THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



or has fought hard for his life is surprised after- 

 wards to recollect that he was conscious of no 

 fear and felt no pain from wounds at the time. 

 This is owing to the fact that in the terrible 

 shock of mortal combat the conscious personality 

 who rules every man's thoughts and actions ex- 

 cept such thoughts and actions as are automatic, 

 like those of other animals is temporarily un- 

 seated from his throne, and for the moment man 

 is an animal fighting instinctively for self-pres- 

 ervation. 



At such times, even a civilized man will fix his 

 teeth like lightning in the exposed throat of his 

 adversary and unconsciously worry it like a wolf, 

 unheeding meanwhile the wounds which are being 

 inflicted upon himself. 



When the struggle is over, his instinctive ac- 

 tions may still be the same as those of any other 

 animal in like case; but the conscious human be- 

 ing reasserts his sovereignty in the feeling of sick 

 horror at the fearful experience gone through 

 and glad gratefulness that the peril has been 

 passed. 



Other animals, I hold, are spared the horror 

 and denied the gladness; they are consciously 

 neither happier nor unhappier for the experience, 

 and the character of their subsequent actions is 

 modified in no way by those strong waves of 



[6] 



