Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) by Samuel Butler (best novels ever .TXT) 📖
- Author: Samuel Butler
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Many Will Be Surprised At My Ascribing To Instinct An Unconscious
Knowledge, Arising Out Of No Sensual Impression, And Yet Invariably
Accurate. This, However, Is Not A Consequence Of My Theory
Concerning Instinct; It Is The Foundation On Which That Theory Is
Based, And Is Forced Upon Us By Facts. I Must Therefore Adduce
Examples. And To Give A Name To The Unconscious Knowledge, Which Is
Not Acquired Through Impression Made Upon The Senses, But Which Will
Be Found To Be In Our Possession, Though Attained Without The
Instrumentality Of Means, {115b} I Prefer The Word "Clairvoyance"
Chapter 8 Pg 99{115c} To "Presentiment," Which, For Reasons Already Given, Will Not
Serve Me. This Word, Therefore, Will Be Here Employed Throughout, As
Above Defined.
Let Us Now Consider Examples Of The Instincts Of Self-Preservation,
Subsistence, Migration, And The Continuation Of The Species. Most
Animals Know Their Natural Enemies Prior To Experience Of Any Hostile
Designs Upon Themselves. A Flight Of Young Pigeons, Even Though They
Have No Old Birds With Them, Will Become Shy, And Will Separate From
One Another On The Approach Of A Bird Of Prey. Horses And Cattle
That Come From Countries Where There Are No Lions Become Unquiet And
Display Alarm As Soon As They Are Aware That A Lion Is Approaching
Them In The Night. Horses Going Along A Bridle-Path That Used To
Leave The Town At The Back Of The Old Dens Of The Carnivora In The
Berlin Zoological Gardens Were Often Terrified By The Propinquity Of
Enemies Who Were Entirely Unknown To Them. Sticklebacks Will Swim
Composedly Among A Number Of Voracious Pike, Knowing, As They Do,
That The Pike Will Not Touch Them. For If A Pike Once By Mistake
Swallows A Stickleback, The Stickleback Will Stick In Its Throat By
Reason Of The Spine It Carries Upon Its Back, And The Pike Must
Starve To Death Without Being Able To Transmit His Painful Experience
To His Descendants. In Some Countries There Are People Who By Choice
Eat Dog's Flesh; Dogs Are Invariably Savage In The Presence Of These
Persons, As Recognising In Them Enemies At Whose Hands They May One
Day Come To Harm. This Is The More Wonderful Inasmuch As Dog's Fat
Applied Externally (As When Rubbed Upon Boots) Attracts Dogs By Its
Smell. Grant Saw A Young Chimpanzee Throw Itself Into Convulsions Of
Terror At The Sight Of A Large Snake; And Even Among Ourselves A
Gretchen Can Often Detect A Mephistopheles. An Insect Of The Genius
Bombyx Will Seize Another Of The Genus Parnopaea, And Kill It
Wherever It Finds It, Without Making Any Subsequent Use Of The Body;
But We Know That The Last-Named Insect Lies In Wait For The Eggs Of
The First, And Is Therefore The Natural Enemy Of Its Race. The
Phenomenon Known To Stockdrivers And Shepherds As "Das Biesen Des
Viehes" Affords Another Example. For When A "Dassel" Or "Bies" Fly
Draws Near The Herd, The Cattle Become Unmanageable And Run About
Among One Another As Though They Were Mad, Knowing, As They Do, That
The Larvae From The Eggs Which The Fly Will Lay Upon Them Will
Presently Pierce Their Hides And Occasion Them Painful Sores. These
"Dassel" Flies--Which Have No Sting--Closely Resemble Another Kind Of
Gadfly Which Has A Sting. Nevertheless, This Last Kind Is Little
Feared By Cattle, While The First Is So To An Inordinate Extent. The
Laying Of The Eggs Upon The Skin Is At The Time Quite Painless, And
No Ill Consequences Follow Until Long Afterwards, So That We Cannot
Suppose The Cattle To Draw A Conscious Inference Concerning The
Connection That Exists Between The Two. I Have Already Spoken Of The
Foresight Shown By Ferrets And Buzzards In Respect Of Adders; In Like
Manner A Young Honey-Buzzard, On Being Shown A Wasp For The First
Time, Immediately Devoured It After Having Squeezed The Sting From
Its Body. No Animal, Whose Instinct Has Not Been Vitiated By
Unnatural Habits, Will Eat Poisonous Plants. Even When Apes Have
Contracted Bad Habits Through Their Having Been Brought Into Contact
With Mankind, They Can Still Be Trusted To Show Us Whether Certain
Fruits Found In Their Native Forests Are Poisonous Or No; For If
Chapter 8 Pg 100Poisonous Fruits Are Offered Them They Will Refuse Them With Loud
Cries. Every Animal Will Choose For Its Sustenance Exactly Those
Animal Or Vegetable Substances Which Agree Best With Its Digestive
Organs, Without Having Received Any Instruction On The Matter, And
Without Testing Them Beforehand. Even, Indeed, Though We Assume That
The Power Of Distinguishing The Different Kinds Of Food Is Due To
Sight And Not To Smell, It Remains None The Less Mysterious How The
Animal Can Know What It Is That Will Agree With It. Thus The Kid
Which Galen Took Prematurely From Its Mother Smelt At All The
Different Kinds Of Food That Were Set Before It, But Drank Only The
Milk Without Touching Anything Else. The Cherry-Finch Opens A
Cherry-Stone By Turning It So That Her Beak Can Hit The Part Where
The Two Sides Join, And Does This As Much With The First Stone She
Cracks As With The Last. Fitchets, Martens, And Weasels Make Small
Holes On The Opposite Sides Of An Egg Which They Are About To Suck,
So That The Air May Come In While They Are Sucking. Not Only Do
Animals Know The Food That Will Suit Them Best, But They Find Out The
Most Suitable Remedies When They Are Ill, And Constantly Form A
Correct Diagnosis Of Their Malady With A Therapeutical Knowledge
Which They Cannot Possibly Have Acquired. Dogs Will Often Eat A
Great Quantity Of Grass--Particularly Couch-Grass--When They Are
Unwell, Especially After Spring, If They Have Worms, Which Thus Pass
From Them Entangled In The Grass, Or If They Want To Get Fragments Of
Bone From Out Of Their Stomachs. As A Purgative They Make Use Of
Plants That Sting. Hens And Pigeons Pick Lime From Walls And
Pavements If Their Food Does Not Afford Them Lime Enough To Make
Their Eggshells With. Little Children Eat Chalk When Suffering From
Acidity Of The Stomach, And Pieces Of Charcoal If They Are Troubled
With Flatulence. We May Observe These Same Instincts For Certain
Kinds Of Food Or Drugs Even Among Grown-Up People, Under
Circumstances In Which Their Unconscious Nature Has Unusual Power;
As, For Example, Among Women When They Are Pregnant, Whose Capricious
Appetites Are Probably Due To Some Special Condition Of The Foetus,
Which Renders A Certain State Of The Blood Desirable. Field-Mice
Bite Off The Germs Of The Corn Which They Collect Together, In Order
To Prevent Its Growing During The Winter. Some Days Before The
Beginning Of Cold Weather The Squirrel Is Most Assiduous In
Augmenting Its Store, And Then Closes Its Dwelling. Birds Of Passage
Betake Themselves To Warmer Countries At Times When There Is Still No
Scarcity Of Food For Them Here, And When The Temperature Is
Considerably Warmer Than It Will Be When They Return To Us. The Same
Holds Good Of The Time When Animals Begin To Prepare Their Winter
Quarters, Which Beetles Constantly Do During The Very Hottest Days Of
Autumn. When Swallows And Storks Find Their Way Back To Their Native
Places Over Distances Of Hundreds Of Miles, And Though The Aspect Of
The Country Is Reversed, We Say That This Is Due To The Acuteness Of
Their Perception Of Locality; But The Same Cannot Be Said Of Dogs,
Which, Though They Have Been Carried In A Bag From One Place To
Another That They Do Not Know, And Have Been Turned Round And Round
Twenty Times Over, Have Still Been Known To Find Their Way Home.
Here We Can Say No More Than That Their Instinct Has Conducted Them--
That The Clairvoyance Of The Unconscious Has Allowed Them To
Conjecture Their Way. {119a}
Chapter 8 Pg 101
Before An Early Winter, Birds Of Passage Collect Themselves In
Preparation For Their Flight Sooner Than Usual; But When The Winter
Is Going To Be Mild, They Will Either Not Migrate At All, Or Travel
Only A Small Distance Southward. When A Hard Winter Is Coming,
Tortoises Will Make Their Burrows Deeper. If Wild Geese, Cranes,
Etc., Soon Return From The Countries To Which They Had Betaken
Themselves At The Beginning Of Spring, It Is A Sign That A Hot And
Dry Summer Is About To Ensue In Those Countries, And That The Drought
Will Prevent Their Being Able To Rear Their Young. In Years Of
Flood, Beavers Construct Their Dwellings At A Higher Level Than
Usual, And Shortly Before An Inundation The Field-Mice In Kamtschatka
Come Out Of Their Holes In Large Bands. If The Summer Is Going To Be
Dry, Spiders May Be Seen In May And April, Hanging From The Ends Of
Threads Several Feet In Length. If In Winter Spiders Are Seen
Running About Much, Fighting With One Another And Preparing New Webs,
There Will Be Cold Weather Within The Next Nine Days, Or From That To
Twelve: When They Again Hide Themselves There Will Be A Thaw. I
Have No Doubt That Much Of This Power Of Prophesying The Weather Is
Due To A Perception Of Certain Atmospheric Conditions Which Escape
Ourselves, But This Perception Can Only Have Relation To A Certain
Actual And Now Present Condition Of The Weather; And What Can The
Impression Made By This Have To Do With Their Idea Of The Weather
That Will Ensue? No One Will Ascribe To Animals A Power Of
Prognosticating The Weather Months Beforehand By Means Of Inferences
Drawn Logically From A Series Of Observations, {119b} To The Extent
Of Being Able To Foretell Floods. It Is Far More Probable That The
Power Of Perceiving Subtle Differences Of Actual Atmospheric
Condition Is Nothing More Than The Sensual Perception Which Acts As
Motive--For A Motive Must Assuredly Be Always Present--When An
Instinct Comes Into Operation. It Continues To Hold Good, Therefore,
That The Power Of Foreseeing The Weather Is A Case Of Unconscious
Clairvoyance, Of Which The Stork Which Takes Its Departure For The
South Four Weeks Earlier Than Usual Knows No More Than Does The Stag
When Before A Cold Winter He Grows Himself A Thicker Pelt Than Is His
Wont. On The One Hand, Animals Have Present In Their Consciousness A
Perception Of The Actual State Of The Weather; On The Other, Their
Ensuing Action Is Precisely Such As It Would Be If The Idea Present
With Them Was That Of The Weather That Is About To Come. This They
Cannot Consciously Have; The Only Natural Intermediate Link,
Therefore, Between Their Conscious Knowledge
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