Translation from Von Hartmann 135 



childbearing through fear of this frightful and generally 

 fatal operation, that they will undergo it no less than 

 three times. Can we suppose that what so closely re- 

 sembles demoniacal possession can have come about 

 through something engrafted on to the soul as a mechanism 

 foreign to its inner nature,^ or through conscious delibera- 

 tion which adheres always to a bare egoism, and is utterly 

 incapable of such self-sacrifice for the sake of offspring as 

 is displayed by the procreative and maternal instincts ? 



We have now, finally, to consider how it arises that 

 the instincts of any animal species are so similar within 

 the limits of that species — a circumstance which has not 

 a little contributed to the engrafted-mechanism theory. 

 But it is plain that like causes will be followed by like 

 effects ; and this should afford sufficient explanation. 

 The bodily mechanism, for example, of all the individuals 

 of a species is alike ; so again are their capabilities and 

 the outcomes of their conscious intelligence — though this, 

 indeed, is not the case with man, nor in some measure 

 even with the highest animals ; and it is through this 

 want of uniformity that there is such a thing as indi- 

 viduality. The external conditions of all the individuals 

 of a species are also tolerably similar, and when they 

 differ essentially, the instincts are likewise different — a 

 fact in support of which no examples are necessary. From 

 like conditions of mind and body (and this includes like 

 predispositions of brain and ganglia) and like exterior 

 circumstances, like desires will follow as a necessary logical 

 consequence. Again, from like desires and like inward 

 and outward circumstances, a like choice of means — 

 that is to say, like instincts— must ensue. These last two 

 steps would not be conceded without restriction if the 

 question were one involving conscious deliberation, but 



^ " Und eine so damonische Gewalt soUte durch etwas ausgeiibt 

 werden konnen, was als ein dem inneren Wesen fremder Mechanismus 

 dem Geiste aufgepfropft ist, oder gar durch eine bewusste Ueberle- 

 gung, welche doch stets nur im kahlen Egoismus stecken bleibt," 

 &c. — Philosophy of the Unconscious, 3d ed., p. loi. 



