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

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.

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