted old +age, saddened alike by the weight of years and blindness; this was +what people did not hesitate to utter over his grave yet barely +closed, and what indeed they are still saying--commonly too without +any knowledge of what Lamarck maintained, but merely repeating at +secondhand bad caricatures of his teaching. + +"When will the time come when we may see Lamarck's theory discussed-- +and, I may as well at once say, refuted in some important points +{184a}--with at any rate the respect due to one of the most +illustrious masters of our science? And when will this theory, the +hardihood of which has been greatly exaggerated, become freed from +the interpretations and commentaries by the false light of which so +many naturalists have formed their opinion concerning it? If its +author is to be condemned, let it be, at any rate, not before he has +been heard." {184b} + + +In 1873 M. Martin published his edition of Lamarck's "Philosophie +Zoologique." He was still able to say, with, I believe, perfect +truth, that Lamarck's theory has "never yet had the honour of being +discussed seriously." {184c} + +Professor Huxley in his article on Evolution is no less cavalier than +Mr. Wallace. He writes:- {184d} + + +"Lamarck introduced the conception of the action of an animal on +itself as a factor in producing modification." + + +[Lamarck did nothing of the kind. It was Buffon and Dr. Darwin who +introduced this, but more especially Dr. Darwin.] + + +"But A LITTLE CONSIDERATION SHOWED" (italics mine) "that though +Lamarck had seized what, as far as it goes, is a true cause of +modification, it is a cause the actual effects of which are wholly +inadequate to account for any considerable modification in animals, +and which can have no influence whatever in the vegetable world, &c." + + +I should be very glad to come across some of the "little +consideration" which will show this. I have searched for it far and +wide, and have never been able to find it. + +I think Professor Huxley has been exercising some of his ineradicable +tendency to try to make things clear in the article on Evolution, +already so often quoted from. We find him (p. 750) pooh-poohing +Lamarck, yet on the next page he says, "How far 'natural selection' +suffices for the production of species remains to be seen." And this +when "natural selection" was already so nearly of age! Why, to those +who know how to read between a philosopher's lines, the sentence +comes to very nearly the same as a declaration that the writer has no +great opinion of "natural selection." Professor Huxley continues, +"Few can doubt that, if not the whole cause, it is a very important +factor in that operation." A philosopher's words should be weighed +carefully, and when Professor Huxley says "few can doubt," we must +remember that he may be including himself among the few whom he +considers to have the power of doubting on this matter. He does not +say "few will," but "few can" doubt, as though it were only the +enlightened who would have the power of doing so. Certainly +"nature,"--for this is what "natural selection" comes to,--is rather +an important factor in the operation, but we do not gain much by +being told so. If, however, Professor Huxley neither believes in the +origin of species, through sense of need on the part of animals +themselves, nor yet in "natural selection," we should be glad to know +what he does believe in. + +The battle is one of greater importance than appears at first sight. +It is a battle between teleology and non-teleology, between the +purposiveness and the non-purposiveness of the organs in animal and +vegetable bodies. According to Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and Paley, +organs are purposive; according to Mr. Darwin and his followers, they +are not purposive. But the main arguments against the system of Dr. +Erasmus Darwin are arguments which, so far as they have any weight, +tell against evolution generally. Now that these have been disposed +of, and the prejudice against evolution has been overcome, it will be +seen that there is nothing to be said against the system of Dr. +Darwin and Lamarck which does not tell with far greater force against +that of Mr. Charles Darwin and Mr. Wallace. + + + +Footnotes: + +{0a} This is the date on the title-page. The preface is dated +October 15, 1886, and the first copy was issued in November of the +same year. All the dates are taken from the Bibliography by Mr. H. +Festing Jones prefixed to the "Extracts" in the New Quarterly Review +(1909). + +{0b} I.e. after p. 285: it bears no number of its own! + +{0c} The distinction was merely implicit in his published writings, +but has been printed since his death from his "Notebooks," New +Quarterly Review, April, 1908. I had developed this thesis, without +knowing of Butler's explicit anticipation in an article then in the +press: "Mechanism and Life," Contemporary Review, May, 1908. + +{0d} The term has recently been revived by Prof. Hubrecht and by +myself (Contemporary Review, November 1908). + +{0e} See Fortnightly Review, February 1908, and Contemporary Review, +September and November 1909. Since these publications the hypnosis +seems to have somewhat weakened. + +{0f} A "hormone" is a chemical substance which, formed in one part +of the body, alters the reactions of another part, normally for the +good of the organism. + +{0g} Mr. H. Festing Jones first directed my attention to these +passages and their bearing on the Mutation Theory. + +{0i} He says in a note, "This general type of reaction was described +and illustrated in a different connection by Pfluger in 'Pfluger's +Archiv. f.d. ges. Physiologie,' Bd. XV." The essay bears the +significant title "Die teleologische Mechanik der lebendigen Natur," +and is a very remarkable one, as coming from an official physiologist +in 1877, when the chemico-physical school was nearly at its zenith. + +{0j} "Contributions to the Study of the Lower Animals" (1904), +"Modifiability in Behaviour" and "Method of Regulability in Behaviour +and in other Fields," in Journ. Experimental Zoology, vol. ii. +(1905). + +{0h} See "The Hereditary Transmission of Acquired Characters" in +Contemporary Review, September and November 1908, in which references +are given to earlier statements. + +{0k} Semon's technical terms are exclusively taken from the Greek, +but as experience tells that plain men in England have a special +dread of suchlike, I have substituted "imprint" for "engram," +"outcome" for "ecphoria"; for the latter term I had thought of +"efference," "manifestation," etc., but decided on what looked more +homely, and at the same time was quite distinctive enough to avoid +that confusion which Semon has dodged with his Graecisms. + +{0l} "Between the 'me' of to-day and the 'me' of yesterday lie night +and sleep, abysses of unconsciousness; nor is there any bridge but +memory with which to span them."--Unconscious Memory, p. 71. + +{0m} Preface by Mr. Charles Darwin to "Erasmus Darwin." The Museum +has copies of a Kosmos that was published 1857-60 and then +discontinued; but this is clearly not the Kosmos referred to by Mr. +Darwin, which began to appear in 1878. + +{0n} Preface to "Erasmus Darwin." + +{2} May 1880. + +{3} Kosmos, February 1879, Leipsic. + +{4} Origin of Species, ed. i., p. 459. + +{8a} Origin of Species, ed. i., p. 1. + +{8b} Kosmos, February 1879, p. 397. + +{8c} Erasmus Darwin, by Ernest Krause, pp. 132, 133. + +{9a} Origin of Species, ed. i., p. 242. + +{9b} Ibid., p. 427. + +{10a} Nineteenth Century, November 1878; Evolution, Old and New, pp. +360. 361. + +{10b} Encyclopaedia Britannica, ed. ix., art. "Evolution," p. 748. + +{11} Ibid. + +{17} Encycl. Brit., ed. ix., art. "Evolution," p. 750. + +{23a} Origin of Species, 6th ed., 1876, p. 206. + +{23b} Ibid., p. 233. + +{24a} Origin of Species, 6th ed., p. 171, 1876. + +{24b} Pp. 258-260. + +{26} Zoonomia, vol. i. p. 484; Evolution, Old and New, p. 214. + +{27} "Erasmus Darwin," by Ernest Krause, p. 211, London, 1879. + +{28a} See "Evolution, Old and New," p. 91, and Buffon, tom. iv. p. +383, ed. 1753. + +{28b} Evolution, Old and New, p. 104. + +{29a} Encycl. Brit., 9th ed., art. "Evolution," p. 748. + +{29b} Palingenesie Philosophique, part x. chap. ii. (quoted from +Professor Huxley's article on "Evolution," Encycl. Brit., 9th ed., p. +745). + +{31} The note began thus: "I have taken the date of the first +publication of Lamarck from Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire's (Hist. +Nat. Generale tom. ii. p. 405, 1859) excellent history of opinion +upon this subject. In this work a full account is given of Buffon's +fluctuating conclusions upon the same subject."--Origin of Species, +3d ed., 1861, p. xiv. + +{33a} Life of Erasmus Darwin, pp. 84, 85. + +{33b} See Life and Habit, p. 264 and pp. 276, 277. + +{33c} See Evolution, Old and New, pp. 159-165. + +{33d} Ibid., p. 122. + +{34} See Evolution, Old and New, pp. 247, 248. + +{35a} Vestiges of Creation, ed. 1860, "Proofs, Illustrations, &c.," +p. lxiv. + +{35b} The first announcement was in the Examiner, February 22, 1879. + +{36} Saturday Review, May 31, 1879. + +{37a} May 26, 1879. + +{37b} May 31, 1879. + +{37c} July 26, 1879. + +{37d} July 1879. + +{37e} July 1879. + +{37f} July 29, 1879. + +{37g} January 1880. + +{39} How far Kosmos was "a well-known" journal, I cannot determine. +It had just entered upon its second year. + +{41} Evolution, Old and New, p. 120, line 5. + +{43} Kosmos, February 1879, p. 397. + +{44a} Kosmos, February 1879, p. 404. + +{44b} Page 39 of this volume. + +{50} See Appendix A. + +{52} Since published as "God the Known and God the Unknown." +Fifield, 1s. 6d. net. 1909. + +{54a} "Contemplation of Nature," Engl. trans., Lond. 1776. Preface, +p. xxxvi. + +{54b} Ibid., p. xxxviii. + +{55} Life and Habit, p. 97. + +{56} "The Unity of the Organic Individual," by Edward Montgomery, +Mind, October 1880, p. 466. + +{58} Life and Habit, p. 237. + +{59a} Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. Lardner's Cab. +Cyclo., vol. xcix. p. 24. + +{59b} Young's Lectures on Natural Philosophy, ii. 627. See also +Phil. Trans., 1801-2. + +{63} The lecture is published by Karl Gerold's Sohn, Vienna. + +{69} See quotation from Bonnet, p. 54 of this volume. + +{70} Professor Hering is not clear here. Vibrations (if I +understand his theory rightly) should not be set up by faint stimuli +from within. Whence and what are these stimuli? The vibrations +within are already existing, and it is they which are the stimuli to +action. On having been once set up, they either continue in +sufficient force to maintain action, or they die down, and become too +weak to cause further action, and perhaps even to be perceived within +the mind, until they receive an accession of vibration from without. +The only "stimulus from within" that should be able to generate +action is that which may follow when a vibration already established +in the body runs into another similar vibration already so +established. On this consciousness, and even action, might be +supposed to follow without the presence of an external stimulus. + +{71} This expression seems hardly applicable to the overtaking of an +internal by an external vibration, but it is not inconsistent with +it. Here, however, as frequently elsewhere, I doubt how far +Professor Hering has fully realised his conception, beyond being, +like myself, convinced that the phenomena of memory and of heredity +have a common source. + +{72} See quotation from Bonnet, p. 54 of this volume. By +"preserving the memory of habitual actions" Professor Hering probably +means, retains for a long while and repeats motion of a certain +character when such motion has been once communicated to it. + +{74a} It should not be "if the central nerve system were not able to +reproduce whole series of vibrations," but "if whole series of +vibrations do not persist though unperceived," if Professor Hering +intends what I suppose him to intend. + +{74b} Memory was in full operation for so long a time before +anything like what we call a nervous system can be detected, that +Professor Hering must not be supposed to be intending to confine +memory to a motor nerve system. His words do not even imply that he +does, but it is as well to be on one's guard. + +{77} It is from such passages as this, and those that follow on the +next few pages, that I collect the impression of Professor Hering's +meaning which I have endeavoured to convey in the preceding chapter. + +{78} That is to say, "an infinitely small change in the kind of +vibration communicated from the parent to the germ." + +{79} It may be asked what is meant by responding. I may repeat that +I understand Professor Hering to mean that there exists in the +offspring certain vibrations, which are many of them too faint to +upset equilibrium and thus generate action, until they receive an +accession of force from without by the running into them of +vibrations of similar characteristics to their own, which last +vibrations have been set up by exterior objects. On this they become +strong enough to generate that corporeal earthquake which we call +action. + +This may be true or not, but it is at any rate intelligible; whereas +much that is written about "fraying channels" raises no definite +ideas in the mind. + +{80a} I interpret this, "We cannot wonder if often-repeated +vibrations gather strength, and become at once more lasting and +requiring less accession of vibration from without, in order to +become strong enough to generate action." + +{80b} "Characteristics" must, I imagine, according to Professor +Hering, resolve themselves ultimately into "vibrations," for the +characteristics depend upon the character of the vibrations. + +{81} Professor Hartog tells me that this probably refers to Fritz +Muller's formulation of the "recapitulation process" in "Facts for +Darwin," English edition (1869), p. 114.--R.A.S. + +{82} This is the passage which makes me suppose Professor Hering to +mean that vibrations from exterior objects run into vibrations +already existing within the living body, and that the accession to +power thus derived is his key to an explanation of the physical basis +of action. + +{84} I interpret this: "There are fewer vibrations persistent +within the bodies of the lower animals; those that there are, +therefore, are stronger and more capable of generating action or +upsetting the status in quo. Hence also they require less accession +of vibration from without. Man is agitated by more and more varied +vibrations; these, interfering, as to some extent they must, with one +another, are weaker, and therefore require more accession from +without before they can set the mechanical adjustments of the body in +motion." + +{89} I am obliged to Mr. Sully for this excellent translation of +"Hellsehen." + +{90a} Westminster Review, New Series, vol. xlix. p. 143. + +{90b} Ibid., p. 145. + +{90c} Ibid., p. 151. + +{92a} "Instinct ist zweckmassiges Handeln ohne Bewusstsein des +Zwecks."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., Berlin, 1871, p. 70. + +{92b} "1. Eine blosse Folge der korperlichen Organisation. + +"2. Ein von der Natur eingerichteter Gehirn-oder Geistesmechanismus. + +"3. Eine Folge unbewusster Geistesthiitigkeit."--Philosophy of the +Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 70. + +{97} "Hiermit ist der Annahme das Urtheil gesprochen, welche die +unbewusste Vorstellung des Zwecks in jedem einzelnen Falle vorwiegt; +denn wollte man nun noch die Vorstellung des Geistesmechanismus +festhalten so musste fur jede Variation und Modification des +Instincts, nach den ausseren Umstanden, eine besondere constante +Vorrichtung . . . eingefugt sein."--Philosophy of the Unconscious 3d +ed., p. 74. + +{99} "Indessen glaube ich, dass die angefuhrten Beispiele zur Genuge +beweisen, dass es auch viele Falle giebt, wo ohne jede Complication +mit der bewussten Ueberlegung die gewohnliche und aussergewohnliche +Handlung aus derselben Quelle stammen, dass sie entweder beide +wirklicher Instinct, oder beide Resultate bewusster Ueberlegung +sind."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 76. + +{100} "Dagegen haben wir nunmehr unseren Blick noch einmal scharfer +auf den Begriff eines psychischen Mechanismus zu richten, und da +zeigt sich, dass derselbe, abgesehen davon, wie viel er erklart, so +dunke list, dass man sich kaum etwas dabei denken kann."--Philosophy +of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 76. + +{101} "Das Endglied tritt als bewusster Wille zu irgend einer +Handlung auf; beide sind aber ganz ungleichartig und haben mit der +gewohnlichen Motivation nichts zu thun, welche ausschliesslich darin +besteht, dass die Vorstellung einer Lust oder einer Unlust das +Begehren erzeugr, erstere zu erlangen, letztere sich fern zu +halten."--Ibid., p. 76. + +{102a} "Diese causale Verbindung fallt erfahrungsmassig, wie wir von +unsern menschlichen Instincten wissen, nicht in's Bewussisein; +folglich kann dieselbe, wenn sie ein Mechanismus sein soll, nur +entweder ein nicht in's Bewusstsein fallende mechanische Leitung und +Umwandlung der Schwingungen des vorgestellten Motivs in die +Schwingungen der gewollten Handlung im Gehirn, oder ein unbewusster +geistiger Mechanismus sein."--Philosophy of the Unconscious 3d ed., +p. 77. + +{102b} "Man hat sich also zwischen dem bewussten Motiv, und dem +Willen zur Insticthandlung eine causale Verbindung durch unbewusstes +Vorstellen und Wollen zu denken, und ich weiss nicht, wie diese +Verbindung einfacher gedacht werden konnte, als durch den +vorgestellten und gewollten Zweck. Damit sind wir aber bei dem allen +Geistern eigenthumlichen und immanenten Mechanismus der Logik +angelangt, und haben die unbewusster Zweckvorstellung bei jeder +einzelnen Instincthandlung als unentbehrliches Glied gefunden; +hiermit hat also der Begrift des todten, ausserlich pradestinirten +Geistesmechanismus sich selbst aufgehoben und in das immanente +Geistesleben der Logik umgewandelt, und wir sind bei der letzten +Moglichkeit angekommen, welche fur die Auffassung eines wirklichen +Instincts ubrig bleibt: der Instinct ist bewusstes Wollen des +Mittels zu einem unbewusst gewollten Zweck."--Philosophy of the +Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 78. + +{105a} "Also der Instinct ohne Hulfsmechanismus die Ursache der +Entstehung des Hulfsmechanismus ist."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, +3d ed., p. 79. + +{105b} "Dass auch der fertige Hulfsmechanismus das Unbewusste nicht +etwa zu dieser bestimmten Instincthandlung necessirt, sondern blosse +pradisponirt."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 79. + +{105c} "Giebt es einen wirklichen Instinct, oder sind die +sogenannten Instincthandlungen nur Resultate bewusster Ueberlegung?"- +-Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 79. + +{111} "Dieser Beweis ist dadurch zu fuhren; erstens dass die +betreffenden Thatsachen in; der Zukunft liegen, und dem Verstande die +Anhaltepunkte fehlen, um ihr zukunftiges Eintreten aus den +gegenwartigen Verhaltnissen zu erschliessen; zweitens, dass die +betreffenden Thatsachen augenscheinlich der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung +verschlossen liegen, weil nur die Erfahrung fruherer Falle uber sie +belehren kann, und diese laut der Beobachtung ausgeschlossen ist. Es +wurde fur unsere Interessen keinen Unterschied machen, wenn, was ich +wahrscheinlich halte, bei fortschreitender physiologischer +Erkenntniss alle jetzt fur den ersten Fall anzufuhrenden Beispiele +sich als solche des zweiten Falls ausweisen sollten, wie dies +unleugbar bei vielen fruher gebrauchten Beispielen schon geschehen +ist; denn ein apriorisches Wissen ohne jeden sinnlichen Anstoss ist +wohl kaum wunderbarer zu nennen, als ein Wissen, welches zwar BEI +GELEGENHEIT gewisser sinnlicher Wahrnehmung zu Tage tritt, aber mit +diesen nur durch eine solche Kette von Schlussen und angewandten +Kenntnissen in Verbindung stehend gedacht werden konnte, dass deren +Moglichkeit bei dem Zustande der Fahigkeiten und Bildung der +betreffenden Thiere entschieden geleugnet werden muss."--Philosophy +of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 85. + +{113} "Man hat dieselbe jederzeit anerkannt und mit den Worten +Vorgefuhl oder Ahnung bezeichnet; indess beziehen sich diese Worte +einerseits nur auf zukunftiges, nicht auf gegenwartiges, raumlich +getrenntes Unwahmehrnbares, anderseits bezeichnen sie nur die leise, +dumpfe, unbestimmte Resonanz des Bewusstseins mit dem unfehlbar +bestimmten Zustande der unbewussten Erkenntniss. Daher das Wort +Vorgefuhl in Rucksicht auf die Dumpfheit und Unbestimmtheit, wahrend +doch leicht zu sehen ist, dass das von allen, auch den unbewussten +Vorstellungen entblosste Gefuhl fur das Resultat gar keinen Einfluss +haben kann, sondern nur eine Vorstellung, weil diese allein +Erkenntniss enthalt. Die in Bewusstsein mitklingende Ahnung kann +allerdings unter Umstanden ziemlich deutlich sein, so dass sie sich +beim Menschen in Gedanken und Wort fixiren lasst; doch ist dies auch +im Menschen erfahrungsmassig bei den eigenthumlichen Instincten nicht +der Fall, vielmehr ist bei diesen die Resonanz der unbewussten +Erkenntniss im Bewusstsein meistens so schwach, dass sie sich +wirklich nur in begleitenden Gefuhlen oder der Stimmung aussert, dass +sie einen unendlich kleinen Bruchtheil des Gemeingefuhls bildet."-- +Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 86. + +{115a} "In der Bestimmung des Willens durch einen im Unbewussten +liegenden Process . . . fur welchen sich dieser Character der +zweifellosen Selbstgewissheit in allen folgenden Untersuchungen +bewahren wird."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, p. 87. + +{115b} "Sondern als unmittelbarer Besitz vorgefunden wird."-- +Philosophy of the Unconscious, p. 87. + +{115c} "Hellsehen." + +{119a} "Das Hellsehon des Unbewussten hat sie den rechten Weg ahnen +lassen."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, p. 90, 3d ed., 1871. + +{119b} "Man wird doch wahrlich nicht den Thieren zumuthen wollen, +durch meteorologische Schlusse das Wetter auf Monate im Voraus zu +berechnen, ja sogar Ueberschwemmungen vorauszusehen. Vielmehr ist +eine solche Gefuhlswahrnehmung gegenwartiger atmospharischer +Einflusse nichts weiter als die sinnliche Wahrnehmung, welche als +Motiv wirkt, und ein Motiv muss ja doch immer vorhanden sein, wenn +ein Instinct functioniren soll. Es bleibt also trotzdem bestehen +dass das Voraussehen der Witterung ein unbewusstes Hellsehen ist, von +dem der Storch, der vier Wochen fruher nach Suden aufbricht, so wenig +etwas weiss, als der Hirsch, der sich vor einem kalten Winter einen +dickeren Pelz als gewohnlich wachsen lasst. Die Thiere haben eben +einerseits das gegenwartige Witterungsgefuhl im Bewusstsein, daraus +folgt andererseits ihr Handeln gerade so, als ob sie die Vorstellung +der zukunftigen Witterung hatten; im Bewusstsein haben sie dieselbe +aber nicht, also bietet sich als einzig naturliches Mittelglied die +unbewusste Vorstellung, die nun aber immer ein Hellsehen ist, weil +sie etwas enthalt, was dem Thier weder dutch sinnliche Wahrnehmung +direct gegeben ist, noch durch seine Verstandesmittel aus der +Wahrnehmung geschlossen werden kann."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, +p. 91, 3d ed., 1871. + +{124} "Meistentheils tritt aber hier der hoheren Bewusstseinstufe +der Menschen entsprechend eine starkete Resonanz des Bewusstseins mit +dem bewussten Hellsehen hervor, die sich also mehr odor minder +deutliche Ahnung darstellt. Ausserdem entspricht es der grosseren +Selbststandigkeit des menschlichen Intellects, dass diese Ahnung +nicht ausschliesslich Behufs der unmittelbaren Ausfuhrung einer +Handlung eintritt, sondern bisweilen auch unabangig von der Bedingung +einer momentan zu leistenden That als blosse Vorstellung ohne +bewussten Willen sich zeigte, wenn nur die Bedingung erfullt ist, +dass der Gegenstand dieses Ahnens den Willen des Ahnenden im +Allgemeinen in hohem Grade interessirt."--Philosophy of the +Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 94. + +{126} "Haufig sind die Ahnungen, in denen das Hellsehen des +Unbewussten sich dem Bewusstsein offenbart, dunkel, unverstandlich +und symbolisch, weil sie im Gehirn sinnliche Form annehmen mussen, +wahrend die unbewusste Vorstellung an der Form der Sinnlichkeit kein +Theil haben kann."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 96. + +{128} "Ebenso weil es diese Reihe nur in gesteigerter +Bewusstseinresonanz fortsetzt, stutzt es jene Aussagen der +Instincthandlungen uher ihr eigenes Wesen ebenso sehr," &c.-- +Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 97. + +{129} "Wir werden trotzdem diese gomeinsame Wirkung eines +Masseninstincts in der Entstehung der Sprache und den grossen +politischen und socialen Bewegungen in der Woltgeschichte deutlich +wieder erkennen; hier handelt es sich um moglichst einfache und +deutliche Beispiele, und darum greifen wir zu niederen Thieren, wo +die Mittel der Gedankenmittheilung bei fehlender Stimme, Mimik und +Physiognomie so unvollkommen sind, dass die Uebereinstimmung und das +Ineinandergreifen der einzelnen Leistungen in den Hauptsachen +unmoglich der bewussten Verstandigung durch Sprache zugeschrieben +werden darf."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 98. + +{131a} "Und wie durch Instinct dot Plan des ganzen Stocks in +unbewusstem Hellsehen jeder einzelnen Biene einwohnt."--Philosophy of +the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 99. + +{131b} "Indem jedes Individuum den Plan des Ganzen und Sammtliche +gegenwartig zu ergreifende Mittel im unbewussten Hellsehen hat, wovon +aber nut das Eine, was ihm zu thun obliegt, in sein Bewusstsein +fallt."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 99. + +{132} "Der Instinct ist nicht Resultat bewusster Ueberlegung, nicht +Folge der korperlichen Organisation, nicht blosses Resultat eines in +der Organisation des Gehirns gelegenen Mechanismus, nicht Wirkung +eines dem Geiste von aussen angeklebten todten, seinem innersten +Wesen fremden Mechanismus, sondern selbsteigene Leistung des +Individuum aus seinem innersten Wesen und Character entspringend."-- +Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 100. + +{133} "Haufig ist die Kenntniss des Zwecks der bewussten Erkenntniss +durch sinnliche Wahrnehmung gar nicht zuganglich; dann documentirt +sich die Eigenthumlichkeit des Unbewussten im Hellsehen, von welchem +das Bewusstsein theils nar eine verschwindend dumpfe, theils auch +namentlich beim Menschen mehr oder minder deutliche Resonanz als +Ahnung versputt."--Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 100. + +{135} "Und eine so damonische Gewalt sollte durch etwas ausgeubt +werden konnon, was als ein dem inneren Wesen fremder Mechanismus dem +Geiste aufgepfropft ist, oder gar durch eine bewusste Ueberlegung, +welche doch stets nur im kahlen Egoismus stecken bleibt," &c.-- +Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 101. + +{139a} Page 100 of this vol. + +{139b} Pp. 106, 107 of this vol. + +{140} Page 100 of this vol. + +{141} Page 99 of this vol. + +{144a} See page 115 of this volume. + +{144b} Page 104 of this vol. + +{146} The Spirit of Nature. J. A. Churchill & Co., 1880, p. 39. + +{149} I have put these words into the mouth of my supposed objector, +and shall put others like them, because they are characteristic; but +nothing can become so well known as to escape being an inference. + +{153} Erewhon, chap. xxiii. + +{160} It must be remembered that this passage is put as if in the +mouth of an objector. + +{177a} "The Unity of the Organic Individual," by Edward Montgomery. +Mind, October 1880, p. 477. + +{177b} Ibid., p. 483. + +{179a} Professor Huxley, Encycl. Brit., 9th ed., art. Evolution, p. +750. + +{179b} "Hume," by Professor Huxley, p. 45. + +{180} "The Philosophy of Crayfishes," by the Right Rev. the Lord +Bishop of Carlisle. Nineteenth Century for October 1880, p. 636. + +{181a} Les Amours des Plantes, p. 360. Paris, 1800. + +{181b} Philosophie Zoologique, tom. i. p. 231. Ed. M. Martin. +Paris, 1873. + +{182a} Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Williams +& Norgate, 1858, p. 61. + +{182b} Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, 2d ed., +1871, p. 41. + +{182c} Origin of Species, p. 1, ed. 1872. + +{183a} Origin of Species, 6th ed., p. 206. I ought in fairness to +Mr. Darwin to say that he does not hold the error to be quite as +serious as he once did. It is now "a serious error" only; in 1859 it +was "the most serious error."--Origin of Species, 1st ed., p. 209. + +{183b} Origin of Species, 1st ed., p. 242; 6th ed., p. 233. + +{184a} I never could find what these particular points were. + +{184b} Isidore Geoffroy, Hist. Nat. Gen., tom. ii. p. 407, 1859. + +{184c} M. Martin's edition of the "Philosophie Zoologique" (Paris, +1873), Introduction, p. vi. + +{184d} Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., p. 750. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY *** + +This file should be named umem10.txt or umem10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, umem11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, umem10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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