Notes on Foregoing Chapter 145 



upon matters concerning which its race has been conver- 

 sant for generations ; in the second, the seer is supposed 

 to do so. In tlie first case, a new feature is invariably 

 attended with disturbance of the performance and the 

 awakening of consciousness and dehberation, unless the 

 new matter is too small in proportion to the remaining 

 features of the case to attract attention, or unless, though 

 really new, it appears so similar to an old feature as to 

 be at first mistaken for it ; with the second, it is not even 

 professed that the seer's ancestors have had long experi- 

 ence upon the matter concerning which the seer is sup- 

 posed to have special insight, and I can imagine no more 

 powerful a priori argument against a belief in such stories. 



Close upon the end of his chapter Von Hartmann touches 

 upon the one matter which requires consideration. He 

 refers the similarity of instinct that is observable among 

 all species to the fact that like causes produce like effects ; 

 and I gather, though he does not expressly say so, that 

 he considers similarity of instinct in successive genera- 

 tions to be referable to the same cause as similarity of 

 instinct between all the contemporary members of a 

 species. He thus raises the one objection against referring 

 the phenomena of heredity to memory which I think need 

 be gone into with any fulness. I will, however, reserve 

 this matter for my concluding chapters. 



Von Hartmann concludes his chapter with a quotation 

 from Schelling, to the effect that the phenomena of animal 

 instinct are the true touchstone of a durable philosophy ; 

 by which I suppose it is intended to say that if a system 

 or theory deals satisfactorily with animal instinct, it will 

 stand, but not otherwise. I can wish nothing better than 

 that the philosophy of the unconscious advanced by Von 

 Hartmann be tested by this standard. 



