Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) by Samuel Butler (best novels ever .TXT) 📖
- Author: Samuel Butler
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Does, That Many Different Purposes, Which In The Case Of The Higher
Animals Require A Complicated System Of Organs Of Motion, Can Be
Attained With Incredibly Simple Means.
Arcella Vulgaris Is A Minute Morsel Of Protoplasm, Which Lives In A
Concave-Convex, Brown, Finely Reticulated Shell, Through A Circular
Opening In The Concave Side Of Which It Can Project Itself By
Throwing Out Pseudopodia. If We Look Through The Microscope At A
Drop Of Water Containing Living Arcellae, We May Happen To See One Of
Them Lying On Its Back At The Bottom Of The Drop, And Making
Fruitless Efforts For Two Or Three Minutes To Lay Hold Of Some Fixed
Point By Means Of A Pseudopodium. After This There Will Appear
Suddenly From Two To Five, But Sometimes More, Dark Points In The
Protoplasm At A Small Distance From The Circumference, And, As A
Rule, At Regular Distances From One Another. These Rapidly Develop
Themselves Into Well-Defined Spherical Air Vesicles, And Come
Presently To Fill A Considerable Part Of The Hollow Of The Shell,
Thereby Driving Part Of The Protoplasm Outside It. After From Five
To Twenty Minutes, The Specific Gravity Of The Arcella Is So Much
Lessened That It Is Lifted By The Water With Its Pseudopodia, And
Brought Up Against The Upper Surface Of The Water-Drop, On Which It
Is Able To Travel. In From Five To Ten Minutes The Vesicles Will Now
Disappear, The Last Small Point Vanishing With A Jerk. If, However,
Chapter 8 Pg 96The Creature Has Been Accidentally Turned Over During Its Journey,
And Reaches The Top Of The Water-Drop With Its Back Uppermost, The
Vesicles Will Continue Growing Only On One Side, While They Diminish
On The Other; By This Means The Shell Is Brought First Into An
Oblique And Then Into A Vertical Position, Until One Of The
Pseudopodia Obtains A Footing And The Whole Turns Over. From The
Moment The Animal Has Obtained Foothold, The Bladders Become
Immediately Smaller, And After They Have Disappeared The Experiment
May Be Repeated At Pleasure.
The Positions Of The Protoplasm Which The Vesicles Fashion Change
Continually; Only The Grainless Protoplasm Of The Pseudopodia
Develops No Air. After Long And Fruitless Efforts A Manifest Fatigue
Sets In; The Animal Gives Up The Attempt For A Time, And Resumes It
After An Interval Of Repose.
Engelmann, The Discoverer Of These Phenomena, Says (Pfluger's Archiv
Fur Physologie, Bd. Ii.): "The Changes In Volume In All The Vesicles
Of The Same Animal Are For The Most Part Synchronous, Effected In The
Same Manner, And Of Like Size. There Are, However, Not A Few
Exceptions; It Often Happens That Some Of Them Increase Or Diminish
In Volume Much Faster Than Others; Sometimes One May Increase While
Another Diminishes; All The Changes, However, Are Throughout
Unquestionably Intentional. The Object Of The Air-Vesicles Is To
Bring The Animal Into Such A Position That It Can Take Fast Hold Of
Something With Its Pseudopodia. When This Has Been Obtained, The Air
Disappears Without Our Being Able To Discover Any Other Reason For
Its Disappearance Than The Fact That It Is No Longer Needed. . . .
If We Bear These Circumstances In Mind, We Can Almost Always Tell
Whether An Arcella Will Develop Air-Vesicles Or No; And If It Has
Already Developed Them, We Can Tell Whether They Will Increase Or
Diminish . . . The Arcellae, In Fact, In This Power Of Altering Their
Specific Gravity Possess A Mechanism For Raising Themselves To The
Top Of The Water, Or Lowering Themselves To The Bottom At Will. They
Use This Not Only In The Abnormal Circumstances Of Their Being Under
Microscopical Observation, But At All Times, As May Be Known By Our
Being Always Able To Find Some Specimens With Air-Bladders At The Top
Of The Water In Which They Live."
If What Has Been Already Advanced Has Failed To Convince The Reader
Of The Hopelessness Of Attempting To Explain Instinct As A Mode Of
Conscious Deliberation, He Must Admit That The Following
Considerations Are Conclusive. It Is Most Certain That Deliberation
And Conscious Reflection Can Only Take Account Of Such Data As Are
Consciously Perceived; If, Then, It Can Be Shown That Data Absolutely
Indispensable For The Arrival At A Just Conclusion Cannot By Any
Possibility Have Been Known Consciously, The Result Can No Longer Be
Held As Having Had Its Source In Conscious Deliberation. It Is
Admitted That The Only Way In Which Consciousness Can Arrive At A
Knowledge Of Exterior Facts Is By Way Of An Impression Made Upon The
Senses. We Must, Therefore, Prove That A Knowledge Of The Facts
Indispensable For Arrival At A Just Conclusion Could Not Have Been
Thus Acquired. This May Be Done As Follows: {111} For, Firstly, The
Facts In Question Lie In The Future, And The Present Gives No Ground
Chapter 8 Pg 97For Conjecturing The Time And Manner Of Their Subsequent Development.
Secondly, They Are Manifestly Debarred From The Category Of
Perceptions Perceived Through The Senses, Inasmuch As No Information
Can Be Derived Concerning Them Except Through Experience Of Similar
Occurrences In Time Past, And Such Experience Is Plainly Out Of The
Question.
It Would Not Affect The Argument If, As I Think Likely, It Were To
Turn Out, With The Advance Of Our Physiological Knowledge, That All
The Examples Of The First Case That I Am About To Adduce Reduce
Themselves To Examples Of The Second, As Must Be Admitted To Have
Already Happened In Respect Of Many That I Have Adduced Hitherto.
For It Is Hardly More Difficult To Conceive Of A Priori Knowledge,
Disconnected From Any Impression Made Upon The Senses, Than Of
Knowledge Which, It Is True, Does At The Present Day Manifest Itself
Upon The Occasion Of Certain General Perceptions, But Which Can Only
Be Supposed To Be Connected With These By Means Of Such A Chain Of
Inferences And Judiciously Applied Knowledge As Cannot Be Believed To
Exist When We Have Regard To The Capacity And Organisation Of The
Animal We May Be Considering.
An Example Of The First Case Is Supplied By The Larva Of The Stag-
Beetle In Its Endeavour To Make Itself A Convenient Hole In Which To
Become A Chrysalis. The Female Larva Digs A Hole Exactly Her Own
Size, But The Male Makes One As Long Again As Himself, So As To Allow
For The Growth Of His Horns, Which Will Be About The Same Length As
His Body. A Knowledge Of This Circumstance Is Indispensable If The
Result Achieved Is To Be Considered As Due To Reflection, Yet The
Actual Present Of The Larva Affords It No Ground For Conjecturing
Beforehand The Condition In Which It Will Presently Find Itself.
As Regards The Second Case, Ferrets And Buzzards Fall Forthwith Upon
Blind Worms Or Other Non-Poisonous Snakes, And Devour Them Then And
There. But They Exhibit The Greatest Caution In Laying Hold Of
Adders, Even Though They Have Never Before Seen One, And Will
Endeavour First To Bruise Their Heads, So As To Avoid Being Bitten.
As There Is Nothing In Any Other Respect Alarming In The Adder, A
Conscious Knowledge Of The Danger Of Its Bite Is Indispensable, If
The Conduct Above Described Is To Be Referred To Conscious
Deliberation. But This Could Only Have Been Acquired Through
Experience, And The Possibility Of Such Experience May Be Controlled
In The Case Of Animals That Have Been Kept In Captivity From Their
Youth Up, So That The Knowledge Displayed Can Be Ascertained To Be
Independent Of Experience. On The Other Hand, Both The Above
Illustrations Afford Evidence Of An Unconscious Perception Of The
Facts, And Prove The Existence Of A Direct Knowledge Underivable From
Any Sensual Impression Or From Consciousness.
This Has Always Been Recognised, {113} And Has Been Described Under
The Words "Presentiment" Or "Foreboding." These Words, However,
Refer, On The One Hand, Only To An Unknowable In The Future,
Separated From Us By Space, And Not To One That Is Actually Present;
On The Other Hand, They Denote Only The Faint, Dull, Indefinite Echo
Chapter 8 Pg 98Returned By Consciousness To An Invariably Distinct State Of
Unconscious Knowledge. Hence The Word "Presentiment," Which Carries
With It An Idea Of Faintness And Indistinctness, While, However, It
May Be Easily Seen That Sentiment Destitute Of All, Even Unconscious,
Ideas Can Have No Influence Upon The Result, For Knowledge Can Only
Follow Upon An Idea. A Presentiment That Sounds In Consonance With
Our Consciousness Can Indeed, Under Certain Circumstances, Become
Tolerably Definite, So That In The Case Of Man It Can Be Expressed In
Thought And Language; But Experience Teaches Us That Even Among
Ourselves This Is Not So When Instincts Special To The Human Race
Come Into Play; We See Rather That The Echo Of Our Unconscious
Knowledge Which Finds Its Way Into Our Consciousness Is So Weak That
It Manifests Itself Only In The Accompanying Feelings Or Frame Of
Mind, And Represents But An Infinitely Small Fraction Of The Sum Of
Our Sensations. It Is Obvious That Such A Faintly Sympathetic
Consciousness Cannot Form A Sufficient Foundation For A
Superstructure Of Conscious Deliberation; On The Other Hand,
Conscious Deliberation Would Be Unnecessary, Inasmuch As The Process
Of Thinking Must Have Been Already Gone Through Unconsciously, For
Every Faint Presentiment That Obtrudes Itself Upon Our Consciousness
Is In Fact Only The Consequence Of A Distinct Unconscious Knowledge,
And The Knowledge With Which It Is Concerned Is Almost Always An Idea
Of The Purpose Of Some Instinctive Action, Or Of One Most Intimately
Connected Therewith. Thus, In The Case Of The Stag-Beetle, The
Purpose Consists In The Leaving Space For The Growth Of The Horns;
The Means, In The Digging The Hole Of A Sufficient Size; And The
Unconscious Knowledge, In Prescience Concerning The Future
Development Of The Horns.
Lastly, All Instinctive Actions Give Us An Impression Of Absolute
Security And Infallibility. With Instinct The Will Is Never
Hesitating Or Weak, As It Is When Inferences Are Being Drawn
Consciously. We Never Find Instinct Making Mistakes; We Cannot,
Therefore, Ascribe A Result Which Is So Invariably Precise To Such An
Obscure Condition Of Mind As Is Implied When The Word Presentiment Is
Used; On The Contrary, This Absolute Certainty Is So Characteristic A
Feature Of Instinctive Actions, That It Constitutes Almost The Only
Well-Marked Point Of Distinction Between These And Actions That Are
Done Upon Reflection. But From This It Must Again Follow That Some
Principle Lies At The Root Of Instinct Other Than That Which
Underlies Reflective Action, And This Can Only Be Looked For In A
Determination Of The Will Through A Process That Lies In The
Unconscious, {115a} To Which This Character Of Unhesitating
Infallibility
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