ii6 SCIENCE AND METHOD. 



in the construction of space, it is very difficult to 

 determine what is the share of the individual and 

 what of the race. To what extent could one of us, 

 transported from his birth into an entirely different 

 world, where, for instance, there existed bodies dis- 

 placed in accordance with the laws of motion of 

 non-Euclidian solids — to what extent, I say, would 

 he be able to give up the ancestral space in order 

 to build up an entirely new space ? 



The share of the race seems to preponderate largely, 

 and yet if it is to it that we owe the rough space, 

 the fluid space of which I spoke just now, the space 

 of the higher animals, is it not to the unconscious 

 experience of the individual that we owe the in- 

 finitely precise space of the geometrician ? This is 

 a question that is not easy of solution. I would 

 mention, however, a fact which shows that the space 

 bequeathed to us by our ancestors still preserves a 

 certain plasticity. Certain hunters learn to shoot 

 fish under the water, although the image of these 

 fish is raised by refraction ; and, moreover, they do 

 it instinctively. Accordingly they have learnt to 

 modify their ancient instinct of direction, or, if you 

 will, to substitute for the association Ai, Bi, another 

 association Ai, B2, because experience has shown 

 them that the former does not succeed. 



