A Mystery of Crowds 209 



or when my vis-d-vis is going to save me that 

 trouble. My knowledge is certainly intuitive 

 a mere knowledge of feeling; and I know not 

 with what to compare it except that blind faculty 

 by which, in absolute darkness, one becomes 

 aware of the proximity of bulky objects with 

 out touching them. And my intuition is almost 

 infallible. If I hesitate to obey it, a collision is 

 the invariable consequence. 



Furthermore, 1 find that whenever automatic, 

 or at least semi-conscious, action is replaced by 

 reasoned action in plainer words, whenever I 

 begin to think about my movements I always 

 blunder. It is only while I am thinking of other 

 matters, only while I am acting almost auto 

 matically, that I can thread a dense crowd 

 with ease. Indeed, my personal experience has 

 convinced me that what pilots one quickly and 

 safely through a thick press is not conscious 

 observation at all, but unreasoning, intuitive 

 perception. Now intuitive action of any kind 

 represents inherited knowledge, the experience 

 of past lives, in this case the experience of 

 past lives incalculable. 



Utterly incalculable. . . . Why do I think so ? 

 Well, simply because this faculty of intuitive 



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