Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗

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

Chapter 6 Pg 72

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

Chapter 6 Pg 73

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

Chapter 6 Pg 74

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