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the mischief which, as a general rule, attends a knowledge of the future,
these considerations place beyond all doubt the practical unwisdom of
attempts to arrive at certainty concerning the future. This, however,
cannot affect the weight which in theory should be attached to phenom-
ena of this kind, and must not prevent us from recognising the positive
existence of the clairvoyance whose existence I am maintaining, though
it is often hidden under a chaos of madness and imposture.
The materialistic and rationalistic tendencies of the present day lead
most people either to deny facts of this kind in toto, or to ignore them,
inasmuch as they are inexplicable from a materialistic standpoint, and
cannot be established by the inductive or experimental method - as
though this last were not equally impossible in the case of morals, social
science, and politics. A mind of any candour will only be able to deny
the truths of this entire class of phenomena so long as it remains in igno-
rance of the facts that have been related concerning them; but, again, a
continuance in this ignorance can only arise from unwillingness to be
convinced. I am satisfied that many of those who deny all human power
of divination would come to another, and, to say the least, more cautious
conclusion if they would be at the pains of further investigation; and I
hold that no one, even at the present day, need be ashamed of joining in
with an opinion which was maintained by all the great spirits of antiq-
uity except Epicurus - an opinion whose possible truth hardly one of our
best modern philosophers has ventured to contravene, and which the
champions of German enlightenment were so little disposed to relegate
to the domain of old wives tales, that Goethe furnishes us with an ex-
ample of second sight that fell within his own experience, and confirms
it down to its minutest details.
Although I am far from believing that the kind of phenomena above re-
ferred to form in themselves a proper foundation for a superstructure of
scientific demonstration, I nevertheless find them valuable as a comple-
tion and further confirmation of the series of phenomena presented to us
by the clairvoyance which we observe in human and animal instinct.
Even though they only continue this series {128} through the echo that
is awakened within our consciousness, they as powerfully support the
account which instinctive actions give concerning their own nature, as
they are themselves supported by the analogy they present to the clair-
voyance observable in instinct. This, then, as well as my desire not to
lose an opportunity of protesting against a modern prejudice, must stand
as my reason for having allowed myself to refer, in a scientific work, to a
class of phenomena which has fallen at present into so much discredit.
I will conclude with a few words upon a special kind of instinct which
has a very instructive bearing upon the subject generally, and shows how
impossible it is to evade the supposition of an unconscious clairvoyance
on the part of instinct. In the examples adduced hitherto, the action of
each individual has been done on the individual s own behalf, except in
the case of instincts connected with the continuation of the species,
where the action benefits others - that is to say, the offspring of the crea-
ture performing it.
We must now examine the cases in which a solidarity 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 harmonious as-
sociation of individual workers. This community of instinct exists also
among the higher animals, but here it is harder to distinguish from asso-
ciations originating through conscious will, inasmuch as speech supplies
the means of a more perfect intercommunication of aim and plan. We
shall, however, definitely recognise {129} this general effect of a univer-
sal 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 simplest 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 physiognomy, are so imperfect that the harmony
and interconnection 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 constructed a number of the largest
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