Even in situations of safety, imagination often wins over reason: witness the popularity of religion and myth. But faced with danger, imagination often forcefully exerts itself, sending reason scurrying. Anyone who has failed to reason away stage fright will get Charles Darwin’s point:
But our reason telling us that there is no danger does not suffice. I may mention a trifling fact, illustrating this point, and which at the time amused me. I put my face close to the thick glass plate in front of a puff-adder in the Zoological Gardens, with the firm determination of not starting back if the snake struck at me; but, as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing, and I jumped a yard or two backwards with astonishing rapidity. My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger which had never been experienced.
(Quoted from page 77 of The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent, by Lynne A. Isbell. Harvard University Press, 2009. Original source: page 38 of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin, 1872.)
For a brief biography of Charles Darwin, click here. For images of or relating to Charles Darwin, click here.
For a brief biography of Lynne A. Isbell, click here. For images of or relating to Lynne A. Isbell, click here.
But our reason telling us that there is no danger does not suffice. I may mention a trifling fact, illustrating this point, and which at the time amused me. I put my face close to the thick glass plate in front of a puff-adder in the Zoological Gardens, with the firm determination of not starting back if the snake struck at me; but, as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing, and I jumped a yard or two backwards with astonishing rapidity. My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger which had never been experienced.
(Quoted from page 77 of The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent, by Lynne A. Isbell. Harvard University Press, 2009. Original source: page 38 of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin, 1872.)
For a brief biography of Charles Darwin, click here. For images of or relating to Charles Darwin, click here.
For a brief biography of Lynne A. Isbell, click here. For images of or relating to Lynne A. Isbell, click here.
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