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

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.

 

Chapter 12 Pg 132

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

Chapter 12 Pg 133

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

Chapter 12 Pg 134

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