Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/297

 which the special peculiar nature of a thing is indicated, so that the specific peculiarity of its nature is at once suggested by this external quality. This may be found in men in the natural state, and in the animal too this connection between itself and external quality is much more marked than in educated men. An animal is driven by instinct toward that which it requires for its sustenance; it consumes only certain things, and leaves all else untouched. Its relation to things consists in this, that it places itself over against its other only, not what is other in general, and does away with the opposition. Thus it has an instinct for the herbs, by means of which it is cured when ill. In the same way the deadly look, the smell of plants are, for the natural man, indications of their hurtfulness, of their poisonous character. He is more sensitive to anything harmful than the civilised man is, and the instinct of animals is still surer than the natural consciousness of man, for this last impairs animal instinct. It may thus be said that the natural man sees into the heart of things, apprehends their specific qualities more correctly. This, however, is the case only with reference to such specific qualities as are wholly and exclusively of a finite character. This instinct sees into the heart of particular things, but into the source of the life of things generally, into this divine heart, its glance cannot penetrate. The very same conditions are found in sleep, in somnambulism. Experience shows that men have a natural consciousness of this kind. The natural consciousness has become quiescent here, and, on the other hand, the inner sense has awakened, and of this latter it may be said that its knowledge is far more in identity with the world and with surrounding things than that of the waking state. Thence it comes that this condition has been held to be higher than the healthy one. It can actually happen that men may have a consciousness of things which take place a thousand miles away. Among