Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗
- Author: Samuel Butler
Book online «Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗». Author Samuel Butler
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.
Chapter 2 Pg 36
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."
Chapter 2 Pg 37
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
Chapter 2 Pg 38Replied 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}
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