A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

THE COSMOS: THE MICROCOSM. 273>can be brought back under the control of the will. Eachmuscle of the body can be brought under control. Thisis perfectly well known. So the proof is, therefore, compl?te,by double method of agreement and difference. Theproof is complete, that what we now call instinct is degeneration of voluntary actions ; therefore, if the analogymust apply to the whole of creation, if all nature is uniform,,what is instinct in lower animals, as well as in men, must bethe degeneration of will.Applying the law we found in the case of the macrocosm, that each involution presupposes an evolution, andeach evolution an involution, what is instinct therefore ?Involved reason. So all this which we call instinct in menor animals, must, therefore, be involved, degenerated voluntary actions and voluntary actions are impossible withoutexperience. Experience started that knowledge, and thatknowledge is there. This fear of death, this going intothe water and all these involuntary actions in the humanbeing, are the result of past experiences, now become instinct. So far, we have proceeded very clearly, and so far,the latest science is with us. But here comes, one moredifficulty. The latest scientific men are comingback tothe ancient sages, and as far as they have done so, there isperfect agreement. They admit that each man and eachanimal is born with a fund of experience, they admit thatall these actions in the mind are the result of experience,but what, they ask, is the use of saying that that experiencebelongs to the soul. Why not say it belongs to the body,and the body alone ; why not say it is hereditary transmission ? This is the last question. Why not say that allthe experience with which I am born is the resultant effectof all the past experience of my ancestors ? The sum-totalof the experience from the little protoplasm up to the18