第 39 节
作者:无组织      更新:2022-04-21 11:08      字数:9322
  memory; and an extension of memory from one generation to another;
  then the repetition of its development by any embryo thus becomes
  only the repetition of a lesson learned by rote; and; as I have
  elsewhere said; our view of life is simplified by finding that it is
  no longer an equation of; say; a hundred unknown quantities; but of
  ninety…nine only; inasmuch as two of the unknown quantities prove to
  be substantially identical。  In this case the inheritance of
  acquired characteristics cannot be disputed; for it is postulated in
  the theory that each embryo takes note of; remembers and is guided
  by the profounder impressions made upon it while in the persons of
  its parents; between its present and last preceding development。  To
  maintain this is to maintain use and disuse to be the main factors
  throughout organic development; to deny it is to deny that use and
  disuse can have any conceivable effect。  For the detailed reasons
  which led me to my own conclusions I must refer the reader to my
  books; 〃Life and Habit〃 {42} and 〃Unconscious Memory;〃 {42} the
  conclusions of which have been often adopted; but never; that I have
  seen; disputed。  A brief resume of the leading points in the
  argument is all that space will here allow me to give。
  We have seen that it is a first requirement of heredity that there
  shall be physical continuity between parents and offspring。  This
  holds good with memory。  There must be continued identity between
  the person remembering and the person to whom the thing that is
  remembered happened。  We cannot remember things that happened to
  some one else; and in our absence。  We can only remember having
  heard of them。  We have seen; however; that there is as much bona…
  fide sameness of personality between parents and offspring up to the
  time at which the offspring quits the parent's body; as there is
  between the different states of the parent himself at any two
  consecutive moments; the offspring therefore; being one and the same
  person with its progenitors until it quits them; can be held to
  remember what happened to them within; of course; the limitations to
  which all memory is subject; as much as the progenitors can remember
  what happened earlier to themselves。  Whether it does so remember
  can only be settled by observing whether it acts as living beings
  commonly do when they are acting under guidance of memory。  I will
  endeavour to show that; though heredity and habit based on memory go
  about in different dresses; yet if we catch them separatelyfor
  they are never seen togetherand strip them there is not a mole nor
  strawberry…mark; nor trick nor leer of the one; but we find it in
  the other also。
  What are the moles and strawberry…marks of habitual action; or
  actions remembered and thus repeated?  First; the more often we
  repeat them the more easily and unconsciously we do them。  Look at
  reading; writing; walking; talking; playing the piano; &c。; the
  longer we have practised any one of these acquired habits; the more
  easily; automatically and unconsciously; we perform it。  Look; on
  the other hand; broadly; at the three points to which I called
  attention in 〃Life and Habit〃:…
  I。  That we are most conscious of and have most control over such
  habits as speech; the upright position; the arts and scienceswhich
  are acquisitions peculiar to the human race; always acquired after
  birth; and not common to ourselves and any ancestor who had not
  become entirely human。
  II。  That we are less conscious of and have less control over eating
  and drinking 'provided the food be normal'; swallowing; breathing;
  seeing; and hearingwhich were acquisitions of our prehuman
  ancestry; and for which we had provided ourselves with all the
  necessary apparatus before we saw light; but which are still;
  geologically speaking; recent。
  III。  That we are most unconscious of and have least control over
  our digestion and circulationpowers possessed even by our
  invertebrate ancestry; and; geologically speaking; of extreme
  antiquity。
  I have put the foregoing very broadly; but enough is given to show
  the reader the gist of the argument。  Let it be noted that
  disturbance and departure; to any serious extent; from normal
  practice tends to induce resumption of consciousness even in the
  case of such old habits as breathing; seeing; and hearing; digestion
  and the circulation of the blood。  So it is with habitual actions in
  general。  Let a player be never so proficient on any instrument; he
  will be put out if the normal conditions under which he plays are
  too widely departed from; and will then do consciously; if indeed he
  can do it at all; what he had hitherto been doing unconsciously。  It
  is an axiom as regards actions acquired after birth; that we never
  do them automatically save as the result of long practice; the
  stages in the case of any acquired facility; the inception of which
  we have been able to watch; have invariably been from a nothingness
  of ignorant impotence to a little somethingness of highly self…
  conscious; arduous performance; and thence to the
  unselfconsciousness of easy mastery。  I saw one year a poor blind
  lad of about eighteen sitting on a wall by the wayside at Varese;
  playing the concertina with his whole body; and snorting like a
  child。  The next year the boy no longer snorted; and he played with
  his fingers only; the year after that he seemed hardly to know
  whether he was playing or not; it came so easily to him。  I know no
  exception to this rule。  Where is the intricate and at one time
  difficult art in which perfect automatic ease has been reached
  except as the result of long practice?  If; then; wherever we can
  trace the development of automatism we find it to have taken this
  course; is it not most reasonable to infer that it has taken the
  same even when it has risen in regions that are beyond our ken?
  Ought we not; whenever we see a difficult action performed;
  automatically to suspect antecedent practice?  Granted that without
  the considerations in regard to identity presented above it would
  not have been easy to see where a baby of a day old could have had
  the practice which enables it to do as much as it does
  unconsciously; but even without these considerations it would have
  been more easy to suppose that the necessary opportunities had not
  been wanting; than that the easy performance could have been gained
  without practice and memory。
  When I wrote 〃Life and Habit〃 (originally published in 1877) I said
  in slightly different words:…
  〃Shall we say that a baby of a day old sucks (which involves the
  whole principle of the pump and hence a profound practical knowledge
  of the laws of pneumatics and hydrostatics); digests; oxygenises its
  bloodmillions of years before any one had discovered oxygensees
  and hears; operations that involve an unconscious knowledge of the
  facts concerning optics and acoustics compared with which the
  conscious discoveries of Newton are insignificantshall we say that
  a baby can do all these things at once; doing them so well and so
  regularly without being even able to give them attention; and yet
  without mistake; and shall we also say at the same time that it has
  not learnt to do them; and never did them before?
  〃Such an assertion would contradict the whole experience of
  mankind。〃
  I have met with nothing during the thirteen years since the
  foregoing was published that has given me any qualms about its
  soundness。  From the point of view of the law courts and everyday
  life it is; of course; nonsense; but in the kingdom of thought; as
  in that of heaven; there are many mansions; and what would be
  extravagance in the cottage or farmhouse; as it were; of daily
  practice; is but common decency in the palace of high philosophy;
  wherein dwells evolution。  If we leave evolution alone; we may stick
  to common practice and the law courts; touch evolution and we are in
  another world; not higher; not lower; but different as harmony from
  counterpoint。  As; however; in the most absolute counterpoint there
  is still harmony; and in the most absolute harmony still
  counterpoint; so high philosophy should be still in touch with
  common sense; and common sense with high philosophy。
  The common…sense view of the matter to people who are not over…
  curious and to whom time is money; will be that a baby is not a baby
  until it is born; and that when born it should be born in wedlock。
  Nevertheless; as a sop to high philosophy; every baby is allowed to
  be the offspring of its father and mother。
  The high…philosophy view of the matter is that every human being is
  still but a fresh edition of the primordial cell with the latest
  additions and corrections; there has been no leap nor break in
  continuity anywhere; the man of to…day is the primordial cell of
  millions of years ago as truly as he is the himself of yesterday; he
  can only be denied to be the one on grounds that will prove him not
  to be the other。  Every one is both himself and all his direct
  ancestors and descendants as well; therefore; if we would be
  logical; he is one also with all his cousins; no matter how distant;
  for he and they are alike identical with the primordial cell; and we
  have already noted it as an axiom that things whic