Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-14
,.prNraI HABITS BECOME IN
STINCTIVE.

was formerly conscious of and had for
gotten. In the Phadon, Cebes says to
Socrates: al have often heard you lay
it down that all our acquired knowledge
is only remembrance. II that principle
be true, we must necessarily have learned
a, another time what we call to mind in
this. Now that is impossible unless our
soul had a being before its being invested
with this human form, so that this same
principle concludes the Immortality Of the
soul"
Where did this belief spring from' If
we say from the old Indian doctrine Of
the transmigration Of ~souls,a similar ques-
ton nigh, be asked IT regard to the origin
of that. Many persons in all ages have
also believed, from some things in their
own conscious experiences, in a previous
existence. This has generally been trace
able to what is sometimes called double
consciousness, of which n. P. Willis and
Others have related some remarkable illus
| ,rations. An individual will be walking
side by side with some friend, and with
out any special occasion for it, that friend
will make some sudden remark which his
companion will, on hearing, feel q con-
seriousness that he has heard in exactly
those words addressed to him before, and
under exactly the same circumstances.
In fact, the whole scene seems exactly
like another of which a distant recollec-
ton only is preserved. And the suppo-
sition has thus gained, in some minds,
tina, all our present life we are only acting
over again the scenes Of a previous exist
ence. This phenomenon has been ex-
planned satisfactorily by DR.. Draper and
others as arising from the two lobes of the
brain not acting always perfectly together,
so that we have in succession q double
| consciousness of the same events and
words spoken and thoughts excited.
But the true solution Of the belief by
Socrates in a previous state Of existence is
70 be found in the perpetuity Of our insti-
buttons and instincts-that is, our in
stinctive belief in certain FIRST truths, a
knowledge not derived from the expert
ence of our FIVE senses. "All men, being
duly Intercepted" says the dialogue
Phadon, lind out all things for them
selves. which they never could do without
knowledge and right reason. Put them
u, upon the figures Of geometry
and other things of that nature, they pre-
sen,ly perceive that they are incorrectly
stated"
Socrates states it thus: Remembrance
is occasioned sometimes by the things
that are like the objects remembered,
sometimes BY things that are unlike. But
when by likeness, it is because of a sense
Of equality in the thing remembered"
This sense Of equality TO an ideal stand
ard. therefore, proves that the present
knowledge thus learned is the remem-
brance of knowledge acquired in a former
state Of existence"
There is more truth in this than is gen.
orally supposed, though it does not prove
what Socrates conceived. Many instincts
are hereditary. The child Of a South Sea-
Islander, if dropped for the first time in
water a, two years Of age. will, it is said,
strike out and swim instincsively, as truly
as the progeny of a duck would, without
the least instruction /; and the progeny OF
a carefully-trained setter has been known
10 set quite ins,inctively, and that of a
dog trained to beg will beg without
training.
On this account it has been conjectured
that perhaps all our instincts are but ten
denotes to repea. acts which were useful
to the parent. We all know every act per-
formed once is more easy the second time,
and so on until habit will make any
action, however difficult, so instructive
tina, it will be performed without reason
! or memory. A man winds his watch on
going to bed. and forgets that he has done
50. Every action, therefore, produces a
tendency to repetition, that becomes at least
as independent of the will as breathing or
the motions of the heart. It produces
also en- involuntary expectation that the
course Of nature will continue in this re-
spec. the same. Now it seems that these
effects of habitual exertion are not con-
fined to the individual, but are transmit
ted heredi,arily, so that in the like circum-
stance there is a disposition both to act
and ins,inctively to expect the same results
that have occurred to the parent, but with
out reason, or remembering or knowing
on what basis this action or expectation
and belief are founded. That has to be
discovered af,erward by the attempt Of
reason to abandon them.
So far, then, Socrates was right. Our
institutions do prove that part Of our
present knowledge is an imperfect remem-
brance of previous experience, only not in
a previous state of u W personal ex-
~is,ence. but in the persons Of our parents.
If Darwin's development theories are
true, there may be an equally profound
thought lying at the basis Of the Indian
doctrine of transmigration Of souls from
other animals. The most important result,
practically, of the whole is, that we cannot
tell to wha, extent all our knowledge &C.
quired now by such labors of the reason
may eventually become intuitional. We
see an instructive knowledge Of figures in
one and music in another. Much OF it
may be and is the result of parental habits
become instructive. Perhaps all right
action tends thus to perpetua,e itself.
CONCRETE ACKNOWLEDGMENT as ia
well known, is a most valuable article for
building purposes, and in England an in.
g~enious method of moulding bricks Of
concrete for building purposes has lately
been patented, The inventor prono.es N