Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) by Samuel Butler (classic books to read .TXT) 📕

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