144 Unconscious Memory 



the word " unmittelbar " that a result can come about 

 without any cause whatever. So he says, " Um fiir die 

 unbewusster Erkenntniss, welche nicht durch sinnliche 

 Wahrnehmung erworben, sondern als unmittelbar Besitz," 

 &c.^ Because he does not see where the experience can 

 have been gained, he cuts the knot, and denies that there 

 has been experience. We say, Look more attentively and 

 you will discover the time and manner in which the ex- 

 perience was gained. 



Again, he continually assumes that animals low down 

 in the scale of life cannot know their own business because 

 they show no sign of knowing ours. See his remarks on 

 Saturnia pavonia minor (page 107), and elsewhere on 

 cattle and gadflies. The question is not what can they 

 know, but what does their action prove to us that they 

 do know. With each species of animal or plant there is 

 one profession only, and it is hereditary. With us there 

 are many professions, and they are not hereditary ; so 

 that they cannot become instinctive, as they would other- 

 wise tend to do. 



He attempts^ to draw a distinction between the causes 

 that have produced the weapons and working instruments 

 of animals, on the one hand, and those that lead to the 

 formation of hexagonal cells by bees, &c., on the other. 

 No such distinction can be justly drawn 



The ghost-stories which Von Hartmann accepts will 

 hardly be accepted by people of sound judgment. There 

 is one well-marked distinctive feature between the know- 

 ledge manifested by animals when acting instinctively 

 and the supposed knowledge of seers and clairvoyants. In 

 the first case, the animal never exhibits knowledge except 



' See page 115 of this volume. ^ Page 104 of this vol. 



