Why mechanical? Should not “with apparent certainty” suffice?
“Hence comes its unconscious character.”
But for the word “mechanical” this is true, and is what we have been all along insisting on.
“It knows nothing either of ends, or of the means of attaining them; it implies no comparison, judgment, or choice.”
This is assumption. What is certain is that instinct does not betray signs of self-consciousness as to its own knowledge. It has dismissed reference to first principles, and is no longer under the law, but under the grace of a settled conviction.
“All seems directed by thought.”
Yes; because all has been in earlier existences directed by thought.
“Without ever arriving at thought.”
Because it has got past thought, and though “directed by thought” originally, is now travelling in exactly the opposite direction. It is not likely to reach thought again, till people get to know worse and worse how to do things, the oftener they practise them.
“And if this phenomenon appear strange, it must be observed that analogous states occur in ourselves. All that we do from habit—walking, writing, or practising a mechanical act, for instance—all these and many other very complex acts are performed without consciousness.