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

Each Man Of Them Is Entirely Independent,  Acknowledging No

Constituted Authority,  But That Some Among Them Exercise A Tacit And

Undefined Influence Over The Others.  Let Us Suppose These Molecules

Capable Of Memory,  Both In Their Capacity As Individuals,  And As

Societies,  And Able To Transmit Their Memories To Their Descendants,

From The Traditions Of The Dimmest Past To The Experiences Of Their

Own Lifetime.  Some Of These Societies Will Remain Simple,  As Having

Had No History,  But To The Greater Number Unfamiliar,  And Therefore

Striking,  Incidents Will From Time To Time Occur,  Which,  When They Do

Not Disturb Memory So Greatly As To Kill,  Will Leave Their Impression

Upon It.  The Body Or Society Will Remember These Incidents,  And Be

Modified By Them In Its Conduct,  And Therefore More Or Less In Its

Internal Arrangements,  Which Will Tend Inevitably To Specialisation.

This Memory Of The Most Striking Events Of Varied Lifetimes I

Maintain,  With Professor Hering,  To Be The Differentiating Cause,

Which,  Accumulated In Countless Generations,  Has Led Up From The

Amoeba To Man.  If There Had Been No Such Memory,  The Amoeba Of One

Generation Would Have Exactly Resembled Time Amoeba Of The Preceding,

And A Perfect Cycle Would Have Been Established; The Modifying

Effects Of An Additional Memory In Each Generation Have Made The

Cycle Into A Spiral,  And Into A Spiral Whose Eccentricity,  In The

Outset Hardly Perceptible,  Is Becoming Greater And Greater With

Increasing Longevity And More Complex Social And Mechanical

Inventions.

We Say That The Chicken Grows The Horny Tip To Its Beak With Which It

Ultimately Pecks Its Way Out Of Its Shell,  Because It Remembers

Having Grown It Before,  And The Use It Made Of It.  We Say That It

Made It On The Same Principles As A Man Makes A Spade Or A Hammer,

That Is To Say,  As The Joint Result Both Of Desire And Experience.

When I Say Experience,  I Mean Experience Not Only Of What Will Be

Wanted,  But Also Of The Details Of All The Means That Must Be Taken

In Order To Effect This.  Memory,  Therefore,  Is Supposed To Guide The

Chicken Not Only In Respect Of The Main Design,  But In Respect Also

Of Every Atomic Action,  So To Speak,  Which Goes To Make Up The

Execution Of This Design.  It Is Not Only The Suggestion Of A Plan

Which Is Due To Memory,  But,  As Professor Hering Has So Well Said,  It

Is The Binding Power Of Memory Which Alone Renders Any Consolidation

Or Coherence Of Action Possible,  Inasmuch As Without This No Action

Could Have Parts Subordinate One To Another,  Yet Bearing Upon A

Common End; No Part Of An Action,  Great Or Small,  Could Have

Reference To Any Other Part,  Much Less To A Combination Of All The

Parts; Nothing,  In Fact,  But Ultimate Atoms Of Actions Could Ever

Happen--These Bearing The Same Relation To Such An Action,  We Will

Say,  As A Railway Journey From London To Edinburgh As A Single

Molecule Of Hydrogen To A Gallon Of Water.  If Asked How It Is That

The Chicken Shows No Sign Of Consciousness Concerning This Design,

Nor Yet Of The Steps It Is Taking To Carry It Out,  We Reply That Such

Unconsciousness Is Usual In All Cases Where An Action,  And The Design

Which Prompts It,  Have Been Repeated Exceedingly Often.  If,  Again,

We Are Asked How We Account For The Regularity With Which Each Step

Is Taken In Its Due Order,  We Answer That This Too Is Characteristic

Of Actions That Are Done Habitually--They Being Very Rarely Misplaced

In Respect Of Any Part.

When I Wrote "Life And Habit," I Had Arrived At The Conclusion That

Memory Was The Most Essential Characteristic Of Life,  And Went So Far

As To Say,  "Life Is That Property Of Matter Whereby It Can Remember--

Matter Which Can Remember Is Living."  I Should Perhaps Have Written,

"Life Is The Being Possessed Of A Memory--The Life Of A Thing At Any

Moment Is The Memories Which At That Moment It Retains"; And I Would

Modify The Words That Immediately Follow,  Namely,  "Matter Which

Cannot Remember Is Dead"; For They Imply That There Is Such A Thing

As Matter Which Cannot Remember Anything At All,  And This On Fuller

Consideration I Do Not Believe To Be The Case; I Can Conceive Of No

Matter Which Is Not Able To Remember A Little,  And Which Is Not

Living In Respect Of What It Can Remember.  I Do Not See How Action

Of Any Kind Is Conceivable Without The Supposition That Every Atom

Retains A Memory Of Certain Antecedents.  I Cannot,  However,  At This

Point,  Enter Upon The Reasons Which Have Compelled Me To This

Conclusion.  Whether These Would Be Deemed Sufficient Or No,  At Any

Rate We Cannot Believe That A System Of Self-Reproducing Associations

Should Develop From The Simplicity Of The Amoeba To The Complexity Of

The Human Body Without The Presence Of That Memory Which Can Alone

Account At Once For The Resemblances And The Differences Between

Successive Generations,  For The Arising And The Accumulation Of

Divergences--For The Tendency To Differ And The Tendency Not To

Differ.

At Parting,  Therefore,  I Would Recommend The Reader To See Every Atom

In The Universe As Living And Able To Feel And To Remember,  But In A

Humble Way.  He Must Have Life Eternal,  As Well As Matter Eternal;

And The Life And The Matter Must Be Joined Together Inseparably As

Body And Soul To One Another.  Thus He Will See God Everywhere,  Not

As Those Who Repeat Phrases Conventionally,  But As People Who Would

Have Their Words Taken According To Their Most Natural And Legitimate

Meaning; And He Will Feel That The Main Difference Between Him And

Many Of Those Who Oppose Him Lies In The Fact That Whereas Both He

And They Use The Same Language,  His Opponents Only Half Mean What

They Say,  While He Means It Entirely.

The Attempt To Get A Higher Form Of A Life From A Lower One Is In

Accordance With Our Observation And Experience.  It Is Therefore

Proper To Be Believed.  The Attempt To Get It From That Which Has

Absolutely No Life Is Like Trying To Get Something Out Of Nothing.

The Millionth Part Of A Farthing Put Out To Interest At Ten Per Cent,

Will In Five Hundred Years Become Over A Million Pounds,  And So Long

As We Have Any Millionth Of A Millionth Of The Farthing To Start

With,  Our Getting As Many Million Pounds As We Have A Fancy For Is

Only A Question Of Time,  But Without The Initial Millionth Of A

Millionth Of A Millionth Part,  We Shall Get No Increment Whatever.  A

Little Leaven Will Leaven The Whole Lump,  But There Must Be Some

Leaven.

I Will Here Quote Two Passages From An Article Already Quoted From On

Page 55 Of This Book.  They Run:-

"We Are Growing Conscious That Our Earnest And Most Determined

Efforts To Make Motion Produce Sensation And Volition Have Proved A

Failure,  And Now We Want To Rest A Little In The Opposite,  Much Less

Laborious Conjecture,  And Allow Any Kind Of Motion To Start Into

Existence,  Or At Least To Receive Its Specific Direction From

Psychical Sources; Sensation And Volition Being For The Purpose

Quietly Insinuated Into The Constitution Of The Ultimately Moving

Particles." {177a}

And:-

"In This Light It Can Remain No Longer Surprising That We Actually

Find Motility And Sensibility So Intimately Interblended In Nature."

{177b}

We Should Endeavour To See The So-Called Inorganic As Living,  In

Respect Of The Qualities It Has In Common With The Organic,  Rather

Than The Organic As Non-Living In Respect Of The Qualities It Has In

Common With The Inorganic.  True,  It Would Be Hard To Place One's

Self On The Same Moral Platform As A Stone,  But This Is Not

Necessary; It Is Enough That We Should Feel The Stone To Have A Moral

Platform Of Its Own,  Though That Platform Embraces Little More Than A

Profound Respect For The Laws Of Gravitation,  Chemical Affinity,  &C.

As For The Difficulty Of Conceiving A Body As Living That Has Not Got

A Reproductive System--We Should Remember That Neuter Insects Are

Living But Are Believed To Have No Reproductive System.  Again,  We

Should Bear In Mind That Mere Assimilation Involves All The

Essentials Of Reproduction,  And That Both Air And Water Possess This

Power In A Very High Degree.  The Essence Of A Reproductive System,

Then,  Is Found Low Down In The Scheme Of Nature.

At Present Our Leading Men Of Science Are In This Difficulty; On The

One Hand Their Experiments And Their Theories Alike Teach Them That

Spontaneous Generation Ought Not To Be Accepted; On The Other,  They

Must Have An Origin For The Life Of The Living Forms,  Which,  By Their

Own Theory,  Have Been Evolved,  And They Can At Present Get This

Origin In No Other Way Than By The Deus Ex Machina Method,  Which They

Reject As Unproved,  Or A Spontaneous Generation Of Living From Non-

Living Matter,  Which Is No Less Foreign To Their Experience.  As A

General Rule,  They Prefer The Latter Alternative.  So Professor

Tyndall,  In His Celebrated Article (Nineteenth Century,  November

1878),  Wrote:-

"It Is Generally Conceded (And Seems To Be A Necessary Inference From

The Lessons Of Science) That Spontaneous Generation Must At One Time

Have Taken Place" (Italics Mine).

No Inference Can Well Be More Unnecessary Or Unscientific.  I Suppose

Spontaneous Generation Ceases To Be Objectionable If It Was "Only A

Very Little One," And Came Off A Long Time Ago In A Foreign Country.

The Proper Inference Is,  That There Is A Low Kind Of Livingness In

Every Atom Of Matter.  Life Eternal Is As Inevitable A Conclusion As

Matter Eternal.

It Should Not Be Doubted That Wherever There Is Vibration Or Motion

There Is Life And Memory,  And That There Is Vibration And Motion At

All Times In All Things.

The Reader Who Takes The Above Position Will Find That He Can Explain

The Entry Of What He Calls Death Among What He Calls The Living,

Whereas He Could By No Means Introduce Life Into His System If He

Started Without It.  Death Is Deducible; Life Is Not Deducible.

Death Is A Change Of Memories; It Is Not The Destruction Of All

Memory.  It Is As The Liquidation Of One Company,  Each Member Of

Which Will Presently Join A New One,  And Retain A Trifle Even Of The

Old Cancelled Memory,  By Way Of Greater Aptitude For Working In

Concert With