20

adn Address

mental Instincts (self-preservation, and so on)—
these are present in children and adults, What
I wish to make clear is that beside these universal
primal Instincts (which are the motive power of
all animal life) we have a vast unconscious Mind
that is always active, and a much vaster personal
experience than our conscious Reason can pretend
 to.
A simple consideration will explain what I
mean. If I walk down the street with my mind
busily engaged and absorbed in some remote
train of thought, I observe nothing (though automatically
 I guide my steps none the worse for
that) ; but afterwards, when I am aroused from
my abstraction, I may remember to have seen
certain persons or things on my way. The
longer my abstraction continues, the less I recall :
but that I consciously remember anything which
I did not consciously observe at the time, shows
that experience was unconsciously recorded ; and
much that I never remember, and never shall
remember, was likewise recorded. It is even
probable, with some of us at least, that when we
peruse a column of the newspaper, our eyes may