90 Unconscious Memory 



But what difference is there between this and saying that 

 the phenomena of the world at large come we know not 

 whence ? . . . . The unconscious, therefore, tends to be a 



simple phrase and nothing more No doubt there are 



a number of mental processes .... of which we are un- 

 conscious but to infer from this that they are due to 



an unconscious power, and to proceed to demonstrate them 

 in the presence of the unconscious through all nature, is to 

 make an unwarrantable saltus in reasoning. What, in fact, 

 is this ' unconscious ' but a high-sounding name to veU our 

 ignorance ? Is the unconscious any better explanation of 

 phenomena we do not understand than the ' devil-devil,' by 

 which Australian tribes explain the Ley den jar and its phe- 

 nomena ? Does it increase our knowledge to know that 

 we do not know the origin of language or the cause of in- 

 stinct ? . . . . Alike in organic creation and the evolution of 

 history ' performances and actions ' — the words are those of 

 Strauss — are ascribed to an unconscious, which can only 

 belong to a conscious being, i 



" The difficulties of the system advance as we proceed." 

 Subtract this questionable factor — the unconscious — from 

 Hartmann's ' Biology and Psychology,' and the chapters 

 remain pleasant and instructive reading. But with the third 

 part of his work — the Metaphysic of the Unconscious — our 

 feet are clogged at every step. We are encircled by the 

 merest play of words, the most unsatisfactory demonstra- 

 tions, and most inconsistent ii^erences. The theory of 

 final causes has been hitherto employed to show the wisdom 

 of the world ; with our Pessimist philosopher it shows nothing 

 but its irrationality and misery. Consciousness has been 

 generally supposed to be the condition of all happiness and 

 interest in life ; here it simply awakens us to misery, and the 

 lower an animal lies in the scale of conscious life, the better 

 and the pleasanter its lot. 



" Thus, then, the universe, as an emanation of the uncon- 

 scious, has been constructed.' Throughout it has been 

 marked by design, by purpose, by finality ; throughout a 

 wonderful adaptation of means to ends, a wonderful adjust- 

 ment and relativity in different portions has been noticed — 



1 Westminster Review, New Series, vol. xlix. p. 143. 

 ' Ibid., p. 145. ^ Ibid., p. 151. 



