Translation from Von Hartmann 129 



the continuation of the species, where the action benefits 

 others — that is to say, the offspring of /the creature per- 

 forming it. 



We must now examine the cases in which a sohdarity of 

 instinct is found to exist between several individuals, so 

 that, on the one hand, the action of each redounds to the 

 common welfare, and, on the other, it becomes possible 

 for a useful purpose to be achieved through the harmoni- 

 ous association of individual workers. This community of 

 instinct exists also among the higher animals, but here it 

 is harder to distinguish from associations originating 

 through conscious will, inasmuch as speech suppUes the 

 means of a more perfect intercommunication of aim and 

 plan. We shall, however, definitely recognise^ this general 

 effect of a universal instinct in the origin of speech and 

 in the great political and social movements in the history 

 of the world. Here we are concerned only with the sim- 

 plest and most definite examples that can be found any- 

 where, and therefore we will deal in preference with the 

 lower animals, among which, in the absence of voice, the 

 means of communicating thought, mimicry, and physiog- 

 nomy, are so imperfect that the harmony and interconnec- 

 tion of the individual actions cannot in its main points be 

 ascribed to an understanding arrived at through speech. 

 Huber observed that when a new comb was being con- 

 structed a number of the largest working-bees, that were 

 full of honey, took no part in the ordinary business of the 

 others, but remained perfectly aloof. Twenty-four hours 



1 " Wir werden trotzdem diese gemeinsame Wirkung eines 

 Masseninstincts in der Entstehung der Sprache und den grossen 

 politischen und socialen Bewegungen in der Weltgeschichte 

 deutlich wieder erkennen ; hier handelt es sich um moglichst 

 einfache und deutliche Beispiele, und darum greifen wir zu 

 niederen Thieren, wo die Mittel der Gedankenmittheilung bei 

 fehlender Stimme, Mimik und Physiognomie so unvoUkommen 

 sind, dass die Uebereinstimmung und das Ineinandergreifen der 

 einzelnen Leistungen in den Hauptsachen unmoglich der bewussten 

 Verstandigung durch Sprache zugesclirieben werden darf." — Philo- 

 sophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. 98. 



K 



