INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES 
 
 M E M O K Y 
 
 WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID KAY, F. R. G. S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " EDUCATION AND EDUCATORS," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 D, APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1914 
 

 
 COPYRIGHT, 1888. 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 THERE is no topic in educational psychology more 
 important than that of memory and its cultivation. 
 Memory is indispensable in all intellectual processes, 
 and therefore must be trained and developed. But it 
 is liable to prove destructive to the other faculties (so 
 called) and supplant them ; hence it must be restrained 
 within its proper limits, made auxiliary to the other 
 faculties, and not allowed to assume the chief role. It 
 is a matter of every-day comment that much memoriz- 
 ing deadens the power of thought verbal or statistical 
 memory being "mechanical." But it is also equally 
 true that memory may paralyze the powers of sense- 
 perception, imagination, and will. With an overactive 
 memory we suppose ourselves tcf see in an object what 
 we remember to have seen in it before, and any new 
 features escape our superficial perception. This is true, 
 too, in the case of imagination, the power which ought 
 to be productive as well as reproductive, and by which 
 we ought to envisage not only real objects but possible 
 ones, and thereby sharpen our powers of invention and 
 discovery. Even the imagination may be dulled by a 
 too active memory, and degenerate into a mirror of the 
 
 360461 
 
VI EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 past. The productive imagination should belong not 
 only to poets and artists, but to all men, as a faculty of 
 discovering ideals and emancipating us from the imper- 
 fect reality. It should give us a tendency to invention 
 and to aspiration. But, under the weight of prescribed 
 forms and the sway of memory, a civilization crushes 
 out self-activity on the part of individuals and imposes 
 the role of external authority upon all. Thus the will 
 of the individual loses freedom, and settles down into 
 passive obedience to custom and prescription. 
 
 The important question to determine is the proper 
 amount of memory-cultivation. The Chinese education 
 fills the memory with maxims of Confucius and Men- 
 cius, and the individual follows these because there is 
 little else in his mind : their lines are graven so deep 
 that nothing else seems important. 
 
 The antidote for this baneful effect of memory is to 
 be sought in a method of training that associates effects 
 with causes, and individuals with species ; that associates 
 one idea with another through its essential relations, and 
 not by its accidental properties. One must put thought 
 into the act of memory. 
 
 Memory is not one faculty, so to speak, but a con- 
 dition of activity of all faculties. There is one memory 
 of places, another memory of the names of places ; one 
 memory of persons, and another memory of names of 
 persons; still another memory of dates; another of 
 principles and causes ; and so on. The cultivation of one 
 species of memory may assist or it may hinder another 
 kind of memory, according as the mental activity by 
 which the attention is fixed on one subject aids or hin- 
 ders the mental activity of the other kind of memory. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. v ii 
 
 " Hence," says Mr. Kay (page 13), " we may cultivate 
 the memory for persons without at all improving 
 that for places, and a good memory for colors may 
 afford little help toward the remembrance of forms." 
 On the other hand, the memory of names assists the 
 memory of persons, and that of places assists that of 
 forms. 
 
 The cases are rare in which a person has a weak 
 memory in all directions. 
 
 In considering the question of improving the mem- 
 ory, therefore, the individual must ask in what respect 
 he is defective ; is it dates, or names, or something else 
 that he fails to remember ? Moreover, it is necessary 
 to ask whether it is important to remember those items 
 that he forgets so easily whether, in short, it is worth 
 while to acquire a habit of remembering them. For 
 instance, as children we remembered village gossip, per- 
 sonal remarks, actions, or things and events, that are so 
 trivial that we do not permit ourselves now to interest 
 ourselves in them or recall them. Do we not find, in fact, 
 our memories of those insipid things and events of child- 
 hood still too vivid ? We are apt to speak of children, 
 for this very reason, as having strong memories. But 
 would we willingly have again our childish memories ? 
 Would it content us to notice trivial circumstances and 
 overlook essential matters ? If so, it is easy to gratify 
 our desire by cultivating the childish form of memory. 
 We may give our attention to the accidental features of 
 an event, to the details of trivial gossip, and neglect the 
 main issues and the causal processes. It will naturally 
 result, then, that we shall remember as children remem- 
 ber, with the difference that we shall find ourselves able 
 
yiii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 to do a far greater amount of superficial observation 
 and recollection than children can do. 
 
 Attention is regarded as the condition of memory 
 (see Chapter VII). Attention implies a selection of a 
 small province of the field before us, and a neglect of 
 the rest. Hence the training of attention implies also 
 a cultivation of neglect, j As we grow mature in our 
 intellectual power we increase in our ability to seize the 
 objects of our choice and to pass over without notice all 
 others. The person without a well-developed power of 
 attention is in a state of passivity toward invading ex- 
 ternal influences. He is a prey to impressions that 
 come from his environment. Most of these u early im- 
 pressions," of which we hear so much, were received at 
 a time when trivial things could seize upon us and ab- 
 sorb our powers of observation to the neglect of more 
 essential things. Such passive impressibility, the con- 
 dition of the childish memory, it is the object of educa- 
 tion to eradicate. The pupil must learn to exclude and 
 ignore the many things before him, and to concentrate 
 all his powers of mind on the one chosen subject. Mr. 
 Kay truly remarks (page 259), " It is as one is able to 
 shut out every other object, every other idea, even self, 
 from the mind that he attains the highest degree of 
 mental power." 
 
 It follows that the discipline of attention makes the 
 memory uneven or unequal. The study of relations 
 weakens our memory of mere isolated data. The study 
 of general ideas causes us to be careless in regard to 
 specific details that naturally follow as effects. Our in- 
 sight into laws weakens our hold of special instances. 
 Knowing the law of eclipses, we can calculate all past 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. J x 
 
 and all future instances, and we do not care to burden 
 our memory with the historical record of eclipses. Our 
 attention to the meaning of a word weakens our mem- 
 ory of its sound ; attention to a person's character makes 
 us less careful to remember his costume. 
 
 While, therefore, it is a correct educational maxim 
 that the memory must be trained on essential relations 
 and causal processes so as to strengthen the power of 
 thought at the same time, yet there may be excess even 
 in this direction. We find, accordingly, people whose 
 memory of dates is so defective as to cause much waste 
 of power ; other persons are so forgetful of names as to 
 be under constant embarrassment in conversation or in 
 writing. 
 
 It is a reasonable thing to correct special defects in 
 the lower orders of memory when they become matters 
 of serious embarrassment. Those special powers of 
 memory should in that case be strengthened. It is a 
 perception of this necessity that has led to systems of 
 mnemonics. The common device of such systems has 
 been association of the items of one province of memory 
 with those of another. The items easily forgotten are 
 fastened, so to speak, to items easily remembered 
 names or dates, for example, to places or events. As it 
 often happens that the items of one order are not re- 
 lated to the other order by the principle of causality or 
 genetic development, it happens that the mnemonic 
 association by which memory of a particular kind is to 
 be strengthened, is merely an accidental relation of the 
 items associated. Contiguity of space or accidental re- 
 semblance in sound is to assist us to remember. By 
 mnemonics we cultivate a habit of consciously seeking 
 
X EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 such accidental relations, and we accordingly injure our 
 power of logical thought by neglecting essential for un- 
 essential relations. Our author (page 281) condemns 
 such mnemonic devices severely " The wrong associa- 
 tion of ideas in the mind is a source of endless mis- 
 chief," and quotes Locke as saying : " The connection 
 in our minds of ideas, in themselves loose and inde- 
 pendent of one another, has such an influence and is of 
 so great force to set us wrong in our actions, as well 
 moral and natural, passions, reasonings, and notions 
 themselves, that perhaps there is not any one thing that 
 deserves more to be looked after." 
 
 An example of this wrong method : Gregor von 
 Feinaigle's " New Art of Memory " (London, 1812) says 
 that " the recollection of ideas is assisted by associating 
 some idea of relation between them ; and as we find by 
 experience that whatever is ludicrous is calculated to 
 make a strong impression upon the mind, the more 
 ridiculous the association is the better." Think of an 
 effort of the mind to discover absurd and ridiculous re- 
 lations between ideas with a view to remember them ! 
 That were to cultivate memory at the expense of sane, 
 rational thought. 
 
 The true method of cultivating and strengthening a 
 defective memory is to practice it on the kind of items 
 that it easily forgets. A few such items must be memo- 
 rized and reviewed daily, adding a small increment to 
 the list as soon as it has become perfectly mastered. A 
 list with fifty items thus memorized will suffice to de- 
 velop a habit of attention to such items and a power of 
 recalling them, which will grow steadily with such exer- 
 cise as circumstances bring occasion for. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE, x | 
 
 A personal example may be related. The writer, 
 when in his eighteenth year, was embarrassed by the 
 feebleness of his memory for dates. He commenced 
 learning a list of the dates of accession of English 
 kings William the Conqueror in 1066, William Rufus 
 in 1087, etc. three or four dates the first day ; two new 
 ones added the second day ; one new one added the 
 third day ; thereafter less often. Constant review by- 
 and-by made the entire list familiar. It had to be 
 learned anew a year after, and once again after some 
 years of neglect. But the memory for dates grew 
 steadily, and, without conscious effort, dates and num- 
 bers soon came to be seized with a firmer grasp than 
 before. This kind of memory still increases with the 
 writer from year to year, and, although it is not by any 
 means a phenomenal memory, it is very serviceable. 
 
 A similar cultivation of the special memory for 
 proper names (which in the writer's case had become 
 very weak and threatened to go altogether) has proved 
 serviceable. 
 
 The special kind of memory that is weak should be 
 cultivated by itself and not attached to some other form 
 of memory. The simile of a magnet is to the point 
 here. Load it to-day with iron filings, and to-morrow 
 it will support a few more. The memory, if only strong 
 enough to retain a single item with effort, will grow 
 stronger by the effort, and will soon retain two items, 
 and finally others in vast numbers and without effort. 
 
 By this method we avoid fantastic associations and 
 correct the weak faculty itself, instead of fastening its 
 work on another faculty. Let the exercise be a list of 
 dates valuable to retain for themselves. Or, if it is 
 
Xli EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 names that one wishes to remember, select a list of im- 
 portant persons that furnish centers of historical infor- 
 mation ; such, for example, as the names of the Roman 
 emperors, the English and the French kings, the heroes 
 of Plutarch's histories ; or of typical personalities, such 
 as the characters in Shakespeare's dramas or in Homer's 
 " Iliad " items of world-historical importance. 
 
 A list of one hundred proper names learned in their 
 order, as kings of France and of England, and the em- 
 perors of Rome, will furnish central nuclei to historic 
 material, and the memorizing of such a list, or, indeed, 
 a list half as large, will so discipline the memory for 
 names as to permanently remove all embarrassment 
 from this source. It is not the length of the list, 
 so much as the thoroughness with which it is learned, 
 that develops the memory. It is not well to go on be- 
 yond a hundred items, for the reason that such mechani- 
 cal memory should not be made too strong. Idiots and 
 semi-idiots may show prodigious powers. of remember- 
 ing numbers, and very feeble intellects may be excep- 
 tionally apt in remembering names and other words. 
 Therefore, while there should be some special train- 
 ing to strengthen varieties of mechanical memory that 
 have become too weak for the service required of them, 
 they should not be over-cultivated. 
 
 Repetition and careful attention should be relied 
 upon more than association in the cultivation of the 
 mechanical varieties of memory, for the reason that as- 
 sociation, though more showy and brilliant in its effects 
 than repetition and attention, is not so much a correc- 
 tion of the special province of memory defective as a 
 substitution of another province of memory for the de- 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. Xlft 
 
 fective one. Memory of places, for example, is substi- 
 tuted vicariously for memory of numbers or names. 
 
 The author of this book, Mr. Kay, devotes the first 
 four chapters to a discussion of the physiological side of 
 memory not, however, with much reference to the re- 
 cent special researches in physiological psychology. 1 
 This is just as well, perhaps, for there is nothing strictly 
 physiological thus far discovered that is of much prac- 
 tical value in the educational treatment of memory. 
 Much, it is true, has been located or partially located in 
 the brain and nervous system, and diseases of the mem- 
 ory may with some degree of certainty be connected 
 with accompanying lesions in the brain. But whether 
 these lesions are causes or effects, or both, we are not 
 able to cure an ordinary case of failing memory except 
 by pure psychological means-^amdjj_bj_attention, 
 mental association, and repetition- doubtless affecting 
 the brain thereby, but through free acts of the will. 2 
 We can affect the brain through the effort of the will 
 on the memory, but we can not as yet develop the 
 i^emory through body-culture. 
 
 1 There is no reference, for example, to the labors of Wundt, 
 Waitz, Volkmann, James Ward, Ebbinghaus, Fechner, Meynert, 
 Spitzka, Plourens, Hartwig, or to Ribot's " Diseases of the Memory." 
 
 2 An example of the vagueness and uncertainty of attempted 
 physiological statements of the facts of mind is seen in the case of 
 Herbert Spencer's law (quoted on page 285) : " Two ideas will co- 
 here feebly or thoroughly according as the correlative nervous states 
 involve a feeble or a strong discharge along the lines of nervous 
 connection ; and hence a large wave of feeling, implying as it does 
 a voluminous discharge in all directions, renders such two ideas more 
 coherent." Compare with this the counter-doctrine of Mr. Kay (on 
 page 299) : " Emotion, passion, and other feelings that are of a dif- 
 fusive nature and affect the brain generally, prevent action along 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Aside from this exception (of the more recent au- 
 thorities) Mr. Kay has everywhere supported his state- 
 ments by copious quotations from the literature of the 
 subject. More than one thousand well-chosen citations 
 from nearly two hundred authors are given, and the 
 reader may see the drift of past investigation and theory 
 on the subject. 
 
 It may be added that Aristotle's profound insight 
 into the nature of the soul and its powers deserves more 
 study. In his "De Anima" that philosopher places 
 memory with the phantasy, the activity of sense-percep- 
 tion, and the discursive intellect, as together constitut- 
 ing the " passive reason " (Nofc TraOrjTi/cos). He consid- 
 ers this part of the soul perishable or moribund. This 
 thought of the perishability of such faculties in the on- 
 ward career of the soul has quite another and deeper 
 meaning than that usually attributed to it. Memory 
 and sense-perception become less and less prominent 
 factors in the human mind, and in some departments 
 they already occupy a very inferior position. In arith- 
 metic and geometry, for example, we deduce the special 
 instance rather than observe it and memorize it. In 
 each of the natural sciences an epoch of observation 
 closes with an exhaustive inventory of its details, and 
 there follows an epoch in which the whole compass of 
 details is organized into a system by means of a discov- 
 ery of the laws and modes of action of the organic en- 
 limited tracts. Hence the apparent antagonism between our feel- 
 ings and our intellect, the one acting, as it were, in direct opposition 
 to the other ; . . . our past feelings are very difficult to recall," etc. 
 Professor Bain also indorses this to the effect that " emotion spurns 
 nice distinctions, and incapacitates the mind for feeling them." 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. XV 
 
 ergy that produces the facts. Each fact is then seen in 
 the perspective of its history, or of its genesis, and thus 
 thoroughly explained ; but with such explanation the 
 scaffolding of original facts that were inventoried and sys- 
 tematized falls away, and all observation of new facts in 
 the province becomes a mere verification of the known 
 mode of action of the energy. Agassiz, having learned 
 the principles of biological structure, recognizes a new 
 fish from one of its scales, and can tell with confidence 
 its structure and conditions of living. It is not a mat- 
 ter of memory, but of direct insight. So Ouvier can see 
 the whole animal in one of its bones, and Lyell see in 
 each pebble its entire history. Goethe's allegorical 
 " Homunculus " l symbolizes this new achievement in 
 the scientific mind. The little living being confined in 
 a bottle figures the final career of induction which has 
 arrived at insight or intuition. Having exhaustively 
 surveyed its limited field, each special science seizes 
 upon the organizing principle and can predict facts or 
 recognize and explain them at sight. When we can 
 see each immediate fact in the perspective of its gene- 
 sis or history, we have no use for memory which pre- 
 serves for us facts and events isolated from their pro- 
 ducing and deducing causes. Memory is moribund, 
 and in province after province it is losing its impor- 
 tance. A fact-producing principle is seized and the 
 facts are kept no longer in vast storehouses, for they 
 can be deduced when wanted, or, if encountered in our 
 experience, they can be explained and dismissed. We 
 look beyond them to their causes, and let sense-percep- 
 tion and memory of such facts both drop. The relative 
 1 See the " Second Part of Faust," 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 amount of activity of sense-perception, of memory, and 
 of mere reflection on accidental relations (1/01)9 TraOrjTt- 
 #09), continually diminishes, and the thinking on princi- 
 ples, causes, and organic processes (1/01)9 TTOI^TIKO^ in- 
 creases. 
 
 WILLIAM T. 
 CONCORD, MASS., August, 1888. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 MANY years ago the present author contributed an 
 article on " Mnemonics " to the Eighth Edition 
 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; and since that time, as 
 indeed before, the subject of memory has had, for him, 
 a special interest. The more, however, he studied 
 Systems of Mnemonics the less satisfactory did he find 
 them to be. They are all based on imperfect or 
 mistaken views of the true nature of memory ; and 
 the striking effects sometimes produced by them are 
 mere tricks of mental association, which do nothing 
 towards the improvement of the higher parts of 
 memory, or its development as a whole. A pretty ex- 
 tensive reading of works on Mental Philosophy threw 
 light on many points connected with this faculty ; but 
 it was only when he came to view it in connection with 
 the facts of Physiology that he arrived at what he 
 believes to be a right understanding of it. 
 
 Physiology shows the close and intimate connection 
 that subsists between mind and body. From it we 
 learn that every thought that passes through the 
 mind, every sensation we experience, every act we do, 
 produces some definite change in our bodily structure, 
 so, that there is reason to believe that there is a par- 
 ticular state of the body corresponding to every state 
 or act of the mind. This change is permanent, and 
 
Xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 constitutes in the author's view the physical basis of 
 memory, the type of which may be seen in the scar of 
 a cut finger which remains long after the wound itself 
 is healed, and never wholly disappears. The change 
 so effected is not confined to the brain, but extends to 
 all the parts of the body in which it originally took 
 place. 
 
 When one performs a set of movements for the first 
 time, he may find considerable difficulty in doing so, 
 owing to the unadaptedness of the parts concerned. 
 These parts, however, retain certain traces of what has 
 taken place in them, so that when the movements come 
 to be performed a second time, the difficulty attending 
 them is somewhat less; and thus at length, through 
 frequent repetition, what was at first accomplished with 
 difficulty, comes to be performed with the greatest 
 ease. Along with this increased ease, the muscles that 
 have been in action are observed to acquire greater size 
 and firmness, according to some, in consequence of an 
 increase in size of the existing fibres, but according to 
 others, with more probability, through the growth of 
 new fibres. And as with the muscles so with the 
 senses. The trained sense is capable of apprehending 
 what to the untrained sense is imperceptible, owing to 
 the greater aptitude of the sense-organ through train- 
 ing. Nor can it be held to be different with our intel- 
 lectual faculties. The trained reasoner readily detects 
 fallacies in an argument, in consequence of the part of 
 the brain where the reasoning faculty has its seat 
 having been developed by exercise. Men act as they 
 have been accustomed to act, they observe best what 
 they have frequently observed, not merely on account 
 of changes effected in the brain, but also in the muscles 
 and organs of sense. The will has by no means that 
 power over our actions, or even our thoughts, that is 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 commonly supposed. A man cannot at will change his 
 gait, his handwriting, his voice, nor even his modes of 
 thought, simply because the parts concerned in these 
 have developed in the direction in which they have 
 been exercised, and cannot readily act otherwise. 
 
 When we recall to mind with any degree of distinct- 
 ness an act we have previously done, the similarity 
 between this and the original doing of it is so great as 
 to favour the opinion that the same parts are concerned 
 in the one as in the other. When we repeat an act a 
 second time, some traces of the first act remain and 
 render the second more easy; and may we not well 
 suppose that these traces have also something to do in 
 the recollection of it ? And as with our actions so with 
 our sensations and thoughts, the changes wrought by 
 them in our bodily structure may well be supposed to 
 be concerned in the recollection of them. 
 
 It is the author's opinion, then, that whatever parts 
 are concerned in the production of a sensation, or in 
 effecting a movement, the same parts are necessary to 
 a full and complete recollection of it. Thus, the senses 
 are not only necessary for the receiving of impressions, 
 but are also concerned in the recollection of them, and 
 the muscles are not only requisite for the performance 
 of actions, but are necessary also for the remembrance of 
 them. This is particularly the case in the highest form 
 of memory, the "representative" or "imaginative," 
 where the past impression is recalled with almost all 
 the vividness and distinctness of the original. 
 
 Physiologists, however, almost without exception, 
 assert that the brain alone is the seat of the memory. 
 They are shut up to this view from holding that 
 the nerves are capable of conveying impresuions only 
 in one direction, sensory nerves only to the brain, 
 motor nerves only from the brain. Hence, when a 
 
XX AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 sensation passes from an organ of sense to the biam it 
 is there treasured up for the after use of the memory. 
 According to this view there is no way by which the 
 mind can communicate with the organ of sense, or 
 take cognisance of its condition. A man ignorant of 
 Physiology believes that he feels an object at the points 
 of his fingers, but the Physiologist steps in and says 
 that he can feel it only in his brain, because the nerves 
 of sensation carry impressions only to the brain. Ac- 
 cording to Sir W. Hamilton, however, " we have no 
 more right to deny that the mind feels at the finger 
 points, as consciousness assures us, than to assert that 
 it thinks exclusively in the brain ". " The organ of 
 the mind/' says Prof. Bain, " is not the brain by it- 
 self : it is the brain, nerves, muscles, organs of sense, 
 viscera." 
 
 It was formerly held that nerves conveyed impres- 
 sions only in one direction owing to a difference in 
 their nature or structure, but this is now found not to 
 be the case, for each class of nerves is capable of con- 
 veying impressions in either direction. If the end of a 
 sensory nerve be united with the end of a motor nerve, 
 the excitation of the sensory may be transmitted to the 
 motor fibres, and the reverse. A careful consideration 
 of the subject has led the author to regard each class 
 of nerves as capable of conveying impressions in either 
 direction, sensory nerves, while primarily afferent, 
 being secondarily efferent, and motor nerves, while pri- 
 marily efferent, being secondarily afferent. Hence a 
 sensory nerve in sensation is afferent conveying an 
 impression to the brain, whereas in perception and in 
 recollection it is efferent conveying an impulse from 
 the brain to the organ of sense. Speaking of a similar 
 view, Prof. M'Kendrick says that it "is quite consistent 
 with all the facts of nervous physiology, and presents 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Xxi 
 
 fewer difficulties than the one generally held". (Art. 
 " Physiology," in Encyclopedia Britannica, Ninth Edi- 
 tion, 1885.) As strengthening the view that the mind 
 is in connection with all parts of the nervous system, 
 it is to be borne in mind that there is no essential dif- 
 ference between the nervous matter of the brain and 
 that of the numerous ganglia throughout the body, and 
 recent physiological investigations show that the axis 
 cylinder of the nerve fibres is identical with the proto- 
 plasmic substance of the nerve cells the latter being 
 simply "nucleated enlargements of the axial cylinder". 
 
 The importance of this doctrine to the view here 
 advocated is that it enables us to explain how the mind 
 can communicate with the organs of sense or the 
 muscles in recalling past sensations or movements. 
 Unless the same parts are concerned in the recalled 
 sensation as were active in the original, it is difficult 
 to see how they should so closely resemble each other. 
 It is well known that if we close our eyes and think 
 intently on a particular colour, the retina becomes ex- 
 hausted for the reception of that colour, exactly as if 
 we had been actually gazing upon it. The artist who 
 can recall to mind a scene he has once looked upon, so 
 vividly that he can paint it from memory, as if it were 
 actually before his eyes, must be supposed to have the 
 power of again projecting on the retina the impression 
 previously made on it. 
 
 Philosophers recognise an essential difference between 
 sensation and perception. In sensation an impression 
 is conveyed inward from an organ of sense to the brain 
 and awakens consciousness ; in perception the awakened 
 consciousness goes out, as it were, upon the sensation, 
 distinguishes it from other sensations, and localises it. 
 In the former it is known that an impulse passes from 
 an organ of sense to the brain, and in the latter it 
 
Xxii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 would seem that an impulse passes from the brain to 
 the organ of sense. 
 
 Every idea in the mind must have entered it by 
 some sense, and in order to its fall and complete recall, 
 it is believed that it must be again projected or imaged 
 in an organ of sense. Even the most abstract of our 
 . ideas are abstracts of sensations belonging to some sense, 
 which is also concerned in the recollection of them. 
 In order to think on a subject it is necessary to put it 
 out as it were from the mind. "Thought," saysHeyse, 
 "is not even present to the thinker till he has set it 
 forth out of himself." By thus putting forth his ideas 
 they become as it were objects of sense, and doubtless 
 the senses are concerned in them. Thus the senses are 
 not only necessaiy for the recollection of our sensations, 
 but even of our ideas. 
 
 Holding, then, that the seat of the memory is not 
 the brain alone but also the organs of sense and the 
 muscles, it is evident that in order to improve the 
 memory special attention must be given to the training, 
 of the senses. This is to be done by first training 
 them to observe carefully what is before them, and then 
 making them recall or reproduce what has been pre- 
 sented to them, as accurately as possible. These two 
 are distinct. The one depends on attention, the other 
 on association, and frequently recalling what is in the 
 mind. In attention the great thing is to concentrate 
 the mind upon one thing at a time till it is thoroughly 
 mastered. In association we must seek to bring 
 together and associate those ideas that most nearly 
 resemble each other, and that we wish to recall each 
 other. By frequently recalling our knowledge, we, as 
 it were, strengthen and facilitate the means of com* 
 munication between the senses and the brain. 
 Jn order that a movement or change in any part of 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Xxiii 
 
 the body may be taken up and apprehended by the 
 mind, it is necessary that a mental image of it be 
 formed. The mind can take no account of any move- 
 ments or changes that may be taking place in the body, 
 except in so far as they give rise to mental images, and 
 according to the clearness and accuracy of the image 
 which is formed will be the hold taken of it by the 
 memory. These images, it is believed, have their seat 
 not only in the brain, but, like the memory and the 
 mind itself, embrace also an organ of sense or certain 
 of the muscles. 
 
 As it is held that every motion, sensation, and 
 thought leaves its permanent traces in our physical 
 structure, it naturally follows that every thought or 
 impression that has once been consciously before the 
 mind never afterwards entirely passes from it. It may 
 never again come up consciously before the mind, but 
 it will remain in the region of unconsciousness, giving 
 a colour or bias, it may be, to all our after-thoughts and 
 feelings. Hence the most sanguine hopes may be 
 entertained with regard to the possibilities for im- 
 proving the memory. What an unspeakable advantage 
 it would be to a man if everything that he had evei 
 read, or heard, or seen, or thought, or done, could 
 be so laid up in his mind that he should be able to 
 recall it at any time he might wish to do so ; and who 
 shall say that this is impossible? At least there are 
 cases recorded of men having had such memories. 
 
 The author has little faith in Arts for improving the 
 memory in two or three lessons, but he has unbounded 
 faith in systems of education, properly conducted, to 
 effect incredible improvements in this direction. Chil- 
 dren in their earliest years manifest great power of 
 memory, and they learn to speak and understand their 
 mother-tongue in a very short space of time. This 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 power is said to be speedily lost, but it may well be 
 questioned whether it is not destroyed by wrong 
 methods of teaching. Whatever the child sees it looks 
 at with its whole mind, whatever it hears its whole 
 mind is bent upon it, but as soon as its education begins 
 all this is changed. It is set to learn the alphabet, and 
 here it has three tasks put before it at once. A letter 
 is presented to its eye which perhaps it has never seen 
 before, and it is expected to form a visual image of it ; a 
 sound is addressed to its ear, and an auditory image 
 has to be formed of it, and it is expected to pronounce 
 it all at the same time. Now, if there is any truth in the 
 principles here laid down, they clearly show that a 
 child cannot learn two things at the same time without 
 great loss of power and injury to the parts concerned. 
 If we would observe and follow nature, then, the ear 
 should be first of all accustomed to the sounds of the 
 different letters before seeing them, or even being re- 
 quired to pronounce them. Then, when it is familiar 
 with the sounds of the different letters, let it be taught 
 to pronounce them, and only when it can do this accu- 
 rately should it be made acquainted with the forms. 
 In like manner, in learning a foreign language, the 
 different sounds should first be mastered by the ear 
 and tongue before the words are presented to the eye. 
 Further remarks on this subject will be found in the 
 last chapter. 
 
 It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of 
 this subject as bearing upon education. The whole 
 science of education may be said to be embraced in the 
 question of " How to improve the memory ? " It includes 
 not merely the cultivation of the different mental 
 faculties and furnishing them with knowledge, but the 
 training of the senses, and the developing of the various 
 physical powers. Every act in the training or cultiva- 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XXV 
 
 tion of any power or faculty depends on memory ; all 
 the habits we form are built up through it. If the 
 author's views on this subject are correct, then the 
 whole system of education as at present conducted is 
 on a wrong basis. Instead of the communication of 
 knowledge being made the means of improving the 
 memory, the interests of the memory are sacrificed in 
 order that it may be crammed with as much knowledge 
 as possible without regard to the permanent injury that 
 may thereby be done to it. It has been the author's 
 endeavour throughout the volume to bring out the 
 practical bearings of his views upon education. 
 
 In dealing with this subject the author has found 
 himself in a great measure on unexplored territory. 
 No other writer on Memory or Mnemonics has, so far 
 as he is aware, taken up the same ground. 1 Even the 
 authors he has followed, and to whom he feels deeply 
 
 1 Professor Loisette largely advertises a system of improving the 
 memory, which he calls "The Physiological Art of Never For- 
 getting ". The art is only taught or communicated under a strict 
 promise of secrecy, so that the author has had no means of 
 becoming acquainted with it ; but judging from the Prospectus 
 he believes that it proceeds on the same lines as here laid down. 
 It is said to differ from the hitherto taught systems of mnemonics 
 in using none of the "associations," "localities," "links," "pegs," 
 " keys," &c., of the latter ; but to be based on physiological principles 
 and to employ nature's own process of remembering, statements 
 which are likewise applicable to the present system. One of his 
 pupils mentions, as an instance of the advantages he had derived 
 from the system, that at a party he was able to name fifty different 
 articles placed on a table in a private room, after simply taking a 
 deliberate look at each, while none of the others could master more 
 than nineteen. This doubtless he could not have done had it not 
 formed an essential part of his training, and this is exactly the 
 method here recommended. The Professor tells us that he believes 
 his system " is destined to work as great a revolution in educational 
 methods as Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood in 
 physiology," but it is difficult to see how this is to be effected while 
 it is kept a secret. The author, too, believes that his system will 
 effect great improvements in educational methods, and in order thai 
 it may do so, he publishes it without reservation. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 indebted for the support they have afforded him, he 
 has frequently had occasion to differ from. While, 
 therefore, he has endeavoured to express his views with 
 all clearness, he trusts he has also done so with modesty, 
 knowing how liable one is to err in such circumstances, 
 and how little one individual mind can do towards per- 
 fecting the knowledge of such a subject, which calls 
 for the combined labour of many minds working in 
 different fields, in philosophy, in physiology, in educa- 
 tion, &c. 
 
 LONDON, January, 18881 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 MEMORY : WHAT IT is 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 MATTER AND MIND ...... 47 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 THE BODY ...... 64 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE SENSES .......... 125 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 MENTAL IMAGES ....... 202 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS . 227 
 
 CHAPTER 
 ATTENTION ... ..... 251 
 
 CHAPTER 
 ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS .... 271 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 MEMORY: How TO IMPROVE IT. 289 
 
 INDIUC, * t t ' 335 
 
MEMOET. 
 
 'CHAPTER I. 
 MEMORY: WHAT IT is. 
 
 u That we should have it in our power to recall past sensations and thoughts, 
 and make them again present, as it were : that a circumstance of our former life 
 should in respect of us be no more, and yet occur to us, from time to time, dressed 
 out in colours so lively as to enable us to examine it, and judge of it as if it were 
 still an object of sense ; these are facts whereof we every day have experience, and 
 which, therefore, we overlook as things of course ; but surely nothing is more won- 
 derful or more inexplicable/' Dr. James Seattle. 
 
 " So necessary and so excellent a faculty is the memory of man that all other 
 abilities of the mind borrow from hence their beauty and perfection. ... In a 
 word, there is neither knowledge, nor arts, nor sciences without memory ; nor can 
 there be any improvement of mankind in virtue, or morals, or the practice of religion 
 without the assistance and influence of this power." Dr. Isaac Watts. 
 
 " It seems that we owe to memory almost all that we either have or are ; that 
 our ideas and conceptions are its work, and that our every perception, thought, 
 and movement is derived from this source. Memory collects the countless pheno- 
 mena of our existence into a single whole. . . . Our consciousness would be 
 broken up into as many fragments as we have lived seconds but for the binding and 
 Unifying force of memory." Dr. E. Bering. 
 
 MEMOEY is the most important and wonderful of 
 all our faculties. 1 It is that in each individual 
 which records what is constantly passing in his mind,, 
 and treasures it up so that it may afterwards be recalled 
 at will.* Sir William Hamilton calls it "the faculty 
 possessed by the mind of preserving what has once 
 been present to consciousness, so that it may again be 
 recalled and represented in consciousness' 1 . 2 
 
 1 Memory is " designated by Kant the most wonderful of the 
 faculties". Dr. Pick. 
 
 2 " It is that faculty which enables us to treasure up and pre- 
 serve for future use the knowledge we acquire." Dugald Stewart. 
 " Memory is as it were the storehouse of our ideas; for the narrow 
 
2 MEMORY. 
 
 Unless tlio m'ntl possessed the power of treasuring 
 up and recalling its past experiences, no knowledge 
 of any kind could be acquired. If every sensation, 
 thought, or emotion passed entirely from the mind 
 the moment it ceased to be present, then it would be 
 as if it had not been ; and it could not be recognised or 
 named should it happen to return. 1 Such an one would 
 not only be without knowledge, without experience 
 gathered from the past, but without purpose, aim, or 
 plan regarding the future, for these imply knowledge 
 and require memory. Even voluntary motion or motion 
 for a purpose could have no existence without memory, 
 for memory is involved in every purpose. 2 Not only 
 the learning of the scholar, but the inspiration of the 
 poet, the genius of the painter the heroism of the 
 warrior, all depend on memory. Nay, even conscious- 
 ness itself could have no existence without memory, 
 for every act of consciousness involves a change from 
 a past state to a present ; and did the past state vanish 
 the moment it was past, there could be no conscious- 
 ness of change. 8 Memory, therefore, may be said to 
 
 mind of man not being capable of having many ideas under view 
 and contemplation at once, it was necessary to have a repository to 
 lay up those ideas which at another time it might make use of." 
 John Locke. " Memory is the magazine in which are deposited the 
 sensations, facts, and ideas, whose different combinations form 
 knowledge." Helvetius. 
 
 1 " The senses give us information of things only as they exist in 
 the present moment ; and this information, if it were not preserved 
 by memory, would vanish instantly and leave us as ignorant as if it 
 had never been." Dr. T. Reid. 
 
 2 " All our voluntary powers are of the nature of memory ; " and 
 "in morbid affections of the memory the voluntary actions suffer a 
 like change and imperfection". Dr. D. Hartley. 
 
 8 " Consciousness supposes memory ; and we are only conscious as 
 we are able to connect and contrast one instance of our intellectual 
 existence with another." Sir W. Hamilton. "We could not dis- 
 criminate two successive impressions if the first did not persist 
 mentally to be contrasted with the second." Prof. Bain. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 3 
 
 be involved in all conscious existence -a property of 
 every conscious being. 1 
 
 But while everyone must thus of necessity possess 
 some degree of memory, there are few or none that 
 possess it in that degree that they might and should 
 do. 2 The possessor of a good memory is rare, while 
 persons with weak and unreliable memories are, un- 
 fortunately, but too common. They may not be other- 
 wise deficient in natural parts, but their memories are 
 not sufficiently strbng for anything to impress them 
 deeply or for any leJagth of time. All the usual im- 
 pulses to action may be in full force or even in excess, 
 but they lack the wisdom or knowledge necessary in 
 order to act rightly or with a due regard to results. 
 They act usually upon the spur of the moment and 
 are constantly making mistakes. Even the teachings 
 of experience are in a great measure lost upon them 
 from lack of persistence. Such persons are never long 
 in one frame of mind : their joys and griefs, their loves 
 and hates, their purposes and ambitions, are all short- 
 lived. Having no fixed or settled purpose to guide 
 them, they are uncertain in their movements, and 
 their conduct cannot be depended on. In character 
 they are inconstant, flighty, unstable, changeable as 
 the wind, unimpressible as water. They are like the 
 man beholding his face in a glass, of whom we read 
 that " he goeth away and straightway forgetteth what 
 manner of man he was". 8 
 
 1 " From the Archangel to the brute we conceive that something 
 analogous to an organ of memory must be possessed by each." Prof. 
 Druwimond. 
 
 " In some persons the mind retains the characters drawn on it 
 like marble, in others like freestone, and in others little better than 
 sand." John Locke. 
 
 "When memory ifl preternaturally defective, experience and 
 
4 MEMOET, 
 
 A good memory, then, is a matter of the very highest 
 importance, and no pains should be spared in order to 
 acquire it. 1 Its value consists in this, that it treasures 
 up the experiences we have had in the past, so that we 
 can afterwards recall them at will. We cannot in very 
 deed live over again our past years, we cannot bring 
 back yesterday when it is gone, but by means of 
 memory we can recall the mental impressions which 
 these have produced in us, so that we can examine 
 and judge of them, gather knowledge and experience 
 from them, and even derive a measure of pleasure and 
 satisfaction from their contemplation. Thus while, in 
 a sense, the past when once past is gone for ever, in 
 another it is still present with us, instructing, guiding, 
 warning, encouraging us. It enters very largely into 
 our present existence, constitutes the greater part of 
 our intellectual being, and builds up our personality. 2 
 
 knowledge will be deficient in proportion, and imprudent conduct 
 and absurd opinion are the necessary consequence." Dr. Beattie. 
 "A character . . . retaining a feeble hold of bitter experience 
 or genuine delight, and unable to revive afterwards the impressions 
 of the time, is in reality the victim of an intellectual weakness under 
 the guise of a moral weakness." Prof. Bain. 
 
 1 " To have constantly before us an estimate of the things that 
 affect us, true to the reality, is one precious condition for having 
 our will always stimulated with an accurate reference to our happi- 
 ness." Prof. Bain. " The thoroughly educated man, in this respect, 
 is he that can carry with him at all times the exact estimate of w r hat 
 he has enjoyed or suffered from every object that has ever affected 
 him, and in case of encounter can present to the enemy as strong a 
 front as if he were under the genuine impression." Ditto. "A 
 full and accurate memory, for pleasure or for pain, is the intellectual 
 basis both of prudence as regards self and sympathy as regards 
 others." Ditto. 
 
 3 " One of the essential requisites of continued existence is the 
 capability of retaining some sort of hold upon the past." Prof. 
 DrummoncL " By a mind destitute of the faculty of memory neither 
 the ideas of time, nor of motion, nor of personal identity could pos- 
 sibly have been formed." D. Stewart. " Memory gives us the per- 
 
WHAT IT IS. 5 
 
 This constant presentation of the past serves a very 
 important purpose in our mental economy. It throws 
 light upon the present and guides us with regard to the 
 future. Without the past our present ideas would be 
 devoid of all meaning, all intelligibility. It is only as 
 our past ideas and sensations come to interpret and 
 explain our present experiences that we can know or 
 understand them. 1 The sight of a stone, a tree, or a 
 book would convey little meaning to the mind did not 
 memory supply previous impressions of the same kind, 
 which serve to throw light upon it, as the words of a 
 book would be unintelligible did not memory furnish 
 us with the several meanings to be attached to them. 8 
 
 suasion of personal identity during all the changes which may take 
 place in the condition of the body, or in the temper and habits, and 
 external circumstances." Isaac Taylor. "The present state is as- 
 sociated with others which, thrown back and localised in the past, 
 constitute at each moment what we regard as our personality." 
 Th. Bibot. 
 
 1 " This arm-chair, three paces from me, gives my eyes the sensa- 
 tion only of a green patch differently shaded, according to its different 
 parts ; still from this simple visual indication (through previous 
 sensations) I conclude that it is solid, soft, with a certain magnitude 
 and form, and that I may rest myself in it." H. Taine. 
 
 2 " It is frequent for men to say that they see words, and notions, 
 and things in reading a book, whereas, in strictness, they see only 
 the characters which suggest words, notions, and things." Bishop 
 Berkeley. "In looking at a page of print or manuscript ... we 
 seldom recollect that nothing is perceived by the eye but a multitude 
 of black strokes drawn upon white paper, and that it is our own 
 acquired habits which communicate to these strokes the whole of 
 that significancy whereby they are distinguished from the unmeaning 
 scrawling of an infant or a changeling." D. Stewart. Reading " is 
 the memory of the thing signified, incessantly evoked by the graphic 
 
 Luys. 
 
 steps can be recalled", it would seem absurd to say that when the 
 reader takes in at a glance the sentence This is true,' he not only 
 classifies each word with the before known like words, but each 
 letter with the before known like letters." H. Spencer. 
 
 a 
 
6 MEMOBT. 
 
 But it is as serving to guide and direct onr future 
 conduct, to give us judgment, accuracy, and skill in 
 carrying out what we purpose or intend to do, that the 
 value of a good memory is most seen. 1 In regard to 
 any line of conduct or course of action that may lie 
 before us, it is evidently of the greatest importance 
 that we should have present to us, in the mind, the 
 memory of previous actions of the same or a similar 
 kind, for our guidance and direction. If we have par- 
 sued one course of conduct and it has turned out 
 wrong, the remembrance of this should lead us to 
 the adoption of a different course the next time, which 
 may, peradventure, turn out right ; and, on the other 
 hand, if the course we have previously followed be the 
 right one, the memory of this will not fail to strengthen 
 and encourage us to continue in it, while the effect of 
 each repetition, which is but another form of memory, 
 will be to render each succeeding act more easy and 
 natural than the preceding one. 2 
 
 Much of the pleasure and enjoyment of the present 
 is derived from the memory of the past. " The happi- 
 ness of our later life," says Professor Bain, "is in great 
 
 1 " The great purpose to which this faculty is subservient is to 
 enable us to collect and to retain for the future regulation of our 
 conduct the results of our past experience." D. Stewart. il If a man 
 of good genius and sagacity could but retain and survey all those 
 numerous, those wise and beautiful ideas at once which had ever 
 passed through his thoughts upon any one subject, how admiiably 
 would he be furnished to pass a just judgment about all present 
 objects and occurrences." Isaac Watts. 
 
 2 "After each action it (a muscle) is better prepared for action, 
 more disposed to a repetition of the same work, and readier to prac- 
 tise a given organic process. . . . The organic memory thus formed 
 resembles the psychological memory in all but one point, the absence 
 of consciousness." Th. Ribot. "In every nerve-cell there is memory, 
 and not only so, but there is memory in every organic element of the 
 body." Dr. H. Maudsley. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 7 
 
 part made up of the pleasurable memories of early 
 years/' 1 As a general rule, the remembrance of past 
 pleasures is pleasant, and, as has been well said, he 
 who imparts an hour's real enjoyment to another 
 increases the sum of his happiness while the memory 
 of it lasts. 2 The dweller in a foreign land often goes 
 back lovingly in thought to the scenes and incidents 
 that in memory cluster round his early home. 
 
 Frequently the remembrance of experiences that were 
 not at all pleasant, but disagreeable or painful at the 
 time, become sources of pleasure and satisfaction as 
 they are recalled, from having been productive of good 
 or beneficial results. Thus the prosperous man of 
 business looks back with pleasure on the difficulties and 
 hardships of his early years, by which were instilled 
 into him those principles of carefulness, endurance, and 
 self-reliance that have so greatly contributed to his 
 after success. 8 Nor is the remembrance of pain, suf- 
 fering, distress always without certain feelings of plea- 
 sure, as it presents itself to the mind under other or 
 happier circumstances. Even in the midst of our 
 deepest sorrow for the loss of a much-loved friend 
 there mingles a feeling of pleasure as we recall his 
 
 1 " I always figured age to myself as a much pleasanter season of 
 life than our earlier years, and having attained it, my expectations 
 are almost surpassed." W. von Humboldt. 
 
 2 " In his hour of gloom or despondency, one may yet enjoy as 
 vividly as ever the picture of some past delight, or feed on the 
 memory of a happy moment which, though long perished in fact, 
 can never, by the blessed influence of memory, be lost to him on 
 this side of the grave." J. G. Fitch. " If you make children happy 
 now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of 
 it." Sydney Smith. 
 
 1 "Say why Vespasian loved his Sabine farm ? 
 
 Why great Navarre, when France and freedom bled, 
 Sought the low limits of a forest-shed ? " 
 
 Pleasures of Memory. 
 
8 MEMOEY. 
 
 many amiable qualities, and we feel how true are the 
 words of the poet : " 'Tis better to have loved and lost 
 than never to have loved at all". 1 " I would not," said 
 the great Duke of Ormond, on the death of his only son, 
 " exchange my dead son for any living son in Christen- 
 dom." Thus, "thanks to a beneficent Creator," says 
 Ancillon, " sorrow loses not only its bitterness but is 
 changed even into a source of pleasing recollection". 
 
 The defects of memory of which most persons com- 
 plain, and with reason, are mainly, if not entirely, to 
 be attributed to the ignorance that prevails regarding 
 its true principles, and to the abuse and neglect to 
 which it is subjected in our systems of education and 
 through life. The office of the memory is to remember, 
 and there can be no doubt that if properly trained and 
 judiciously treated, it will remember to an extent and 
 with a clearness that, with our present conceptions of 
 it, will seem nothing short of marvellous. 
 
 In general we take much too limited and confined a 
 view of the memory. We usually confine it to what 
 we can recall or bring to mind when we wish to do so ; 
 and if we fail in this we say we have forgotten it, or 
 that it has escaped our memory. But everyone's 
 experience must tell him that there is much in his 
 memory that he cannot recall in this way, much 
 that he can only recover after a laboured search, or 
 that he may search for in vain at the time, but which 
 may occur to him afterwards, when, perhaps, he is not 
 thinking about it. 
 
 1 " There is a real luxury in grief, because we cannot think of the 
 dear dead without recalling the many joyful incidents of their lives ; 
 and thus it often happens that the mourner who is sitting by the 
 coffin which contains all that was dearest to him on earth, wakens 
 up from a reverie in which he was living over again the happiest 
 iays of his life." Dr. J. Cunningham. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 9 
 
 In seeking to recall a past thought or impression we 
 must still retain something of it in the memory, OK we 
 should not be able to recognise it when it presents 
 itself, or to single it out from among a number of other 
 candidates that may be pressing forward for recogni- 
 tion. 1 Indeed, the very fact that we seek in the memory 
 for a forgotten idea shows that we have some recollec- 
 tion of it, for, as St. Augustine very truly says, " We 
 cannot seek in our memory for that of which we have 
 no sort of recollection". "From the moment," says 
 Sir W. Hamilton, " that we seek aught in our memory, 
 we declare by that very act that we have not altogether 
 forgotten it ; we still hold of it, as it were, a part, and 
 by this part which we hold, we seek that which we do 
 not hold." In all these cases the memory has a certain 
 hold of the ideas, but they are not sufficiently impressed 
 upon it to be readily or distinctly recalled. In the 
 memories of most, if not all of us, probably the greater 
 part of what we remember is of this imperfect kind. 
 
 There are many persons of opinion that there is no 
 such thing as forgetting anything that has once been 
 consciously in the mind. "It is, I believe," says Dr. 
 Carpenter, " the general creed of metaphysicians that 
 no idea once funj^coniprehended by the mind ever per- 
 manently drops out of it ; while physiologists are no less 
 strong in the conviction that every 'act records itself in 
 some change in the brain which may lead to its reproduc- 
 tion before the consciousness at a,ny distance of time." 
 "I feel assured," says De Quincey, "that there is no 
 such thing as ultimate forgetting ; traces once impressed 
 
 i "When we will to remember a $iing we must remember some- 
 thing relating to it, which gives us/ a relative conception of it." D. 
 Stewart. "He who searches for smything has a general notion of 
 that which he seeks, otherwise hqfr coiild he recognise it when found 
 ?" Plato. 
 
10 MEMORY. 
 
 upon the memory are indestructible; a thousand 
 accidents may and will interpose a veil between our 
 present consciousness and the secret inscriptions on 
 the mind. Accidents of the same sort will also rend 
 the veil. But alike, whether veiled or unveiled, the 
 inscription remains for ever." 
 
 Between this property of never forgetting anything 
 that has once been in the mind and what we all feel to 
 be the actual state of our memories there is a wide gulf. 
 To explain the nature of this and to show in what it 
 consists will fall to be more fully treated of afterwards. 
 In the meantime we would remark that in memory, as 
 commonly understood, we have two distinct parts or 
 faculties the retentive and the reproductive ; the one 
 being the power of retaining what has once been pre- 
 sent to consciousness, the other that by which it is 
 again brought before consciousness in recollection. 
 Though commonly used to include both, the term 
 memory is strictly applicable only to the former of 
 these, or the retentive faculty. 1 This is much more 
 extensive than the reproductive faculty, for we retain 
 or hold in the memory much more than we can at any 
 time recall. That we can readily recall or remember 
 some things and not others depends upon a variety of 
 circumstances, bur especially upon the degree of atten- 
 tion that is bestowed upon the original impression. It 
 is evident that if we single out an impression or thought 
 by giving a greater than ordinary degree of attention to 
 it, or what is the same thing, if it strikes us very for- 
 cibly or is several times repeated, it will be more deeply 
 
 1 "That the word memory principally and properly denotes the 
 power the mind possesses of retaining hold of the knowledge it has 
 acquired, is generally admitted b$; philologers, and is not denied by 
 philosophers." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 \ 
 
WHAT IT IS. 11 
 
 impressed upon the mind than it otherwise would be. 
 The bad memories of which most persons have occasion 
 to complain are mainly owing to their not giving that 
 degree of attention to the original impression that is 
 necessary to fix it in the memory. 
 
 While attention is the principle by which we fix any- 
 thing in the memory, association is that by which we 
 recall or bring again before consciousness anything that 
 has been there before. 1 All our ideas are associated 
 with other ideas, and by means of these they are re- 
 called. Did an idea exist in the mind unassociated 
 with any other idea it could not be recalled. Accord- 
 ing to the strength of the association, and the character 
 of the ideas with which the association is formed, will 
 be the power of recall. 
 
 If then we improve and strengthen the faculty of 
 attention, and judiciously attend to the association of 
 our ideas, we shall bring the reproductive power of the 
 mind nearer to an equality with the retentive, and so 
 vastly improve the natural memory. Indeed there 
 seems no reason in the nature of things why we should 
 forget anything that has once been in the mind, or 
 that we should not be able to recall , ; t when we wish 
 to do so. That there is nothing impossible in this view 
 is shown by the fact that there have been men who 
 have had such memories. Thus it rs reported of Pascal 
 "that till the decay of his health had impaired his 
 memory, he forgot nothing of. what he had done, 
 read, or thought in any part, of his natural age". 
 
 l "Next to the effect of attention is the remarkable influence 
 produced upon memory by association. . . . The principle of associa- 
 tion is founded upon a remarkable' tendency, by which two or more 
 facts or conceptions which have /been contemplated together, or in 
 immediate succession, become so connected in the mind that one of 
 them at a future time recalls the others," Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 / 
 
12 MEMORY. 
 
 John Locke. The same is recorded of Grotius and 
 others. 1 
 
 Though it is convenient to speak of the memory, as 
 is usually done, as if it were a single faculty, this is not 
 strictly or properly the case, for it is really a property 
 or quality of all the faculties, each having its own 
 individual memory, though there are certain principles 
 common to all of them. 2 As each has its separate 
 action, so each has its distinct memory, which is simply 
 a record of what each has done or experienced. Thus 
 the eye records what it sees, the ear what it hears, and 
 the other senses what come within their several spheres, 
 as well as the intellect what it thinks, the emotions 
 what they feel, the will what it commands, and the 
 muscles what they do. Not only so, but each different 
 class of sensations of any of the senses, each form of 
 activity of any of the faculties, every different kind of 
 voluntary movement of any part of the body has its 
 distinct memory. Wherever we have distinction of 
 
 1 "Grotius and Pascal forgot nothing they had ever read or 
 thought." Sir W. Hamilton. Cardinal Mezzofanti, who is said to 
 have known more than a hundred different languages, used to 
 declare that he never forgot a word that he had once learnt, and 
 to this, doubtless, was owing his power as a linguist. It is related 
 of Dr. John Leyden "that after he had gone to Calcutta, a case 
 occurred where a great deal turned on the exact wording of an Act 
 of Parliament, of whicl , however, a copy was not to be found in the 
 Presidency. Leyden, \vsio, before leaving home, had had occasion 
 to read over the act, undertook to supply it from memory ; and so 
 accurate was his transcript that when, nearly a year after, a printed 
 copy was obtained from 1^ gland, it was found to be identical with 
 what Leyden had dictated." 
 
 8 Memory "is not a special faculty beside and apart from the 
 original powers of the soul," ut "consists simply and solely in the 
 peculiarity which they possess cf retaining to a greater or less degree 
 the stimulants received by thei>\". Dr. Beneke. " Memory may be 
 resolved into memories just as tve life of an organism may be re- 
 solved into the lives of the organs, the tissues, the a.natonuca.1 ele- 
 ments which compose it," Th, MM, 
 
 \ 
 
WHAT IT IS. 13 
 
 action, there we have distinction of memory, which is 
 the action's record, the traces left of its activity ; and 
 where the action is most developed, there the memory 
 is strongest. 1 
 
 A leading error that arises from regarding the memory 
 as a single faculty is the belief that, in whatever direc- 
 tion we exercise it, we improve it as a whole. This, 
 however, is very far from being the case. If we exer- 
 cise it only in one direction, we improve it only in that 
 direction. The exercise of the ear in hearing does not 
 improve the power of vision, nor while we strengthen 
 the memory for sounds do we improve that for sights. 
 Even in a single sense or faculty we find different 
 . forms and degrees of memory, as in sight for persons, 
 places, forms, colours, and the like. Hence we may 
 cultivate the memory for persons without at all im- 
 proving that for places, and a good memory for colours 
 may afford little help towards the remembrance of 
 forms. 2 In like manner, a musician may be able to 
 remember and reproduce a beautiful air that he has 
 heard only once, while he may be unable to remember 
 and repeat half a dozen or a dozen wo#5s after once 
 hearing them. 
 
 Another error that may be traced to the same cause 
 is that of regarding the memory only pr chiefly as it is 
 manifested in its lower forms, and hence depreciating 
 
 1 w The same act that favours discrimination favours retention. , . . 
 No law of the intellect appears to be more Certain than the law that 
 connects our discriminating power with our retentive power. In 
 whatever class of subjects our discrimination is great colours, forms, 
 tones, tastes in that class our retention /is great." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " Does not daily observation show us that some persons remem- 
 ber forms most easily, while others ha^e a special facility for recalling 
 colours." Th. Eibot. "Some remenyber the shapes of objects, and 
 yet have the greatest difficulty in rfyonembering their colour, and 80 
 on,-& Verdon. 
 
14 MEMORY. 
 
 or undervaluing its importance. Thus many speak of 
 a good memory as if it were a matter of mere secondary 
 consideration, and not a few hold that when highly 
 cultivated it interferes with the efficiency of certain of 
 the other faculties, particularly the imagination or the 
 reasoning powers. " Seldom," says one, " are a power- 
 ful imagination, a sound understanding, and a clear 
 discernment united with a vigorous and retentive me- 
 mory." " A great or comprehensive -memory is seldom 
 connected with a good judgment." Lord Kames. "Mere 
 memory/' says Dr. Mortimer Granville, "is not either 
 a very exalted or an intellectual faculty. The lower 
 animals and many idiots excel intelligent men in this 
 quality the receptive and retentive plasticity of brain." 
 Sir William Hamilton mentions the case of a Corsican 
 who was said to be able to repeat 36,000 names after 
 once hearing them ; " but," says Gregorovius, from 
 whom he takes his information, " he produced nothing, 
 his memory had killed all his creative power. ... It 
 is with the precious gift of memory as with all other 
 gifts, they are the curse of the gods when they give too 
 much." l 
 
 The memory for names and words is the lowest form 
 of memory, ar^l fools and even idiots are sometimes 
 found to manifest it in a very remarkable degree. 2 
 
 1 "A good memory, which is in itself so essential an accompani- 
 ment of profound and accurate judgment, has fallen into <~ sort of 
 proverbial disrepute, as if unfriendly to judgment, or indicative of 
 a defect in this nobler part of our intellectual constitution. . . 
 It is not a good memory,, in its best sense, as a rich and retentive 
 store of conceptions, that\is unfriendly to intellectual excellence, 
 poetic or philosophic, but a memory of which the predominant 
 tendency is to suggest objects or images which existed before, in 
 the very order in which, as objects or images, they existed before, 
 according to the merely imitative relations of contiguity." Dr. T. 
 Brown. 
 
 8 " A person may have a very strong, capacious, and retentive 
 
 \ 
 
WHAT IT IS. 15 
 
 Hence to judge of the value and importance of memory 
 simply from the lower aspects of it is manifestly unfair. 
 The memory for words is only one form of memory, 
 besides which there are memories for ideas, for processes 
 of reasoning, for creations of the imagination; and to say 
 that memory interferes with the efficiency of any of the 
 other faculties is to regard as one thing what is in 
 reality many things, and to confound the lower forms 
 of it with the higher. 1 The memory of any individual 
 faculty cannot be too strong for the efficiency of that 
 faculty; as, for instance, the memory for words for what 
 may be called the word faculty, the memory for processes 
 of reasoning for the reasoning faculty, or the memory 
 for creations of the imagination for the imaginative 
 faculty. The power of creating depends upon the power 
 of remembering, and he who has most enriched his 
 mind with the stores of nature and of art will always 
 
 memory where the judgment is very poor and weak, as sometimes 
 happens to those who are but one degree above an idiot, who have 
 manifested an amazing strength and extent of memory." I. Watts. 
 Canon Fearon mentions a man in his father's parish "who could 
 remember the day when every person had been buried in the 
 parish for thirty-five years, and could repeat, with unvarying accu- 
 racy, the name and age of the deceased and the mourners at the 
 funeral". But, "out of the line of burials, he had not one idea, 
 could not give an intelligent reply to a single question, nor be 
 trusted even to feed himself". " I have heard a boy whose faculties 
 were, in other respects, rather below the ordinary pitch repeat the 
 greatest part of a sermon after once hearing it." Dr. J. Beattie. 
 K. Verdon refers to " the idiot mentioned by Mrs. Somerville, who 
 could repeat a sermon verbatim, indicating also where the minister 
 blew his nose or coughed during the performance". 
 
 1 " The man of genius sometimes appears to want memory only 
 from the too confined signification given to the word memory, in 
 restraining it to the remembrance of names, dates, persons, and 
 places, for which the man of genius has no curiosity, and often finds 
 that here his memory fails him. But comprehending in the signifi- 
 cation of this word the remembrance of ideas, images, and reasonings, 
 none of them is deficient. . . . There is 110 such thing as geniua 
 without memory." Hdvetiua. 
 
16 MEMOBY. 
 
 have the most fertile and readiest invention. " The 
 richer the memory, and consequently the greater the 
 number of images that may arise to the poet, and of 
 powers and effects that may arise to the philosopher, 
 the more copious in both cases will be the suggestions 
 of analogy which constitute poetic invention or philo- 
 sophic discovery, and the more copious the suggestions 
 of analogy may be, the richer and more diversified, it 
 is evident, must be the inventive power of the mind." 
 Dr. Thomas Brown)- 
 
 We may distinguish three different degrees or forms 
 of memory. The first or lowest is what may be called 
 11 local" or "verbal" memory, "that is," says Dr. 
 Abercrombie, "the power of remembering facts in the 
 order in which they occurred, or words in the order in 
 which they were addressed to the individual". This 
 " kind of memory," he continues, " is often the more 
 ready, and is that which generally makes the greater 
 
 1 " Memory, far from being incompatible with genius, seems even 
 to be necessary to its utmost perfection for those happy exertions of 
 intellect which confer immortality upon their authors. ... If we 
 look around us at those individuals who have acquired eminence 
 as men of genius, or examine into the endowments of those who 
 have formerly been famed for their intellectual exertions, we shall 
 uniformly find that a retentive and capacious memory proved the 
 basis upon which their literary fame was reared." Pro/. Scott. 
 " A strong memory and a fertile invention frequently go together ; 
 the former being of the utmost utility to the latter. If a man shall 
 sit down to invent he will find that a complete retrospect of all he 
 has seen, heard, or read relative to any science will afford him the 
 greatest assistance in his farther inventions or improvements in that 
 science." Dr. W. Hooper. "We are indebted to the mechanical 
 genius of Watt for the invention of the steam engine ; but the genius 
 of Watt consisted in the remembrance of a variety of objects, facts, 
 principles, requirements, and appliances suggested to his mind by 
 the sight of a steaming tea-kettle." W. Stokes. "It is in vain for 
 painters or poets to endeavour to invent without materials on which 
 the mind may work and from which inventions must originate. . . . 
 It is by being conversant with the inventions of others that we learn 
 to invent." Dr. W, B. Carpenter, 
 
WHAT IT IS. 17 
 
 show, both on account of its readiness and likewise 
 because the kind of effects with which it is chiefly 
 conversant are usually those most in request in com- 
 mon conversation". 1 " It is in common conversation 
 chiefly that we judge of the excellency of the memory 
 of others, and that we feel our own defect of it ; and the 
 species of relation which forms by far the most im- 
 portant tie of things in ordinary discourse is that of 
 previous contiguity. We talk of things which hap- 
 pened at certain times and in certain places, and he 
 who remembers these best seems to us to have the 
 best memory. , . . The most ignorant of the vulgar, 
 in describing a certain event, pour out a number of 
 suggestions of contiguity which may astonish us indeed, 
 though they are a proof not that they remember more, 
 but only that their prevailing suggestions take place 
 according to one almost exclusive relation. It is im- 
 possible to listen to a narrative of the most simple 
 events by one of the common people, who are unaccus- 
 tomed to pay much attention to events but as they 
 occur together, without being struck with a readiness 
 of suggestion of innumerable petty circumstances which 
 might seem like superiority of memory, if we did not 
 take into account the comparatively small number of 
 their suggestions of a different class/' Dr. T. Brown. 
 A remarkable instance of this kind of memory is given 
 by Shakespeare in the character of Dame Quickly, as 
 she narrates with astonishing minuteness the various 
 incidents that occurred at the time when Sir John 
 Falstaff made her a promise of marriage. 
 
 lK The species of memory which excites the greatest degree of 
 admiration, in the ordinary intercourse of society, is a memory for 
 detached and isolated facts ; and it is certain that those men who 
 are possessed of it are very seldom distinguished by the higher gifts 
 of the mind." D. Stewart. 
 
18 MBMOEY. 
 
 It is usually in persons whose minds are not highlj 
 cultivated, and whose mental faculties have not been 
 much exercised, that we find this kind of memory 
 displayed in the most marked degree. Not having 
 been much called forth* in its higher stages, it has 
 consequently developed itself more in this, its lower. 
 Persons of this class will sometimes be found able to 
 perform great feats of memory, repeating, it may be, 
 long lists of names, or many lines of -poetry after once 
 hearing them, or a speech, or a sermon almost ver- 
 batim, or narrating the minutest particulars of an 
 event that occurred perhaps long ago. 1 In general, 
 however, they can only repeat the words or record the 
 incidents as they actually occurred. They cannot, as 
 a rule, leave out some and enlarge upon others, nor 
 can they readily recur to an incident-thfbt happened at 
 a different time. If they wish to recall a particular 
 passage in a speech or a book, they may be unable to 
 do so without commencing at the begianing and re- 
 peating down to it ; and frequently it would se^n^Hhat 
 
 1 " People of very inferior mental gifts often have a~ iryrypJious 
 memory for little insignificant details, and can repeat to you with 
 great accuracy the very words of a conversation or the precise inci- 
 dents of a story which they have once heard." J. G. Pitch. " We 
 may find a mere local memory combined with very little j udgrnent." 
 Dr. Abercrombie. "Extraordinary powers of remembrance are 
 sometimes coupled with a childish understanding." Dr. Beattie. 
 " We in the West have little idea of the precision with which an 
 eastern pupil even now can take up and remember the minutest 
 details of a lesson, reproducing them years afterwards in the exact 
 words of his master." Dr. W. Robertson Smith. Dr. Moffat, the dis- 
 tinguished missionary, after preaching a long sermon to a number 
 of African savages, saw at a distance a simple-looking young man 
 holding forth to a number of people, who were all attention. On 
 approaching, he found to h'' surprise that he was preaching his 
 sermon over again, with uncommon precision and witff great solem- 
 nity, imitating as nearly as he could the manner and gestures of the 
 original. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 19 
 
 the word? which they learn so readily convey no ideas 
 to their minds > being doubtless on that account more 
 easily learnt. 1 
 
 A higher form of memory is where not merely an 
 individual past state of the mind a sensation, thought, 
 or feeling with its attending circumstances, is recalled, 
 but ^here a number of joast^tatgs, having a greater or 
 less resemblance to each pther, are reproduced at the 
 same time. When the mind comes to possess a num- 
 ber of ideas of the same or a similar kind, and the 
 reasoning power is in some degree developed, a prin- 
 ciple of association and comparison comes into play, 
 so that the mind brings together and compares those 
 that most nearly resemble each other, and thus ar- 
 ranges and classifies them. Hence, on the presentation 
 of a new object, it immediately seeks for something 
 similar among its past ideas or sensations, brings the 
 two together so as to compare them, and notes their 
 
 1 Speaking of Dr. Leyden, who was remarkable for his great 
 memory, Dr. Abercrombie says : " I am informed through a gentle- 
 man, who was intimately acquainted with him, that he could repeat 
 correctly a long act of parliament, or any similar document, after 
 having once jead it. When he was on one occasion congratulated by 
 a friend on his remarkable power in this respect, he replied that, 
 instead of an advantage, it was often a source of great inconvenience. 
 This he explained by saying that when he wished to recollect a par- 
 ticular point in anything which he had read, he could do it only by 
 repeating to himself the whole from the commencement till he 
 reached the point which he wished to recall." It is recorded of 
 the Welsh boy, Richard Roberts Jones, who was remarkable for his 
 linguistic powers, that his other faculties were of an extremely low 
 order, and that even the books which he read in the foreign tongues 
 seemed to convey no ideas to his mind. " In extreme cases of this 
 endowment, the memory of an exposition or discourse is consistent 
 with a total ignorance of the meaning." Prof. Bain. "I have 
 known more than one instance of an individual who, after having 
 forgotten completely the classical studies of his childhood, was yet 
 able to repeat with fluency long passages from Homer and Virgil 
 without annexing an idea to the words that he uttered." D. Stewart* 
 
20 MEMOEY. 
 
 agreements and differences. Thus a civrftMstance of 
 yesterday, in place of recalling other circumstance of 
 yesterday that immediately preceded or f*J4$*y*^ /t, 
 would recall various circumstances of a similar nature 
 that happened probably at very different timefc It is 
 of the utmost importance to us, in forming our judg- 
 ment of things or in determining upon a particular 
 line of conduct, to be able to bring together before the 
 mind a number of instances of the same or a like kind, 
 recent or long past, which may aid us in coming to a 
 right determination. In the former kind of ftj? 
 the associative principle at work is contiguity ^ 
 it is similarity. 
 
 When this higher form of memory, which \ v e may 
 call the "rational," comes to more and more charac- 
 terise the mind, the lower form becomes less strong 
 or marked, and hence men of talent and culture are 
 frequently said to have bad memories, the fact being 
 that they have simply passed from a lower form of it 
 to a higher. The commonplace incidents of the day 
 take little hold on them, because their minds are 
 actuated by a higher principle, association by simi- 
 larity taking the place of that by mere contiguity. 
 " The trivial occurrences of the day," says Dugald 
 Stewart, " in general escape the recollection of a man 
 of ability, not because he is unable to retain them, but 
 because he does not attend to them." The Btrength of 
 this kind of memory, when we think of how muclr'li 
 contains, to say jjfcthing of the greater value and utility^ 
 of its contents, vastly surpasses the other. 1 
 
 1 " The great difference is that the wealth of the one is composed 
 merely of those smaller pieces which are in continual request, and, 
 therefore, brought more frequently to view, while the abundance of 
 the other consists chiefly in those more precious coins which are 
 rather deposited than carried about for current use, but which, when 
 
WHAT IT IS. 'Jl 
 
 The highest form of memory is that in which past 
 ideas or sensations are, as it were, imaged forth as if 
 they wesa objects of actual perception. 1 This is what 
 Sir W. Hamilton calls " the represehtative faculty," or 
 "the ^.ower which the mind has of holding up vividly 
 before itself the thoughts which, by the act of repro- 
 duction, it has called into consciousness". 2 The ternr- 
 imagination is commonly employed to designate this : 
 power,f; and it is usually regarded as a distinct faculty of'*' 
 the mind, but we rather agree with those philosophers 
 who consider it merely as a form or part of memory, 
 there Vjeing no essential difference between them. 4 
 
 brought forward, exhibit a magnificence of wealth to which the petty 
 counters of the multitude are comparatively insignificant." Dr. t 
 Brown. " The man of genius commonly has his information much 
 less at command than those who are possessed of an inferior degree 
 of originality ; and what is somewhat remarkable, he has it least of 
 all at command on those subjects on which he has found his inven- 
 tion most fertile." D. Stewart. 
 
 1 " It is not always the person who recollects most easily and 
 correctly who can exhibit*- what he remembers in the most vivid 
 colours." Sir W. Hamilton. , 
 
 2 "The act of representation is merely the energy of the mind in 
 holding up to its own contemplation what it is determined to repre- 
 sent." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 3 " Imagination would be the term which, with the least violence 
 to its meaning, could be accommodated to express the representative 
 faculty." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 4 " Memory Aristotle does not view as a faculty distinct from 
 imagination, but simply as the recalling those impressions, those 
 movements into consciousness, of which phantasy is the comple- 
 ment." Sir W. Hamilton. " Memory pertains to that part of the 
 soul to which also imagination pertains, and those things are essen- 
 tially objects of memory which are objects of imagination." Aristotle. 
 "Imagination is just a form of memory. ... In all our imaginings 
 we are simply remembering remembering not methodically but 
 loosely not according to old collocations and contiguities alone, 
 but also according to the laws of resemblance and contrast. But 
 still it is memory : memory furnishes the whole weft and woof 
 for every web, however brilliant the colouring which imagination 
 weaves." Dr. J. Cunningham. 
 
22 MEMOBY, 
 
 Philosophers usually distinguish two kinds of imagi* 
 nation the reminiscent or reproductive, and the con- 
 structive, creative, or productive. 1 By the former the 
 objects are simply represented as they previously 
 appeared, without any alteration or change. The 
 latter, which is usually designated by imagination or 
 fancy, is that in which past events are presented 
 not as they previously happened, but in combination 
 with other events belonging, it may be, to different 
 periods. 2 In the former we reproduce past sensations 
 or ideas as they previously existed; in the latter we 
 may take only certain of them and arrange them in 
 a particular way, or we may take parts of one and 
 parts of another and bring them together so as to 
 form an image more beautiful perhaps than anything 
 to be found in nature, yet the different parts of which 
 it is composed have all been taken from nature, and 
 been matter of actual experience. 3 In memory too, 
 
 1 u Philosophers have divided imagination into two what they 
 call the reproductive and the productive. By the former they mean 
 imagination considered as simply re-exhibiting, representing the 
 objects presented by perception that is, exhibiting them without 
 addition or retrenchment, or any change in the relations which they 
 reciprocally held when first made known to us through sense." Sir 
 W* Hamilton. 
 
 2 " The reproductive imagination is not a simple faculty. It com- 
 prises two processes : first, an act of representation strictly so called ; 
 and secondly, an act of reproduction arbitrarily limited by certain con- 
 tingent circumstances. . . . The productive or creative imagination 
 is that which is usually signified by the term imagination or fancy 
 in ordinary language." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 8 "What is imagination but memory presenting the objects of 
 prior conceptions in groups or combinations which do not exist in 
 nature." Dr. Payne. " Fancy may combine things that never were 
 combined in reality. It may enlarge or diminish, multiply or divide, 
 compound and fashion the' objects which nature presents ; but it 
 cannot by the utmost efforts of that creative power, which we ascribe 
 to it, bring any one single ingredient into its production which 
 nature has not framed and brought to our knowledge by some other 
 
WHAT IT IS. 23 
 
 as in imagination, analysis and association are opera- 
 tions that are constantly going on, for it is necessary 
 to analyse or reduce into - parts, in. order to fix clearly 
 in the mind what we wish to remember, and we 
 associate or bring together in the mind those ideas 
 or sensations that we wish to recall each other. 1 
 
 Wherever we have this power of imagination, this 
 representative faculty most highly developed, there 
 we have the memory in its most perfect form. We 
 have it, for instance, in him who can recall a past 
 event so vividly that it seems as if it were again pre- 
 sent to him; in him who, after reading a passage in 
 a book, can recall the form and appearance of every 
 word as if it were still before him; or in him who, 
 after hearing a speech, can bring back again the very 
 sounds of the words as it were in his ears. 2 It is 
 
 faculty." .#r. T. Reid. " The most brilliant imagination never yet 
 produced anything which had not been seen, heard, or felt, as it 
 were, piecemeal ; the combination is new, but the material thus 
 woven afresh is what all are acquainted with." J. Barlow. " It is 
 admitted on all hands that imagination creates nothing, that it pro- 
 duces nothing new." Sir W. Hamilton. "All the creative power 
 of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, 
 transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us by 
 the senses and experience." D. Hume. 
 
 1 " The congeries of phenomena called up by the reproductive 
 faculty . . . are separated into parts, are analysed into elements ; 
 and these parts and elements are again compounded in every various 
 fashion. In all thi the representative faculty co-operates.'' Sir W 
 Hamilton. 
 
 2 " Some few persons see mentally in print every word that is 
 uttered . . . and they read them off usually as from a long imagi- 
 nary strip of paper, such as is unwound from telegraphic instruments." 
 Francis Gallon. A child, grand -daughter of Mr. Bidder, the dis- 
 tinguished menUd calculator, remarked : " Isn't it strange ? When 
 I hear anything remarkable read or said to me, I think I see it in 
 print." A brother of the calculator, a Unitarian minister, had an 
 extraordinary memory for Biblical texts, and could give chapter and 
 verse of almost any passage in the Bible, or, on getting chapter and 
 verse, could repeat the passage. A writer in The Spectator, who 
 
24 MEMORY. 
 
 this power that enables the artist to carry in his mind 
 the various minutiae of a scene, so that he can after- 
 wards paint it from memory; 1 the poet to be so filled 
 with the beauty and fragrance of nature that he can 
 afterwards describe it as if it were actually present ; 2 
 the inventor to hold in his mind the various parts of 
 his design, so that he can mark and calculate their 
 several effects ; 3 the chess-player to note the series of 
 results that will follow a particular move, or, most 
 wonderful of all, to play a number of different games 
 (sometimes as many as sixteen or twenty) at the same 
 
 mentions this, says that it probably " arose from a power of seeing in 
 some visionary Bible the exact place and appearance of the text in 
 question. Probably what he recalled was the aspect of the printed 
 text, from which he mentally read off the words and the reference." 
 
 1 " Certain painters, draughtsmen, and sculptors, after attentively 
 considering a figure, are able to draw it from memory. Gustave 
 Dore has this faculty ; Horace Vernet had it In a school of arts at 
 Paris the pupils were practised in copying models from memory. 
 After four months' practice they said that the image had become 
 much more distinct, and if it disappears they can recall it almost at 
 will." H. Taine. "Dore^s memory of anything he had once seen 
 was," we are told, " marvellous ; and he seemed to work at night as 
 if the scenes he had made -note of during the day were still before 
 his eyes." After once driving through Windsor Park "he knew 
 every tree by heart that he had glanced at, and said that he could 
 draw all from memory ". B. Roosevelt. 
 
 2 " The great writers whose vivid descriptions of scenery or events 
 hold our attention and stir our feelings have this power in a high 
 degree ; they create for themselves a world of sense by the influence 
 of ideas, and then strive to present vividly to us what they have 
 thus represented to their own minds. . . . Goethe could call up an 
 image at will and make it undergo various transformations as it were 
 before his eyes." Dr. H. Maudsley. 
 
 3 " A strong imagination, that is, the power of holding up any ideal 
 object to the mind in clear and steady colours, is a faculty necessary 
 to the poet and to the artist, but not to them alone. It is almost 
 equally requisite for the successful cultivation of almost every scien- 
 tific pursuit. . . . The vigour and perfection of this faculty are seen 
 not so much in the representation of individual objects and frag- 
 mentary sciences as in the representation of systems," Sir W< 
 Hamilton. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 25 
 
 time, without seeing any of the boards. 1 Those who 
 have been distinguished for their power to carry out 
 long and intricate processes of mental calculation owe 
 it to the same cause. 2 
 
 1 " Paul Morphy, the American, was the first who made an especial 
 etudy of this kind of display, playing some seven or eight games 
 blindfold and simultaneously against various inferior opponents. 
 . . . Since his day many chess-players, who are gifted with strong 
 and clear memory and power of picturing to the mind the ideal 
 board and men, have carried this branch of exhibition play far 
 beyond Morphy's pitch. . . . Blackburne and Zukertort can play 
 as many as sixteen or even twenty blindfold games at a time, and 
 win about 80 per cent, of them at least." Pall Mall Gazette. "With 
 chess-players who play a game with their eyes closed or their faces 
 turned towards the wall , . . evidently the figure of the whole 
 chess-board, with the different pieces in order, presents itself to them 
 at each move, as in an internal mirror, for without this they would 
 be unable to foresee the probable consequences of their adversaries' 
 and their own moves." H. Taine. " One of the great chess-players, 
 who can play not merely two but twelve games at once without 
 seeing the boards, expressly stated that he had before him a perfectly 
 vivid picture of each board, which altered instantaneously as each 
 move was made, and thus remained printed on his mind till another 
 move again changed the situation." The Spectator. 
 
 2 " Children accustomed to calculate in their heads write mentally 
 with chalk on an imaginary board the figures in question, then all 
 their partial operations, then the final sum, so that they see inter- 
 nally the different lines of white figures with which they are con- 
 cerned. . . . Young Colburn, who had never been at school, and 
 did not know how to read or write, said that, when making his 
 calculations, 'he saw them clearly before him'. Another said that 
 he 'saw the numbers he was working with as if they had been 
 written on a slate'." H. Taine. " If I perform a sum mentally," 
 said Mr. Bidder, " it always proceeds in a visible form in my mind ; 
 indeed, I can conceive no other way possible of doing mental arith- 
 metic." " He had the faculty," says a writer in The Spectator, " of 
 carrying about with him a vivid mental picture of the numbers, 
 figures, and diagrams with which he was occupied, so that he saw, 
 as it were, on a slate the elements of the problem he was working." 
 He had " the capacity for seeing, as if photographed on his retina, 
 the exact figures, whether arithmetical or geometrical, with which 
 he was occupied at the time". It is related of Dr. Porson, who was 
 remarkable for his great memory, that on one occasion he called on 
 a friend, whom he found reading Thucydides. His friend asked 
 him the meaning of some word, when Porson immediately repeated 
 
26 ME MOB Y. 
 
 Nor is it to be supposed that this power of imagina- 
 tion or vivid representation is confined to objects of 
 sense. " On the contrary/' says Sir W. Hamilton, " a 
 vigorous power of representation is as indispensable a 
 condition of success in the abstract sciences as in the 
 poetical and plastic arts." x Intellectual ideas and pro- 
 cesses of reasoning are represented to the mind in the 
 same way. The orator, for instance, so vividly repre- 
 sents to his mind the different parts of his discourse 
 that he has no difficulty in running over them in any 
 direction and arranging them in the best way to bring 
 out the end he has in view. To him they are almost 
 as much material objects as if he had seen and handled 
 them in material form. 2 
 
 Thus while vulgar minds are held in thraldom to the 
 order and circumstances in which their perceptions 
 were originally obtained, and can only reproduce them 
 
 the context. " But how do you know that it was this passage I was 
 reading ? " asked his friend. " Because," replied Person, " the word 
 occurs only twice in Thucydides ; once on the right-hand page in 
 the edition which you are using, and once on the left. I observed 
 on which side you looked, and accordingly I knew to which passage 
 you referred." Lord Macaulay was remarkable for his great memory, 
 and it is said of him that " every incident he heard of, every page he 
 read, assumed in his mind a concrete spectral form". 
 
 1 " Imagination, or phantasy, in its most extensive meaning, is the 
 faculty representative of the phenomena both of the external and 
 internal worlds." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 2 It is said of Eobert Hall " that he never proceeded even to think 
 of a specific text as fitted for a sermon until the matter it presented 
 Btood out in the form of a particular distinct and specific topic ; LB 
 could then take it up and lay it down as he pleased ". We are told 
 of Mrs. Henry Wood, the novelist, that "she first composed her 
 
 Elot. . . . Once thought out . . . the drama had then become to 
 er as real as if it had actually existed . . . and stood visibly 
 before her as if she were actually looking upon a diorama. . . . 
 It also enabled her to take the greatest interest in her story and in 
 her characters. She believed in them, realised them, looked upon 
 them as living people. To her they had as much an existence as her 
 own friends." 
 
WHAT IT IS. 27 
 
 in the same manner, the cultivated mind, having this 
 faculty strong, sees the end from the beginning, and 
 arranges his materials in the way best calculated to 
 bring out the end he has in view, passing over, it may 
 be, a number of details that are not essential to his 
 purpose. 1 
 
 The writer in The Spectator already quoted very well 
 points out the superiority of this kind of memory over 
 that by association, whether of contiguity or similarity, 
 confining, however, to words and numbers what is of 
 much wider application. " It is certain," he says, 
 " that those who have it (i.e., the power of imaging) 
 have an enormous advantage over those who remember 
 by association only who do not see any picture 
 . , . of the number or words with which they are 
 dealing, but have to call them up by the force of asso- 
 ciation of each with the next in succession. The 
 difference, indeed, between learning ' by heart/ or, as it 
 is called, ' by rote/ and summoning up before the 
 imagination a page on which all the words or numbers 
 required stand forth in black and white, as the trees of 
 your garden, or the houses within sight of your home 
 stand out in your memory the moment you choose to 
 summon them up, is enormous. And probably the 
 difference is great in regard to the confidence reposed 
 
 * a A vulgar mind forgets nothing and spares nothing ; he is 
 ignorant that conversation is always but a selection ; that every story 
 is subject to the laws of dramatic poetry, festinat ad eventum ; and 
 that all which does not concur to the effect destroys or weakens it. 
 . . . Minds of this description are held in thraldom to the order 
 and circumstances in which their perceptions were originally ob- 
 tained." Sir W. Hamilton. " It has been often remarked ^ that the 
 perfection of description does not consist in a minute specification of 
 circumstances, but in a j udicious selection of them. ... In the 
 man who composes the coherent discourse, the main idea, that of the 
 end in view, predominates and controls the association in every part 
 of the process." D. Steivart. 
 
28 MEMORY. 
 
 in each kind of memory. . . . Everyone knows how 
 much more unhesitatingly we read off from a vivid 
 mental picture than merely repeat from association. 
 In the former case, whether truly or falsely, we seem to 
 ourselves to be speaking from actual sight ; in the latter 
 only from habit. . . . The mere vividness of it gives 
 us a confidence which we seldom have when relying on 
 the law of association alone." 
 
 It is not meant that each individual memory will 
 exist only in one or other of these forms, or belong io 
 one or other of these classes; for sometimes persons are 
 found who possess them all in great efficiency, and that 
 is the most perfect memory in which they all exist in 
 due proportion. Usually, however, one form is found 
 to greatly predominate over the others, so as to give a 
 distinct Character to the memory. 
 
 In order to remember a thing, we must first of all 
 have had it previously in the mind. 1 "We cannot be 
 said to remember what has not already been matter of 
 thorighJLor observation to us. We perceive the present, 
 we anticip^atg^the^future, but we remember-the past. 2 
 A sensation or an idea then, in order to be the 
 subject of memory, must at some previous time have 
 been present to the mind, and there is always along 
 with the thing remembered the consciousness of its 
 having been in the mind before. 8 
 
 1 " When the image of anything is impressed on the memory, the 
 thing itself must needs be first present, whence the image may first 
 be impressed." St. Augustine. " There can be no memory of what 
 we have not had experience of in whole or in part." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 9 " The object of memory or thing remembered must be something 
 that is past, as the object of perception or consciousness must be 
 something that is present." Dr. T. Reid. 
 
 8 " Reproduction is not all that constitutes memory ; for there 
 must be in addition a recognition of the reproduced state of conscious- 
 ness as one which has been formerly experienced." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 29 
 
 A sensation or an idea present to the mind for the 
 first time, and its subsequent recall in the memory, 
 have many features in common ; x and indeed the more 
 closely and accurately the recalled sensation corre- 
 sponds to the original the better is it said to be remem- 
 bered. Usually the recalled impression is less distinct 
 or marked than the original, but otherwise there 
 is little to distinguish them, 2 so that in abnormal 
 states of the mind the one is frequently mistaken for 
 the other; and the phantasms of our dreams or the 
 hallucinations of a fever have all the appearance of 
 reality. 3 Indeed, it may well be doubted if we should 
 be able to distinguish an idea from a sensation a sub- 
 jective from an objectrvWeeling did not reason or some 
 of the other senses come to our aid. 4 
 
 1 " It is plain that memory is closely allied to sensation, and that 
 the resemblance between the two orders of phenomena is so great as 
 to justify the suspicion that the nervous system is instrumental in 
 producing the one as well as the other." Sir B. Brodie. " Between 
 conceiving a sensation and really perceiving it there is only a differ- 
 ence of degree. . . . The mere idea of a nauseous taste can excite 
 the sensation, even to the production of vomiting." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " Between the sensible perception of an object and the repro- 
 duced image of the object there is chiefly a quantitative difference 
 in the physiological and psychological processes : the image is a faint 
 sensation.''' G. H. Lewes. 
 
 8 "Everyone is familiar with the fact that sensations formerly 
 experienced are reproduced in dreaming with a vividness and reality 
 quite equal to that with which his consciousness was originally im- 
 pressed by the actual objects ; and this not unfrequently happens also 
 in the waking state." Dr. Carpenter. " Dreams have frequently a 
 degree of vivacity which enables them to compete with the reality; 
 and if the events which they represent to us were in accordance with 
 the circumstances of time and place in which we stand, it would be 
 almost impossible to distinguish a vivid dream from a sensible percep- 
 tion Ancillon. " It is only because dreams are different and incon- 
 sistent that we can say when we awake that we have dreamt. 3 ' 
 Pascal. 
 
 4 " There seems to be no difference in the feelings of the individual 
 between the sensations thus originating (i.e., subjectively) and those 
 
30 MEMORY. 
 
 This similarity in the two states naturally leads us to 
 look for a like similarity in their causes or circum- 
 stances. In other words, we are led to believe that 
 when a sensation that has once been in the mind is 
 recalled, the same parts are affected and the same 
 physical conditions reproduced as when it was originally 
 present. 1 Professor Bain says : " It must be considered 
 
 which are produced in the usual manner ; for we find that unless 
 convinced to the contrary by their reason, persons who witness 
 spectral illusions believe as firmly in the reality of the objects that 
 come before their minds as if the images of those objects were actually 
 formed on their retinae." Dr. Carpenter. " If the idea of the sweet- 
 ness of sugar should be excited in our dreams, the whiteness and 
 hardness of it occur at the same time by association, and we believe 
 a material lump of sugar present before us. But if in our waking 
 hours the idea of the sweetness of sugar occurs to us, the stimuli of 
 surrounding objects . . . prevent the other ideas of the hardness 
 and whiteness of the sugar from being exerted by association." Dr. 
 E. Darwin. tl Imaginary acts are always accompanied by the belief 
 (at least for the moment) in the existence of the corresponding reality. 
 This illusion, which exists in the highest degree in hallucination, 
 vertigo, and dreams (for want of real perceptions to correct it), also 
 exists, although in a less degree, in all states of consciousness. So 
 long as an image, whatever its content (whether it represents a house 
 or a mechanical invention or a sentiment), remains isolated, as if 
 suspended in consciousness, with no relation to other states, having a 
 fixed position incapable of- classification, so long we regard it as a 
 present existence." Th. Ribot. " I am inclined to think, after the 
 most careful attention to what I experience in myself, that the 
 exercise both of conception and imagination is always accom- 
 panied with a belief that their objects exist. . . . Whenever the 
 objects of imagination engross the attention wholly . . . they 
 produce a temporary belief of their reality. ... It is a strong 
 confirmation of this doctrine that in sleep, when the influence 
 of the will over the train of our thoughts is suspended . . . 
 we ascribe to the objects of imagination an independent and per- 
 manent existence, as we do when awake to the objects of percep- 
 tion." D. Stewart. 
 
 1 " It is very probable that recollections occupy the same anatomi- 
 cal seat as primitive impressions, and that they excite the activity of 
 the same nervous elements." Th. Ribot. " When I recollect the 
 appearance of an oak, my internal organs must necessarily at the 
 time be in the same situation in which they were when I saw that 
 oak." Helvetius. " Our recollection or imagination of external 
 
WHAT IT IS. 81 
 
 as almost beyond a doubt that the renewed feeling occu- 
 pies the very same parts and in the very same manner as 
 the original feeling and no other parts, nor in any other 
 manner that can be assigned". " To recall a motion 
 just made with the arm is," says Herbert Spencer, " to 
 have a feeble repetition of those internal states which 
 accompanied the motion is to have an incipient excite- 
 ment of those nerves which were strongly excited 
 during the motion". 1 
 
 As we shall afterwards see, a sensation is caused by 
 an object impinging upon an organ of sense and setting 
 up there a form of motion, which is conveyed, by means 
 of connecting nerve-fibres, to the brain, where it 
 becomes an object of consciousness. 2 In like manner, 
 when' voluntary motion is purposed, motion originates 
 in the brain and passes along the nerves to the 
 muscles, which are thus brought into action. 
 
 It seems highly probable, then, that the recalled 
 sensation or idea is occasioned by a repetition of the 
 same form of motion as attended the original sen- 
 sation. 8 The sensation of red is produced by a 
 
 objects consists of a partial repetition of the perceptions which were 
 excited by these external objects at the time we became acquainted 
 with them. 7 ' Dr. K Darwin. 
 
 1 " A movement, whether real or ideal, is mentally known as a 
 definite expenditure of energy in some special muscle or muscles." 
 Prof. Bain. " Ideas are nothing else than weak repetitions of the 
 psychical states, caused by actual impressions and motions." H. 
 Spencer. 
 
 2 " External objects impressed upon the senses occasion first in the 
 nerves on which they are impressed, and then in the brain, vibrations 
 of the small and, as one may say, infinitesimal medullary particles." 
 Dr. Hartley. " The only way in which the external world affects 
 the nervous system is by means of motion. Light is? motion, sound 
 motion, heat motion, touch motion, taste and smell, 'all motion." 
 J. D. Morell. " We have the strongest reason for believing that what 
 the nerves convey to the brain is in all cases motion." Prof. Tyndall. 
 
 8 " Our ideas of imagination are repetitions of the motions of the 
 
32 MEMOEY. 
 
 certain kind of motion, and the idea of red is in all 
 probability induced by the same kind of motion. 1 This 
 doctrine is as old as the days of Aristotle, who viewed 
 the representations of memory or imagination " as 
 merely the movements continued in the organ of 
 internal sense after the moving object itself has been 
 withdrawn". Sir W. Hamilton. 2 ' 
 
 It is the general opinion of physiologists that the 
 movements on which our recalled sensations depend 
 are confined to the brain, which is therefore regarded as 
 the sole seat of the memory. 3 This is probably the case 
 
 nerves, which were originally occasioned by the stimulus of external 
 bodies." Dr. E. Darwin. " It cannot but be that those vibrations 
 which accompany sensations should beget something which may 
 accompany ideas in like manner ; and this can be nothing but feebler 
 vibrations agreeing with the sensory-generating vibrations in kind, 
 place, and line of direction." Dr. Hartley. 
 
 1 " The simple ideas that we call up by recollection ... as 
 the colour red, or the smell of a rose, are exact resemblances of the 
 same simple ideas from perception, and in consequence must be a 
 repetition of those very motions." Dr. E. Darwin. 
 
 2 According to the ancient peripatetics, " we may conceive to be 
 formed within us, as from the operation of our senses about sensible 
 objects, some impression, as it were, or picture in our original sen- 
 sorium, being a relic of that motion caused within us by the external 
 object ; a relic which, when the external object is no longer present, 
 remains and is still preserved, being, as it were, its image, and which, 
 by being thus preserved, becomes the cause of our having memory." 
 Dr. T. Reid. " By idea in the sense of corporeal species, Descartes 
 did not mean a picture, likeness, or image of the object existing in the 
 brain, but simply a certain organic movement or agitation of the 
 nerves determined by the object, and communicated to the brain, the 
 seal of the sensus communis" Prof. Veitch. 
 
 3 " In the recollection of sensuous things the mind refers to a brain 
 in which are retained the effects, or rather the likenesses, of changes 
 that past impressions and intellectual states had made." Sir J. Paget. 
 " Memory means physiologically the same part of the brain in activity 
 as on the former occasion . . . with this difference, that it has 
 been in action before, and has an ingrained record thereof." Dr. 
 Maudsley. " It is not to be doubted that those motions which give 
 rise to sensation leave on the brain changes of its substance which 
 answer to what Haller called vestigia rerum, and to what that great; 
 
WHAT IT IS. 83 
 
 in many instances, as where the previous sensation is 
 only imperfectly recalled ; but where it is brought back 
 with any degree of vividness, as in the highest form of 
 memory, we are of opinion that the motion is not con- 
 fined to the brain, but extends also to the connecting 
 nerves, and even to the special organ of sense, as in the 
 original sensation, 1 with this difference, that in sensa- 
 tion the motion originates in the external organ and 
 travels inward to the centre, whereas in recollection it 
 originates in the centre and passes outward to the outer 
 organ. 2 It is well known that if we gaze for a time on 
 a particular bright colour the retina becomes exhausted 
 for the reception of that colour, and the object assumes 
 the appearance of the complementary one. Now, if, in 
 place of gazing, we shut our eyes and vividly imagine 
 
 thinker David Hartley termed ' vibratiuncules'. The sensation 
 which has passed away leaves behind molecules of the brain compe- 
 tent to its reproduction * sensigenous molecules,' so to speak, which 
 constitute the physical foundation of memory." Pro/. Huxley. 
 
 1 "As sensation has its seat in one portion of the organism . . . 
 which is not the brain only, but also the afferent nerves, the idea or 
 the ideal sensation must have the same seat." Prof. Bain. " The 
 organ which the imagination employs in the representation of sensible 
 objects seems to be no other than the organs themselves of sense, on 
 which the original impressions were made and through which they 
 were originally perceived." Sir W. Hamilton. " The same volition 
 that rules the bodily eye can rule the mental, because the mental is 
 still the bodily one." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " I am disposed to conclude that as in perception the living 
 organs of sense are from without determined to energy, so in imagi- 
 nation they are determined to a similar energy by an influence from 
 within." Sir W. Hamilton. " In seeking to recall the image of a 
 friend, there is a consciousness of the struggle taking place, first in 
 the head, and slowly and finally in the organ of sense. It is an 
 interesting fact that with persons in whom images easily acquire the 
 energy of sensations, the feeling of effort is always localised in the 
 sense organ rather than in the head ; whereas with those persons in 
 whom images have less energy and were less easily recalled, the effort 
 is more felt in the head. Very familiar images i.e., those constantly 
 excited are felt in the sense organ from the first." G. H. Lewes. 
 
34 MEMORY. 
 
 the colour, the same effect is produced the retina 
 becomes exhausted, and the complementary colour 
 takes the place of the original one, showing clearly that 
 the retina is concerned in the latter case as in the 
 former. 1 And what holds true with regard to sigtt is 
 doubtless true also in regard to the other senses, and 
 even to our muscular activities, so that in going over in 
 thought a certain course of action we exercise the same 
 parts (at least as far as the nerves are concerned), and 
 produce a measure of fatigue of the same kind as attends 
 the performance of the actual movements. 2 It is worthy 
 of remark, too, that the time taken up in mentally 
 going over a course of action is usually much the same 
 as that taken up in actually performing the movements. 3 
 
 1 " Thus if the eye be fixed for any length oi time upon a bright 
 red spot on a white ground, and then be suddenly turned so as to 
 rest upon the white surface, we see a spectrum of a green colour."- 
 Dr. Carpenter. " After intently thinking, with closed eyes, on some 
 particular colour, the retina becomes as exhausted by the image as if 
 it had been exposed to an objective stimulus of colour "-G. H. Lewes. 
 " If with closed eyes we keep before the imagination a bright-coloured 
 object for a long time, and then suddenly open the eyes upon a white 
 surface, we may see for an instant the imaginary object with a com- 
 plementary colour." Th. Ribot. 
 
 2 " I have a distinct consciousness that in the internal representa- 
 tion of visible objects the same organs are at work which operate 
 in the external perception of these ; and the same holds good in an 
 imagination of the objects of hearing, touch, taste, and smell. . . . 
 But not only sensible perceptions, voluntary motions likewise are 
 imitated in and by the imagination. I can in imagination represent 
 the action of speech, the play of the muscles of the countenance, the 
 movement of the limbs ; and when I do this I feel clearly that I 
 awaken a kind of tension in the same nerves through which, by an 
 act of will, I can determine an overt and voluntary motion of the 
 muscles." Sir W. Hamilton. " In mentally recalling a verbal train 
 we seem to repeat on the tongue the very words." Prof. Bain. 
 
 8 u The question of time necessary for the performance, so to speak, 
 of an idea ... is sometimes not less than the time required for 
 the performance of a muscular movement." Dr. Maudsley. "A 
 musician can compress the keys of a harpsichord with his fingers in the 
 order of a tune he has been accustomed to play in as little time as he 
 can run over these notes in his mind." Dr. E. Darwin. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 35 
 
 Hence the sluggard, by going over and over again in 
 thought something that he ought to do, may actually 
 exhaust his physical powers more than if he had really 
 done it, and that exactly in the same way. 1 Thus every 
 act of memory is a physical act, accomplished through 
 the operation of physical organs as much as is writing 
 or speaking. 2 
 
 But not only is every sensation produced, and its 
 recall in idea attended by motion, but it is now an 
 accepted doctrine of physiology that every thought that^ 
 passes through the mind produces motion .a4- change 
 in the material orgamsnToTour bodies, particularly the 
 brain. 3 Tnts~will be seen to naturally follow from what 
 has been said, when we remember that there can be no 
 thought or idea in the mind that has not originated in a 
 
 1 M The long wavering deliberation has often cost more to feeling 
 than the action itself, or a series of such actions would have cost ; 
 with the great disadvantage, too, of not being relieved by any of that 
 invigoration which the man of action finds in the activity itself." 
 John Foster. 
 
 2 " Memory ... is a faculty so intimately associated with the 
 operation of the vital forces, that no man doubts its entire de- 
 pendence upon corporeal states." Dr. Laycock. " We have in our 
 own consciousness of effort, and in our experience of subsequent 
 fatigue, a very strong indication that the power which thus controls 
 and directs the current of thought is of the same kind with that which 
 calls forth volitional contraction in the muscles, though exerted in a 
 different mode/' Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 3 " Just as no single action of the body takes place without the 
 waste of some muscular tissue, so it is believed that no thought takes 
 place without some waste of the brain." Prof. Drummond. " Every 
 action of the animal body, whether mental or muscular, is accom- 
 plished at the expense and accompanied by the destruction of a portion 
 of the fabric of which it is composed." Dr. G. Holmes. " A certain 
 change of composition of the organized fabric is a necessary condition 
 of every manifestation of its vital activity." Dr. Carpenter. " It 
 is admitted by all that every change in the consciousness is coinci- 
 dent with some vital change in the encephalon. . . . Without this 
 vital change no mental phenomena whatever are manifested." Dr. 
 Laycock. 
 
36 MEMOEY. 
 
 sensation. 1 Even our most abstract ^e^cs^s of beauty 
 or virtue, come to us from the contemplation of beauti- 
 ful objects and virtuous actions. 2 / It is natural, then, 
 to suppose that as these beautifm objects and virtuous 
 actions are produced and recalled by motion, so likewise 
 must be the abstract ideas^hich are formed from them. 3 
 Indeed, we are of the opinion of those who hold that 
 each specific thought lias its specific seat in the brain, 
 and that ther< is a constant and unvarying connection 
 between the two. 4 
 
 " There is nothi/g in the intellect that has not come to it through 
 the senses but the intellect itself, the rational power by which the 
 material of the senses is raised into the region of intellectual ideas." 
 /. D. Morell. " All our ideas, like all our emotions, are redu- 
 cible to a sensorial impression, as the fundamental condition of their 
 occurrence. This sensorial impression is at the bottom of all our 
 ideas, all our conceptions, though it may at first conceal itself in the 
 form of a binary, ternary, quaternary compound." H, Spencer. 
 
 2 " In no case can an abstract word be rendered into thought with- 
 out some one or more of the concrete meanings embraced by it being 
 thought of." H. Spencer. " Our idea of life is nothing but the idea 
 of something living ; of truth but of something true ; of causation 
 but of something causing ; of time but of something lasting ; of space 
 but of something extended." S. Bailey. " Every person can try for 
 himself whether he has any conception of a general proposition called 
 an abstraction without necessarily referring to external objects as 
 examples." Dr. Biichner. 
 
 8 " If you wonder what organs of sense can be excited into motion 
 when you call up the ideas of wisdom or benevolence ... I ask 
 you by what organs of sense you first become acquainted with these 
 ideas ?" Dr. E. Darwin. 
 
 4 "Every idea of the mind is associated with a corresponding change 
 in some part or parts of the brain ; and the physical changes in these 
 parts give rise to a corresponding manifestation of ideas." Todd and 
 Boivman. " If every state of consciousness implies as an integral 
 part a nervous action and if this action produces a permanent 
 modification of the nervous centre, the state of consciousness will 
 also be recorded in the same place and manner." Th. Ribot. 
 " I can hardly imagine that any profound scientific thinker, who 
 has reflected upon the subject, exists who would not admit the 
 extreme probability of the hypothesis, that for every fact of conscious- 
 ness, whether in the domain of sensation, thought, or of motion, a 
 
WHAT IT IS. 87 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the changes 
 which result from these movements are not evanescent, 
 that they do not vanish as soon as the causes by which 
 they were produced have passed away, but that, on the 
 contrary, they remain and form a permanent record of 
 what has passed through the mind a written testimony 
 of all that each one has felt and thought and done in the 
 past. 1 It cannot be supposed that the various particles 
 that have been in agitation return to exactly the same 
 condition as they were in before. Subsequent changes 
 will no doubt affect, and, it may be, more or less 
 modify or alter the effects of this one, but no subse- 
 quent change can possibly bring back the various par- 
 ticles to exactly the same condition in which they were 
 before this change took place. 2 The change so effected 
 is permanent, and constitutes, in our view, the physical 
 
 certain definite molecular condition is set up in the brain ; that this 
 relation of physics to consciousness is invariable, so that given the 
 state of the brain, the corresponding thought or feeling might be 
 inferred ; or given the thought or feeling, the corresponding state of 
 the brain might be inferred." Prof. Tyndall. 
 
 1 " It seems to be a legitimate conclusion that impressions made 
 upon the organs of sense and transmitted to the brain produce some 
 actual change in the minute organisation of the latter, and that this 
 is subservient, and, in our present state of existence, essential to the 
 memory." Sir B. Brodie. "We seem justified in affirming that 
 some change must be effected in the nervous centres by every impres- 
 sion of which we become conscious, whereby the impression is 
 organically perpetuated in such a manner as to allow of its present- 
 ing itself anew to the cognisance of the mind at any future time." 
 Vr. Carpenter. " There can be no doubt that the registry of impres- 
 lions involves an actual structural change in the ganglion, which is 
 of a permanent character." Dr. Draper. 
 
 2 " Every impression leaves a certain ineffaceable trace ; that is to 
 lay, molecules once disarranged and forced to vibrate in a different 
 way, cannot return exactly to their primitive condition." Th. Ribot. 
 " When the organic modification has been once fixed in the growing 
 brain, it becomes a part of the normal fabric, and is regularly main- 
 tained by nutritive substitution, so that it may endure to the end of 
 life, like the scar of a wound." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 5 
 
38 MEMOKY. 
 
 basis of memory. 1 In this way we believe that every 
 good or evil thought we have ever entertained, every 
 good or evil act we have ever done, is indelibly recorded 
 in our bodily structure, to be brought back to mmd ; if 
 not in this life, at least on the Great Day of Account, 
 when our bodies will be raised and the deeds of all men 
 made manifest. 2 
 
 1 " Every idea is a permanent, immutable impression in the brain, 
 which may at any moment present itself anew if the mind be directed 
 to it." Dr. J. Muller. " Each impression we receive leaves a trace, 
 a real physiological trace (spur) behind it, which may be revived and 
 brought again into consciousness under the proper physical conditions." 
 Dr. Beneke. " In a brain that is not disorganised by injury or 
 disease, the organic registrations are never actually forgotten, but 
 endure while life lasts. No wave of oblivion pan efface their charac- 
 ters. Consciousness, it is true, may be impotent to recall them ; but 
 a fever, a blow on the heacl, a poison in the blood, a dream, the agony 
 of drowning, the hour of death, rending the veil between our present 
 consciousness and these inscriptions, will sometimes call vividly back 
 in a momentary flash, and call back, too, with all the feelings of the 
 original experience, much that seemed to have vanished from the 
 nrind for ever." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 2 " No sensation received, no judgment formed, no acquisition, no 
 affection cherished, no passion gratified, will ever be found to have 
 faded into nothing, as if they had never been. . . . Deem not this 
 to be impossible. In the case of drowning, those who have been pre- 
 served and recover declare that the whole of their past lives did at 
 that moment pass before them with the velocity of lightning." Dr. 
 J. M'Crie. Swedenborg describes the angels as after death examining 
 a man's features and body in order to ascertain his actions and con- 
 duct in this world. Every thought and volition, he was informed, 
 " is inscribed in the brain ; for volition and thought have their 
 beginnings in the brain, whence they are conveyed to the bodily 
 organs, wherein they terminate. Whatever, therefore, is in the mind 
 is in the brain, and passes from the brain to the. body, according to 
 the order of its parts. Thus a man writes his life in his physique, 
 and thus the angels discover his autobiography in his structure. "- 
 A man's "character is written in his organisation, and might be 
 read there, had we but senses acute enough to decipher the organic 
 letters. There is not a thought of the mind, not a feeling of the heart, 
 not an aspiration of the soul, not a passion which finds vent, not a 
 deed which is done, that is not graved with an unfailing art in the 
 structure of the body." Dr. Maudsley. " This, perchance, is the 
 dread Book of Judgment in whose mysterious hieroglyphics every 
 idle word is recorded." S. T. Coleridge. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 39 
 
 The material impression or change that is effected in 
 the structure of our bodies by every sensation we 
 experience, every thought we think, and every action 
 we perform, is not--cT5nSn^4ojtil3,e brain or any one part, 
 of the body, but extends to the S^HlLjpa3o? jprgans 
 that have been in activity. Each different kind of 
 activity has its separate organs or parts through which 
 it acts, and in which some change is effected by every 
 action it performs. 1 This change is~permajint7 
 constitutes, in our view, the physical basis of memory, 
 which has thus as many distinct seats as there are 
 different forms of activity. 2 
 
 The senses are improved by being exercised, and 
 this improvement is not confined to the brain, for the 
 practised eye will see and the practised ear hear what 
 these organs when untrained cannot distinguish; 3 and 
 
 1 "A certain change^tf composition of the organised fabric is a 
 necessary condition of ewry manifestation of its vital activity." Dr. 
 Carpenter. " It is a matter of daily ober y^ion that structure grows 
 to the mode of its exercise . . . thatds towy, that function develops 
 structure in the line of its activity/"-^-Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 * Since "memory is connected with the body, it must depend upon 
 some change which mu^happ^jjp the primitive state of the sensible 
 
 fibres by the action of ^tjects'^Bt is "probable that the state of the 
 fibres on which an object has acted is not precisely^the same after this 
 action as it was before. I have conjectured that-lh^sensible'fibres 
 experience more or less durable inoculations, which constitute the 
 physics of memory and recollection." Ghas. Bonnet. 
 
 8 "Let us take a particular case a good visual memory, for instance. 
 Its conditions are that the eye, the optic nerve, and those portions of 
 the brain concurring in the act of vision, should be finely developed 
 and act harmoniously. These structures, superior by hypothesis to 
 the average, are perfectly adapted to receive and transmit impres- 
 sions. Consequently the modifications of the nervous elements, as 
 well as the dynamical associations which are formed, ought to be 
 more stable, more definite, and easier to revive than those formed 
 in a less favoured brain. . . . These remarks are applicable to 
 hearing, smell, taste, and those diverse forms of sensibility comprised 
 under the general term touch in fact, to all the sense-perceptions." 
 Th. Eibot. 
 
40 MEMOEY. 
 
 as with the senses so with the muscles. The efficiency 
 and skill acquired by the handicraftsman in the use of 
 his tools does not depend solely upon the brain and 
 nerves, but includes also the muscles, which have 
 become more adapted for the performance of their work 
 by each repeated act of training they have undergone. 
 Whatever parts, then, are concerned in the production 
 of a sensation, the same parts are concerned in the 
 recollection of it, which is simply a feebler form of the 
 sensation ; x and whatever parts are set in motion by 
 an action, the same parts are necessary to the full 
 and complete recollection of it, which is in reality an 
 imperfect repetition of the action. 2 Thus the senses 
 are not only necessary for receiving impressions, but are 
 necessary also for imaging them in the memory ; and 
 the muscles are not only necessary for the performance 
 of actions, but necessary also for the fall remembrance 
 of them. 3 Hence not the brain lione, but the whole 
 body is the true seat of the memory. 4 ., 
 
 1 " Sensations arising from within, as, for 'example, an idea of 
 whiteness, are not indeed perceived with the full freshness of those 
 raised by the actual presence of wl^te light without us, but they are 
 they are feebleH^petiti^s < ~ 
 
 of the same kind ; they are feeble^ppetiti^B of one and the same 
 material brain process, of one and me same conscious sensation." 
 Dr. E. Bering: 
 
 2 " Even when expressly using the powers of recollection, the mind 
 seems almost consciously to be exerting itself on something without, 
 which is imperfectly submitted to the will." Sir H. Holland* 
 
 3 " In a general way it may be said that the limbs and other 
 eensorial organs of the adult act with facility only because of the sum 
 of acquired and co-ordinated movements, which forms for each part 
 of the body its special memory the accumulated capital upon which 
 it lives, and through which it acts, just as the mind lives and acts in 
 the medium of past experience. To the same category belong those 
 groups of movements of a more artificial character, which constitute 
 tlie apprenticeship of the manual labourer, and are called into action 
 in games of skill, bodily exercises, &c. ;> Th. JRibok 
 
 4 u There is memory in every . . . organic element of the b**^ 
 , . The manner in which the scar of a cut on a child's finger gi'o\** 
 
WHAT IT IS. 41 
 
 The nature of the memory of a particular act or 
 impression depends on the nature of the change which 
 is effected in the parts concerned. It may make a deep 
 or a slight impression, a clear or a blurred one. Much 
 will depend on the degree of attention which the mind 
 gives to it. When little, the impression will be slight, 
 also when not regarded for a sufficient length of time. 
 When mixed up with others, it will be blurred and 
 indistinct. Much, too, depends upon the state of the 
 body. In youth the body is easily impressed, and the 
 impressions then made are lasting ; whereas in old age 
 impressions are formed with difficulty, and are difficult 
 of recall. 1 When the body is exhausted by fatigue or 
 by disease, or suffers from want of nourishment, the 
 impressions will be slight and made with difficulty. 2 
 When, on the other hand, the body is fresh and vigorous, 
 impressions are easily made, and are usually lasting. 
 Whatever strongly excites the mind, or presents itself 
 when the mind is under strong excitement, makes a 
 lasting impression. If the curiosity is strongly excited 
 about a thing, it readily fixes itself in the mind. Fre- 
 quent repetition is, as everyone knows, a common way 
 of fixing a thing in the memory. Hence in proportion 
 
 as the body grows, evinces, as Mr. Paget has pointed out, that 
 the organic element of the part does not forget the impression that 
 has been made upon it. ... The permanent effect of a particular 
 virus on the constitution, as that of smallpox or of syphilis, proves that 
 the organic element remembers for the rest of life certain modifica- 
 tions which it has suffered." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 1 " We find, for example, that new acquirements are easiest and 
 most rapid during early life, the time of most vigorous growth of the 
 body generally. We find also that rest and nutrition are as much 
 needed for educating the organs as for keeping up the bodily health." 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " Fatigue in any form is fatal to memory ; the received impres- 
 sions are not fixed ; reproduction is slow, often impossible." H. 
 Spencer. INo one " can go through a laborious recollection or train of 
 reasoning when the body is exhausted and feeble 75 . Sir H. Holland, 
 
42 MEMORY. 
 
 as we exercise or cultivate any form of activity, we 
 strengthen and improve the memory of it ; that is to 
 say, we multiply deeper and render more distinct the 
 material traces on which the memory of it depends. 1 
 
 As the mind is single, and each different form of 
 activity has its distinct seat, it follows that if we wish 
 to impress a particular subject or form of activity on 
 the mind, we must do so by itself. Activities of the 
 same kind are impressed, and stored up in the same 
 parts; activities of different kinds in different parts. 
 Hence when we attempt to carry on several new 
 activities at the same time, it can only be done imper- 
 fectly and at great loss of power, by the mind passing 
 rapidly from one seat to another. After the impressions 
 are once formed, there is no difficulty in associating 
 them together. 
 
 We have dwelt upon this because we think it of 
 importance to establish the doctrine of the physical 
 basis of memory. 2 There are many of its phenomena 
 that it is impossible to explain unless we adopt this 
 view, and by bearing it in mind we obtain light and 
 leading on much that is otherwise dark and mysterious. 8 
 
 1 " The registering of experiences, it appears, is accomplished 
 by a modification of the nervous structure. . . . The greater the 
 amount of force brought to bear in affecting the nerves, the more 
 complete and permanent will be the modification, and hence the more 
 indelible will be the registry. The greater the quantity of sensation 
 . . . the stronger will be the impression." D. G. Thompson. 
 
 2 " There is no part of our purely psychical activity the relation cf 
 which to physical conditions is more obvious and more intimate than 
 that reproduction of past states of consciousness which ... we 
 call memory." Dr. Carpenter. "The manifold disorders to which 
 memory is liable illustrate in the most complete manner its organic 
 nature." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 3 " Whatever tends to produce a healthy state of brain in all its 
 functions best contributes to repair default in the memory or recol- 
 lective power." Sir H. Holland. " It is possible that by accurate 
 observation the proper means may be discovered of preserving that 
 
WHAT IT IS. 43 
 
 Thus when we try to recall something we have forgotten, 
 we naturally go back in thought to the time or occasion 
 when it was previously in the mind, and so recover it. 1 
 For instance, we meet a person in the street whom we 
 remember to have seen somewhere before, but we 
 cannot recollect where or when. We go over in thought 
 the various occasions on which we think it likely we 
 may have met him, and for a time it may be in vain ; 
 but at length we come upon the exact time : the whole 
 scene at once flashes up before us, and we remember 
 him perfectly. In this we resemble the person who, 
 having lost a jewel or a piece of money or other valu- 
 able, goes to look for it in the place where he last had 
 it or saw it. 2 In this case the object is material, and 
 will, we know, remain in the place where it was left ; 
 but we find our thoughts and ideas also remaining 
 where they were left, as if they, too, were material. 
 Did we not succeed in recalling the particular occasion on 
 
 temperament of the brain which, is favourable to memory, and of 
 remedying the disorders of that temperament." Sir B. Brodie. 
 
 1 " Who has not, in order to recover an impression momentarily 
 lost, made his way to the spot where the idea first arose, in order to 
 place himself as far as possible in the same material situation ; and at 
 length find it suddenly revived 1 " Th. Ribot. " If we would recover 
 an absent idea, we may often do so by recalling those circumstances 
 of time, place, company, &c., wherein we first observed, heard, or 
 learnt it," Isaac Watts. " If we wish to reproduce any sensational 
 state ... we first recall by recollection the notion of some object 
 by which that state was formerly produced ; and it is only by giving 
 our attention strongly to that notion that we can bring ourselves to 
 see, hear, smell, taste, or feel that which we desire to experience." 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " Often when we do not immediately call to mind what we wish 
 to remember, we set ourselves, as it were, to search for it : we medi- 
 tate on other things or persons that seem to be like it, or contrary to it, 
 or contiguous, or to bear any other relation to that we are in quest of ; 
 and thus, perhaps, we at last remember it." This " resembles the 
 procedure of those who, missing something valuable, look for it in 
 every place where they think they might -have been when they 
 dropped it, and thus recover what they had lost". Dr. Beattie. 
 
44 MEMORY. 
 
 which we had previously met the individual, supposing 
 we had done so only once, we should no more recollect 
 him than the person would succeed in finding his lost 
 jewel without going to the place where it actually was. 
 
 When we call to mind a past event, we do not recall 
 it merely as a mental ifea or impression, but we seem 
 to see it again as we saw it at first, with all its attend- 
 ing circumstances, only with less distinctness. The 
 beautiful castle I saw last summer I recall, not simply 
 as an idea or by itself, but I seem to be again gazing 
 upon it ; and I see it now, ais I saw it then, with the 
 walks about it, the trees around it, the hills beyond, and 
 the bright summer's sun shining overhead. 1 The one, 
 indeed, appears to have not a little of the materiality of 
 the other; nor is this to be wondered at when we 
 remember that all that I perceived in the first case was 
 certain impressions made by the action of light upon 
 the retina of my eye, and that in all probability the 
 same parts are affected in the recalled impressions 
 as were concerned in the original ones. 
 
 Further, with regard to a past impression, we can not 
 only assert that it was in the mind before, but we can 
 usually fix the exact time when it was so. We can say, 
 for instance, that it was last week or last month or five 
 or ten years ago. In endeavouring to determine the 
 
 1 " When I recall an object of sight hy the power of memory, it 
 appears to me precisely the same as in the original survey, only 
 less distinct. For example, having seen yesterday a spreading oak 
 growing on the bank of a river, I endeavour to recall these objects to 
 my mind. How is this operation performed ? Do I endeavour to 
 form in my mind a picture of them or representative image? Not 
 so. I transport myself ideally to the place where I saw the tree and 
 river yesterday ; upon which I have a perception of these objects, 
 similar in all respects to the perception I had when I viewed them with 
 my eyes, only less distinct. And in this recollection I am not conscious 
 of a picture or representative image more than in the original survey ; 
 the perception is of a tree and river, as at first." Lord Kames. 
 
WHAT IT IS. 45 
 
 time when it occurred we may perhaps call to mind 
 one event, and say Jt was before that, and another, and 
 say it was after thatTtilTwe come upon the exact time ; 
 precisely in the same way as we can turn to a particu- 
 lar passage in a book we have read. The treasures of our 
 memory would thus seem to be laid up in distinct layers 
 or recorded in consecutive pages like the matter of a book. 1 
 Thus children who have learnt to speak in several lan- 
 guages never confuse them. When asked a question in 
 one language they always reply in that language. 
 
 Hence in recollection the great difficulty usually is to 
 make a beginning to get the first word of a sentence, 
 the first letter of a word, something that will lead us to 
 the right place, or set the mind on the right groove 
 and then it will run on with little difficulty. We 
 sometimes search the memory in vain for a thing for a 
 long time till we come upon some link a word, it may 
 be, or a name and then all at once the whole thing 
 flashes up before us. A friend tries to bring to our 
 recollection something that happened long ago some 
 school-boy exploit, it may be, in which we took part. 
 We fail to recall it till he mentions a particular cir- 
 cumstance, or names some one who was present, and 
 then all at once the whole scene is brought vividly to 
 our recollection, as if it had happened only yesterday. 2 
 
 1 " The exact observance of the order of place in visible ideas, 
 and of the order of time in audible ones, may serve to show that 
 these ideas are copies and offsprings of the impressions made on the 
 eye and ear, in which the same orders were observed respectively." 
 Dr. D. Hartley. 
 
 1 It is related of a distinguished equity judge that, in listening to 
 the further proceedings in a case that had previously been before 
 him, he had no recollection of it till, " in the course of the argument, 
 some word, phrase, or incident has furnished a suggestion that has 
 served at once to bring the whole case vividly into his recollection, aa 
 if a curtain had been drawn away and a complete picture presented 
 to his view". Dr. Carpenter. 
 
46 MEMORY. 
 
 We may have striven to recollect something for a 
 long time in vain, and afterwards it may occur to us 
 suddenly when perhaps we are not thinking of it, 
 having, as it were, come unexpectedly upon the place 
 where it lay. 1 Sometimes, again, it may be said that 
 we were told something or other, and we may be un- 
 conscious of ever having heard it before, and yet per- 
 haps, days or weeks afterwards, through the accidental 
 shining in, as it were, of light on some dark corner of 
 the memory, the circumstance may be brought to our 
 recollection. 
 
 In endeavouring to recover a lost idea, we sometimes 
 seem to know what or where it is, and yet we feel 
 unable to get at it or grasp it. Numerous other ideas, 
 more or less, it may be, resembling it or related to it, 
 come up, and they seem, as it were, to obstruct or 
 hinder our getting at the right one. We feel that if 
 we could get away from these, or banish them from 
 the mind, we would get nearer to what we are in search 
 of. Hence some have said that forgetfulness is nothing 
 but the remembrance of wrong ideas, or the presence 
 in the mind of ideas other than those we are seeking. 
 At all events, forgetfulness is an important condition of 
 memory, and we must temporarily forget many things 
 in order to remember some things well. 2 
 
 1 " Once lodged in the brain or mind, an impression may lie dor- 
 mant indefinitely, until some discharge of mental force or energy 
 happens to take place through the particular layer or stratum of 
 corpuscles which embodies the record of the idea." Dr. M. Granville. 
 
 2 "If our impressions of the past were not . . . liable to be 
 abated, borne down, or obscured and obliterated, there would in 
 most minds be certain vivid recollections that would continue to 
 usurp the entire consciousness, and so exclude the present with its 
 fainter sensations, its interests, and its duties." Isaac Taylor. 
 u Without the total oblivion of an immense number of states of con- 
 sciousness, and the momentary repression of many more, recollection 
 would be impossible." Th. 
 
CHAPTER H. 
 
 MATTER AND MIND. 
 
 11 The popular or habitual conception of mankind in general Is that there are 
 two distinct worlds, mixed up in the phenomenal cosmos a world of mind, con- 
 sisting of multitudes of individual minds, and a world of matter, consisting of 
 all the extended immensity and variety of material objects." Prof. Masson. 
 
 "What matter is independent of our perception, what mind is independent 
 of its temporary varieties of feeling, it is impossible for us to discover." Dr. 
 Tkos. Brown. 
 
 "We cannot tell what matter is in itself or what spirit is in itself ; but we 
 mean by matter that which has length, depth, and breadth, the properties which 
 are revealed to us by our outward senses ; we mean by spirit that which is not 
 bound to the conditions of space, which is not known to us by our bodily senses 
 immediately, but by a revelation sui generis called consciousness." S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 " What I call my body is a persistent aggregate of objective phenomena, and 
 my soul is a persistent aggregate of subjective phenomena : the one is an indi- 
 vidualised group of experiences expressible in terms of matter and motion, and 
 therefore designated physical; the other an individualised group of experiences 
 expressible in terms of feeling, and therefore designated psychical." Q. H. Lewes. 
 
 /CLAIMING- as we do a material basis for the 
 \J memory, we deem it necessary to explain at some 
 length what we understand thereby, especially as it is 
 a subject on which no little ignorance an^ prejudice 
 commonly prevail. What matter is by itself or what 
 mind is by itself, we know and can know nothing. 
 Certain phenomena, or appearances, present themselves 
 to our bodily senses, and we attribute them to matter; 
 certain other phenomena reveal themselves to our inner 
 sense, or consciousness, and these we attribute to mind. 
 Were we endowed with more seijses than we have at 
 present, or were those we now possess more powerful 
 than they are, we cannot doubt that our knowledge 
 of the so-called material world would be greatly ex- 
 
48 MEMORY. 
 
 tended, and probably much that we now regard as 
 mental might be found to be the result of physical 
 causes ; and, on the other hand, were our conscious- 
 ness much extended so as, for instance, to take cogniz- 
 ance of some of those material changes which we know 
 to accompany every thought that passes through the 
 mind, we might find mind to be much more dependent 
 upon physical causes than is generally believed at 
 present. 1 
 
 Formerly, when consciousness reigned supreme, and 
 was regarded as the ground of all our knowledge, the 
 world of mind was everything, that of matter as nothing 
 in comparison. " On earth," said the philosopher, 
 "there is nothing great but man; in man there is 
 nothing great but mind." Men then talked with pride 
 of the mastery achieved by mind over matter, which 
 was compelled to submit its gigantic powers to its will, 
 and from being an uncontrollable tyrant to become the 
 most submissive and obedient of servants. Every fresh 
 victory gained over matter seemed only to bring out 
 more clearly the unlimited power of mind, and to hold 
 it up as the one thing worthy of supreme regard. 
 
 This, however, is no longer the case. Men have 
 discovered that every thought that passes through the 
 
 1 " We have no reason for believing that the sensibility of the 
 mind of man exhausts the properties of matter or is percipient of all 
 possible forms of existence in space. Other senses might make new 
 discoveries no less surprising than the sense of sight to one who has 
 been born blind. It is even conceivable that substances may exist 
 contiguous to us in space, yet be as nothing to us, because their pro- 
 perties bear no relation to our sensibility." R. A. Thompson. " The 
 addition of one new sense . . . might probably, in a few hours, 
 communicate more instruction with respect to matter, than all which 
 is ever to repay and consummate the physical labours of mankind." 
 Dr. Chalmers. " Consciousness gives no account of the essential 
 material conditions which underlie every mental manifestation and 
 determine the character of it." Dr. H. Maudsley. 
 
MATTEE AND MIND. 49 
 
 mind is attended with a material change in certain 
 particles of the body; so that without some material 
 change no conscious act of the mind can take place. 1 
 Hence some of the ablest thinkers in the present day de- 
 clare that there is no such thing as mind in the world 
 apart from matter; that mind is simply the result of a 
 certain combination of matter, or that matter and mind 
 are only different sides of one and the same substance. 2 
 This much is certain, that matter and material laws 
 are largely concerned in all the phenomena of mind, 
 and the broad distinctions that were formerly believed 
 to exist between the two no longer hold good. 8 
 
 1 "In the present condition of our nature, the human mind is 
 connected with a material and organised substance, the body, with 
 which its operations stand in a state of union so close, perfect, and 
 necessary, that neither can act without the action, direct or indirect, 
 of the other." Dr. Pye Smith. " Mind can only manifest itself in 
 existence as it acts upon matter; without matter there can be no 
 manifestation of mind." Dr. Laycock. "Every idea, voluntary or 
 not, clear or obscure, complex or simple, fugitive or persistent^ 
 implies a determined molecular movement in the cerebral cells. . . . 
 Tiiere is no exception to this rule, the loftiest thought, the most 
 abstract conception, is subject to it." H. Taine. 
 
 2 " The arguments for the two substances have, we believe, now 
 entirely lost their validity ; they are no longer compatible with 
 ascertained science and clear thinking. The one substance, with two 
 sets of properties, two sides, the physical and mental a double-faced 
 unity, would appear to comply with all the exigencies of the case." 
 Pro/. Bain. " Psychological analysis leads to the conclusion that the 
 objective process and the subjective process are simply the twofold 
 aspects of one and the same fact ; in the one aspect it is the felt, and 
 the other the feeling." G. H. Lewes. " Reduced to one single fact 
 possessed of two aspects they evidently become like the front and 
 reverse side of a surface, so that the presence or absence of the one will 
 infallibly result in the presence or absence of the other." H. Taine. 
 
 8 " The purest, the most ideal sentiment still pertains on some 
 side, to organisation. The inspiration of the poet, the passion of 
 the lover, the enthusiasm of the martyr have their languors and 
 shortcomings that often depend on very pitiable material causes." 
 V. Cousin. " The pluck by which the British soldier is especially 
 distinguished is clearly as much physical as psychical,''' Dr* 
 Carpenter. 
 
60 MEMORY. 
 
 Consciousness, to which we are indebted for our 
 knowledge of mind, gives us no information respecting 
 those bodily conditions on which we know that all. our 
 mental manifestations depend, or of those molecular 
 movements that attend every act of the mind. "While 
 I am conscious of seeing an object before me, I am 
 quite unconscious of the change that has taken place 
 on the retina, or of the movements occasioned in the 
 nerves and brain before it can be apprehended by the 
 mind. 1 
 
 "Even with regard to its own domain, consciousness 
 affords us but very imperfect information. It instructs 
 us indeed respecting those sensations, thoughts, or emo- 
 tions that may be directly present to the mind, but it 
 tells us nothing of what is constantly going on in that 
 much vaster ultra-conscious region where the higher 
 operations of the mind are carried on, and where reside 
 thoughts, feelings, and emotions which largely, though 
 unconsciously, influence our daily life and animate our 
 conduct. Consciousness tells a man that he is a free 
 agent; but beyond the sphere of consciousness there 
 are influences with which he has to reckon, and reason 
 and statistics go to prove that he is by no means so 
 free as he believes himself to be. (See Chapter VI., 
 " Mind Conscious and Unconscious".) 
 
 The true explanation of the difficulty, or rather to 
 us the impossibility, of bridging over the gulf that 
 separates matter and mind seems to be that the infor- 
 mation we receive respecting them reaches us through 
 
 1 " Consciousness, which cannot even tell us that we have a brain, 
 is certainly not capable of making known the different brain-changes 
 that go along with its manifold affections." Dr. Maudsley. " In- 
 dependently of observation of the external mechanism, and of anato- 
 mical research, he is wholly ignorant that he has a brain, or nerves, 
 or heart, or stomach, or lungs, or eliminating organs, and a fortiori 
 of the working or functions of those organs." Dr. Laycock. 
 
MATTER AND MIND. 51 
 
 different channels. 1 The phenomena of mind are re- 
 vealed to us by a different sense, come to us through a 
 different route, from those through which we receive 
 our knowledge of the outer world. As in the case of 
 our bodily senses, we cannot by one sense apprehend 
 the qualities belonging to another, cannot, for instance, 
 hear a colour, or taste or smell a colour, any more than 
 we can see a sound, or taste or smell a sound, so we 
 believe that it is impossible for us, as at present con- 
 stituted, to apprehend any of the phenomena of con- 
 sciousness by our bodily senses, or material phenomena 
 by consciousness alone, apart from our bodily senses. 2 
 " The passage from the physics of the brain to the 
 corresponding facts of consciousness is," says Professor 
 Tyndall, "unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought 
 and a definite molecular action of the brain occur simul- 
 taneously, we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor 
 apparently any rudiment of the organ, which would 
 enable us to pass by a process of reasoning from the 
 one phenomenon to the other." Were we possessed of 
 all knowledge, so that we could look nature through 
 and through, all its parts would doubtless be seen to be 
 
 1 " The gulf between the conception of the movements of cerebral 
 molecules and the self-consciousness of will-energy, may well be due to 
 the different ways of acquiring them ; molecular motion and will being 
 one and the same event seen under different aspects." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 2 " When we examine closely the idea of a sensation and the idea 
 of a molecular movement of the nervous centres, we find that they 
 enter by routes not merely different but contrary. The first comes 
 from within without any intermediate, the seconcl comes from with- 
 out through several intermediates. . . . One and the same single 
 event known in these two ways will appear double ; and whatever 
 be the link which experience establishes between its two manifesta- 
 tions we shall never be able to convert one of them into the other. 
 According as its representation comes from without or within, it will 
 invariably appear as a thing without or a thing within, and we shall 
 never be able to reduce that which is without to that which is within, 
 or that which is within to that which is without." H. Taine. 
 
52 MEMORY. 
 
 connected and interdependent, and mind and mattei 
 might then be found to be after all but two sides of one 
 and the same substance. 1 " Man/' says John Milton^ 
 "is a living being intrinsically and properly one and 
 individual, not compound or separable, not, accord- 
 ing to the common opinion, made up and framed of 
 two distinct and different natures, as of soul and body." 2 
 This, which is properly a scientific question, has 
 unfortunately been too often regarded as a theological 
 one, and the doctrine of the materiality of the mind 
 or soul held to directly involve its immortality. "The 
 principle," says Dr. Abercrombie, "seems to have been 
 too much lost sight of in the discussion of this subject 
 that our speculations respecting the materiality of the 
 rational human soul have no influence on our belief 
 of its immortality. This momentous truth rests on a 
 species of evidence altogether different, which addresses 
 itself to the moral constitution of man. . . . Though 
 we were to suppose, with the materialist, that the 
 rational soul of man is a mere chemical combination 
 which, by the dissolution of its elements, is dissipated 
 
 1 " When we find within us two ideas which have entered by 
 different routes, we ought to mistrust the tendency which induces us 
 to assert a difference and, above all, an absolute difference between 
 their objects. . . . It is possible then that the sensation and the in- 
 ternal movement of the nervous centres may be at bottom one and the 
 same unique event condemned by the two ways in which it io known 
 always and irredeemably to appear double. . . . There is nothing to 
 prevent the molecular movements from being the infinitesimal ele- 
 ments of the whole sensation." H. Taine. " It is we who make 
 separate sciences in consequence of the constitution of our faculties, 
 limiting our channels of apprehension to a few special points of 
 contact with the external." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 2 " The union of the soul and body appears to me essential and 
 indissoluble. Man without a body is, in my opinion, man no longer; 
 and God has thought and willed him embodied, and not otherwise. 
 . . . According to this passage (in Genesis), we cannot doubt that the 
 body or a body is essential to human personality and to the very 
 idea of man." A. Vinet. 
 
MATTER AND MIND. 53 
 
 to the four winds of heaven, where is the improbability 
 that the Power which framed the wondrous compound 
 may collect these elements again and combine them 
 anew for the great purposes of his moral administra- 
 tion?" To the same effect John Locke says : "All the 
 great ends of morality and religion are well enough 
 secured without philosophical proofs of the soul's im- 
 materiality, since it is evident that He who made us at 
 first begin to subsist here sensible, intelligent beings, 
 and for several years continue us in such a state, can 
 and will restore us to the like state of sensibility in 
 another world, and make us capable there to receive 
 the retribution He has designed to man according to 
 their doings in this life". " Milton's conclusion is that 
 at the last gasp of breath the whole man dies, soul and 
 body together, and that not till the Eesurrection, when 
 the body is revived, does the soul live again, does the 
 man or woman live again, in any sense or way, whether 
 for happiness or misery." D. Masson. 1 " That the spirit 
 of man should be separate from the body, so as to have 
 a perfect and intelligent existence independent of it, is 
 nowhere said in Scripture, and the doctrine is evidently 
 at variance both with nature and reason." John Milton. 
 The great distinguishing doctrine of Christianity is 
 not the immortality of the soul, but the resurrection of 
 the body. 2 That the soul of man is immortal was a 
 
 1 " Are the souls of the millions on millions of human beings who 
 have died since Adam, are those souls already either with God and 
 the angels in heaven or down in the diabolic world, waiting to be 
 rejoined to their bodies on the Resurrection Day? They are not, 
 says Milton ; but souls and bodies together, he says, are dead alike, 
 sleeping alike, defunct alike, till that day come," D. Masson. 
 
 2 " Though mankind have at all times had a persuasion of the 
 immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body is a doctrine 
 peculiar to Christianity, aud met with no little opposition even in 
 the apostolic age," Dr. James Seattle. 
 6 
 
54 MEMORY. 
 
 common belief among the Ancients, from whom it found 
 its way at an early period into the Christian Church, 
 but the most influential of the early Fathers were 
 strenuously opposed to it, holding that the human soul 
 was not essentially immortal, but only, like the body, 
 capable of immortality. " God alone/' says Justin 
 Martyr, " is uncreated and incorruptible ; but all other 
 things beside Him are created and perishable. For 
 this reason souls both die and are punished." l 
 
 Some theologians are apt to expatiate on the sinful- 
 ness of the flesh, the worthlessness of the body, as 
 contrasted with the purity of the spirit, the value of 
 an immortal soul. But this is to misunderstand the 
 teaching of Scripture, and to separate what God has 
 inseparably joined together in this life, and will unite 
 for all eternity in the world to come. 2 " The original 
 
 1 " The belief that the soul is inherently immortal belongs to the 
 old-world philosophy, and found its way at a later period into 
 Christian theology," but " the leading teachers of the early Church, 
 Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Irenseus, Arnobius, Atha- 
 nasius, and others, taught that the human soul, as at first created, 
 is not necessarily mortal or inherently immortal, that it is capable 
 both of mortality and immortality, and .that it lives as long as God 
 wills, or returns when He wills to that state in which it was before 
 its birth." D. Milne. "Some of the most influential of the early 
 Christian writers were materialists, not as holding the soul to be 
 the mere result of bodily organisation, but as holding the soul itself 
 to be material corporeal. ... It appears that in those days the 
 vulgar held the soul to be incorporeal, according to the views of 
 Plato and others, but that the orthodox Christian divines looked 
 upon this as an impious, unscriptural opinion. Justin Martyr 
 argues against the Platonic nature of the soul." S. I. Coleridgt. 
 (See also Edward White : Life in a Risen Saviour.) 
 
 2 " The immortality of the Gospel is not simply tte immortality 
 of the soul, it is the immortality of humanity. It is man that is to 
 live hereafter, and whose whole nature, so to speak, is to be per- 
 petuated for ever." T. Binney. " The souls of the blessed shall not 
 only be glorious, but their very bodies shall be filled with glory." 
 Jeremy Taylor. " You live again in the body, in the very body as 
 to all essential properties, and to all practical intents and purpt>sea 
 in which you live now. ... I am to live not a ghost, a spectre, a 
 
MATTEE AND MIND. 55 
 
 matter of which we speak," says Milton, *' is not to be 
 looked upon as an evil or a trivial thing, but as intrin- 
 sically good and the chief productive stock of every 
 subsequent good." " The union with matter, or the 
 coming into a corporeal state, may be in fact not a 
 degradation to mind, but the very means of its quicken- 
 ing, its birth into the world of knowledge and action. 
 ... A little attention to what is involved in the idea 
 of corporeal existence will incline us to believe that it 
 is the basis of intellect^! activity, of moral agency, and 
 of communion or sociality among intelligent orders/' 
 Isaac Taylor. 
 
 The question more immediately before us, however, 
 is : Does the mind or spirit of man, whatever it may 
 be, in its actings in and through the body, leave a 
 material impression or trace in its structure of every 
 conscious action it performs, which remains perma- 
 nently fixed, and forms a material record of all that it 
 has done in the body, to which it can afterwards refer 
 as to a book and recall to mind, making it again, as it 
 were, present to it ? " Why/' asks Dugald Stewart, 
 " should it be imagined that any step is made towards 
 materialism by supposing that an invisible book exists 
 in the sensorium, by the interpretation of which we 
 are enabled to perceive external objects, and by a 
 reference to which we recover as in a tablet the know- 
 ledge which has happened to escape from the memory?" 
 " The question," he continues, " it ought always to be 
 remembered, is not about the nature of the thing read, 
 but about the nature of the reader." 
 
 spirit, I am to live then as I live now, in the body." Dr. R. 8. 
 Candlish. " I think that the Christian doctrine of the Kesurrection 
 meets the materialists so far as this that it does imply that a body 
 or an organisation of some sort is necessary to the full development 
 of man's nature." Dr. T. Arnold. 
 
66 MEMORY. 
 
 In speaking of matter and material impressions in 
 connection with memory, we would not be understood 
 to mean anything that can be perceived by or made 
 apparent to the senses. When we think of matter we 
 usually imagine it as something that can be appre- 
 hended by the senses, or by some of the mechanical 
 aids which we employ to extend their powers. We rarely 
 think of the material kingdom as extending vastly 
 beyond the utmost limits that we are able to reach by 
 such means, and that all the properties which we attri- 
 bute to matter stretch immeasurably beyond our utmost 
 ken. 1 In general, then, we may say that we infer the 
 existence of matter where we find properties manifested 
 that we know to belong to it. 
 
 The minuteness of the particles of bodies that may be 
 perceived by the senses has often been dwelt upon. 
 Thus a grain of musk has been kept freely exposed to 
 the air in a room the doors and windows of which were 
 constantly open for a period of ten years, during which 
 time the air thus continually changed was completely 
 impregnated with the odour, and yet at the end of that 
 time the particle was not found to have diminished per- 
 ceptibly in weight. The taste of strychnine is apparent 
 
 1 " There can "be no doubt that there is as much in the animal 
 structure beyond the reach of the microscope as there is in the vast 
 universe around us beyond the reach of the telescope." Sir B. Brodie. 
 " This present visible universe no more exhausts the totality of things 
 in space than it does in time ; around it, and beneath it, and within 
 it are modifications of material existence, of which we can form only 
 a very vague conception." Dr. G. Beard. " The intimate researches 
 of modern physical science leave no room to doubt that there are 
 many agencies in activity about us which, although they make 
 themselves known in their ultimate consequences, are not directly 
 cognizable either by the eye, the ear, the touch, the taste, or the 
 smell." Isaac Taylor. "We cannot detect the difference between 
 the nerve element of a brain exhausted by exercise and incapable of 
 further function, and that of a brain reinvigorated by sleep and ready 
 for a day of energetic function." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
MATTER AND MIND. 57 
 
 when diluted to one in a million. " Animalcules have 
 been discovered ... so diminutive that a million of 
 them do not exceed the bulk of a grain of sand, and 
 yet each of these creatures is composed of members as 
 curiously organised as those of the largest species. 
 They have life and spontaneous motion, and are 
 endowed with senses and natural impulses." Dr. 
 Hands. 
 
 We find nature everywhere around us recording its 
 movements and marking the changes it has undergone 
 in material forms, in the crust of the earth, the com- 
 position of the rocks, the structure of the trees, the 
 conformation of our bodies ; and those spirits of ours, so 
 closely connected with our material bodies, that, so far 
 as we know, they can think no thought, perform no 
 action, without their presence and co-operation, 1 may 
 have been so joined in order to preserve a material 
 and lasting record of all that they think and do, 
 a witness for or against us on the Great Day of 
 Account for which, as we are told, our bodies will be 
 raised. 
 
 If we examine a portion of the earth's crust, we find 
 legibly imprinted there marks of changes that have 
 taken place in it, perhaps myriads of ages ago. At one 
 time perhaps it was under the sea ; at another it formed 
 the bottom of a fresh-water lake ; upheavals took place, 
 and we can note the periods of them ; glaciers passed 
 over it, and we observe their scratches. At one time it 
 
 1 " Every human movement, every organic act, every volition, 
 passion, or emotion, every intellectual process, is accompanied with 
 atomic disturbance." G. P. Marsh. "The soul never does one 
 .single action by itself apart from some excitement of bodily tissue.' 1 
 /. A. Picton. " We can no more realise mind as acting apart from 
 matter than we can realise the force of gravity or of chemical affinity 
 as acting apart from matter." Dr. Laycock, 
 
58 MEMORY. 
 
 may have been covered with a tropical vegetation ; at 
 another it may have experienced the rigours of an Arctic 
 climate. 1 An animal of a species long since extinct once 
 went to slake its thirst at a river, and we clearly see its 
 footprints in what was then soft clay or mud, but is now 
 hard rock. So, too, in the rocks we find the marks of 
 rain-drops and water-ripples originally formed in the 
 soft sand. An animal died, a tree fell, a leaf dropped, 
 thousands of ages ago, and to-day we can trace their 
 remains with the greatest minuteness. 2 
 
 The hoary tree that has stood for centuries by the 
 wayside bears in its structure a material record of every 
 year of its existence. Even with our dull and limited 
 senses, we can there read something of its past history 
 and of the changes it has undergone ; but may we not 
 well believe that to Higher Intelligences there may be 
 perceptible traces of every storm it experienced, of every 
 blast that blew on it, of every sun that shone on it, of 
 every atmospheric change that affected it ? May not 
 the vows softly whispered under its branches, and 
 
 1 " The rolling rock leaves its scratches on the mountain ; the 
 river its channel in the soil ; the animal its hones in the stratum ; 
 the fern and leaf their modest epitaph in the coal. The falling drop 
 makes its sculpture in the sand or stone. . . . The ground is all 
 memoranda and signatures, and every object covered over with hints 
 which speak to the intelligent. In nature this self-registration is 
 incessant." R. W. Emerson. 
 
 2 Myriads or millions of years ago the tide was out and the heach 
 was smooth and soi't and flat, and there fell a shower of rain and 
 pitted the surface in a particular way. . . . Then came a little 
 salt-water lizard, or a crab sidling along, or a frog the size of a well- 
 fed pig, leaping and waddling by turns ; and on the micaceous mud 
 each inscribed the whole history of that day's proceedings ; . . . 
 and there it remained till the tide gently rose and with fine sand or 
 clay filled up the impressions. And now that the whole is converted 
 into rock, there conies some exploring Miller or Mantel and turns 
 over the stony leaves, and reads the record as plain as if it had been 
 printed yesterday." Dr. James Hamilton. 
 
MATTER AND MIND. 59 
 
 
 
 heard by no human ear save one, be found there 
 recorded in permanent characters ? l 
 
 It is now an established fact that the sun's rays 
 cannot fall upon any object without producing a molecu- 
 lar disturbance or chemical change a change which is 
 permanent, and may even be made visible by resorting 
 to proper means. All photographic pictures are of 
 this kind. But not only prepared surfaces, but the 
 surfaces of all material things are constantly under- 
 going a mysterious change while under the influence of 
 sunshine. Lay a key upon a sheet of white paper 
 exposed to the sun's rays, then place the paper in a 
 dark drawer, and the spectral image of the key will 
 still be visible after the lapse of years. " If," says Dr, 
 Draper, " on such inorganic surfaces impressions may in 
 this way be preserved, how much more likely is it that 
 the same thing occurs in the purposely constituted 
 ganglion." 
 
 Owing to the changes that are constantly taking 
 
 1 " No atom can be disturbed in place or undergo any change of 
 temperature, of electrical state, or other material condition, without 
 affecting, by attraction or repulsion, or other communication, the 
 surrounding atoms. These, again, by the same laws transmit the 
 influence to other atoms, and the impulse thus given extends through 
 the whole material universe." Hence " there exists, not alone in the 
 human conscience or in the omniscience of the Creator, but in 
 external material nature, an ineffaceable, imperishable record, possibly 
 legible to even created intelligence, of every act done, every word 
 uttered, nay, of every wish and purpose and thought conceived by 
 mortal man from the birth of our first parents to the final extinction 
 of our race ". G. P. Marsh. " The air itself is one vast library, on 
 whose pages are for ever, written all that man has ever said or woman 
 whispered. There in their mutable but unerring characters . . . 
 stand for ever recorded vows unredeemed, promises unfulfilled ; per- 
 petuating, in the united movements of each par tide, the testimony of 
 man's changeful will. . . . Whilst the atmosphere we breathe 
 is the ever-living witness of the sentiments we have uttered, the 
 waters and the more solid materials of the globe bear equally endur- 
 ing testimony of the acts we have committed." C. Babbage. 
 
60 MEMORY. 
 
 place in our bodies as well as in living organic matter 
 generally, the traces or marks of impressions once 
 received would soon disappear but for the fact that the 
 existing particles impart their form and character to 
 those that come after them. 1 A cut finger retains the 
 marks of the injury it has sustained -long after the 
 wound itself is healed. The same cells do not remain, 
 but are constantly being carried away and their places 
 supplied by others ; but the injured cells retain and 
 transmit to their successors the form and character 
 impressed upon them by the injury, and so in genera- 
 tion after generation of cells the memory of the injury 
 once sustained is kept up. 2 
 
 Every part of the body, every cell and every fibre, 
 has a life of its own as well as contributing to the life 
 of the individual. 3 Each lives, produces after its kind, 
 
 1 " It is asked how can the brain be the organ of memory when 
 you suppose its substance to be ever-changing? . . . The answer 
 is because of the exactness of assimilation accomplished in the for- 
 mative processes : the effect once produced by an impression upon 
 the brain, whether in perception or in intellectual act, is fixed and 
 there retained, because the part, be it what it may, which has been 
 thereby changed, is exactly represented in the part which in the 
 course of nutrition succeeds to it." Sir James Paget. 
 
 2 " The formative process exactly assimilates the new materials to 
 the old. . . . The new formed blood and tissues take the like- 
 ness of the old ones in all their peculiarities, whether normal or 
 abnormal." Thus "after any injury or disease by which the struc- 
 ture of a part is impaired, we find the altered structure, whether an 
 induration, a cicatrix, or any other, as it were, perpetuated by 
 assimilation. It is not that an unhealthy process continues : the 
 result is due to the process of exact assimilation operating in a part 
 of which the structure has been changed. The same process which 
 once preserved the healthy state maintains now the diseased one." 
 Sir James Paget. 
 
 3 " There is ... a life of the parts and a life of the whole or- 
 ganism; each microscopic cell has its independent existence, runa 
 its own career from birth to death ; and the sum total of such lives 
 form what we call the life of the animal. The unity is the aggregate 
 of forces, not one presiding force." G. H. Lewes. " Every cell in the 
 
MATTEE AND MIND. 61 
 
 and dies. Its successors live, produce after their kind, 
 and die ; and so with others. At first, during infancy 
 and childhood, each succeeding issue becomes stronger 
 and more vigorous than the preceding ; but after a time, 
 in maturity, they become stationary, and eventually 
 degenerate and die out. They are likewise subject to 
 disease and to premature decay. 
 
 In the hereditary transmission of qualities we seem 
 to have a remarkable parallelism to what is thus con- 
 stantly taking place in our bodies. The individual cell 
 imparts its form and character to that which takes its 
 place, and the parents impress their physical and 
 mental qualities upon their offspring. That mental 
 qualities are transmitted from parents to children is 
 evidently owing to the brain, the physical organ of 
 the mind having, like the other parts of the body, a 
 transmitted nature. 1 Thus we find properties or quali- 
 ties which have been acquired by the parents, and been, 
 as we believe, imprinted in their physical structure, 
 appearing as innate qualities in their offspring. 2 In 
 
 organism is independent. It is born, it grows, it produces, it dies, as 
 if it were a single celled plant or animaL . . . Just as the life of 
 a nation or a tree is the sum total of the lives of all its individual 
 parts, so is the life of an organism the sum total of the lives of its 
 individual cells." Ditto. 
 
 1 " Hereditary transmission, displayed alike in all the plants we 
 cultivate, in all the animals we breed, and in the human race, applies 
 not only to physical but to psychical peculiarities." H. Spencer. 
 " Whenever the transmission of insanity occurs, we are bound by all 
 analogy to infer the presence of a morbid, material cause upon which 
 the phenomena primarily depend." Sir H. Holland. "The health of 
 the mind ... is subject to the same laws as is the health of the body. 
 For the brain, the organ of the mind, grows and is maintained ac- 
 cording to the same method of nutrition as every other part of 
 the body ; it is supplied by the same blood, and through the blood, 
 like every other part, may be affected for good or ill by the various 
 physical influences to which it is exposed." Sir J. Paget. 
 
 2 " The greater exactness of modern observation is ever placing 
 before us new and wonderful instances in which the most minute 
 
62 MEMOET. 
 
 other words, we find marks or traces of deeds done by 
 the parents appearing in the children, and manifesting 
 themselves as unconscious hereditary memory. 1 Nor 
 is this confined to parents, but may extend to more 
 remote ancestors. 
 
 May not the descendants of one common stock be 
 regarded as parts of one great organism, linked together 
 by bonds of relationship closer and more intimate than 
 is commonly supposed? 2 Only on this principle are 
 many of the phenomena to be observed in the physical 
 and moral worlds to be explained; and it shows a 
 paramount duty devolving upon parents of having a 
 
 peculiarities or defects in structure and function are transmitted 
 from one generation to another." Sir H. Holland. " Acquired habits 
 in several successive generations become permanent and assume the 
 character in instincts. . . . We must suppose that the conversion 
 of an acquired habit into an instinct is attended with some actual 
 change in the organisation of the brain." Sir B. Brodie. 
 
 14< The true type of organic memory . . . must be sought in 
 the group of facts, to which Hartley has given the appropriate title 
 of secondary automatic actions, as opposed to those automatic func- 
 tions which are primitive or innate," W may go lower : " the 
 exercise of each of our faculties (sight, toucu, locomotion) implies a 
 completely organic memory". "Can we go farther? We can. Below 
 the compound reflex impressions representing organic memory at its 
 lowest term, there are simple reflex impressions. These resulting 
 from innate anatomical conditions, have been acquired and fixed by 
 long continued experience in the evolution of species. We thus pass 
 from individual to hereditary memory which is a specific memory." 
 Th. Ribot. 
 
 2 " The offspring is termed a new animal, but is in truth a branch 
 or elongation of the parent, since a part of the embryo animal is or 
 was a part of the parent, and therefore in strict language cannot be 
 said to be entirely new at the time of its production, and therefore it 
 may retain some of the habits of the parent system." Dr. E. Darwin. 
 " Every organism imparts to the germ that issues from it a small 
 heritage of acquisitions which it has added during its own lifetime to 
 the gross inheritance of its race." Dr. E. Hering. "The successive 
 lineal descendants of any one kind of organism may in effect be 
 regarded as portions of the same organism gradually developing 
 through successive generations or stages of one life history." Dr, 
 Bottom. 
 
MATTER AND MIND. 68 
 
 constant regard in their conduct, to the effects it may 
 have on the characters of their children. 1 (See Edu- 
 cation and Educators, Chapter IV., " The Hereditary 
 Effects of Education".) 
 
 1 " Taking this comprehensive view of the organic unity of suc- 
 cessive generations of men ... it shows the past descending on 
 the present, the present on the future, by an inevitable law, and yet 
 gives every parent the hope of mitigating the sad legacy of mischief 
 he entails upon his children by whatever improvements of character 
 and conduct he is able to make." Dr. H. BushndL 
 
OHAPTEE IIL 
 
 THE BODY. 
 
 14 Die Mittel wodurch die Seele . . . mit der aeussern gegenstandlichen Wejt in 
 Verbindung tritt, ist eigentlich der ganze Leib, durch den und dessen Organe sie 
 Eindrucke von Aussen empfangt und Bewegung noch Aussen hervorbringt." Dr. J. 
 Beck. 
 
 The mind " depends for the manifestation of all its activities upon a material 
 organism". J, D. Morell. 
 
 " It appears to me that the frame of the body ... is a complex organ, I shall 
 not say of sense, but which ministers, like the external senses, to the mind ; that is 
 to say, as the organs to the five senses serve to furnish ideas of matter, the frame- 
 work of the body contributes in certain conditions to develop various states of the 
 mind." Sir Charles Bell. 
 
 " The organ of the mind is not the brain by itself : it is the brain, nerves, 
 muscles, organs of sense, viscera. ... It is uncertain how far even thought, remi- 
 niscence, or the emotions of the past and absent could be sustained without the 
 more distant communications between the brain and the rest of the body, the 
 organs of sense and movement." Prof. Bain. 
 
 THE body is that part of man's nature which brings 
 him into connection with the material world. It 
 is by means of bodily organs, the senses, that the mind 
 acquires its knowledge of the world around it; and it is 
 through its various organs of motion that it acts upon 
 and impresses outward nature, and communicates its 
 thoughts and feelings to others. 1 In addition to this, 
 
 1 " Sensation and volition are the two functions by means of 
 which the mental principle is enabled to maintain its communication 
 with the external world. It is under the influence of volition that 
 the contraction of muscles takes place for locomotion, speech, the 
 procuring of food, and other purposes. . . . Here there is an 
 impulse communicated from the mind to the brain, from thence to 
 the nerves, and from these to other organs, and producing a marked 
 change in the condition of the latter ; and a priori there is no reason 
 to doubt that the operation of a similar cause may produce an equal 
 change, though of another kind and more permanent, in the minute 
 structure of the brain itself." Sir B. Brodie. 
 
THE BODY. 65 
 
 all the mind's operations are carried on through a 
 material organ, the brain, which is subject to the same 
 laws and conditions as the other parts of the body. 
 Such is the close and intimate connection which sub- 
 sists between mind and body in man, that no thought 
 passes through the mind without a corresponding bodily 
 movement, on which it depends for its manifestation in 
 consciousness. 1 Hence we are of opinion that more 
 light is to be obtained respecting the mental phenomena 
 from the study of the physical constitution than in any 
 other way. 2 
 
 There are few writers on Memory who do not admit 
 that it is the faculty of the mind that is most depen- 
 dent on physical conditions. 8 The almost universally- 
 
 1 " Mind can only manifest itself in existence as it acts upon 
 matter ; without matter there can be no manifestation of mind." 
 Dr. Laycock. 
 
 2 " I am persuaded that the only possible route to truth in mental 
 philosophy is through a study of the nervous mechanism. . . . The 
 advancement of metaphysics is through the study of physiology." 
 Dr. Draper : Human Physiology. " The mind is so intimately depen- 
 dent upon the condition and relation of the organs of the body, that 
 if any means can ever be found to render men wiser and more 
 ingenious than hitherto, I believe that it is in medicine they m ast be 
 Bought for." Descartes. " Physical decline and moral depravity are 
 intimately connected, and those laws which are requisite for the 
 preservation of health serve also to preserve and improve the morals. 
 ... In a word, our moral health and energy are commonly the 
 result of our physical health and strength ; and our moral failings are 
 often nothing more than consequences of our bodily defects. Good 
 actions alone render men truly moral and virtuous. This requires 
 power of action, and for this the body must be strong and active." 
 Sir B. Brodie. " The cause of morality of everything that is con- 
 nected with the onward movement of the race is more dependent 
 upon the bodily health, upon the organic soundness of the human con- 
 stitution, than many politicians, moralists, and divines seem ready to 
 believe." Dr. John Brown. 
 
 8 " Of all the intellectual powers, it (memory) depends most on 
 the organised structure for whatever concerns its completeness, iti 
 changes, and decay." Sir H. Holland. 
 
66 MEMORY. 
 
 received opinion, however, is that it depends upon 
 traces left in the brain ; while we, on the other hand, 
 hold that the traces are not confined to the brain, nor 
 even to the nervous system, but extend to those other 
 parts of the body that were concerned in the original 
 impression. Every act we do, every sensation we 
 experience, every thought that passes through the 
 mind, causes some disturbance, produces some change, 
 in the minute particles of the organs through which 
 they pass. 1 Thus, when we bring into action any 
 particular part or organ of the body, we produce a 
 certain change, introduce a certain bias am' ng its 
 particles, so that they become more disposed to act in 
 the same way a second time, and more and w ^ - T ith 
 each repetition. 2 Thus what was at first accompiib. . 
 
 i 
 
 1 " Every sensory impression, no matter whether discrinv - *^ 
 not, affects the circulation and develops heat. The blood ^,eA. oi 
 the part impressed expand, vessels elsewhere contract ; a change in 
 the blood pressure has been effected, which of course implies that the 
 whole organism has been affected. Delicate instruments show that 
 at the time a sensation is produced, the temperature of the brain is 
 raised. The same is true of ideation." G. H. Lewes. "An emo- 
 tion, besides the obvious changes it works in the muscles of the 
 face, habitually works changes, external and internal, throughout 
 the body at large. The respiration, the circulation, the digestion, as 
 well as the attitudes and movements, are influenced by it even 
 when moderate ; and everyone knows how strong passions, pleasur- 
 able or painful, profoundly disturb the whole system." Herbert 
 Spencer. " Lavater has observed, and perhaps justly, that there 
 is no muscle or even bone of the human body that does not in 
 Borne degree or other sympathise in the prevailing passion of the 
 mind, and bear evident marks of having been operated upon by 
 its influence ; while as the bones and muscles of the face are nearest 
 the scene of action, and most obvious to the view of the spectator, the 
 predominant disposition may be more easily studied and calculated 
 from these than from any other." Dr. M. Good. 
 
 3 " The aptitude which is acquired by practice for the performance 
 of certain actions that were at first accomplished with difficulty, seem 
 to result as much from a structural change which the continual 
 repetition of them occasions in the muscle, as in the habit which the 
 
THE BODY. 67 
 
 with difficulty becomes by degrees more and more easy, 
 till it comes to be almost a second nature, and the 
 difficulty rather is to refrain from doing it when the 
 circumstances are favourable. The practice has grown 
 to a habit, and the parts concerned have grown into 
 correspondence therewith. Thus each organ of the 
 body bears in its substance the marks or traces of how 
 it has Been accustomed to act. 1 
 
 When we recall a past sensation or movement, or a 
 thought previously entertained, we employ the same 
 parts and in the same way as they were employed in 
 the original act. "When, for instance, I recall an act I 
 have previously done, I am materially assisted in doing 
 so by t^e state of the muscles, by means of which 
 the act .was originally executed ; or when I recall an 
 object o f ' sight, I refer, not to the brain alone, but also 
 to th&." retina on which the object was previously 
 depicted Memory thus follows exercise, and in pro- 
 nervous system acquires of exciting the movement." Dr. Carpenter. 
 " After each action it (a muscle) is better prepared for action, more 
 disposed to a repetition of the same work, and readier to reproduce a 
 given organic process." Th. Ribot. 
 
 1 " The tissues and organs of the animal body, when once employed 
 in the exercise of their functions, are subject to continual loss of 
 material, which is restored by nutrition. This waste or consumption 
 of matter with which, so to speak, the use of a part is attended, takes 
 place in different modes and degrees in different structures. . . . 
 The functional action of muscle is attended with an expenditure of 
 moving force, and a portion of matter, derived in part from the muscle 
 itself, is consumed in the production of that force ; that is, it under- 
 goes a chemical change, and being by this alteration rendered unfit 
 to serve again, is removed by absorption. The amount of matter 
 changed in a given time, or, in other words, the rapidity of the 
 nutritive process, is much greater ,in those instances where there is a 
 production and expenditure of force than where the tissue serves 
 merely passive mechanical purposes. Hence the bones, tendons, and 
 ligaments are much less wasted in exhausting diseases than the 
 muscles, or than the fat which is consumed in respiration and gene- 
 rates heat." Quain's Anatomy. 
 
68 MEMORY. 
 
 portion as we exercise and train any part do we improve 
 and strengthen the memory of that part. Thus not 
 the brain alone but the whole body is the true seat of 
 memory. 
 
 In attempting to illustrate this view further, it is not 
 our intention to enter fully or minutely into the ana- 
 tomy and physiology of the human body, but rather to 
 touch upon certain points in these sciences that are 
 more immediately connected with our present subject. 
 
 The human body is constantly undergoing change. 
 Its growth, its maintenance in health, its very life, all 
 depend upon this. 1 Its several parts are constantly 
 giving off effete particles, and are as constantly taking 
 up fresh materials to supply their place. This is what 
 is constantly going on at all times in the living body, 
 but more especially when a part or organ is in a state 
 of activity. Then the waste that takes place in the 
 part is greater, the particles die off and are carried 
 away more rapidly, and in consequence the assimilation 
 of fresh materials goes on with greater speed. 2 In 
 
 1 " Unless there be movement there is no life, vital or psychical : 
 immobility is death." G. H. Lewes. " The condition of life is death. 
 No part of a living mechanism can act without wearing away, and 
 for the continuance of its functions there is therefore an absolute 
 necessity for repair. . . . The essential condition of life is waste of 
 the body." Dr. Draper. "Life could not be maintained in organs 
 remaining in perfect repose ; all is agitation, all is movement in 
 organised bodies." Dr. A. M. B. Riofrey. " The characteristics of 
 the living organism are ceaseless change and ceaseless waste. 
 Directly a man begins to live he begins to die." Dr. Tanner. 
 "Leben ist Nichtsein ist Werden; sein ist der Todt." Dr. Erd- 
 tnann. 
 
 2 " Our material frame is composed of innumerable atoms, and 
 each separate and individual atom has its birth, life, and death, and 
 then its removal from the place of the living. Thus there is going 
 on a continual process of decay and death among the individual 
 atoms which make up each tissue. . . . These processes are greatly 
 influenced by the activity of the bodily functions. Each operation 
 of the muscles or nerves involves the disintegration and death of a 
 
THE BODY. 69 
 
 ordinary circumstances the amount of waste that takes 
 place is more than made up by the increased supply of 
 new matter, and in consequence the part gradually 
 grows in size and strength. 1 It also becomes by 
 degrees better adapted for carrying on the same kind of 
 actions, for no doubt the supply is greatest where the 
 greatest waste is taking place, and the new matter 
 being more pliant than the old, is more readily moulded 
 and fashioned in the required direction ; for, as is well 
 known, " function develops structure in the direction 
 of its activity". 2 
 
 The blood, that well-known red fluid which circulates 
 
 certain part of their substance. We cannot lift a finger, we cannot 
 perform the slightest movement, without causing a change in certain 
 of the atoms which compose the muscles executing the movement, 
 in those of the nerve conveying the stimulus which directed them to 
 contract, and in those composing the nerve centres in which the 
 stimulus originates ; and this change involves their decay and death. 7 ' 
 A. Maclaren. " Tiedemann remarks that an organ in an excited 
 state undergoes more rapid changes in its material composition, and 
 therefore attracts more quickly and in larger quantity the blood, 
 which alone is able to render an organ capable of increased vital 
 action." Dr. J. Muller. 
 
 1 " The frequently-renewed exercise of muscles, by producing a 
 determination of blood towards them, occasions an increase in their 
 nutrition ; so that a larger amount of new tissue becomes developed, 
 and the muscles are increased in size and vigour. This is true not 
 only of the whole muscular system when equally exercised, but also 
 of any particular set of muscles which is more used than another." 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " From what general law of the redistribution of matter and 
 motion does it result that when a wave of molecular transformation 
 passes through a nervous structure there is wrought in the structure 
 a modification such that, other things equal, a subsequent like wave 
 passes through this structure with greater facility than its prede- 
 cessor ? " H. Spencer. " Every kind of activity peculiar to a living 
 body involves a change of structure, and the formation of the newly 
 generated tissue receives such an influence from the conditions under 
 which it originates that all its subsequent activity displays their 
 impress." Dr. Carpenter. "The effect of practice shows that the 
 more frequently the same fibres are thrown into action, the easier 
 does their action become." Dr. J. Muller. 
 
 7 
 
70 MEMORY. 
 
 through all parts of the system, is the means by which 
 nourishment is conveyed to the different parts, and also 
 the wasted particles that are no longer of any use are 
 carried away. 1 " The life of the body is the blood." 
 It is this which carries everywhere in unceasing cur- 
 rents the vivifying stimulation by means of which all 
 our bodily activities are carried on. So much depends 
 upon it that if, in the brain, its circulation be but 
 momentarily suspended, the whole vital machinery is 
 at once brought to a stop. 2 
 
 The blood may be said to be the different constituents 
 of the several parts of the body nerve, muscle, bone, 
 &c. in a fluid state. It is composed of water holding 
 in solution fibrin, albumen, potassium, and sodium, 
 together with phosphoric acid and other substances, 
 and having immersed in it numerous corpuscles or 
 globules of a red or white appearance, the former being 
 much more numerous than the latter, and imparting to 
 it its red colour. The average quantity of blood in 
 an adult man is about .28 Ibs. or pints. 
 
 There are various organs for diffusing, renewing, and 
 cleansing the blood, each of which requires to be in an 
 efficient condition in order to the blood being in a 
 proper state. The organs of circulation are the heart, 
 arteries, veins, and capillaries ; the organs of alimenta- 
 tion, the mouth, gullet, stomach, and intestines, with 
 
 1 " The blood is the agent which not only supplies both food and 
 oxygen, but sweeps away all refuse, and, we may add, is the ,'nstru- 
 ment for maintaining an adequate temperature. All the rest of fhe 
 body may in fact be looked upon as busied in manufacturing food into 
 blood, in keeping up the oxygen supply of the blood, in .sifting out 
 from the blood all waste material, and in maintaining the blood at a 
 uniform heat." Dr. M. Foster. 
 
 8 " If the circulation through the brain be suspended but for an 
 instant, insensibility and loss of voluntary power supervene and con- 
 tinue until it is restored." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
THE BODY. 71 
 
 their appendages ; and the excretory organs, the skin, 
 lungs, and kidneys. 
 
 The heart is the organ by which the blood is pro- 
 pelled to all parts of the system. The arteries receive 
 the blood from the heart and conduct it to the different 
 parts of the body, where it is taken up by minute vessels, 
 the capillaries, which penetrate the different tissues, 
 and through the thin walls of which the materials 
 transude which are necessary for their sustenance. 
 Each several tissue selects from the blood the materials 
 necessary for its support, and the blood thus deprived 
 of its valuable materials, and being, besides, polluted 
 by receiving the worn-out particles of the tissues, passes 
 into the veins, by which it is conveyed back to the 
 heart. The blood in the arteries is of a florid red 
 colour, but when it reaches the veins it has acquired a 
 dark purple hue. From the heart the impure blood is 
 propelled to the lungs, where it is subjected to the 
 action of the air, and so purified, giving off carbonic 
 acid and imbibing oxygen. The purified blood is 
 then returned to the heart, by which it is again pro- 
 pelled to all parts of the system. The oxygen in 
 the blood stimulates the action of the tissues, and 
 seizes upon and burns up the effete particles, thus 
 giving rise to an amount of heat which is sufficient 
 to maintain the temperature of the blood at about 
 100 . 1 
 
 Seeing, then, the important part played by the blood 
 in the animal economy, it will naturally be expected to 
 have an important influence upon the memory. This 
 
 1 " By the action of oxygen every tissue is being differentiated, 
 and every tissue is integrating the materials supplied by the blood. 
 No function can be performed without the differentiation of the 
 tissue performing it, and no tissue is enabled to perform its functions 
 save by the integration of nutriment" H. Spencer. 
 
72 MEMOBY, 
 
 we find to be the case; 1 for when the quantity or 
 quality of the blood is impaired, when the body is feeble 
 or exhausted, the power of memory is at a low ebb. 
 " In a general way," says M. Eibot, " reproduction oi 
 impressions seems to depend upon the circulation. . . . 
 Exaltation of the memory ensues when the circulation 
 is increased by stimulants, such as hachish, opium, &c. 
 . . . Other therapeutic agents induce a contrary 
 effect." " Feelings excited when the general circula- 
 tion is very vigorous are more revivable than usual. 
 . . . Fatigue in any form is fatal to memory; the 
 received impressions are not fixed ; reproduction is 
 slow, often impossible." Herbert Spencer. " I have 
 often," says Sir Henry Holland, " known the power thus 
 transiently failing from fatigue or debility of disease 
 restored by the stimulus of a moderate quantity of wine, 
 and so suddenly as to show that the want of due excite- 
 ment to the circulation was the cause of the failure." 
 He further mentions that once when visiting some deep 
 mines in the Hartz mountains, he became so exhausted 
 by fatigue that every German word and phrase deserted 
 his memory, so that he was no longer able to converse 
 with the German inspector who accompanied him, till 
 he had taken some food and wine, and had some rest, 
 when they returned to him. 
 
 It is probably mainly owing to a temporarily weak- 
 ened state of the circulation or an impaired condition 
 of the blood that we fail to remember at one time what 
 we can readily recall at another. Sometimes in trying 
 to remember a thing, the very thing itself may come 
 
 1 " The receptivity of impressions is high during those portions of 
 life in which the blood is propelled in full and rapid currents." 
 H. Spencer. " A normal exercise of the memory supposes an active 
 tirculation and blood rich in the materials necessary for integration 
 and disintegration," Th. Eibot. 
 
THE BODY. 73 
 
 into the mind, and we may fail to recognise it as that 
 we are in search of, while afterwards, when we again 
 recall it, we at once perceive it to be what we sought. 
 
 It would also seem that in those remarkable cases 
 where the memory is, through disease or accident, par- 
 tially lost and afterwards suddenly restored, the cause 
 is to be attributed to the circulation. Thus a gentle- 
 man on recovering from a fever finds that he has 
 entirely forgotten a language with which he was pre- 
 viously familiar. He commences the study of it again, 
 and has made some progress in the rudiments, when 
 suddenly, while endeavouring to construe a difficult 
 passage, "he," we are told, " is conscious of a physical 
 change taking place in his brain," and all at once the 
 whole of his forgotten knowledge comes back to him. 
 It would seem that from some cause or other the neces- 
 sary supply of blood to the part of the brain directly 
 concerned had been withheld, and is then suddenly re- 
 stored; "for," says Dr. Carpenter, "it is generally found 
 that such restoration takes place under emotional excite- 
 ment, which has a peculiar power over the vaso-motor 
 system of nerves regulating the calibre of the arteries". 1 
 
 When we come to consider the effects of the circu- 
 lation on the two parts of memory retention and 
 reproduction we think we discern a marked difference 
 between them. 2 An increased circulation seems to act 
 
 1 " Some physiologists have advanced the theory that limited and 
 temporary lapses of the memory are due to local and transient modi- 
 fications in the calibre of the arteries under the influence of the 
 vaso-motor nerves. The reason for this view is that the return of 
 mental power is sudden, and is ordinarily induced by strong emo- 
 tion, and that the emotions exercise a particular sway over the vaso- 
 motor system." Th. Ribot. 
 
 2 " Memory consists of a conservation and a reproduction. Conser- 
 vation seems to depend especially upon nutrition ; reproduction upon 
 general or local circulation." Th. Ribot. 
 
74 MEMORY. 
 
 more particularly upon the reproductive faculty, past 
 ideas and sensations being then brought up before 
 consciousness with the greatest rapidity and clearness. 1 
 Hence, under the stimulating effects of wine or opium, 
 and the like, ideas spring up in the mind with the 
 greatest profusion. But the effect is by no means so 
 marked in the retentive faculty, for the rapidity of the 
 circulation seems to interfere with the fixing process, 
 and hence it is that we usually remember less of what 
 occurred on such occasions than at ordinary times. 2 
 It is rather the slow, full pulse that is most favourable 
 to retention. 
 
 Thus memory is largely dependent upon the condition 
 of the blood, and that upon the general health of the 
 body, and hence those times should be chosen for the 
 exercise of the memory when the physical powers are 
 strongest, and the blood in consequence in its best 
 state. 3 
 
 The great bulk of the body is made up of motor 
 organs designed for the carrying out of the purposes 
 
 1 " In a general way reproduction of impressions seems to depend 
 upon the circulation. . . . We may note the ease and rapidity with 
 which reproduction takes place at that period of life when the blood 
 is driven through the veins in plentiful and swift-moving streams, 
 and how slow and difficult it becomes when the circulation dimi- 
 nishes with advancing years." Th. Ribot. 
 
 2 " A drunkard either forgets altogether or has only a vague recol- 
 lection of the nonsense which he talked and the follies of which he 
 was guilty on the previous day while under the influence of alcohol." 
 Sir B. Brodie. " Mr. Combe mentions the case of an Irish porter 
 to a warehouse who, in one of his drunken fits, left a parcel at the 
 wrong house, and when sober could not recollect what he had done 
 with it ; but the next time he got drunk he recollected where he had 
 left it, and went and recovered it." Dr. M l Nish. 
 
 3 " It is not enough that impressions be received ; they must be 
 fixed, organically registered, conserved ; they must produce perma- 
 nent modifications in the brain. . . . This result can depend only 
 on nutrition." Th. Eibot. 
 
THE BODY. 76 
 
 and intentions of the mind. It is by means of the 
 bodily organs that the mind reveals itself, and makes 
 known to others what is passing within itself, it may be 
 by speech, by pen, or by gesture. 1 The loftiest thoughts, 
 the highest conceptions of the human mind, would 
 remain unknown and useless unless they thus found 
 expression. The genius of a Shakespeare or a Milton 
 would have existed in vain had they not had the power 
 of conveying to others what existed in their own minds. 2 
 Indeed, it may well be doubted whether, without the 
 power of expressing our thoughts, even thought itself 
 could have any existence, or could have any hold on 
 the memory. 3 
 
 The bones, joints, and muscles are admirably fitted 
 for the performance of a vast variety of movements ; 
 and a minute and intricate system of nerves connects 
 the different parts with the brain, thus bringing them 
 directly and readily under the control of the mind. 
 Man greatly excels all other animals in the extent and 
 variety of his movements, and to this cause, doubtless, 
 his mental superiority is in no small degree owing. 4 
 
 1 " The greater part of the animal body is a collection of muscular 
 fibres ; some serving for locomotion, others for special manoeuvres of 
 particular members and parts, others as an assistance to the senses, 
 and yet others for the production of voice, and in man of speech." 
 Dr. M. Foster. 
 
 2 " Without the concurrence of the muscular power man's grandest 
 conceptions and most energetic resolutions would remain equally 
 unknown and unfulfilled. . . . Mind is no doubt the high and 
 directing power ; but without obedient muscles, ready at a call to 
 minister to its wants, mind would remain isolated in the midst of 
 creation, and could neither speak, nor hear, nor touch." Dr. A. 
 Combe. 
 
 3 " Language is indispensable not merely to the communication 
 but to the formation of thought, since it favours the birth of concepts 
 or general notions, and is essential both for their preservation and 
 familiar use." Dr. Bastian. 
 
 4 " The superiority of the human over tfce animal mind seems ft 
 
76 MEMOEY. 
 
 The bones not only afford support and protection to 
 the soft parts of the body, but furnish levers and points 
 of insertion for the muscles, and also form the joints. 
 They are commonly reckoned at 206 in the adult, and 
 are so numerous, doubtless, in order to admit of great 
 variety of movement. The surfaces of the bones are 
 hard and compact, with here and there small openings 
 or pores leading into the interior, which become 
 gradually more and more spongy and open, till finally 
 merging, in the long bones, into the great central cavity 
 in which the marrow is lodged. These pores or open- 
 ings serve to admit of bloodvessels and nerves passing 
 into the structure of the bone. Bones are largely 
 supplied with bloodvessels, and a constant process of 
 waste arid renewal is carried on in them, as in other 
 parts of the body. Hence they require to be supplied 
 with nutritive material in order to their maintenance 
 in a healthy condition. Though furnished with nerves, 
 bones possess little sensibility in a state of health, but 
 they become highly sensitive in certain forms of disease. 
 They are covered with a peculiar membrane called the 
 periosteum, which serves to lodge and conduct the blood- 
 vessels and nerves, and also plays an important part in 
 the partial reproduction of bone when injured. 
 
 The bones increase in size and strength in proportion 
 as the muscles in connection with them increase in 
 power and are called into frequent action. Hence, next 
 to an adequate supply of proper nourishment, a due 
 amount of muscular exercise is necessary in order to 
 
 be essentially connected with the greater variety of muscular action 
 of which man is capable." Dr. Maudsley. Motion "is the great 
 characteristic of animal life, and the contrast between the lowest and 
 the highest animals is in nothing more marked than in the small 
 self-mobility of the one and the great self-mobility of the other"* 
 H. Spencer, 
 
THE BODY. 77 
 
 their maintenance in a healthy condition. Without 
 this they lose their strength and firmness, diminish in 
 size, and become crooked and deformed. If the muscles 
 are paralysed the bones waste, and no amount of passive 
 motion will prevent or retard the atrophy. Thus 
 physical exercise not only develops and strengthens the 
 muscles, but it has a similar effect upon the bones, and 
 hence the necessity of it to all, particularly the young. 
 Without this the growth is stunted, the health impaired, 
 and the limbs weak, crooked, or deformed. Further, 
 whatever weakens or injuriously affects other parts of 
 the system acts similarly upon the bones, as living in 
 crowded habitations, deficiency of air or light, unwhole- 
 some food, impaired digestion, &c. The bones adapt 
 themselves to the softer parts, and not the softer parts 
 to them. Thus the skull enlarges in proportion as 
 the contained brain becomes larger; and the muscles 
 impress themselves upon, and fashion the adjacent 
 bones. 1 
 
 Seeing that the bones are well supplied with nerves, 
 that there is constant change going on in them, and 
 that they are improved and strengthened by exercise, 
 it is not too much to say that they must possess a kind 
 of memory in conjunction with the muscles, in concert 
 with which they act. 
 
 The joints are of different kinds, to meet the required 
 forms of movement, and are all fashioned on the most 
 scientific principles. The ends of the bones, which are 
 
 1 " Just as in their natural development and growth, the bones of 
 the skull are formed in adaptation to the brain ... so in disease 
 they submit in their nutrition to adapt themselves to their more 
 active parts. Thus the skull enlarges when its contents do ; and 
 the bones of the limbs strengthen themselves as the muscles inserted 
 on them become stronger and more active ; and they do this in 
 adaptation to the force of the muscles, and not merely because of 
 the movements they are subject to." Sir James Paget. 
 
78 MEMORY. 
 
 brought into contact, are covered with cartilage in order 
 to admit of easy, smooth, and gliding motion upon one 
 another ; and the several parts are kept in their places 
 by means of ligaments of great strength and tenacity. 
 
 The muscles are the means by which the different 
 movements of the body are performed. They consti- 
 tute the flesh of the body, and are arranged in layers 
 over it in such a way as to give beauty and symmetry 
 to its form, as well as being admirably adapted for the 
 purposes of motion. They are of various forms and 
 sizes, being on the trunk generally broad and flat, and 
 on the limbs narrow and elongated. For the most part 
 they are attached by both their extremities to the 
 bones, either directly or indirectly, by means of white 
 flexible but inelastic cords, called tendons. They 
 mostly consist of a middle fleshy portion named the 
 belly, by means of which the movements are carried 
 on, and two ends, which serve for attachment to the 
 bones. The muscles are for the most part arranged in 
 pairs, acting antagonistic to each other, as flexors and 
 extensors, abductors and adductors, supinators and 
 pronators; -and are distinguished by names suggested 
 by their form, position, function, &c. There are 
 reckoned upwards of 500 distinct muscles in the human 
 body, and yet with all this complicated machinery every- 
 thing is in order, everything in harmony. 
 
 The peculiar property of muscular tissue is its con- 
 tractility, or the power it posjesses of contracting its 
 substance on the application of stimuli, and of relaxing 
 when these are withdrawn. 1 Contraction is effected by 
 
 1 " It is in virtue of the contractility possessed by the muscles 
 that all the sensible movements of the higher animals are performed ; 
 the skeleton framework , . . furnishing a system of levers by which 
 the contractile power of the muscles may be advantageously applied." 
 Dr. Carpenter, 
 
THE BODY. 79 
 
 the simultaneous shortening of the fibres of which the 
 muscle is composed through the approximation of their 
 constituent particles, so that it becomes shorter, thicker, 
 and harder, and diminishes slightly in volume. The 
 property of contractility appears to be inherent in the 
 muscle, and not to be derived from the nervous system, 
 as it may be manifested by muscle after being isolated 
 from nervous influence. The contracted state of the 
 muscle is regarded as the active one. The muscles are 
 constantly in some degree of contraction, as is evident 
 from the fact that when the action of certain muscles 
 is impaired, the antagonistic ones always draw the 
 part towards them, as, for example, when the muscles 
 of one lateral half of the face are paralysed, those of the 
 other half draw the features towards that side. 
 
 Muscles are distinguished as voluntary and involun- 
 tary, according as they act under the control of the 
 will, or independently of it. The voluntary muscles are 
 those which are employed in the movements of animal 
 life, the involuntary those which are concerned in carry- 
 ing on the internal operations of the system. The two 
 classes of muscles, when examined microscopically, are 
 found to differ in structure as well as in function. 
 Both are composed of fibres, but the fibres of the volun- 
 tary muscles are striped, while those of the involuntary 
 are plain. The heart, however, is an exception to this 
 being, though an involuntary muscle, composed ot 
 striped fibres. 
 
 The fibres of the voluntary muscles averaged about 
 ^oth part of an inch in width, and are beautifully 
 striped or marked with dark lines passing transversely 
 across them, while others of a lighter colour extend 
 lengthwise. Each fibre has an enveloping sheath or 
 sarcolemma of extreme tenuity, and the contained matter 
 
80 MEMORY. 
 
 may be split up longitudinally into a number of minute 
 fibrils or transversely into discs corresponding with the 
 dark lines by which it is marked. Thus, the fibrils and 
 the discs consist of the same parts i.e. , of small cubical 
 particles, only, in the one case, they are attached length- 
 wise, and in the other lie side by side. Each fibre is 
 estimated to contain 600 or 700 fibrils. 
 
 The fibres are collected into small fasciculi, or bundles, 
 which again form larger ones, and these others still 
 larger, until, in the largest muscles, there may be thou- 
 sands and even hundreds of thousands of them. The 
 fibres run parallel with each other in the fasciculi, and 
 the fasciculi extend (with few exceptions) continuously i 
 from one terminal tendon to the other. The fibres, 
 however, are of limited length, not usually exceeding 
 one and a half inch ; and, accordingly, in a long fasci- 
 culus, a fibre does not reach from one tendonous attach- 
 ment to the other, but ends in a tapering pointed extre- 
 mity invested with its sarcolemma, and cohering with 
 neighbouring fibres. . Each muscle is enveloped in a 
 covering of areolar tissue, by which it is at the same 
 time connected with and isolated from the neighbour- 
 ing parts, and which also passes inward, similarly en- 
 sheathing the smaller bundles of fibres of which each 
 is composed, and affording support to the bloodvessels 
 and nerves. The number of voluntary muscles to 
 which distinct names have been given amounts to about 
 240, of which 75 are in the head and neck, 51 in the 
 vertebral column and trunk, 58 in the upper limb, and 
 59 in the lower limb. 
 
 The fibres of the involuntary muscles are pale, soft, 
 smooth, roundish, or slightly flattened, and generally 
 from ^rVffth to FiV^h of an inch in diameter. They 
 are collected into fasciculi, which form the muscles. 
 
THE BODY. 81 
 
 These constitute the proper contractile coats of the 
 stomach, intestines, bladder, arteries, &c. 
 
 Muscular tissue is abundantly supplied with blood- 
 vessels and nerves. " The arteries, accompanied by 
 their associate veins, enter the muscle at various points 
 and divide into branches ; these pass among the fasci- 
 culi, crossing over them, and dividing more and more 
 as they get between the finer divisions of the muscle ; 
 at length, penetrating the smallest fasciculi, they end 
 in capillary vessels which run between the fibres." 
 These " form among the fibres a fine network with 
 narrow oblong meshes, which are stretched out in the 
 direction of the fibres". Quairis Anatomy. None of the 
 capillaries enter the sarcolemma of the fibre, and hence 
 the nutritious fluid which they convey must be taken 
 up by imbibition. 
 
 The nerves, like the bloodvessels, enter the substance 
 of the muscles, and pass between the different bundles 
 of fibres down to the smallest. In their course they 
 frequently divide and subdivide, and form numerous 
 plexuses, the branches growing finer and the meshes 
 closer as they advance into the tissues single fibres of 
 nerves finally passing off to the individual muscular 
 fibres. The mode of termination of the nerves in the 
 muscles is by no means certain. 1 According to some 
 they do not penetrate the sarcolemma, but ramify 
 over it in branches of extreme tenuity. Others main- 
 tain that they end in nerve-plates or discs, which are 
 described as " small lamelliform objects of an oval or 
 irregular, and often deeply indented, outline," and as 
 
 1 "The controversy respecting the manner in which nerves end in 
 muscles seems likely to terminate in the conclusion that they do not 
 end at all, but pass, by continuity of substance, into the sarcous 
 elements." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
82 MEMORY. 
 
 varying in size from Ti^th to lr ^th of an inch in 
 diameter, according to the size of the muscular fibre, of 
 whose circumference tne plate may embrace one-third 
 or more. Some believe that these plates are situated 
 on the outside, others within, the sarcolemma. 1 
 
 The nerves serve to convey from the nerve centres to 
 the muscles the stimulus by which they are set in mo- 
 tion, and also to carry back to the centres information 
 respecting the state or condition of the muscles. The 
 nerves connected with the muscles are principally motor 
 nerves, and there is reason to believe that the sensibility 
 accompanying muscular movement is owing to them, 
 and not, as in other parts of the body, to sensory nerves. 
 (See Chapter IV.) 
 
 The amount of common sensibility residing in a 
 muscle is not great at least in its healthy state, for 
 it may be cut or pricked without giving rise to severe 
 pain. But it possesses in a high degree a peculiar sen- 
 sibility to its own states and conditions when in action, 
 so that the mind is able to determine with accuracy the 
 amount of effort that is necessary to be put forth on 
 any given occasion. It is by means of this sensibility, 
 which not only reveals the present but recalls past mus- 
 cular states, that every exertion is directed and appor- 
 tioned in intensity to the effort required to be made ; 
 and the degree of perfection to which this sensibility 
 may be brought by training and habit is seen in those 
 who execute minute and delicate pieces of workman- 
 ship, or excel in certain games. Thus, the skilful 
 billiard player exhibits a wonderful nicety of muscular 
 
 1 " These bodies are external to the sarcolemma, though adhering 
 intimately to it. ... It appears probable that they are a reduplica- 
 tion and expansion of continuous fibres rather than terminal organ* v 
 formed upon the extremities of the nerve-fibres." Dr. Beak. 
 
THE BODY. 88 
 
 discrimination and adjustment in directing his balls; 
 and the expert batsman in cricket has, the instant he 
 sees the direction of the ball, to decide upon the best 
 way of meeting it, and to bring the proper muscles into 
 play. 1 We are told that in steel-pen making " a quick 
 female worker will cut out in one day of ten working 
 hours 250 gross, or 36,000 pens, which involve 72,000 
 distinct movements of the arm, two in every second". 
 Further, it is found that some persons can pronounce 
 distinctly as many as 1500 letters in a minute, each of 
 which must involve a separate contraction and relaxa- 
 tion of muscular fibres, both occupying -^ih, or each 
 T Vth of a second. In no other direction do we find the 
 effects of training more manifest than in the muscles ; 
 and the rapidity of movement or power of sustained 
 action of which they are capable, if properly trained, is 
 scarcely conceivable. 2 
 
 In order to a healthy condition of muscle, a due 
 supply of arterial blood is necessary. 8 When the blood 
 is insufficient in quantity or deficient in oxygen, or 
 charged with carbonic acid, the contractile power of the 
 muscle is largely diminished, or it may be entirely lost. 
 The next requisite is that it receive a certain amount 
 
 1 " The batsman, perhaps, furnishes us with the most striking 
 instance of the rapidity of thought : he sees the ball coming, he has 
 to appreciate its speed and its direction, and he has to determine in a 
 moment whether to strike or block, and if the former, in what direc- 
 tion he should swing his bat" Anon. 
 
 2 " These qualities may be particularly observed in the execution 
 of many species of instrumental music, in which the changes pro- 
 duced by the hand of the musician are exceedingly rapid ; are exactly 
 measured even when most minute ; and display on the part of the 
 muscles an obedience of action alike wonderful for its quickness and 
 its correctness.*' Dr. Paley. 
 
 9 " There can be no question that the condition most essential to 
 the maintenance of muscular contractility is an adequate supply of 
 arterial blood." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
84 MEMOBY. 
 
 of exercise. If a muscle is allowed to remain for any 
 length of time in a state of inaction, its substance is 
 gradually wasted, and its powers are proportionally 
 weakened, it may be, eventually lost. A state of 
 continued contraction is so unnatural that it cannot 
 be maintained for any length of time, the muscular 
 powers being speedily exhausted without any means 
 of restoration. Hence the evils that result to children 
 from too long confinement in one position. 
 
 It is by means of exercise that we improve and 
 strengthen the muscles, and memory follows exercise. 
 The muscles that are most exercised most readily 
 retain and recall the impressions they have received. 
 ,The seat of the memory of these impressions, in our 
 view, is not the brain or nerves, but the muscles them- 
 selves, by which the actions were effected. What the 
 muscles receive from the nerves is simply the stimulus 
 by which they are set in motion. The power of accu- 
 rately regulating and directing the amount of force to 
 be put forth in any action depends on the muscles 
 themselves, and is derived from the stored-up memory 
 of past impressions. A very feeble nervous stimulus 
 may produce a great muscular effort. 1 
 
 1 " The amount of work which a muscle does in lifting a weight 
 does not depend on the amount of stimulus which you apply to the 
 nerve. You set the nerve in action, and it conveys some kind of 
 stimulus to the muscle, which has the result of liberating the energy 
 stored up in the latter. The muscle may be regarded really as con- 
 taining energy in a potential condition, and the action of the nerve 
 is not merely to force the muscle to contract, but, as it were, to 
 set free this energy in the muscle. ... A very feeble primary 
 irritation is sufficient to produce a great effect. The muscles contain 
 energy stored up in themselves, and the nerve may be regarded as 
 the liberator of the energy." Prof. M'Kendrick. It seems "that 
 irritability is a property inherent in muscular tissue, and that the 
 agency of" the nervous system upon it is merely to call it into active 
 operation". Dr. Carpenter. "It would be a mistake to suppose that 
 they (the nerves) supply the force needed to contract the muscles ; 
 
THE BODY. 85 
 
 There Can be no doubt that the mind or will has 
 naturally by no means that control over our move- 
 ments that is commonly supposed, and that the nature 
 and character of our actions depend more upon the state 
 and condition of our muscular system, and the way in 
 which it has been accustomed to act, than is generally 
 believed. 1 Habits and practices that have been long 
 indulged in may set at defiance any power of the will 
 that can be brought against them. 2 Hence the will or 
 desire to accomplish a particular purpose, or to carry 
 
 that we have seen the muscle can supply for itself ; they only send 
 the stimulus for its co-ordinated production. ... It is generally 
 thought that the spasmodic actions induced by brucia, strychnia, 
 opium, &c., are due to the direct influence of the poison upon the 
 nerve-tissue. This may be so, yet, perhaps, the muscular system 
 shares more in these phenomena than is generally recognised." 
 Dr. Lay cock. 
 
 1 " The whole process by which we acquire the power of adapting 
 our muscular actions to the performance of some new kind of 
 movement ... is found, when attentively studied, to indicate that 
 the will is far from having that direct and immediate control over 
 the contractions of the muscles which it is commonly reputed to 
 possess. . . . However amenable any set of muscles (as those of the 
 arm and hand) may have become to the direction of the will in 
 any operations which they have been previously accustomed to per- 
 form, it is only after considerable practice that they can be trained 
 to any method of combined action which is entirely new to them." 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " There is a wrong philosophy in supposing that a habit which 
 has fixed itself in the fleshy nature can be overcome by the mere 
 exertion of the will. It is not enough to resolve against it. You 
 cannot vanquish it by the power of a resolution. To that must be 
 added continuous training." H. W. Beecher. "Whatever a man 
 may inwardly think and (with perfect sincerity) say, you cannot 
 fully depend upon his conduct till you know how he has been accus- 
 tomed to act. For continued action is like a continued stream of 
 water, which wears for itself a channel that it will not be easily 
 turned from." Archbp. Whately. " I see," says the Apostle Paul, 
 " another law in my members warring against the law of my mind," 
 and u the good that I would I do not ; but the evil that I would not, 
 that I do. ... To will is present with me, but how to perform 
 that which is good I know not." 
 
86 MEMOEY. 
 
 out a certain course of conduct, is not enough ; the in- 
 dividual must further be taught how it is to be done, 
 tod the muscles trained to the proper movements. If 
 we wish a boy to act in a particular way, we must not 
 only instruct his mind and give him the desire so to act, 
 but we must also implant in him the power and habit 
 of acting as we wish. 1 We must take care to have the 
 muscular memory on our side, and not against us. 
 How frequently are children scolded or punished for 
 faults, outbursts of passion, or acts of apparent ob- 
 stinacy, that are no more under the power of their will 
 than are the motions of the paralytic. Even the will 
 itself requires to be trained in order to understand how 
 to rule and control its subordinates. No one expects 
 from a child the physical strength and endurance of a 
 man, but few consider that it is equally absurd to ex- 
 pect the same strength of mind, or power of will, or 
 sense of right and wrong. In the one case as in the 
 other, time and patient and careful exercise are neces- 
 sary, beginning with what is simplest and easiest, 
 and rising by degrees to the more difficult, and more 
 arduous. 
 
 In order to train any particular set of muscles, we 
 must exercise them. We cannot improve or strengthen 
 any set of muscles by the exercise of other than them- 
 selves. So with memory. We strengthen and improve 
 the memory of any set of muscles by the exercise of 
 them, and cannot do it in any other way. 
 
 1 " The acquirement of voluntary power over the movements of 
 the limbs is just as gradual as it is over the direction of the thoughts 
 all the activity of the body, as well as of the mind, being, in the 
 first instance, automatic, and the will progressively extending its 
 dominion over the former as over the latter, until it brings under it* 
 control all those muscular movements which are not immediately 
 required for the conservation of the body, and turns them to its own 
 uses," Dr. Carpenter. 
 

 THE BODY. 87 
 
 Our physical actions have an important bearing upon 
 our mental states. Our thoughts spring from our 
 actions, and there is every reason to believe that with- 
 out action, without the power of giving expression to 
 our thoughts, we could not think. 1 In the new-born 
 babe action precedes both thought and feeling ; for the 
 child does not feel, or think, or will, before the perfor- 
 mance of movement, but the feeling, thinking, willing, 
 result from such performance. 2 It is well known, too, 
 that certain movements or attitudes of the body give 
 rise to corresponding thoughts or feelings in the mind ; 8 
 and is it not frequently the case that men act first and 
 think afterwards, that the thought does not lead to 
 the action, but the action give rise to the thought ? 
 This seems to be borne out by what we observe in the 
 course of human progress, where we find the art usually 
 preceding the science, and men practising the arts of 
 poetry, rhetoric, logic, painting, &c., before they knew 
 or thought of the rules applicable to these subjects. 
 
 The importance of action or expression to thought is 
 further seen in the case of persons of weak mind or 
 little culture, some of whom will be observed to require 
 to repeat a question or a sentence to themselves before 
 
 1 "The expression or embodiment of the feeling ... is not only 
 the means of making known the state to others, but also an essential 
 concomitant of its own existence." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " Movement precedes sensation, and is at the outset independent 
 of any stimulus from without." Prof. Bain. 
 
 8 " When we fix the countenance in the expression, or the body 
 in the attitude which any passion naturally occasions, it is most 
 certain that we acquire, in some degree, that passion. . . . The 
 special muscular action is not merely the exponent of the passion, 
 but truly an essential part of it." Dr. H. Maudsley. " The expres- 
 sion or embodiment of the feeling ... is not only the means of 
 making known the state to others, but also an essential concomitant 
 of its own existence. ... I look upon the expression so called as 
 part and parcel of the feeling." Prof. Bain. 
 
88 MEMOEY. 
 
 they can comprehend it. " Such an one," says Dr. 
 Maudsley, " often cannot content himself with the 
 mental representation of a word, or clearly comprehend 
 a question put to him without bringing the actual 
 movements to his assistance, he must utter the word 
 or repeat the question aloud in order to get his concep- 
 tion distinctly." Thus, when the mind is weak and 
 defective, it seems to require the aid of the correspond- 
 ing muscular movements in order to have clear concep- 
 tions. 
 
 By giving expression to a thought we give it clear- 
 ness, definiteness, and point ; by putting our beliefs into 
 practice we test and sift them. Our actions, likewise, 
 serve the important purpose of regulating and control- 
 ling our thoughts, and checking unprofitable and dreamy 
 flights of the fancy. 1 The man whose physical powers 
 are but little called into exercise is thus in a measure 
 cut off from the sober realities of life, and is apt to en- 
 tertain very extravagant notions of things. From 
 dwelling too much in the region of thought, he becomes 
 a day dreamer or an enthusiast ; and, losing sight of 
 the distinction between thought and action, the two 
 become in his mind almost identical, and he fancies 
 that to act is scarcely, if at all, more difficult than to 
 think, that a thing may be done almost as easily as 
 thought about. This is borne out by what is observed 
 in the case of those who have lost the muscular sense 
 or sense of motion, as in the general paralytic, such an 
 one having engendered in his mind the most extravagant 
 notions of what he can do. 2 By recognising the part 
 
 1 " The perfect function of the muscular sense is not only of essen- 
 tial importance to the expression of our active life, but, like the func- 
 tion of any one of the special senses, it has its due part in ovr mental 
 life." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 8 " As the sleeper, whose external senses are so closed as to shut 
 
THE BODY. 89 
 
 which the hody, and particularly the muscular system, 
 plays in our actions and conduct, and even in our 
 thoughts, we come to know the source of many of 
 our defects and shortcomings, and to understand how 
 to deal with them. 
 
 The nervous system is the highest and most perfectly 
 organised portion of our physical nature. All the other 
 parts of the body exist to serve and minister to this as 
 chief, and from it they derive their vitality and power 
 of acting. It is especially in the superiority of his 
 nervous organisation, and more particularly of his brain, 
 that man physically excels all the lower animals. 
 
 The nervous system is the means through which the 
 mind acts upon the body, and the body upon the mind. 
 The impressions that are made upon the organs of sense 
 are taken up by the nerves, and conducted to the great 
 central nervous organ, the brain ; and from this organ, 
 by means of nerves, the influences are transmitted 
 which set in motion and direct all our physical ac- 
 tivities. In the central nervous organ we have the 
 
 out the controlling influence of external objects, often does in his 
 dreams the most wonderful things, and finds little or no hindrance 
 to an almost miraculous activity, intellectual or bodily, so the general 
 paralytic, whose defective muscular feeling cuts him off from the due 
 appreciation of external relations, has engendered in his mind the 
 most extravagant notions as to his personal power ; he dreams with 
 his eyes open. ... A tailor who is suffering from general para- 
 lysis will readily promise to make a magnificent waistcoat, and if 
 the materials are supplied to him will at once set to work. It is not 
 improbable that, deceived by his quiet assurance, and knowing that 
 to sew is his business, one may believe he can make the waist- 
 coat. But in a little while it will be found that his stitches are 
 most unequal in size, and are placed in the most disorderly way ; and 
 it is made clear that, whatever he himself may think, he certainly 
 cannot sew. He has a sufficient desire to accomplish the result, an 
 adequate general notion of the end desired, a full belief in his ability 
 to effect it, but he fails because his muscular feeling is very deficient, 
 and because he cannot regulate the action of the necessary muscles.* 
 Dr. H. Maudsley. 
 
90 MEMORY. 
 
 principal, if not the sole, physical seat of all that is em- 
 braced under the term mind, sensation, thought, voli- 
 tion. Further, the nerves serve to connect together the 
 different parts or organs of the body, and to unite them 
 into one complete whole under the great central organ 
 by which they are all animated and controlled. The 
 body being made up of a number of different parts, all 
 dependent upon each other, it is necessary that they be 
 connected together, and be under the direction and 
 control of some central authority, in order to their 
 working together in harmony. 1 
 
 In the nervous system we have two distinct kinds of 
 organs, differently constituted, and performing different 
 functions, the nerves and the nervous centres. The 
 nerves serve to connect the different parts of the body 
 with the centres, thus forming the means for the trans- 
 mission of influences from the one to the other ; while 
 the centres generate nerve force, and also enable the 
 different nerves and nerve fibres to communicate with 
 each other, and to act in harmony. The great central 
 mass of the nervous system is named the cerebro-spinal 
 centre or cerebro-spinal axis, and comprises the brain and 
 spinal cord. The nerves connected with it proceed 
 principally to the muscles, the organs of the senses, and 
 the skin. 
 
 Besides this, there are situated in different parts of 
 the body, and connected with nerves, numerous bodies 
 named ganglia, which, though much smaller in size and 
 less complex in structure than the brain, agree with 
 fchat organ in their general formation, and in their rela- 
 
 1 By means of the nervous system " we are brought into those rela- 
 tions with the external world which give rise to sensation. It also 
 regulates and co-ordinates all the processes of life. It gives unity to 
 the wondrous multiplicity of organs and their actions, making each 
 depend on each, and all co-operate to one end.": Gr. H. Lewes. 
 
THE BODY. 91 
 
 fcion to the nerve fibres, and doubtless also, in some 
 measure, in regard to the functions which they perform, 
 or the uses they serve in the animal economy. They 
 constitute, indeed, so many nervous centres to which 
 impressions are conveyed, and from which stimuli are 
 emitted, but they act without consciousness and with- 
 out the intervention of the will. 1 A chain of ganglia, 
 connected by nerve cords, runs along each side of the 
 spinal column, from the cranium to the pelvis, and 
 from this nerves with ganglia proceed to the viscera 
 contained in the thoracic and abdominal cavities and 
 the bloodvessels, by means of which their movements 
 are carried on. These constitute the ganglionic or 
 sympathetic system. The nerves of the sympathetic 
 differ from those of the cerebro-spinal system, in being 
 generally of a greyish or reddish colour, and in having 
 numerous ganglia in connection with them. The two 
 systems are connected together by certain branches of 
 nerves which pass from the one to the other, so that 
 most of the nerves of one system contain also fibres 
 belonging to the other. Hence we may have feelings of 
 pain or discomfort in organs connected with the sym- 
 pathetic system, when these are in a state of disease or 
 
 1M It seems reasonable to conclude . . . that the ganglia are 
 nervous centres which may probably receive, through afferent 
 fibres, impressions of which we are unconscious, and reflect these 
 impressi onal stimuli upon efferent or motor fibres ; that perhaps 
 evsn certain motorial stimuli emanate from them, the movements 
 excited by, or through, the ganglia being always involuntary, and 
 affecting chiefly the muscular parts of the viscera, the sanguiferous 
 and, perhaps, the absorbent vessels ; and that, in fine, the chief pur- 
 pose served in the animal economy by the ganglia and the ganglionic 
 nerve fibres, whether existing in acknowledged branches of the sym- 
 pathetic or contained in other nerves, is to govern the involuntary 
 and, for the most part, imperceptible movements of nutrition, in so 
 far at least as these movements are not dependent on the brain and 
 spinal cord." Quain's Anatomy. 
 
92 MEMORY. 
 
 suffering from injury ; and in like manner mental ex- 
 citement may cause itself to be felt, and produce disturb- 
 ance in these organs. 
 
 The several organs which constitute the nervous 
 system are composed of two distinct substances differ- 
 ing from each other in colour, structure, and chemical 
 composition. The one, characterised by its dark, red- 
 dish grey colour, and hence called the "grey" or 
 " cineritious" substance, is vesicular in structure aiid 
 of a soft consistence ; the other is white and fibrous, 
 and known as the "white" or " medullary " substance. 
 The former is usually found collected in masses inter- 
 mingled with the fibrous substance in the nervous 
 centres, the brain, spinal cord, and ganglia ; the latter, 
 besides entering largely into the composition of the 
 nervous centres, constitutes the substance of the nerves. 
 The difference in structure of the two substances 
 naturally leads to the conclusion that they perform 
 different functions, and the generally received opinion 
 is that the grey matter serves to generate or evolve 
 nerve force, while the white matter, whether in the 
 centres or in the nerves, acts merely as a conductor of 
 impressions. 
 
 The grey substance, when examined microscopically, 
 is found to be composed of minute cells or corpuscles, 
 commonly called " nerve corpuscles," mingled with 
 a greater or less number of nerve fibres, and imbedded 
 in more or less of a dimly shaded granular substance, 
 which gives to it its peculiarly grey or reddish grey 
 appearance. The nerve cells occupy a considerable 
 place in the brain and spinal cord, and principally 
 compose the ganglia. They are always found in con- 
 nection with nerve fibres, which either spring from or 
 terminate in them. 
 
THE UODY. 93 
 
 Each cell is composed of an exceedingly delicate 
 membranous wall, enclosing a soft, finely granular, 
 reddish brown substance, and containing also, attached 
 to some part of its interior, a clear round nucleus, 
 within which is a minute but particularly clear and 
 brilliant nucleolus. 1 Each also sends out two or more 
 processes or poles, composed of the same material as 
 its own body, and serving to connect it with the fibres 
 of the nerves. The nerve cells vary considerably in 
 size, and differ greatly in form, but two principal kinds 
 are usually distinguished, the angular or caudate, 
 which are larger than the other, and occur principally 
 in the brain and spinal cord, and the spherical, ovoidal, 
 or pyriform, which are most numerous in the ganglia. 
 The former send out from their surface several pro- 
 cesses, which, as a rule, divide and subdivide as they 
 pass away from the body, till they attain extreme 
 minuteness, when they appear to form networks with 
 other cell processes, and afterwards to unite with them 
 in constituting nerve fibres. One at least, however, of 
 the processes of a multipolar cell does not branch, but 
 becomes directly continuous with a nerve fibre, and is 
 called the "axis-cylinder process". Eecent physio- 
 logical investigations seem to show that a greater 
 similarity in structure exists between the axis-cylinder 
 
 1 " Photo-chemical histology shows us that the protoplasm of the 
 cell formerly described as a homogeneous substance is arranged in a 
 ribrillary trellis-work ; that its nucleus presents an arrangement of 
 radiated fibres ; and that what was thought to be the nucleolus is 
 itself a complex element. The nerve cell thus becomes in its turn a 
 little nervous organ sui generis. The same analytic processes enable 
 us moreover to demonstrate that the network, so dense and compact, 
 which unites all the nerve cells of the cerebral cortex, for instance, 
 one with another, is so delicate that, when enlarged to 286 diameters, 
 the fibres of which it is composed become visible like single hairs in 
 appearance and magnitude, &c," J. Luys. 
 
94 MEMOBY. 
 
 of the nerve and the nerve cell than was formerly 
 
 supposed. 1 
 
 The pyriform or pear-shaped cells have two processes 
 proceeding from the small end of each cell, one 
 straight and of some thickness, resembling a stalk; the 
 other smaller, rising at some distance from the former, 
 twisting several times spirally round it, and then going 
 off in an apparently opposite direction. The straight 
 process rises in the interior of the cell-substance, arid 
 some believe that they have traced it into the nucleus, 
 while the spiral process appears to have a more super- 
 ficial origin. The nerve cells are generally regarded as 
 being the seat of nervous energy. They also serve as a 
 means of joining together different fibres, and thus 
 establish a vast system of connections necessary to the 
 co-ordinating of movements and the concatenating of 
 sensations. Dr. Beale is of opinion that the two kinds 
 of cells differ in function as well as in structure, and 
 thinks it probable that the caudate cells serve only to 
 connect together different fibres, and to distribute nerve 
 force, while the pyriform cells simply generate force. 
 
 The nerves have the form of cords, and proceed from 
 the cerebro-spinal or other centre to the parts of the 
 body with which they are in connection, each nerve 
 being composed of a number of nerve fibres enclosed in 
 
 1 " The central extremities of the nerve fibres lie in relation to, 
 and are often directly continuous with, the nerve cells. ... In the 
 bipolar cells the axial cylinder of the fibre is continuous with the 
 cell-substance, and Schultze has shown that both exhibit a delicate 
 fibrillated structure. The medullary sheath and the primitive mem- 
 brane are also usually continued from the fibre over. the nerve cell. 
 Hence these bipolar cells seem to be, as Schultze expressed it, 
 nucleated enlargements of the axial cylinder. . . . Schultze haa 
 pointed out that not only the protoplasm substance of the body of a 
 multipolar nerve cell, but both the non-branched and branched 
 processes possess a fibrillated structure similar to that described by 
 him in the axial cylinder of the nerve fibres." Pro/. Turner. 
 
THE BODY. 95 
 
 one sheath. The fibres are distinguished as " afferent" 
 and " efferent/' the former serving to conduct im- 
 pressions from the different parts or organs of the body 
 with which they are in connection to the centres, being 
 also termed " centripetal," while the latter convey 
 stimuli from the centres to the several organs, and are 
 also called " centrifugal". 1 We are of opinion, how- 
 ever, that the function of each class of nerves is not 
 confined to conveying impressions only in one direc- 
 tion, but that afferent nerves, while primarily con- 
 veying impressions from the organs of sense to the 
 brain, have also the power of transmitting impulses 
 from the brain to the organs of sense ; and in like 
 manner efferent nerves, while primarily serving to 
 convey impressions from the brain, to the muscles, 
 have also the power of carrying impulses from the 
 muscles to the brain. This will be explained more 
 fully in the next chapter. Usually both sets of fibres 
 are bound up together in one sheath, but the one set 
 of fibres never directly communicates with the other, 
 each carries its own independent stimulus through its 
 entire length. Fibres can only communicate with 
 other fibres, and the stimulus conveyed by one be 
 transmitted to others by means of the nerve cells in 
 the centres with which they are connected. 
 
 Nerves very often divide into branches, and the 
 branches ' of different nerves not unfrequently come 
 together and form plexuses or networks, in which they 
 
 1 " The fibres of nerves are endowed with the property of trans- 
 mitting impressions, or rather impulses the effect of impressions, 
 from the points stimulated towards their central or their peripheral 
 extremities. Certain fibres are employed to conduct towards the 
 nervous centres, and are named * afferent/ others to conduct towards 
 their distal extremities, which are distributed in moving parts, and 
 khese fibres are named efferent V Qwaiw 1 * Anatomy. 
 
96 MEMORY. 
 
 exchange fibres with each other, but the fibres them- 
 selves never unite or coalesce. A nerve on leaving 
 a plexus may thus contain fibres from all the nerves 
 entering it. In this way a wider distribution is given 
 to fibres of the same nerves, and thus different parts 
 are able to be brought into combined action. 
 
 The cerebro-spinal nerves are all connected with the 
 brain or spinal cord by one extremity.which is termed 
 the origin or root. In some cases the root is single, or 
 rises from one spot, in others there are two or more 
 roots. Sometimes the roots differ from each other not 
 only in origin but also in character or function, the 
 one, it may be, containing only motor, the other only 
 sensory, fibres, as in the spinal nerves, in which, though 
 the two kinds of nerves are separated at their roots, they 
 are mixed and bound up together in the same sheath in 
 their trunks and branches. 
 
 The fibres of a nerve, on quitting the surface of the 
 brain or cord, are, in most cases, collected into funiculi, 
 which are each invested in a sheath of neurilemma; and 
 on escaping from the skull or spine, each nerve acquires 
 its external stout fibrous sheath, which unites all its 
 funiculi into a firm cord. If a nerve be very small it 
 may consist only of one funiculus, but in the larger 
 nerves several funiculi are united together into one or 
 more bundles, which, being wrapped up in a common 
 membranous covering, constitute the nerve. . The funi- 
 culi do not run along the nerve as parallel insulated 
 cords, but join together obliquely at short distances as 
 they proceed in their course, the cords resulting from 
 such union dividing in their further progress to form 
 junctions again with their collateral cords ; but with all 
 these changes the individual fibres always remain dis- 
 tinct. 
 
THE BODY. 97 
 
 The nerve fibres are of two kinds, the one white, 
 tubular, medullated, and dark bordered, the other grey 
 or pale, and non-medullated. In most nerves both 
 kinds of fibres are to be met with, but the white are 
 most numerous in, and are characteristic of, the nerves 
 of the cerebro-spinal system, while the grey are found 
 chiefly in, and characterise, the nerves of the sympa- 
 thetic system. The nerves of voluntary muscles have 
 very few giey fibres, usually not more than one in ten, 
 while in the nerves of involuntary muscles the grey 
 fibres immensely predominate. 
 
 The white or medullary fibres constitute the white 
 portion of the brain and spinal cord, and the nerves. 
 They differ considerably in size from T^cro^h or TTwo"^h 
 to TzV^th or more of an inch in diameter, being largest 
 in the trunks and branches, and becoming smaller as 
 they enter the brain or spinal cord, and generally also 
 towards their other extremity. Each fibre is a tube 
 filled with partly fluid contents. The outer covering 
 is a thin, delicate, transparent membrane, commonly 
 called the " neurilemma" or "primitive sheath ". In 
 a perfectly fresh nerve the contents of this sheath has 
 the appearance of a clear, homogeneous, oil-like, or 
 fatty fluid ; but in a short time, through exposure, a 
 sort of coagulation or congelation appears to take 
 place, when the outer portion becomes white, 
 shining, and opaque, and is known as the " medullary 
 sheath*' or "white substance of Schwann," while in 
 the centre is a thread of greyish white matter called 
 the " axis cylinder". This does not exceed xWowth of 
 an inch in diameter, is of an albuminous nature, and 
 possessed of some degree of firmness and elasticity. 
 In some nerves, at least, it appears longitudinally 
 striated, which has led to the opinion that it is com- 
 
98 MEMOBY. 
 
 posed of a number of fibrillae or minute fibres. It is 
 undoubtedly the most essential portion of the nerve, 
 being that which is always present, and being con- 
 tinuous with the nerve cells at one extremity and the 
 peripheral end organs at the other, while the white 
 substance is rarely present at the extremities. Often 
 before its final termination it breaks up into subdivi- 
 sions, and acquires more or less the character of grey 
 fibres. The office of the white substance would appear 
 to be to act as an insulator to the axis cylinder. 
 
 The non-medullated fibres are composed of pale grey 
 translucent flattened bands from ^nnnrth to Winrth of an 
 inch in diameter, and resemble in appearance the axis 
 cylinder of medullated nerve fibres. Like the latter, 
 too, when carefully examined, they present a delicate 
 fibrillated appearance, and are likewise supposed to be 
 composed of numerous extremely delicate fibrillae. 
 They form the principal part of the trunk and branches 
 of the sympathetic nerves, and are mingled in various 
 proportions in the nerves of the cerebro-spinal system. 
 
 The cerebro-spinal centre is that part of the nervous 
 system which is contained within the bony cavities of 
 the skull and spinal column. The principal parts con- 
 tained within the skull or cranium are the cerebrum, 
 cerebellum, corpora quadrigemina, corpora striata, 
 optic thalami, crura cerebri, pons varolii, and medulla 
 oblongata ; while within the spinal column is the spina) 
 cord. 
 
 The cerebrum, or brain proper, is the organ by which 
 the highest mental operations are carried on, and it 
 appropriately occupies a position above all the other 
 organs which are subordinate to it. It is situated in 
 the upper part of the skull, and forms about five-sixths 
 of the entire mass of nervous matter contained within 
 
THE BODY. 99 
 
 that cavity. It is ovoid in shape, but is irregularly 
 flattened on its under surface ; and is divided into two 
 lateral halves, termed hemispheres, by the great longi- 
 tudinal fissure which passes quite through its substance 
 before and behind, but in the middle is interrupted by 
 a transverse portion of white matter termed the corpus 
 callosum, which connects together the two hemispheres. 
 Each hemisphere is subdivided into three lobes, the 
 anterior, middle, and posterior, but it is only on the 
 under surface that these are distinctly marked: The 
 anterior and middle lobes are separated from each other 
 by a deep fissure called the fissura sylvia, which extends 
 obliquely backwards to a considerable depth. The 
 middle and posterior lobes are not so clearly marked 
 off, but the posteiior.is generally considered to be that 
 portion which lies directly over the cerebellum. 
 
 The surface of the hemispheres presents numerous 
 tortuous eminences, named convolutions, which are 
 separated from each other by deep grooves or furrows. 
 In this way a much greater extent of surface is obtained 
 in the same space ; and as the grey matter forms the 
 outer surface of the cerebrum, lining the various fissures 
 as well as covering the different convolutions, it follows 
 that the greater the number and depth of these, the 
 greater the extent of the grey matter. This is usually 
 regarded as the seat of the higher mental operations, 
 and hence we find the convolutions more numerous 
 and marked as the mental powers are more highly 
 developed. 1 They are more prominent in man than in 
 any of the lower animals, in the civilised man than in 
 
 1 " From these premises it may be laid down as a just conclusion 
 that the convolutions of the brain are the centres of intellectual 
 action, or, more strictly, that this centre consists in that vast sheet of 
 vascular matter which crowns the convoluted surface of the hemi- 
 spheres." Todd and Bowman. 
 
100 MEMOBT. 
 
 the savage, and in the man of mature years than in the 
 infant. The more highly developed the brain, the more 
 irregular and tortuous appear the convolutions ; but on 
 comparing different brains, and in particular the brains 
 of different animals, they are found to possess a certain 
 regularity and plan. 
 
 The grey or cortical surface of the cerebrum is about 
 one-fifth of an inch thick, and is arranged in layers, of 
 which there are usually reckoned six, and which are 
 white and grey alternately, a white layer being the 
 outermost. The white layers are largely composed 
 of nerve fibres running in various directions some 
 towards the surface, others more or less parallel to it. 
 They become gradually smaller as they approach the 
 surface, and in the external layer are of extreme minute- 
 ness, disposed in layers one over another, and crossing 
 each other in various directions. In this last the nerve 
 cells are small and not very numerous, nor are they very 
 numerous in the other white layers. They are, how- 
 ever, very abundant in the grey layers, many of them 
 being of considerable size, and are chiefly remarkable 
 for the number of processes which they send out, and 
 which serve to connect them with the nerve fibres. 1 
 
 1 The nerve cells of the cortical substance " lie in juxtaposition 
 and enter into close relationship one with another. They are further 
 arranged in regularly stratified zones one above another ; and they 
 form by their prolongations a tissue which is everywhere continuous, 
 and thus produces unity of action between this multitude of isolated 
 elements." Thus "the cortical substance represents an immense instru- 
 ment, constituted of nervous elements, each gifted, it is true, with its 
 proper individuality and yet intimately connected one with another. 
 The series of cells arranged in stratified zones, and the connections 
 of the different strata communicating one with another, imply the 
 idea that the nervous activities of each zone may be isolatedly 
 evoked ; that they may be associated one with another ; that they 
 may be modified in passing from one region to another, according to 
 the nature of the intermediary cells brought into play ; that, in a 
 word, nervous actions, like vibratory undulations, must propagate 
 
THE BQDY. 101 
 
 The cells are not sensitive to pain, but have a sensibility 
 of their own to the ideas that are fashioned in them. 1 
 
 The white or medullary substance forming the in- 
 terior of the brain is composed wholly of nerve fibres, 
 which enter the grey substance more or less at right 
 angles to its surface, and at the other end converge 
 towards the corpora striata and the optic thalami, thus 
 forming a communication between these bodies and the 
 outer grey matter. Besides these fibres there are 
 certain groups of others, some extending transversely, 
 
 themselves through one point of contact after another, following the 
 direction of the organic substance that underlies them, either trans- 
 versely or vertically, from the superficial to the deep regions, and 
 vice versd" Further, we may "suppose that the sub-meningeal 
 regions, principally occupied by the small cells, may be specially 
 connected with the phenomena of sensation, while the deeper regions, 
 occupied by groups of large cells, may be considered as the most 
 important regions that give rise to motor phenomena. ... It is 
 necessary, then, that between these two poles of the system there 
 shall be a simultaneous co-operation. ... It is also necessary 
 that at the moment when the excitation from the external world 
 arrives in the sensorium it shall be introduced methodically, and 
 in a gradual manner ; that it shall work its passage independently ; 
 and that at the moment at which it is there deposited it shall vibrate 
 alone, and alone imprint the records of its presence upon the plexuses 
 of the sensorium. ... It is by means of this organic mechanism 
 that movement and life are incessantly spread through the plexuses 
 of the cerebral cortex ; that excitations of all kinds spring up in their 
 minute structure on the arrival of external impressions ; that the 
 materials of the past become associated with recent ideas and im- 
 pressions ; and that, in a word, those marvellous phenomena, so 
 instantaneous and so varied, presented by the activity of the brain 
 are developed. ... By means of these connections our ideas are 
 associated, grouping themselves methodically into contemporary 
 reminiscences, appealing one to another when the first link of the 
 chain has been struck."/. Luys. 
 
 1 ** They live, they feel, and, what is more, they remember, for 
 then it is that this new property of preserving records of past experi- 
 ences, appearing in full force, gives a special character of permanence 
 to all the excitations that arrive, and enables them to survive them- 
 selves, to prolong their existence in the form of memories, and to be 
 marked in the calendar of our sensitive impressions with a special 
 co-efficient of pleasure or pain." /. Luys. 
 9 
 
102 MEHOBt. 
 
 and serving to connect the two hemispheres, others 
 running longitudinally and connecting the anterior with 
 the posterior lobes of the same hemisphere. Of the 
 former the principal group forms the corpus callosum, or 
 great transverse commissure, a large mass of white 
 fibres very closely interlaced together, and stretching 
 from one hemisphere to the other. 1 Though it is 
 impossible to trace the fibres, there is reason to believe 
 that they extend to the outer grey substance. Besides 
 these there are numerous fibres connecting the different 
 convolutions and different parts of the same convo- 
 lution. 
 
 From its highly organized structure, its size, position, 
 and the large quantity of blood which it receives, there 
 can be little doubt that the cerebrum is the seat of 
 man's highest powers, the material organ of the faculties 
 of the mind. 2 It also possesses a direct or indirect 
 
 1 " Cases have occurred in which this has heen nearly or even 
 entirely deficient in man, and it is significant that the chief defect in 
 the characters of such individuals has been observed to be a want of 
 forethought, i.e., of power to apply the experience of the past to the 
 anticipation of the future." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " It is now universally acknowledged that intellectual power 
 depends upon the size, quality, and convolutions of the brain ; and 
 it is further known how small a cerebral change may convert genius 
 into madness." Dr. Cunningham. "An inflammation of the brain 
 causes delirium or mania ; an extravasation of blood, stupefaction 
 and unconsciousness ; a permanent pressure upon the brain, weak- 
 ness of intellect, idiocy, &c." Buchner. " The grey matter of the 
 hemisphere is associated with the manifestation of intelligence in its 
 various forms. ... If the grey matter be suddenly injured or sub- 
 mitted to compression, as by a blow, causing fracture and depression 
 of a portion of the skull, or the effusion of fluid consequent on 
 inflammation, unconsciousness is a certain result. So long as the 
 pressure continues there is no consciousness ; if it be removed 
 consciousness may soon return." Prof. M'Kendrick. "Who could 
 have believed that the hemispheres may be pricked, torn, cut, and even 
 burnt by the actual cautery in the living animal without producing 
 the slightest feeling ; yet all observation and experience concur in 
 proving that this is unquestionably the fact." Magendie. " When 
 
THE BODY. 103 
 
 control over nearly all the actions of the physical frame. 
 The grey matter here, as in other parts of the nervous 
 system, is doubtless the source of nervous power, while 
 the white fibrous matter serves to conduct impressions. 
 The external position of the grey matter here, contrary 
 to the general arrangement in nerve centres, admits of 
 its being abundantly supplied with blood, and also 
 affords a freer and more extensive communication with 
 the nerve fibres. It is estimated that there are from 
 600,000,000 to 1,200,000,000 of nerve cells in the brain 
 for the generation of nerve force, and the moulding, 
 fashioning, and storing up of our ideas, each having a 
 separate existence, but all acting in subordination to 
 the requirements of the organs. They are connected 
 together by probably from 4,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 
 of fibres which convey impressions from one to another 
 and bring them into combined action. 1 The fibres 
 
 the hemispheres are removed the following results are observed : 
 First, the two higher senses, sight and hearing, are lost. Secondly, 
 memory and all the powers characteristic of intellect or thought 
 are abolished. Thirdly, volition, in the shape of purpose and fore- 
 thought, is extinguished. . . . Fourthly, there is still a power of 
 accomplishing many connected movements. An animal may walk, 
 swim, or fly, but there is no tendency to begin these actions. Fifthly, 
 there remains an inferior form of the sensibility of the three lower 
 senses, touch, taste, and smell. By stimuli applied to these senses 
 reflex movements may be excited." Prof. Bain. 
 
 1 Professor Bain estimates that the number of cells in the grey 
 covering of the hemispheres may amount to 1,200,000,000. "As 
 every cell is united with at least two fibres, often many more, we 
 may multiply this number by four for the number of connecting 
 fibres attached to the mass, which gives 4,800,000,000 fibres. Assume 
 the respective numbers to be (corpuscles) 1,000,000,000 and (fibres) 
 5,000,000,000, and make our comparison with our acquisitions as 
 follows : With a total of 50,000 acquisitions evenly spread over the 
 whole of the hemispheres, there would be for each nervous grouping 
 at the rate of 20,000 cells and 100,000 fibres. With a total of 200,000 
 acquisitions of the assumed types, which would certainly include the 
 most retentive and most richly endowed minds, there would be for 
 each nervous grouping 5,000 cells and 25,000 fibres." Hence " there 
 
104 MEMORY. 
 
 which proceed to the optic thalami and corpora striata 
 form the means of communication between the cerebrum 
 and the other parts of the body. 
 
 The cerebellum, or little brain, is situated under the 
 posterior lobes of the cerebrum, or brain proper, at the 
 base of the skull. It consists of an elongated central 
 body, called the vermiform process, and two large 
 lateral masses termed hemispheres. It is composed of 
 white and grey matter, the latter being arranged in the 
 form of laminae on the surface of the lobes into which 
 it is divided. When cut across it presents somewhat 
 of the form of a tree, the internal white matter forming 
 the stalks and the grey matter the leaves, and hence it 
 has been termed arbor vitce, or the tree of life. Besides 
 the grey matter on the surface, there is near the centre 
 of each hemisphere a small capsule of grey matter 
 enclosing white matter in its interior, called the corpus 
 dentatum. Three pairs of crura, peduncles, or tracts 
 of fibres, connect the cerebellum with the cerebrum, the 
 medulla oblongata, and the pons varolii respectively. 
 The cerebellum is generally regarded by physiologists 
 as the seat of the muscular sense, regulating and com- 
 bining the different movements of the muscles, and 
 informing the mind of their various states and 
 positions. 1 
 
 is no improbability in supposing an independent nervous track for 
 each separate acquisition". 
 
 1 " One office of the cerebellum is to combine the action of the volun- 
 tary muscles for the purpose of locomotion." Sir B. Brodie. " The 
 cerebellum co-ordinates movements guided by vision, or combines 
 the general movements of the body rendered necessary by special 
 actions ordered by volition." Dr. Bastian. " Galvanic irritation, 
 according to Ferrier, caused movements of the eyeballs and other 
 movements indicative of vertigo. ... In conclusion, therefore, it 
 may be stated that the function of the cerebellum is to co-ordinate 
 the muscular movement of the eye-balls with reference to binocular 
 vision and of the muscles generally in locomotion; but the 
 
THE BODY. 105 
 
 The corpora quadrigemina are four rounded masses 
 situated near the cerebellum, with which they are con- 
 nected by the superior peduncles of that organ. They 
 are also connected with the optic thalami in front. 
 The two anterior are the nates, the two posterior the 
 testes. They are generally regarded as the centre of the 
 sense of sight, their destruction producing blindness. 
 Each is composed of white substance on the surface 
 and grey matter underneath. Lying in front of and 
 between the nates, and connected with the optic tha- 
 lami by two small peduncles, is a small mass of grey 
 matter about the size of a small cherry stone, called 
 the pineal gland, and noted as being the part considered 
 by Descartes to be the seat of the soul. 
 
 The optic thalami and corpora striata are four large 
 bodies composed of white and grey matter, situated at 
 the base of the cerebrum, and from which fibres radiate 
 to the convolutions on the surface of that organ. The 
 optic thalami are two large, firm, oblong bodies nearly 
 an inch and a half long and three-fourths of an inch 
 wide and deep. Anteriorly they are connected with 
 the corpora striata, and posteriorly by small peduncles 
 with the pineal gland and the nates. The corpora 
 striata are two pear-shaped bodies, obtuse and ap- 
 proaching each other in front, but becoming smaller 
 and receding from each other as they extend back- 
 wards. When laid open the grey matter is seen to be 
 streaked with white, whence the name. 
 
 These bodies are sometimes termed the cerebral 
 ganglia, and are regarded by Dr. Carpenter as the 
 true sensorium, or that portion of the brain through 
 which the mind becomes conscious not only of sensa- 
 
 mechanism by which this is accomplished is unknown," Pro/, 
 
 M'Kendrick. ' 
 
106 MEMORY. 
 
 tions, but also of its own intellectual operations, the 
 cerebrum, in his view, being destitute of consciousness 
 as it is of sensation. Nearly all the fibres that connect 
 the cerebrum with the medulla oblongata, and so with 
 the spinal cord and the different parts of the body, pass 
 through these ganglia. The fibres passing through the 
 optic thalami are sensory, while those passing through 
 the corpora striata are motor. M. Luys distinguishes 
 four small isolated ganglia of grey matter situated in a 
 line, one behind another, in each thalainus. The first 
 of these, the anterior and most prominent, he regards 
 as connected with the sense of smell ; the second with 
 sight ; the third with sensibility ; and the fourth with 
 hearing. 1 The motor action of each* of the corpora 
 striata passes to the muscles of the opposite side of 
 the body, the decussation taking place in the medulla 
 oblongata. 2 
 
 1 " From a physiological standpoint the optic thalami are inter- 
 mediary regions interposed between the purely reflex phenomena of 
 the spinal cord and the activities of psychical life. By their isolated 
 and independent ganglions they serve as points of condensation for 
 each order of sensorial impressions that finds in their network of 
 cells a place of passage and a field for transformation. . . . These 
 are then the sole and unique open gates by which all stimuli from 
 without, destined to serve a pabulum vitce for these same cortical 
 cells, pass, and the only means of communication by which the 
 regions of psychical activity come into contact with the external 
 world." J. Luys. 
 
 2 " The corpus striatum is the motor ganglion for the entire oppo- 
 site half of the body. It translates volitions into actions or puts in 
 execution the commands of the intellect ; that is, it selects, so to 
 speak, the motor nerve nuclei in the medulla and cord appropriate 
 for the performance of the desired action, and sends down the im- 
 pulses which set them in motion. These impulses are transmitted 
 through fibres, and the fibres must start from cell-processes in the 
 corpus striatum. A given movement therefore must be represented 
 in the corpus striatum by a group or groups of cells giving off down- 
 ward processes which become fibres of the motor tract of the cord." 
 Dr. Pastian. The corpus striatum "is a common territory, into 
 which the cerebral, eerebellar, and spinal activities come in successioD 
 
THE BODY. 107 
 
 Two short, thick, rounded cords called the crura 
 cerebri connect the optic thalami and the corpora 
 striata with the pons varolii. They are composed 
 chiefly of white fibres, but have in the interior a semi- 
 lunar mass of dark-grey matter. The inferior or more 
 superficial fibres are continuous with those of the 
 anterior pyramids of the medulla oblongata, and the 
 superior or deeper with the lateral and posterior pyra- 
 midal tracts and the olivary fasciculus. The crura 
 cerebri are regarded principally as conducting organs. 
 
 The pons varolii occupies a comparatively small part 
 of the encephalon, and is situated above and in front 
 of the medulla oblongata, with which it is continuous. 
 It is composed of transverse and longitudinal white 
 fibres, interspersed with a quantity of diffused grey 
 matter. The transverse fibres, with few exceptions, 
 communicate with the cerebellum by means of the 
 middle crura or peduncles, while the longitudinal fibres 
 connect the medulla oblongata with the cerebrum. Its 
 purpose is evidently to conduct impressions from one 
 part to another. 
 
 The medulla oblongata is mostly contained within the 
 cavity of the cranium, but also partly in the spinal 
 
 to be combined. ... It is in the midst of its tissues that the in- 
 fluence of volition is first received at the moment when it emerges 
 from the depths of the psycho-motor centres of the cerebral cortex. 
 There it makes its first halt in its descending evolution, and enters 
 into a more intimate relation with the organic substratum destined 
 to produce its external manifestations in one word, materialises 
 itself. From this moment it comes into intimate contact with the 
 iunervation radiating from the cerebellum, and it is now no longer 
 itself, no longer the simple purely psycho-motor stimulus it was at 
 its origin. It is associated with this new influence which gives it 
 somatic force and continuity of action. It then passes out of the 
 brain by means of the peduncular fibres, combined with a new ele- 
 ment, and pursuing its centrifugal course, it is finally extinguished 
 here, thereby setting in motion the different groups of cells of the 
 spinal axis, whose dynamic properties it thus evokes." J. 
 
108 MEMORY. 
 
 oolumn, and forms the connection between the cord 
 and the encephalon. It is somewhat pyramidal in 
 form, tapering towards its connection with the spinal 
 cord, and is partially divided into two lateral and 
 symmetrical halves by an anterior and posterior fis- 
 sure, as is the case with the cord. It is composed of 
 both white and grey matter, the former being arranged 
 partly in external columns and partly in fasciculi tra- 
 versing the inner grey matter, which is variously 
 disposed in masses and laminae. The columns are 
 continuous with those of the cord, but are more pro- 
 minent, and separated by deeper grooves, and increase 
 in size as they proceed towards the brain. The anterior 
 columns receive the name of che anterior pyramids, the 
 posterior that of the restiform bodies; and at the pos- 
 terior part of the latter, immediately on each side of 
 the posterior median fissure, u small tract is marked 
 off by a slight groove, and named the posterior pyramids 
 Near the upper part of each of the two lateral columns 
 is a small oval mass of grey matter called thf olivary 
 lody. " The anterior pyramid of each side, although 
 mainly composed of continuations of the fibres of the 
 anterior columns of the spinal cord, receives fibres 
 from the lateral columns both of its own and the oppo- 
 site side. . . . Thus composed, the anterior pyramidal 
 fibres, proceeding onwards to the brain, are distributed 
 in the following manner : 1. The greater part pass on 
 through the pons varolii to the cerebrum. A portion 
 of the fibres, however, running apart from the others, 
 joins some fibres from the olivary body, and unites 
 with them to form what is called the olivary fasciculus 
 or fillet. 2. A small tract of fibres proceeds to the 
 cerebellum. The lateral column on each side of the 
 medulla, in proceeding upwards, divides into three 
 
THE BODY. 109 
 
 parts outer, inner, and middle, which are thus dis- 
 posed of: 1. The outer fibres go with the restiform 
 tract to the cerebellum. 2. The middle decussate 
 across the middle line with their fellows, and form the 
 chief part of the anterior pyramid of the opposite side. 
 3. The inner pass on to the cerebrum along the floor 
 of the fourth ventricle on each side, under the name of 
 the fasciculus teres. The fibres of the restiform body 
 receive some small contributions from both the lateral 
 and anterior columns of the medulla, and proceed 
 chiefly to the cerebrum, but that small part behind 
 called the posterior pyramid is continued with the 
 fasciculus teres of each side along the floor of the 
 fourth ventricle to the cerebrum." Kirkes* Physiology. 
 The functions of the medulla oblongata are similar 
 to those of the spinal cord, but it has others in addi- 
 tion of the greatest importance. It contains tracts of 
 sensory and motor fibres, as well as a series of reflex 
 centres for special movements. Among these last is 
 the centre which regulates the respiratory movements, 
 an injury to which, by stopping respiration, produces 
 instant death ; which the removal of the entire brain 
 above, or of the cord below, does not effect. 1 The 
 
 1 " The most important function of the medulla is to cause and to 
 regulate the respiratory movements, and the point in which the 
 respiratory centre is situated is called the vital knot. The same 
 organ also regulates the heart's action. The medulla is also the 
 centre of action for the bloodvessels. The insensible perspiration 
 of the skin is likewise under its influence. The movements of 
 swallowing, which require for their proper execution a co-ordinated 
 Action of the lips, tongue, palate, and gullet, are likewise under the 
 immediate influence of the medulla. The same organ contains a 
 centre for the physiognomical play of the muscles of the face, and 
 another for articulate speech that is, the pronunciation of vowels 
 and consonants in such fashion as to form words. All these different 
 functions of the medulla are automatical or mechanical that is, 
 independent of volition, intelligence, or any other of the higher 
 mental processes and they may therefore continue where the higher 
 
110 MEMOBY. 
 
 motor fibres occur chiefly in the anterior pyramids, 
 and here cross or decussate, so that disease or injury 
 affecting the motor fibres of one hemisphere of the 
 brain causes paralysis of motion on the opposite side 
 of the body. Those supplying the face cross in the 
 pons varolii. Eegarding the transmission of sensory 
 impressions nothing is known with certainty. 
 
 The cerebrum and other parts within the cranium 
 are enveloped in three membranes the dura mater, 
 the arachnoid membrane, and the pia mater. The 
 first of these, which is the outermost, is of great den- 
 sity and firmness, its component fibres interlacing each 
 other in all directions. The inner surface is smooth 
 and shining, while the outer, which adheres to the 
 bones of the cranium, is rough and irregular. The 
 membrane sends out several folds or processes which 
 
 centres in the brain have been either experimentally removed or 
 disorganised by disease." Dr. Althaus. It " receives directly the 
 auditory impressions, the impressions of taste, and indirectly, 
 through the corpora quadrigemina, is affected by visual impressions; 
 meanwhile sending impulses to the various muscles of the eyes, the 
 face, the jaws, and the mouth. By it the movements of all four 
 limbs are combined in joint acts ; and by simultaneously regulating 
 them it makes the head and jaws co-operate with the limbs. The 
 various impressions and muscular motions implied by the act of 
 swallowing it brings into due relation. Eeceiving the respiratory 
 stimulus, it emits the stimuli to those muscles which enlarge and 
 diminish the thoracic cavity, so causing inspiration and expiration ; 
 and as a consequence it is the centre which, disturbed by the more 
 violent irritations of the respiratory surface, sends out to the respi- 
 ratory muscles those more violent impulses which cause coughing 
 and sneezing, to which may be added, as actions belonging to the 
 eame class, crying and yawning. Lastly, through the pneumogastric 
 nerve, it controls the action of the heart and the actions of other 
 viscera. . . . This is not all. Being the centre which initiates and 
 directs involved and extensive bodily actions, entailing rapid expen- 
 diture, it is the centre in which the demand for materials is indi- 
 cated ; and hence it becomes the regulator of the circulation, of the 
 aeration of the blood, and of the visceral actions generally." 
 H. Spencer. 
 
THE BODY. Ill 
 
 descend between certain portions of the brain to sup- 
 port or protect them. The principal of these are the 
 falx cerebri, which extends from the fore to the back 
 part of the skull, passing into the great longitudinal 
 fissure which separates the two hemispheres of the 
 cerebrum ; the tentorium cerebelli, extending across the 
 back part of the skull, and separating the cerebrum 
 from the cerebellum; and the falx cerebelli, passing 
 down between the two lobes of the cerebellum. The 
 second or middle of the three membranes is an ex- 
 tremely thin and delicate substance called the arachnoid, 
 from its fancied resemblance to a spider's web. It 
 closely lines the dura mater through its whole extent, 
 and is reflected upon the pia mater, with which it is 
 everywhere in contact, in some parts closely, in others, 
 especially at the base of the brain, very loosely. The 
 pia mater, or innermost covering of the brain, is a deli- 
 cate vascular membrane, which closely envelops the 
 encephalic mass, dipping down between all the convo- 
 lutions, following them in their windings, and lining 
 even the minutest fissures. It is richly supplied with 
 bloodvessels, which ramify upon its surface, and send 
 minute branches into the grey substance of the brain. 
 
 The quantity of blood that proceeds to the brain is 
 very great, being estimated at one-fifth or one-sixth 
 part of the entire amount contained in the body. 1 
 Special provisions are also made to prevent any irregu- 
 
 1 " It is calculated that the brain of man receives about a fifth or 
 a sixth of the whole blood in circulation ; although its weight is not 
 more than a fortieth or fiftieth part of that of the entire body."- 
 Dr. Carpenter. "The functional activity of the brain depends on 
 the copious supply of arterial blood. It is computed that one-fifth of 
 the whole quantity in circulation is sent to this organ." Dr. Draper. 
 " It has been computed that five times as much blood circulates in 
 the grey or corpuscular substance as in the white or fibrous tub- 
 tance." Prof. Bain, 
 
112 MEMORY. 
 
 larities or interruption of the supply, for such is the 
 importance and delicacy of this organ that any great 
 increase in the quantity of blood sent to it, or any 
 interruption of the supply, would result in immediate 
 death. There are four large arterial trunks which 
 serve to convey the blood to the brain the two inter- 
 nal carotids and the two vertebral. So large are these 
 vessels, and so ample their means of intercommuni- 
 cation, that even if the circulation in one of them be 
 impeded or stopped, the others may supply its place 
 with little diminution of the general flow. The veins 
 do not accompany the arteries here, as in other parts 
 of the body, but are widely dispersed, and ultimately 
 form large, tortuous canals. 
 
 From the position of the brain in the interior of a 
 hard, bony case, it is evident that any sudden increase 
 in its volume, either from an over-supply of blood or 
 any other cause, would be productive of very serious 
 consequences to its delicate structure, were not special 
 provision made in order to meet it. This is done by 
 means of a fluid which exists between the layers of the 
 arachnoid membrane in the brain and spinal cord, 
 known as the cerebro-spinal fluid. The amount usually 
 averages about 2 oz., but in cases of atrophy or 
 wasting of the brain as much as 12 oz. may be 
 found, while in cases where the brain has undergone 
 an increase there is either a diminution or a total 
 absence of this fluid. Its presence also doubtless has 
 the effect of preventing an undue expansion of the 
 bloodvessels. 
 
 The weight of the entire mass of brain differs con- 
 siderably in different individuals. In the adult male 
 it usually ranges between 40 and 60 oz., the average 
 being about 50, but in some cases it reaches as high as 
 
THE BODY. 113 
 
 64 or 65, and in others it is as low as 33 or 34 oz. 
 
 In the adult female the weight usually ranges from 36 
 to 50 oz., the average being about 45, but it has been 
 found as high as 56 and as low as 31. In cases of 
 idiocy the amount is sometimes much below this, and 
 as low a weight as 20 oz. has been recorded. 1 The 
 average weight of the brain in proportion to that of the 
 body is about 1 to 36. As regards the weight of different 
 parts of the brain, the cerebrum averages in the adult 
 male nearly 44 oz., and in the adult female 38|; the 
 cerebellum in the male about 5 J, and in the female about 
 4f ; the pons varolii and medulla oblongata together 
 about 1 oz., being rather larger in the female than in 
 the male. 
 
 Physiologists differ as to the time when the brain 
 attains its full size. Sir "William Hamilton and others 
 place it as early as the seventh or eighth year. Gall 
 and Spurzheim, and phrenologists generally, maintain 
 that the brain continues to grow till about the fortieth 
 year, and this appears to be nearest the truth. "It 
 appears that in general the weight of the brain increases 
 rapidly up to the seventh year, then more slowly to 
 between sixteen and twenty, and again more slowly to 
 between thirty-one and forty, at which time it reaches 
 its maximum point. Beyond this period there appears 
 
 1 " When the weight of the brain falls below a certain minimum 
 standard, the possession by its owner of anything like ordinary 
 human intelligence seems to be impossible. Gratiolet, without 
 specifying the sex, supposed this lower limit of weight to be about 
 31 1 oz. Broca places it somewhat higher, fixing upon 32 oz. as the 
 limit for the female and 37 oz. as the lower limit of weight for the 
 male brain compatible with ordinary human intelligence. The 
 brain- weight of idiots may, however, and frequently does, fall far 
 below the limits above assigned." Dr. Bastian. "It would appi'.-ir 
 that in general throughout the human race no brain under 30 oz. 
 is sufficient for the exercise of its normal functions." Dr. Allen 
 Thomson. 
 
114 MEMOBY. 
 
 a slow but progressive diminution in weight of about 
 one ounce during each subsequent decennial period." 
 Quain's Anatomy. 1 We have here a physiological 
 basis for what is popularly believed to be a fact, that 
 the mind reaches its maximum about the age of forty, 
 and that no great work has been accomplished by 
 any one after that age, the basis of which was not 
 laid before. 
 
 The spinal cord forms the means of communication 
 between the brain and most other parts of the body. 
 Through it impressions made on the sensitive spinal 
 nerves are conveyed to the brain, and through it, too, 
 the stimulus sent from the brain is conducted to the 
 motor spinal nerves in order to excite the action of the 
 muscles. It may also be regarded as a series of ganglia 
 or nervous centres united together in one continuous 
 column. In consequence of its continuity and its 
 direct connection with the brain, most of its operations 
 are carried on consciously and are under the control of 
 the will ; but at the same time each of the nervous 
 centres of which it is composed is capable of receiving 
 impressions and giving out stimuli independently of the 
 will or of consciousness. 2 Hence if any part of the 
 cord be destroyed, and communication with the brain 
 be thereby interrupted, sensation and voluntary motion 
 will cease in those parts connected with the cord below 
 the seat of the injury, but the detached portion of the 
 
 1 "From forty to fifty years there is a slight diminution in weight 
 and a greater one between fifty and sixty. After sixty years the rate 
 of decrease is still greater- ; the process of decay becomes more and 
 more rapid, and thus in the eighth decade of existence the average 
 weight of the brain is less by more than 3 oz. than it was in the 
 fourth decade. In the aged, on the average the weight of the brain 
 decreases pari passu with the intelligence." Dr Thurnam. 
 
 2 " Every segment of the spinal cord may act separately as an 
 independent centre ; every segment is a little brain. 1 ' 6r. H. Lewes. 
 

 THE BODY. 115 
 
 i3ord will still retain the properties of an ordinary nerve 
 centre and respond to stimuli acting on it. 1 
 
 The spinal cord is composed of both white and grey 
 nervous matter, the former situated externally, and 
 constituting its chief portion, the latter disposed in the 
 interior. When the cord is cut transversely, the grey 
 substance is seen arranged in the form of two crescental 
 masses, one occupying each lateral half, and the two 
 being connected together by a transverse band of the 
 same material. 2 The posterior horns are long and 
 narrow, and approach the surface, while the anterior 
 are considerably shorter and thicker. The cord is 
 divided longitudinally into two exactly symmetrical 
 halves by an anterior and a posterior fissure, the two 
 halves being united in the middle by a commissure. 
 The posterior fissure is deeper but less wide and distinct 
 than the anterior. Each half is marked on the sides 
 by two longitudinal furrows which divide it into three 
 portions or columns, an anterior, a middle or lateral, 
 and a posterior. The entire cord is, like the brain, 
 enveloped in three membranes, an outer, the dura 
 mater ; an inner, the pia mater ; and the arachnoid 
 membrane between the two. 
 
 The nerves of the spinal cord consist of thirty-one 
 pairs issuing from the sides of the cord through its whole 
 length, and corresponding in number to the interverte- 
 
 1 "When the spine is injured or divided there are two centres, 
 and the parts above are not sensitive to impressions on the parts 
 below ; nor are the parts below sensitive to impressions on the parts 
 above ; but each segment is sensitive to its own affections. The 
 paralytic man does not feel the prick on his leg, but his leg feels it." 
 G. H. Lewes. 
 
 8 " The cells are larger and more numerous in the anterior grey 
 matter of the spinal cord than in the posterior. They are of various 
 sizes, but remarkably multipolar and intimately connected with each 
 other and with the roots of the spinal nerves by means of their 
 numerous branching processes." Dr. Lwyocck* 
 
116 MBMOBY. 
 
 bral foramina through which they pass. Each nerve 
 arises by two roots, an anterior and a posterior, tho 
 latter being the larger. The anterior root springs from 
 the groove between the anterior and lateral columns of 
 each half of the cord, and contains only efferent or 
 motor fibres ; the posterior rises just in front of the 
 groove between the lateral and posterior columns, and 
 consists entirely of afferent or sensory fibres. "The 
 roots emerge through separate apertures of the sheath 
 of the dura mater surrounding the cord, and directly 
 after their emergence, while the roots lie in the inter- 
 vertebral foramen, a ganglion is formed on the posterior 
 root. The anterior root lies in contact with the 
 anterior surface of the ganglion, but none of its fibres 
 intermingle with those of the ganglion. But immedi- 
 ately beyond the ganglion the two roots coalesce, and 
 by the mingling of their fibres form a compound or 
 mixed spinal nerve which, after issuing from the inter- 
 vertebral canal, divides into an anterior and posterior 
 branch, each containing fibres from both roota' 
 Kirkes* Physiology. 
 
 Of the root fibres of the nerves, some pass hori- 
 zontally or obliquely into the substance of the cord, 
 while others proceed upwards u.r downwards in it. 
 Many of them may be traced into the central grey 
 substance and terminate there ; and the experiments of 
 Brown-Sequard make it probable that the grey sub- 
 stance is the channel by which sensitive impressions 
 are conducted to the brain. He has shown that the 
 posterior columns are not, as was previously generally 
 supposed, the course which they follow, but that they 
 pass into the grey substance, through which alone, or 
 aided by the anterior columns, they reach the brain. 
 Further, he has proved that impression are not oon- 
 
THE BODY. 117 
 
 veyed along that half of the cord by which they enter, 
 but almost directly cross over to the other, and by this 
 pass to the brain. Thus it is that division or disease of 
 one posterior half of the cord is followed by loss of sen- 
 sation in the parts on the opposite side of the body. 
 The motor nerves also decussate, but this takes place, 
 not in the cord itself, but in the medulla oblon- 
 gata After decussation the motor impulses " first 
 enter the cord by the lateral tracts and adjoining grey 
 matter, and then pass to the anterior columns and the 
 grey matter associated with them". KirJces' Physiology. 1 
 There are certain nerves which have their origin in 
 the brain, and are hence commonly known as cerebral 
 or cranial nerves. They are mostly connected with 
 the organs of the senses, and are usually reckoned as 
 nine pairs, although, strictly speaking, the number is 
 twelve, the seventh forming two and the eighth three 
 pairs. They are named numerically in the order in 
 which they proceed from the brain. Tlie first pair, or 
 olfactory, are connected with the under surface of the 
 anterior cerebral lobe by three roots, and, unlike other 
 nerves, consist of a large portion of grey matter mixed 
 
 1 " While motor influences descend through the columns of the 
 cord on the same side as the roots of the nerves upon which they act, 
 sensory impressions (at least those of pain and touch) ascend on the 
 opposite side from that on which the posterior or sensory roots have 
 entered. Thus it appears that the most of the fibres in communica- 
 tion with those of the sensory roots cross at once to the opposite side 
 of the cord, as may, indeed, be seen in the grey commissure, while 
 the motor fibres remain on the same side. But at the upper part of 
 the spinal marrow, or rather when they have just entered the 
 medulla oblongata, the motor columns suddenly cross, in more or less 
 divided bundles of iibres, from one side to the other. This occurs 
 in the so-called decussation of the pyramids, which consists essentially 
 in the oblique passage across the middle plane of a considerable 
 part of the lateral columns of the cord containing its chief motor 
 fibres into the opposite anterior pyramids of the medulla cblongata. 1 ' 
 Dr. Allen Thomson. 
 10 
 
MEMOBT. 
 
 with white fibres. Each nerve afterwards swells out 
 into an elongated oval mass of nervous matter called 
 the olfactory lull, which rests upon the cribriform plate of 
 the ethmoid bone, through which a number of small 
 soft nerves descend to the Schneiderian membrane of 
 the nose, the seat of smell. The second pair, or optic, 
 arise from the optic thalami, the corpora quadrigemina, 
 and the corpora geniculata, and meet each other at tte 
 optic commissure, where they partially decussate, the 
 outer fibres continuing onwards to the eye of the same 
 side, while the inner cross over towards the eye of the 
 opposite side. They then pass into the orbits, pene- 
 trate the eyeballs, and expand into the retina, that 
 part of the eye by which visible impressions are taken 
 up. The third pair, or motores oculi, have their origin 
 from the inner surface of the crura cerebri, and, entering 
 the orbits, are distributed to most of the muscles that 
 move the eyeballs. The fourth pair 9 or trochlearis, 
 spring from the corpora quadrigemina, and pass into the 
 orbits governing the movements of the trochlearis or 
 oblique muscle of the eye. The fifth pair, trifacial or 
 trigeminal, arise from the side of the pons varolii, each 
 by two distinct roots, as in the spinal nerves. The 
 larger and softer root, which is sensitive, enters the 
 Gasserian ganglion, from which three branches, or 
 divisions of the nerve are given out. The smaller or 
 motor root has no ganglion, and passes under the 
 Gasserian ganglion to join the third branch or division 
 wtich issues from it. The first and second branches of 
 the larger root are purely sensitive. The third branch, 
 being joined by the motor root of the nerve, js of course 
 both sensitive and motor. The sensitive branches 
 terminate in the face, and communicate sensibility to 
 that and the fore part of the head, as well as to the 
 
THE BODY. 119 
 
 4he nose, the ear, and the mouth, an3 endow the 
 fore part of the tongue with the powers both of touch 
 and 'taste. The third branch is distributed to the 
 muscles of the jaws, and governs the movements of the 
 mastication. The sixth pair, or abducent, have their 
 origin bet ween the pons varolii and medulla oblongata, 
 receiving fibres from both parts, and, entering the orbit, 
 are distributed to the external rectus muscle of the 
 eyeball. The seventh pair arise from the medulla oblon- 
 gata, and are composed of two parts, the portio dura and 
 the portio mollis, which are in reality separate nerves, 
 being distinct in their origin, distribution, and function. 
 The portio dura, or facial, is motor, and is distributed to 
 the different muscles of the face, directing and regu- 
 lating their movements. The portio mollis, or auditory, 
 proceeds to the internal parts of the ear, and serves to 
 collect and transmit the influences of sound. The eighth 
 pair arise from the medulla oblongata, and are divided 
 into three branches, the glosso-pharyngeal, the par 
 vagum, or pneumogastric, and the accessory. The first 
 of these is distributed to the root of the tongue and 
 pharynx, ministering to taste and touch, and also 
 assisting in the act of deglutition. The par vagum, so 
 called from its wandering course, is both sensitive and 
 motor, and the most widely distributed of the cranial 
 nerves, sending branches to the neck, lungs, and stomach. 
 It also forms important connections with the sym- 
 pathetic system of nerves. The accessory or spinal 
 accessory nsrve, so called from originating partly in the 
 spinal cord, is motor, its principal branch, the external, 
 supplying the external muscles of respiration, and the 
 internal adding motor filaments to the par vagum. The 
 ninth pair, or hypo-glossal, issue from the medulla oblon- 
 gata, and are distributed to the muscles of the tongue, 
 
120 MEMOEY. 
 
 and regulate the movements of that organ in speech 
 and deglutition. Of these nerves the olfactory; pptic, 
 auditory, part of the glosso-pharyngeal, and the sub- 
 lingual branch of the fifth pair are nerves of special 
 sense ; and the greater part of the fifth, and part of 
 the glosso-pharyngeal, are nerves of common sensation. 
 Three of the others, the third, fourth, and sixth pairs, 
 are employed in regulating the movements of the eye- 
 ball. 
 
 Eegarding the effects of exercise on the different 
 parts of the nervous system, we have not the same 
 direct evidence that we have concerning other parts of 
 the body. We cannot see in nerve as in muscle, for 
 instance, an increase in size, and greater density and 
 firmness, as the result of exercise, but there can scarcely 
 be a doubt that such actually takes place. 1 All parts of 
 the nervous system are known to be most abundantly 
 furnished with bloodvessels for supplying them v r ith 
 nutritive materials, which shows that a large measure 
 of waste is constantly taking place in their substance, 
 requiring to be constantly renewed. 2 With increased 
 exertion we know that the rate of waste and renewal is 
 
 1 " Many circumstances lead to the conclusion that in the nervous, 
 as in the muscular system, every vital operation is necessarily con- 
 nected with a certain change of composition, so that no manifestation 
 of nervous power can take place unless this change can be effected.* 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " Living tissues are in a state of continuous molecular renova- 
 tion, nervous tissue more than any other, and in nervous tissue the 
 grey substance more than the white substance, as is shown by the 
 excessive abundance of bloodvessels with which the former is lined. 
 Since the modifications are persistent, the new material, the arrange- 
 ment of the molecules, must exactly reproduce the type which they 
 replace." Th. Ribot. " There is no part of the organism of man in 
 which the reconstructive activity is so great during the whole period 
 of life as it is in the ganglionic substance of the brain. ... It is, 
 moreover, a fact of great significance that the nerve substance if 
 specially distinguished by its reparative power." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
THE BODY. 121 
 
 much accelerated. 1 Further, we know that the effects 
 of well-directed exercise are the same here as in other 
 parts of the body, producing increased power, skill, and 
 dexterity, so that what was at first difficult becomes 
 more and more easy by practice, till at length it may 
 come to be a second nature. This holds true in the 
 region of thought not less than in outward action. 2 
 Hence there is every reason to believe that the effects 
 of exercise upon the nervous system are exactly the 
 same as upon other parts of the body, producing first 
 waste of substance, followed by an increased supply of 
 nutritive material by which the part is enlarged in size, 
 and acquires greater firmness and fineness of texture, 
 becoming thus more suited for the performance of its 
 special work 8 Thus we have in judicious exercise the 
 
 1 " The nervous substance is distinguished from all the other 
 tissues by the very large proportion of phosphorus which enters into 
 its composition . . . and one result of over-exercise of the nervous 
 system is the elimination of an unusual quantity of salts containing 
 phosphorus by means of the secretion of the kidneys." Sir B. Brodie. 
 " Sustained intellectual work is accompanied by a loss of phospho- 
 rised substance on the part of the cerebral cell in vibration," and 
 "becomes at the same time the occasion of a local development of 
 heat . . . appreciable by the instruments of the physical laboratory w . 
 J. Luys. " Mosso has invented a method of registering the effect 
 of thought on the circulation. He finds ideation accompanied by 
 a contraction of the peripheral vessels proportionate to the degree of 
 intellectual effort. A young man translating Greek showed greater 
 contraction than when he was translating Latin." G. H. Lewes. 
 " It is only by supposing an idea to be accompanied by a correlative 
 change in the nerve cells that we can explain the exhaustion follow- 
 ing excessive mental work, and the breaking down of the brain in 
 extreme cases." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 2 " We train the muscles by exercise, and so we may train the 
 different organs of the brain by proper exercise also, by intellectual 
 work, by strengthening the power of the will, and by the regulation 
 of our emotions." Prof. M l Kendrick. 
 
 * "... All this leads us to the view taken by Muller and Engel, 
 that the shape of the skull is everywhere essentially dependent on 
 mental culture, and changes with it" Dr. Waitz. "The braiu 
 
122 MEMOEY. 
 
 means of strengthening and improving the different 
 parts of the nervous system, and overcoming weak- 
 nesses or tendencies to disease. 1 On the other hand, 
 " continued repose of a nerve/ 1 says Dr. Hermann, 
 " diminishes and destroys its irritability, and tends at 
 last to fatty degeneration". 
 
 In order to form some idea of the immense number 
 of elements concerned in effecting even common move- 
 ments, let us take locomotion. " Is the starting-point 
 an act of volition?" 2 asks M. Eibot. "Then the 
 
 grows to the mode in which it is habitually worked, just as the 
 mechanism of our bodily movement shapes itself to the work we 
 habitually call on it to' perform." Dr. Carpenter. " Mr. Webster 
 told one of our greatest scholars that he had to change the size of his 
 hat every few years. His head grew larger as his intellect expanded. 
 Illustrations of this same fact were shown me many years ago by Mr. 
 Deville, the famous phrenologist, in London." 0. W. Holmes. 
 
 1 " The judicious exercise and cultivation of the mental faculties 
 during youth, or at least of such as are most obviously developed, 
 will actually gradually increase the dimensions, and improve the 
 qualities, strength, and powers of the brain, and generally all the 
 organs of intellect, in like manner as the muscular powers are by 
 their due exercise strengthened and improved." Bostock : Physiology. 
 
 2 " In the first state of its outward course, it (i.e., voluntary motor 
 power) insensibly loses its original character of a purely psychical 
 excitation to incorporate itself more and more with the organism, to 
 materialise itself in a manner, and increase its dynamic power by the 
 addition of a new nervous element the cerebellar innervation, which, 
 in the condition of a static force in permanent tension, is incessantly 
 distributed in the plexuses of the corpus striatum. Thus reinforced, 
 it continues its centrifugal course, and by means of the antero-lateral 
 fibres of the axis (cerebral peduncles) it descends in the form of an 
 interrupted current to excite the dynamic activity of the different 
 motor nuclei of the spinal axis, which, like a series of apparatuses 
 always ready to enter into action, only wait its arrival to deve'jop 
 
 their latent activity The processes which produce voluntary 
 
 motion pass in their evolution through phases inverse to those of the 
 processes of sensibility. While these last as they approach the 
 central regions of the" sensorium are purified and made perfect, 
 becoming more and more intellectualised by the metabolic action of 
 the different nervous media through which they are propagated, the 
 former, on the contrary, conceived as psychical vibrations at the 
 
THE BODY. 123 
 
 impulse, originating, according to Ferrier in a par- 
 ticular portion of the cortex, traverses the white sub- 
 stance, reaches the corpora striata, passes through the 
 crura cerebri, thence to the complicated structure of 
 the medulla, where it passes to the other side of the 
 body, descending the anterior columns of the spinal 
 cord to the lumbar region, and then along the motor 
 nerves to the muscles. This transmission is followed 
 by a return to the cerebral centre through the posterior 
 columns of the cord and the grey matter, the medulla, 
 the pons varolii, the optic tract, the white substance, to 
 the surface of the hemisphere." l 
 
 Here, then, we have a vast number of elements which 
 are affected, and in which a change is produced, by so 
 simple a process as an^fct of locomotion. This change 
 is permanent, and constitutes, in our view, the basis of 
 the memory of it. In its highest form, when we have 
 the movement so clearly before the mind that we seem 
 to be again enacting it, the seat of the memory is not 
 confined to the brain, but embraces the whole track 
 pursued by the original action. " The memory of an 
 apple," to again quote M. Eibot, " is necessarily a 
 weakened form of the perception of an apple. What 
 does this perception suppose ? A modification of the 
 complex structure of the retina, transmission by the 
 optic nerve through the corpora geniculata and the 
 tubeicula quadrigemina to the cerebral ganglia, then 
 through the white substance to the cortex. This sup- 
 poses the activity of many widely-separated elements. 
 
 moment of their genesis, amplify and are materialised more and more 
 as they descend from the superior regions." /. Luys. 
 
 1 " Whatever opinion may be held with regard to the anatomical 
 conditions of muscular sensibility, it is certain that the sensibility 
 exists, and that it makes known the part of the body participating in 
 a movement, and permits us to regulate it." Th. Eibot, 
 
124 MEMOBT. 
 
 But this is by no means all. It is not a question of a 
 simple sensation of colour. "We see or imagine the 
 apple as a solid object having a spherical form. These 
 conceptions result from the exquisite muscular sensi- 
 bility of our visual apparatus, and from its movements. 
 Now, the movements of the eye are regulated by several 
 nerves the sympathetic, the oculo- motor and its 
 branches. Each of these nerves has its own termina- 
 tion, and is connected by a devious course with the outer 
 cerebral layer, where the motor intuitions, according to 
 Maudsley, are formed. . . . Take the recollection of a 
 word. If it is a written word it is again a question of 
 visual perception, and is allied to the instance already 
 cited. But if we take a spoken word, we find the com- 
 plexity equally great. Articulate language supposes the 
 intervention of the larynx, the pharynx, the lips, the 
 nasal fossa, and consequently of many nerves having 
 centres in different parts of the brain, the spinal, the 
 facial, and the hypoglossal. If we include auditory im- 
 pressions in the memory of words, the, complication is 
 still greater. Then the cerebral centre must be united 
 with Broca's convolution, and the island of Eeil uni- 
 versally considered as the psychical centre of speeqh." 1 
 
 1 This is well expressed, but he seems to be led astray by the 
 opinion held by medical men generally, that the changes effected by 
 movements are confined to the nerve-centres, for he says in another 
 place : " The movements that are instigated or actuated by a par- 
 ticular nervous centre do, like the idea, leave behind them residua 
 which, after several repetitions, become so completely organised into 
 the nature of the nervous centre that the movements may henceforth 
 be automatic". In our view, the changes through which actions 
 become automatic are not effected merely in the centres, but also in 
 the nerves, and especially in the muscles. " Every kind of activity 
 peculiar to a living body," says Dr. Carpenter, " involves a change of 
 structure, and the formation of the newly-generated tissue receives 
 such an influence from the conditions under which it originates, that 
 all its subsequent activity displays their impress." 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE SENSES. 
 
 " If It were possible for a human being to come into the world with a brain 
 perfectly prepared to be the instrument of psychical operations, but with all the 
 inlets to sensations closed, we have every reason to believe that the mind would 
 remain dormant like a seed buried in the earth." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 " That the powers of the understanding would for ever continue dormant were 
 it not for the action of things external on the bodily frame, is a proposition now 
 universally admitted by philosophers." Dugald Stewart. 
 
 " Apprehension by the senses supplies directly or indirectly the material of all 
 human knowledge, or at least the stimulus necessary to develop every inborn 
 faculty of the mind." Helmholtz. 
 
 '* Even the highest ideas are slowly and gradually developed from the accumula- 
 tion of sensual experience, and their truth is only guaranteed by the possibility of 
 finding concrete examples for them in real existence." Virchow. 
 
 " The activity of the mind is just as much the result of its consciousness of 
 external impressions, by which its faculties are called into play, as the life of the 
 body is dependent upon the appropriation of nutrient materials and the constant 
 Influence of external forces." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 " As we perceive more accurately, so we remember more correctly, judge more 
 soundly, and imagine more truly." Dr. H. Maudsley. 
 
 senses are the means by which the mind ob- 
 JL tains its knowledge of the external world. Shut 
 out from all direct communication with the outer 
 world, it knows, and can know, nothing of what exists 
 or is passing there, but what comes to it through the 
 senses. 1 Its knowledge of what is external to itself is 
 
 1 "We perceive no external object but by means of certain bodily 
 organs, which God has given us for that purpose." Dr. Thos. Reid. 
 " Our knowledge is limited to our sensibilities. We are able to 
 know what things affect our various sensibilities, or what may be 
 compounded of these, and our knowledge extends no farther "Prof. 
 Bain. "We may, for want of a better name, say with Condillac 
 that the internal primordial event which constitutes our knowledge 
 is sensation." M. Taine. " Knowledge is simply virtual feeling, 
 the stored-up accumulations of previous experiences, our own and 
 Ihose of others." & H. Lewe& 
 
126 MEMOET. 
 
 therefore dependent upon the number, state, and con- 
 dition of the sensory organs. A man with only one 
 sense can know nothing of the external world but what 
 is revealed to him through that one medium. If we 
 suppose that sense to be sight, then the world will 
 present itself to the mind only as it is seen, no sound 
 will ever issue from it, touch or feeling will give no 
 information respecting it, it will yield no taste and no 
 smell. 1 In like manner, the individual who is destitute 
 of one or more of the senses is entirely cut off from 
 such kinds of knowledge as naturally come in through 
 these. Thus the man who is born blind can form no 
 conception of colour, nor can one congenitally deaf 
 have any idea of musical tones. 2 In every such case 
 the man converses with the material world in utter 
 ignorance of those properties of matter which can alone 
 find entrance through these senses of which he is desti- 
 tute. 8 
 
 Even with all our senses there is every reason to 
 believe that it is only a small portion of the outer world 
 that is revealed to us by them, and that there exist 
 around us, and contiguous to us, many objects that our 
 present senses are unable to apprehend. 4 An additional 
 
 1 " We can conceive ourselves as endowed with smelling, and not 
 enjoying any other faculty. In that case we should have no idea of 
 objects as seeable, as hearable, as touchable, as tastable. . . . Our 
 life would be a train of smells, and nothing more." Jas. Mill. 
 
 2 M When an individual is deprived of the organs of sight, no 
 power of attention or continued effort of the will, or exercise of the 
 other senses, can make him enjoy the class of sensations which is 
 lost." Sir G. Bell. 
 
 3 " The attentive study of cases in which there is congenital defi- 
 ciency of one or more senses makes it evident that the mind is utterly 
 incapable of forming any definite ideas in regard to those properties 
 of objects of which these particular senses are adapted to take cog- 
 nisance." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 4 " It does not seem, at all improbable that there are properties oi 
 
THE SENSES. 127 
 
 sense might probably make revelations to us no less 
 surprising than the sense of sight to one who has been 
 born blind/ Further, there are heights and depths in 
 the phenomena of sense of which our present senses 
 cannot take cognisance, but which would be apparent 
 to them were they more acute or powerful. Certain of 
 the lower animals have some at least of the senses in 
 higher perfection than man, if they have not, as some 
 think, senses of which he has no knowledge. 2 
 
 Man, however, is able by means of instruments or 
 appliances of different kinds to greatly extend the power 
 of his senses. 3 Thus by means of the microscope and 
 
 matter of which none of our senses can take immediate cognisance, 
 and which other beings might be formed to perceive in the same 
 manner as we are sensible to light, sound, &c." Dr. Carpenter. It 
 may be that " within the field occupied by the visible and ponder- 
 able universe, there is existing and moving another element fraught 
 with another species of life corporeal, indeed, and various in its 
 orders, but not open to the cognisance of those who are confined to 
 the conditions of animal organisation. . . . Is it to be thought that 
 the eye of man is the measure of the Creator's power ? and has He 
 created nothing which He has not exposed to our senses ? The con- 
 trary seems much more than barely possible ; ought we not to think 
 it almost certain V Isaac Taylor. 
 
 1 " If a new sense or two were added to the present normal 
 number in man, that which is now the phenomenal world for all of 
 us might, for all we know, burst into something amazingly wider 
 and different, in consequence of the additional revelations through 
 these new senses." Prof. Masson. 
 
 2 " We find every organ of sense, with the exception of that of 
 touch, more perfect in brutes than in man. In the eagle and the 
 hawk, in the gazelle and in the feline tribe, the perfection of the eye 
 is admirable ; in the dog, wolf, hyyona, as well as in birds of prey, 
 the sense of smelling is inconceivably acute ; and if we should have 
 some hesitation in assigning a more exquisite sense of taste to brutes, 
 we cannot doubt the superiority of thut of hearing in the inferior 
 animals." Sir G. Bell. 
 
 3 " All observing instruments, all weights, measures, scales, micro 
 meters, verniers, microscopes, thermometers, barometers, &c., are 
 artificial extensions of the senses ; and all levers, screws, hammers, 
 wedges, wheels, lathes, &c., are artificial extensions of the liinbs." 
 H. Spencer. 
 
128 MEMOBT. 
 
 telescope he is able to discern objects invisible to the 
 naked eye ; by means of measures and weights he can 
 distinguish differences that are indistinguishable by the 
 eye or hand ; and by means of chemical tests he can 
 determine the presence of substances that are indeter- 
 minable by taste or smell. These " supplementary 
 senses," as they have been called, have done much to 
 extend our knowledge of nature, and to reveal the pre- 
 sence of objects and forces that were before unknown. 1 
 The senses, then, are certain organs of the body by 
 means of which the mind acquires its knowledge of the 
 external world, and of the properties of the various objects 
 which it comprises. 2 They are commonly reckoned five 
 sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell ; but physiolo- 
 gists generally add a sixth sense, the muscular, which 
 reveals the state of the muscles, and thereby largely 
 contributes to our knowledge of external objects. There 
 are certain other feelings which are by some classed as 
 sensations, having an organ or seat in the body, and 
 consciously affecting the mind. Such are the feelings 
 connected with the stomach or intestinal canal, as 
 hunger, thirst, repletion, indigestion, &c., or such as 
 arise from diseased or abnormal states of particular 
 organs or tissues, as inflammation, cramp, bto*ns, 
 bruises, and the like. 8 .These are doubtless sources of 
 
 1 " When to the unaided senses science began to add supplementary 
 senses in the shape of measuring instruments, men began to perceive 
 various phenomena which eyes and fingers conld not distinguish. Of 
 known forms of force minuter manifestations became appreciable, 
 and forms of force before unknown were rendered cognisable and 
 measurable." H. Spencer. 
 
 2 " The sensory organs are only instruments of the mind, which 
 has its seat in the brain, and by means of nerves makes use of these 
 instruments to obtain, information of external objects." Prof. Bern- 
 stein. 
 
 " The complicated sensations in the intestinal canal . . . though 
 obscure, and even unknown as individual sensations, often constitute 
 
THE SENSES. 129 
 
 much pleasure or pain, and thus contribute largely to 
 our mental experience, but they do little in the way of 
 revealing to us the external world, or of adding to our 
 knowledge of things around us. Their office is mainly 
 confined to making known the state and condition of 
 the body itself in order to its maintenance in a sound 
 and healthy condition. 1 
 
 Each of the senses is so formed and constituted as 
 to be susceptible to certain kinds of impressions made 
 upon it from without, and which are conveyed by means 
 of nerves to a central organ, where they become known 
 to the mind. A sensation, then, is a mental impression 
 produced by a material change effected by the action of 
 an external object or stimulus on some part of the body 
 which is sensitive to it, and conveyed to the brain. In 
 other words, it is the mental representation of an ex- 
 ternal fact by which it is produjed. 2 Every normal 
 sensation, therefore, involves : (1) an external agent or 
 stimulus which impresses or acts upon the bodily 
 organ; (2) a bodily organ which receives the impres- 
 
 a general state of feeling which is sometimes exhilarating and some- 
 times depressing." James Mill. "The massive influence of the 
 systemic sensations in determining the desires, volitions, and concep- 
 tions of mankind, has not been adequately recognised. Yet everyone 
 knows the effect of impure air or a congested liver in swaying the 
 mental mood, and how a heavy meal interferes with muscular and 
 mental exertion." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 1 " The characteristic distinction between these common sensations 
 and the sensations of the senses is that by the latter we gain know- 
 ledge of the occurrences and objects which belong to the external 
 world, and that we refer the sensations which they produce to 
 external objects, whilst by the former we only feel conditions of our 
 own body." Prof. J. Bernstein. 
 
 2 " A sensation is a mental representation, the internal sign of an 
 external fact exciting it." H. Taine. It is " the mental impression, 
 feeling, or conscious state resulting from the action of external things 
 on some part of the body called on that account sensitive ". Prof. 
 Bain. 
 
130 MEMOBY. 
 
 sion and carries it inward to the brain; and (3) a 
 mental impression or change corresponding to the phy- 
 sical one. Thus every real sensation corresponds to 
 some external fact, which it represents with more or 
 less approximation to accuracy, and whose internal 
 substitute it is. 1 It is possible to have sensations in 
 the mind which cannot be distinguished from real ones, 
 but which have no external fact corresponding to them 
 which are caused by no external agent or stimulus ; 
 and, on the other hand, all the physical conditions 
 necessary for sensation may be present, but if the mind 
 be otherwise occupied no mental change may take 
 place, in which case there will be no sensation. 2 
 
 Each organ of sense is specially adapted for the re- 
 ception of its proper stimulus the eye for light, the 
 ear for sound, the tongue for taste, the nose for smell, 
 the skin for touch, and the muscles for muscular feeling. 3 
 There is thus no danger of one kind of sensation being 
 confounded with another, nor can one sense by any 
 possibility assume the functions of another. In this 
 way the senses may be said to concentrate the mind in 
 one direction, or upon one object or quality at a time, 
 
 1 " Every normal sensation corresponds to some external fact 
 which it transcribes with greater or less approximation to accuracy, 
 and whose internal substitute it is." H. Taine. 
 
 2 " A state of the sensitive organs, and a corresponding perception 
 by the mind, must concur to produce sensation : either condition 
 may exist alone, but then the phenomenon is not a true sensation." 
 Todd and Bowman. 
 
 8 " Each organ of sense has its own specific irritation by which it 
 is excited. The terminations of the optic nerve in the eye can only 
 be excited by light- waves, not by sound-waves ; and the latter can 
 only excite the terminations of the auditory nerve in the ear." 
 Prof. Bernstein. " The. nerve of vision is as insensible to touch as 
 the nerve of touch is to light. ... The beauty and perfection of the 
 system is that each nerve is made susceptible to its peculiar impres- 
 gion only." Sir G. Bell. 
 
THE SENSES. 131 
 
 and thus to (secure greater power, definiteness, and 
 
 point. 1 
 
 Whatever may be the nature of the stimulus applied 
 to any of the organs of sense, it will excite only that 
 kind of sensation for which the organ is adapted. 
 Thus, any stimulus applied to the eye or optic nerve, 
 as a blow or an electric shock, produces a sensation of 
 light ; applied to the ear or auditory nerve, a sensation 
 of sound ; and so with the other senses. The optic or 
 auditory nerve may be pricked or cut without giving 
 rise to a feeling of pain, any more than a nerve of touch 
 on being pricked or cut will give rise to a sensation of 
 light or sound. Thus every sensory organ responds to 
 all the agents that act upon it only in one and the same 
 way. 
 
 In each organ of sense we have three distinct parts : 
 (1) an external or outer terminal portion which is spe- 
 cially fitted to receive and take up its appropriate 
 impressions ; (2) a sensory nerve which serves to 
 convey the impression inward ; and (3) a central ter- 
 minal portion in the encephalon for receiving it and 
 presenting it to the mind. The outer terminal portion, 
 or what is commonly known as the organ of sense, is 
 specially adapted to receive and take in the impressions 
 made upon it from without. In some we also find 
 what are known as "multipliers of disturbance," or 
 
 1 " The organs of sense are particular adjustments of nervous sen- 
 si bility, intended to concentrate the mind at different times upon 
 single properties of the external world, with a view to the better 
 securing of definite purposes." Isaac Taylor. " The organs of sense 
 may be compared to so many instruments which the philosopher 
 applies to distinguish the several qualities of the body which he 
 investigates. The different properties of that body are not com- 
 municable through any one instrument ; and so in the use of the 
 senses each organ is provided for receiving a particular influence, 
 and no other." Sir C. BdL 
 
132 MBMOEY. 
 
 contrivances for rendering the impressions more intense 
 than they otherwise would be. 1 "Without the outer organ 
 of sense we could have no sensation properly so called. 
 The optic nerve itself apart from the retinal expansion 
 is as insensible to light as a motor nerve is. Irritation 
 of the optic nerve " may certainly occasion luminous 
 patches, globes of fire, and coloured figures in the 
 retina/' but not complex forms such as houses, men, 
 trees ; so in hearing irritation of the auditory nerve 
 " may determine buzzings and noises loud or otherwise 
 in the ear but not actual words or tunes". Dr. 
 Griesinger. The sensory nerves serve simply to transmit 
 the impression from the outer organ to the central 
 structure, where it impresses the mind and becomes a 
 fact of consciousness. This central portion is the most 
 important part of the organ. It is upon its individual 
 centre that the special character of each class of sensa- 
 tions depends. 2 
 
 In inflammation or other abnormal states of a centre, 
 sensations are frequently ielt without any external cause, 
 and without the external organ or nerve being affected 
 
 1 " The extremities of the nerve fibres are so placed as to be most 
 easily disturbed, and we generally also find what may be called 
 multipliers of disturbances, which serve to concentrate upon the 
 ends of nerves the actions of external agents. Thus, where the 
 sense of touch is most acute, there are certain small dense bodies, 
 named corpuscula tactus, round each of which a nerve fibre ramifies 
 so as to receive a greater pressure when touched. In like manner 
 there are certain otolites and minute rods or fibres immersed in a 
 liquid in the inner ear, serving to intensify the less sensible vibra- 
 tions communicated to this liquid." H. Spencer. 
 
 8 " The immediate condition of the sensation is found in the ner- 
 vous centres, where there is produced a molecular movement of 
 unknown nature, without which the sensation cannot arise, and 
 which is of itself sufficient to give rise to it. ... Many sensations 
 arise in us without the intervention of the nerves, and by the simple 
 excitation of the nervous centres. Such are hallucinations strictly 
 so called." H. Taine. 
 
THE SENSES. 133 
 
 from without Eingingin the ears, flashing of light before 
 the eyes, nauseous tastes or disagreeable odours, are 
 familiar instances of this . In all such cases , however, the 
 centre can only recall previous impressions. If it has 
 not previously been in a state of activity, no sensation 
 can possibly be felt. No condition of the centre itself 
 will ever give rise to sensations unless it has first been 
 stimulated from without. 
 
 In every act of sensation the mind is the most im- 
 portant factor. It is this which takes up, fashions, 
 and interprets the impressed sensation. 1 A stimulus 
 may affect a sensory organ, may produce a disturbance 
 in the nerve, and there is every reason to believe may 
 even agitate the nervous centre, but if the mind is 
 otherwise occupied it will not be perceived. 2 Some- 
 times the idea in the mind masters the outward sensa- 
 tion, and men fancy that they perceive things which 
 have no objective existence, or they seem to them very 
 different from what they are. To the perturbed or 
 terrified mind the simplest forms sometimes present 
 the most frightful aspects, and the mesmerised subject 
 may be induced to believe that the water in his mouth 
 is wine or vinegar. 8 
 
 1 " It is not the stimulus which is the object felt, it is the change 
 in consciousness." G. H. Lewes. " What we term the perception of 
 an individual, as a given tree, is not simply a sense-impression of 
 the moment, it is an aggregation of many generalised impressions." 
 D Stewart. 
 
 2 " Every minute we experience twenty sensations of heat, cold, 
 pressure, contact, muscular contraction ; slight sensations like these 
 are being incessantly produced in all parts of. our bodies; in addition 
 to this, sounds, murmurings, and hummings are constantly going on 
 in our ears ; a number of little sensations of smell and taste arise in 
 our noses and throats ; but we are otherwise engaged we are 
 thinking, meditating, talking, reading and during all this time we 
 neglect other things. H. Taine. 
 
 9 " Children, and even grown men, have fallen insensible before * 
 11 
 
134 MEMOEY. 
 
 Whatever acts upon an organ of sense does so in the 
 form of motion. Nothing can act upon the senses or 
 be taken up by them unless it present itself to them in 
 the form of motion. 1 Light and colour result from the 
 undulations of an extremely delicate aerial fluid which 
 strikes the eye ; all sonorous bodies are bodies in 
 motion, the motion being communicated to the sur- 
 rounding atmosphere and so entering the ear; taste 
 and smell also result from motions that necessarily 
 take place before objects of these classes can be per- 
 ceived. Touch is also a manifest instance of motion, 
 as all touch implies motion. Thus touch of one kind 
 or another is involved in every act of sensation ; and 
 
 figure, or even a cloth, which they have believed to be a ghost. On 
 recovering, they have asserted that they saw flaming eyes, open jaws, 
 &c. w H. Taine. 
 
 1 " The only way in which the external world affects the nervous 
 system is by means of motion. Light is motion, sound motion, heat 
 motion, touch motion, taste and smell all motion. The world is 
 known to sense simply by virtue of, and in relation to, the motions 
 of its particles ; these motions are appreciated and continued by the 
 nervous system, and by it are- brought at length to the mind's per- 
 ception. When the mind reacts in its turn upon the world, it does 
 so wholly through the nerves of motion. The last material action 
 we can trace in every process of sensation previous to its entering 
 the abode of consciousness is motion ; the first reaction we see as it 
 emerges from the abode of consciousness back into time and space 
 again is motion." J. D. Morell. " Whatever may be the structure 
 of the nerves and nervous centres whose action excites a sensation, 
 however various this structure may be supposed, that which is 
 transmitted from one end of the nerve to the other up to the ultimate 
 nervous centre is never more than a molecular displacement more or 
 less rapid, extensive, and complex. ... So that the different nervous 
 actions which excite different sensations can only be conceived as 
 systems of movements." H. Taine. "How exceedingly different 
 to the eye of the mind, as we may say, are our ideas of sensible things 
 from anything that could have been conjectured concerning their 
 effect upon us as the ideas of sound from the tremulous motion of 
 the particles of the air, and much more the ideas of the different 
 colours from the impulse of the rays of light of different degrees of 
 refrangibility." Dr. Priestley. 
 
THE SENSES. 135 
 
 modern science bas verified the ancient doctrine of 
 Democritus, that all the senses are modifications of the 
 sense of touch. 1 
 
 The motions which give rise to sensations only affect 
 the mind within certain limits. A certain velocity is 
 necessary in order to their being perceived, and beyond 
 a certain velocity they cease to affect the mind. 2 This 
 has been illustrated by supposing a rod revolving on 
 one end any number of times a second in a dark room. 
 At first when it attains about 16 or 20 revolutions a 
 second, a deep growling sound reaches the ear, becoming 
 less and less grave and more and more acute with the 
 increase of velocity, till it reaches a pitch of shrillness 
 hardly to be borne when the speed is reckoned by tens 
 of thousands. At length when it arrives at about 
 40,000 revolutions a second the shrillness passes into 
 silence a silence never again to be broken. But let 
 it attain some millions of revolutions a second, and 
 faint rays of heat will be given out, becoming more and 
 more intense as the rate of movement increases. When 
 it has reached some four hundred billions of times a 
 second a dim red light is seen, and now as the rate 
 still mounts up the heat in its turn dies away like the 
 
 1 "Every impression on the senses can be resolved finally into an 
 impression of contact or touch ; so that touch is the fundamental 
 sense, and all the organs of the senses are but very delicate instru- 
 ments of touch." Dr. Laycodc. "As Democritus long ago shrewdly 
 observed, all the senses are only modifications of touch." Sir //'. 
 Hamilton. " Not only do the conclusions of physicists support this 
 doctrine which Democritus taught, but the conclusions of biologist.-, 
 do the like. ... A contact of the undulating medium with an 
 adapted part of the surface is the prerequisite to any impression."- 
 H. Spencer. 
 
 * " A stimulation must reach a certain intensity before it is a 
 feeling . . . but beyond a certain limit increase of stimulation 
 diminishes, and finally arrests the activity. Duration of stimulation 
 is equivalent to increase. . . . Excess of light is blinding, excess of 
 sound deafening." G. H. Lewes. 
 
136 MBMOBY. 
 
 sound, never to return, and the red light gradually 
 passes into a yellow, a green, a blue, and last of all a 
 violet, to be followed by darkness never again to be 
 broken when the velocity has reached about eight hun- 
 dred billions a second. Beyond this, however much 
 the velocity may be increased, it will never again become 
 manifest' to any of the senses. 
 
 We cannot imagine that a single stimulus acting on 
 an organ of sense could at once raise the vibratory 
 motion from zero to these high rates. We must sup- 
 pose the various nerves to be incessantly vibrating with 
 more or less rapidity, and ready to be set in more active 
 agitation at a moment's notice by the vibratory action 
 of external objects. 1 Hence it is when the vibrations 
 within the body are accelerated by vibrations from with- 
 out, that we have sensation. 
 
 All our sensations are compounds of movements, 
 which in order to be perceived require to be grouped 
 together so as to acquire a certain bulk, and to occupy 
 a certain time. Every object perceptible by any of the 
 senses is made up of innumerable particles which are 
 imperceptible. 2 Thus the distant murmur of the sea is 
 
 1 " The fact that a stimulation must reach a certain intensity 
 before it is a feeling, and that henceforth this feeling increases in a 
 constant ratio with the increase of the stimulus, to vanish abruptly 
 when a certain limit is reached, proves that there must be molecular 
 movements in the tissue which are not grouped into processes, and 
 this both before a sensation emerges and after it has vanished. . . . 
 Undulations can be shown really to exist both before they have 
 acquired the quantitative rapidity necessary for the qualitative effect 
 of light and after this quantity has been surpassed. There is no 
 light, no luminous effect, before the undulations have reached some 
 four hundred billions in a second, nor after they have passed some 
 eight hundred billions : these are the luminous limits; on either side 
 of these limits the retina refuses to respond by the feeling known as 
 luminous quality " G. H. Lewes. 
 
 2 " The elementary sensations directly making up our ordinary 
 sensations are themselves compounded of sensations of less intensity 
 
THE SENSES. 137 
 
 made up of the noise of many waves. While the sound 
 of any individual wave might be inaudible, yet each one 
 contributes its quota to make the whole heard. Thus 
 sensation only takes place under certain conditions of 
 mass, intensity, and duration. 1 
 
 The motion which acts upon the external organ is 
 communicated to the nerve, and through it is conveyed 
 to the nerve centre. The sensory nerves, like all nerves, 
 are characterised by the extreme mobility of their con- 
 tents, or their susceptibility of molecular change, and 
 are thus eminently fitted for conveying the impressions 
 they receive. That which is transmitted is in every 
 case a disturbance or displacement of the nerve mole- 
 cules which is set up or originated in the external 
 organ, and conveyed to the central structure, where it 
 is taken up by the mind. 
 
 Thus all that is transmitted from an organ of sense 
 to the brain is a particular kind of motion. It is the 
 mind that imparts to each of these its particular inter- 
 pretation. " Our sensations," says Helmholtz, " are 
 for us only symbols of the objects of the external world, 
 
 and duration, and so on. Thus there is going on within us a sub- 
 terranean process of infinite extent ; its products alone are known to 
 us, and are only known to us in the mass. As to elements and their 
 elements consciousness does not attain to them . . . they are to sen- 
 sations what secondary molecules and primitive molecules are to 
 bodies. . . . We get a glance here at the obscure and infinite world 
 extending beneath our distinct sensations. These are compounds 
 and wholes. For their elements to be perceptible to consciousness 
 it is necessary for them to be added together, and so to acquire a 
 ceitain bulk and to occupy a certain time ; if the group does not 
 attain this bulk, and does not last this time, we observe no change 
 in our state. Nevertheless, though it escapes us there is one." H. 
 Taine. 
 
 1 " The sensory organ needs to be impressed with a certain energy 
 and for a certain time ; neither too small an energy nor too great an 
 energy, otherwise there is not the reaction which is specincallj a 
 eenaation." G. H. Lewes. 
 
138 MEMORY. 
 
 and correspond to them only in some such way aa 
 written characters or articulate words do to the things 
 they denote." l 
 
 Nerve-force has much in common with electricity, 
 and it is not improbable that it is a particular form of 
 this power ; but while the electric current passes along 
 the wire at the rate of about 288,000 miles in a second, 
 nerve-force traverses a nerve at the rate of only about 
 100 to 130 feet in the same space of time. 2 Hence its 
 progress has been compared rather to ignition passing 
 along a train of gunpowder; and it has this too in 
 common with the latter, that every act of stimulation 
 is attended with waste of nerve substance, which re- 
 quires to be constantly renewed, whereas no such 
 waste takes place in the electric wire. Unlike the 
 electric current, too, nerve-force appears to gather 
 strength as it passes along the nerve, becoming stronger 
 the longer its course. Further, nerve-force does not 
 act continuously but intermittingly, in waves or im- 
 pulses. 
 
 The senses directly or indirectly furnish all the mate- 
 rials of thought and of knowledge, for there is nothing 
 in the mind that has not entered it through the senses. 
 They also supply the stimulus necessary to develop 
 every inborn faculty, for without their aid every power 
 
 1 " For a sign it is sufficient that it become apparent as often as 
 the occurrence to be depicted makes its appearance, the conformity 
 between them being restricted to their presenting themselves simul- 
 taneously ; and the correspondence existing between our sensations 
 and the objects producing them is precisely of this kind." H, 
 Helmholfa. 
 
 2 " The nerve current travels slowly compared with the velocity 
 of electricity or of light. In the motor nerves of the frog the velocity 
 is about 87 feet per second, and in man and warm-blooded animals 
 somewhat faster, 115 to 130 feet per second. . . . The remarkable 
 point is that the transmission of the nerve current is alow." Prof 
 M'Kendrick. 
 
THE SENSES. 139 
 
 of the mind would remain for ever dormant. 1 Without 
 their aid, too, without their guidance and direction, 
 voluntary action would be impossible. 2 We can only 
 will to do a thing by knowing beforehand what it is 
 and how it is to be effected, and this knowledge comes 
 to us solely through the senses. Hence, the more we 
 exercise and train the senses, the more do we develop 
 and strengthen our several mental powers, do we store 
 
 1 " Apprehension by the senses supplies directly or indirectly the 
 material of all human knowledge, or at least the stimulus necessary 
 to develop every inborn faculty of the mind." H. Helmholtz. " Sen- 
 sibility is the indispensable condition of the development of all our 
 faculties, not only of the faculties that evidently pertain to sensi- 
 bility, but of those that seem to be most remote from it." V. Cousin. 
 " It may be affirmed with certainty that no mental action can be 
 originally excited save by the stimulus of sensations." Dr. Carpenter. 
 " We doubt whether the body would ever be exercised under the 
 influence of reason alone, and if it were not first directed by sensi- 
 bilities which are innate or instinctive." Sir G. Bell. " The nerve 
 cells of our cerebral hemispheres are so completely dependent, for 
 that excitation of force which constitutes intellectual action, upon the 
 stimuli conveyed to them through the sensory ganglia from the 
 organs of sense, as are those of our spinal cord upon the stimuli con- 
 veyed to them either from the superior nerve centres or from tlie 
 peripheral irritation of an afferent nerve." Dr. Child. " It is almost 
 a truism to say that in proportion to the nunierousness of the objects 
 that can be distinguished, and in proportion to the variety of co- 
 existences and sequences that can be severally responded to, must be 
 the number and rapidity and heterogeneity of the changes going on 
 within the organism must be the amount of vitality." H. Spencer. 
 " We are most fully conscious when we are most receptive of external 
 impressions, and we lapse into a completely or partially unconscious 
 condition when the advent of such impressions is for a time pre- 
 vented, or when we are intensely absorbed in some train of thought, 
 that is, when the activity of other portions of the cerebral hemi- 
 spheres in some way dwarfs or eclipses that of the sensorial regions 
 proper." Dr. Bastian. 
 
 8 " No voluntary action can be performed without the assistance 
 of a guiding sensation, as was first prominently stated by Sir C. Bell. 
 When we are about to make a muscular effort, the amount of force 
 which we put forth is governed by the mental conception of thafc 
 which will be required as indicated by the experience of former 
 sensations." Dr. Carpenter, 
 
140 MEMORY. 
 
 the mind with materials of thought, and do we act 
 with efficiency and skill in whatever lies before us. 
 
 The senses have much more to do with the memory 
 than is commonly supposed. In proportion as we edu- 
 cate and train the senses do we improve and enrich the 
 memory, and the principles that guide us in the one 
 case are the same as those we should follow in the 
 other. The importance of the cultivation of the senses 
 to memory will be still farther seen if it be the case, as 
 we believe it to be, that they are not only concerned in 
 the acquisition of our knowledge, but concerned also m 
 the remembrance of it that we cannot remember a 
 thing well, cannot imagine it, without the senses, the 
 means by which it originally entered the mind being 
 again called into play. The senses would then be seen 
 to be necessary not only to the acquisition of our know- 
 ledge, but necessary also to the retention and reproduc- 
 tion of it. 1 On the other hand, without memory, 
 without the power of retaining and recalling past im- 
 pressions, sense-cultivation would be impossible. 
 
 1 <; Suppose that once, and omy once, I smelled a tube rose in a 
 certain room, where it grew in a pot, and gave a very grateful per- 
 fume. Next day I relate what I saw and smelled. When I attend 
 as carefully as I can to what passes in my mind in this case, it 
 appears evident that the very thing I saw yesterday, and the fra- 
 grance I smelled, are now the immediate objects of my mind when I 
 remember it. . . . Upon the strictest attention, memory appears to 
 me to have things that are past, and not present ideas, for its object." 
 Dr. T. Reid. " If I now think of the tangible idea of a cube that 
 is, if 1 think of its figure and of the solidity of every part of that 
 figure I must conceive myself as passing my fingers over it, and 
 seem in some measure to feel the idea as I formerly did the impres- 
 sion, as the ends of them." Dr. E. Darwin. " The chess-player who 
 plays blindfolded, the painter who copies an absent model, the 
 musician who hears a score when he looks over a sheet of music . . . 
 experience the same emotions as if the chess-board, the model, the 
 symphony, were actually experienced by their senses. It provokes 
 the same instinctive movements, and the same associated sensations. 11 
 #. Taine. 
 
THE SENSES. 141 
 
 That the senses have anything to do with the remem- 
 brance of past impressions is, however, contrary to the 
 opinion almost universally received among physiolo- 
 gists, who regard the brain as the sole seat of the 
 memory. They are shut up to this view, because ifc is 
 regarded as an established doctrine in physiology that 
 each class of nerves convey impressions only in one 
 direction the afferent or sensory nerves to the brain, 
 and the efferent or motor nerves from the brain the 
 seat oi consciousness. According to this, every sensa- 
 tion we experience is conveyed to the brain, and is 
 there treasured up for the after use of the memory. 
 
 It was formerly believed that there existed a differ- 
 ence in the nature or structure of the two kinds of 
 fibres to account for their different modes of action. 
 This, however, is found not to be the case, for the two 
 classes of fibres are exactly alike, and are each capable 
 of transmitting impressions in either direction. 1 A 
 sensory and a motor nerve may be joined, and when 
 the union is complete excitation of the sensory will be 
 transmitted to the motor fibres. 2 If a nerve be irritated 
 
 1 . . . ;4 A priori it is irrational to assert that nerves fundamentally 
 alike in composition and structure are unlike in properties. . . . 
 There is consequently no reason for asserting that because the usual 
 direction is centripetal in a sensory nerve and centrifugal in a motor 
 nerve, each nerve is incapable of transmitting excitations in both 
 directions . . . There is no fundamental distinction between the two 
 nerves ; both are sensory and both are motor, but they are so in 
 different degrees. They are, strictly speaking, distinguishable as 
 muscle-nerves and skin-nerves (he is here speaking only of one 
 kind of sensory nerves), the muscle-nerves being the channels for 
 muscular sensations and muscular movements ; the skin-nerves being 
 ths chair 1 1 -Is for skin-sensations and skin-movements." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 2 " It is proved that the end of a sensory nerve may be united 
 with the end of a motor nerve, and when the union is complete 
 excitation of the sensory may be transmitted to the motor fibres, and 
 the reverse." Dr Maudsley. " If we engraft the end of a rat's tail 
 into the skin of its back, and then when the grafting process is com- 
 pleted cut the basilary portion of the tail about a centimetre from 
 
142 MEMORY. 
 
 in any part of its length, Bay about the middle, the 
 excitation is simultaneously transmitted towards each 
 end. 1 Sensory fibres convey impressions inward, because 
 they are connected with sensorial parts of the brain, and 
 upon the nature of the part depends the character of 
 the sensation, whether it be a sight, a sound, a touch, 
 a taste, or a smell ; and motor fibres convey motorial 
 stimuli outward because they are connected with motor 
 organs. " If it were possible," says Dr. Bernstein, 
 " we might place any motor nerve between the eye and 
 the brain, and the perception of light would not be 
 destroyed in the least." 2 
 
 The unsatisfactory nature of the received opinion is 
 especially apparent when we consider the efferent 
 nerves by means of which muscular movements are 
 effected. There are few or no afferent nerves connected 
 with the muscles, and yet the mind is constantly aware 
 of their condition, and of the movements that may be 
 taking place in them. How, then, is this knowledge 
 conveyed to the brain? Some have attempted to 
 account for it by supposing that the afferent nerves 
 
 the root ; after some months, if the grafted tail, be pinched the 
 animal feels it and turns round to bite. The irritation of the nerve, 
 which before the operation acted in a centripetal direction, now acts 
 in a centrifugal one." H. Taine. 
 
 1 " It would appear from experimental evidence that when a nerve 
 fibre is irritated, say about the middle of its length, a change is 
 simultaneously propagated towards each end." Prof. M'Kendrick. 
 " Every excitation applied to any part of the length of a nervoua 
 fibre is immediately and simultaneously transmitted in two direc- 
 tions centripetal and centrifugal." H. Taine. 
 
 2 y er y lately the French physiologists Philippeau and Vulpian, 
 after dividing the motor and sensitive nerves of the tongue, succeeded 
 in getting the upper half of the sensitive nerve to unite with the 
 lower half of the motor. After the wound had healed they found 
 that irritation of the upper half, which in normal conditions would 
 Lave been felt as a sensation, now excited the motor branches below, 
 and thus caused the muscles of the tongue to move." H. Eelmholtz. 
 
THE SENSES. 143 
 
 which proceed to the skin covering the respective 
 muscles convey the information. 1 The simple and 
 sufficient answer to this is that the sensibility of the 
 skin may be entirely lost or destroyed, and the sense of 
 muscular movement still remain. " I have seen/' says 
 Dr. Brown-Sequard, " a child completely deprived of 
 cutaneous sensibility (unable to feel contact, pressure, 
 pricking, pinching, cold, or heat), yet able to walk well 
 without looking at its feet, and undoubtedly owing this 
 power to the persistence of guiding sensations in the 
 muscles." Others hold that the muscular feeling is de- 
 rived from the outgoing current ; 2 but, says Dr. Bastian, 
 " The impressions derived from muscular movements are 
 neither anterior to, nor concomitants of, outgoing cur- 
 rents, but strictly sequential to the passage of such 
 currents, that they are in fact due to ingoing currents 
 derived from the moving parts themselves". 
 
 There is only one way in which this can be explained 
 namely, that the nerves which convey the impulse from 
 the brain to the muscles serve also to carry back an 
 impression from th^^^es to the brain. Thus while 
 an impulse proceeds from the brain to the muscles 
 along the efferent nerves, an impression must also be 
 
 his admirable treatise on Physiology, Schiff maintains that 
 all the phenomena attributed to the muscular sense are due to the 
 foldings and stretchings of the skin when the muscles contract." 
 6?. H. Lewes. " The muscles themselves receive no true sensitive 
 nerves, but we obtain knowledge of their action through the change 
 which, in motion, they occasion in the sensitive skin." Prof, van der 
 Kolk. 
 
 '* * As the nerves supplied to the muscles are principally motor 
 nerves, by which the muscular movements are stimulated from the 
 brain and nerve centres, our safest assumption is that the sensibility 
 accompanying muscular movement coincides with the outgoing stream 
 of nervous energy. . . , We are bound to presume that this (sensi- 
 bility) is the concomitant of the outgoing current by which tbe 
 muscles are stimulated to act." Prof. Bain. 
 
144 MEMORY. 
 
 conveyed from the muscles to the brain along the same 
 nerves ; and if in the efferent, so also in the afferent 
 nerves there must be a double motion, the one con- 
 veying an impression from the organ of sense to the 
 brain, the other proceeding from the brain to the organ 
 of sense. The impulse which originates in the organ 
 of sense and passes inward to the brain does not termi- 
 nate there, but gives rise to secondary movements 
 which proceed from the brain to the organ of sense. 1 
 If we stand by the seashore observing the waves as they 
 come in, we see that each as it reaches its termination 
 on the beach gives rise to a number of wavelets, which 
 pass outward in the opposite direction. This is what 
 we believe takes place in the nerves, that sensory 
 nerves, while primarily afferent, are secondarily efferent, 
 and motor nerves, while primarily efferent, are second- 
 arily afferent. 
 
 We find evidence in support of this view in the dis- 
 tinction that is drawn by philosophers between sensa- 
 tion and perception. 1 In sensation, strictly so called, 
 
 1 " When a nerve acts upon a muscle, the muscle reacts on the 
 nerve ; and when a nerve acts upon a centre, the centre reacts on 
 the nerve. The agitation of the central tissue cannot leave the nerve 
 which blends with it unaffected ; the agitation of the muscular tissue 
 must also by a reversal of the current affect its nerve." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 2 " When I smell a rose there is in this operation both sensation 
 and perception. The agreeable odour I feel, considered by itself 
 without relation to any external object, is merely a sensation. It 
 affects the mind in a certain way ; and this affection of the mind 
 may be conceived without a thought of the rose or any other object. 
 ... In sensation there is no object distinct from that act of the 
 mind by which it is felt. . . . Perception has always an external 
 object, and the object of my perception in this case is that quality 
 in the rose which I discern by the sense of smell." Dr. T. Reid. 
 u For the production of a sensation a conscious state of mind is all 
 that is required ; whilst, on the other hand, for the exercise of the 
 perceptive power, a certain degree of attention is requisite ; or, in 
 other words, the mind must be directed towards the sensation." Dr 
 Carpenter. 
 
THE SENSES. 145 
 
 ft wave of influence passes inward from the organ of 
 sense to the brain, and occasions a feeling ; whereas in 
 perception the mind passes out towards something 
 external to itself, and obtains a knowledge of it. In 
 sensation the mind is simply conscious of a subjective 
 feeling; "while in perception," says Dr. Ueberweg, 
 " it goes out upon something that has been perceived, 
 and which, therefore, whether it belongs to the outer 
 world or to the subject itself, opposes itself to the act 
 of perception as something different". 1 In sensation 
 the mind is merely passive, whereas in perception it is 
 active. " Sensation taken in itself," says Dr. T. Eeid, 
 " implies neither the conception nor belief of any 
 external object. . . . Perception implies an immediate 
 conviction and belief of something external, something 
 different both from the mind that perceives and from 
 the act of perception." 
 
 Children at first have sensations without perceptions ; 
 that is, they cannot localise their sensations or refer 
 them to anything out of themselves. Hence, while 
 they feel the pain occasioned by the surgeon's lancet, 
 they do not know its seat or the cause from which it 
 springs, and so their efforts are not directed to its 
 removal. 2 In later life we never have a sensation with- 
 out a perception, without referring it to something 
 external to the mind. 8 If I prick my finger I am at 
 
 1 " A cognition is objective ; that is, our consciousness is then 
 relative to something different from the present state of the mind 
 itself. A feeling, on the contrary, is subjective ; that is, our con- 
 sciousness is exclusively limited to the pleasure or pain experienced 
 by the thinking subject." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 * " Every surgeon knows that the young infant may be allowed 
 to have his hands free when operated on, because it cannot with its 
 hands interfere with the knife, not as yet knowing where the seat of 
 pain is." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 8 " We never now experience a sensation without assigning it a 
 place." H. Tain*. 
 
146 MEMOET. 
 
 first only sensible of the pain, but immediately after- 
 wards I distinguish it as a particular kind of pain, 
 located in a particular place, and caused by a particular 
 instrument. 
 
 The importance of this doctrine, of each class of 
 nerves being capable of conveying impressions in both 
 directions, is, that it enables us to explain in what way 
 the mind proceeds from the brain to the organs of 
 sense or the muscles in recalling past sensations or 
 movements. Unless the same parts are concerned in 
 the recalled sensation as were active in the original, 
 we cannot imagine that they would so closely resemble 
 each other. That the retina is concerned in the recall- 
 ing of an object of sight appears to be proved by the 
 fact already mentioned (p. 33), that when we think 
 intently upon a particular colour, with the eyes closed, 
 the retina becomes exhausted, as regards that colour, 
 in the same way as if it were actually contemplating it, 
 and the object assumes the appearance of the comple- 
 mentary colour. 1 What holds true in regard to sight 
 is doubtless true also in regard to the other senses. 
 And as with the senses so with the muscles. These 
 grow, and develop, and gather strength in the direction 
 in which they are exercised, so that what was at first 
 difficult and disagreeable becomes by degrees easy and 
 natural. This, doubtless, depends upon changes 
 wrought in the muscles themselves, and not on the 
 nerves or nerve centres, which, as we have seen (p. 84), 
 simply supply the stimulus by which the energies stored 
 
 1 " Newton, Johannes Miiller, and Hermann Meyer have recorded 
 how, after intently thinking with closed eyes of some particular 
 colour, the retina becomes as exhausted by the image as if it had 
 been exposed to an objective stimulus of colour, so that on opening 
 the eyes ocular spectra intercept the objective stimulus."--*?. M t 
 Lewe*. 
 
THE SENSES. 147 
 
 up in the muscles are set in motion. 1 It is the muscles 
 then, rather than the nerve centres, that form the seat 
 of the memory of past muscular activities. 
 
 In sensation the movement originates in the organ of 
 sense, and is conveyed to the brain ; while in motion it 
 originates in the brain and passes onward to the motor 
 organs. In recollection the reverse of this takes place. 
 When we recall a past sensation the movement origi- 
 nates in the brain, and is conveyed along the afferent 
 nerves to the organ of sense ; and in recalling a motion 
 previously made, the mind refers to the muscles and 
 a stimulus received from them is conveyed along 
 the efferent nerves to the brain, like a tactile stimulus 
 along a nerve of touch. That the brain should be 
 able to originate movement in an afferent nerve is not 
 more strange than that it should originate it in an 
 efferent nerve. In the one case, as in the other, the 
 mind originates the movement that takes place. 
 
 In our view, then, we cannot remember a thing per- 
 fectly by means of the brain alone, but must also call 
 into exercise other parts of the system, especially the 
 organs of sense, or the muscles. Defects of memory 
 are, we believe, mainly owing to this, that recollection 
 is made too much an intellectual operation depending 
 on the brain, without any organ of sense or other part 
 
 1 u A daily experience teaches ns that a muscle becomes the 
 stronger the more we use it. The muscular fibre, which in the first 
 instance may have answered but feebly to the stimulus conducted to 
 it by the motor nerve, does so with the greater energy the more often 
 it is stimulated, provided, of course, that reasonable times are allowed 
 for repose. After each individual action it becomes more capable, 
 more disposed towards the same kind of work, and has a greater 
 aptitude for repetition cf tne same organic processes. It gains also in 
 weight, for it assimilates more matter than when constantly at rest. 
 . . . And what is known thus certainly from muscle substance holdi 
 good, with greater or less plainness, ibr all our organs." Dr. E* 
 Hering, 
 
148 MEMORY. 
 
 being brought into operation. When the brain alone 
 is called into activity, then is the memory of the fact 
 imperfect, and this is the character of the great majority 
 of our recollections. We are content with only a par* 
 tial recall, in which none of the senses or any other 
 part, but only the brain, is concerned. When this is 
 indulged in to any great extent, not only is the memory 
 weakened, but mind-wandering is induced, in which 
 the individual is unable to concentrate his attention on 
 one subject for any length of time, but allows it to 
 wander away in other directions on the least sugges- 
 tion. The cure for this 'mind-wandering is the training 
 of the mind to recall things, not partially, but fully and 
 completely, by bringing into activity not the brain alone, 
 but likewise the appropriate organs of sense, or the 
 muscles. When this is the case, the recalled sensations 
 or movements are represented to the mind in their most 
 complete form, the form in which they take the strongest 
 hold on the mind, and which it will not let go on every 
 slight occasion. 
 
 It naturally follows from this, that when an organ of 
 sense is totally destroyed, the memory of the sensations 
 that were received through that sense will be impaired, 
 and in time probably lost. This, then, appears to be 
 the case. Sir W. Hamilton says : " There are many 
 cases recorded by medical men of persons losing their 
 sight who have also lost the faculty of representing the 
 images of visible objects. They no longer call up such 
 objects by reminiscence ; they no longer dream of them. 
 . . . Similar cases are recorded in regard to the deaf." 
 Dr. E. Darwin mentions a gentleman he knew, about 
 60 years of age, and who had been totally deaf for nearly 
 30 years, who assured him that in his dreams he always 
 imagined that people conversed with him by signs or 
 
THE SENSES. 149 
 
 writing, and never that he heard anyone speak to him. 
 In blindness, he says, "it rarely happens that the im- 
 mediate organ of vision is perfectly destroyed. The 
 most frequent causes of blindness are occasioned by 
 defects of the external organ, as in cataracts and ob- 
 fuscations of the cornea. But I have had the opportunity 
 of conversing with two men who had been some years 
 blind ; one of them had a complete gutta serena, and 
 the other had lost the whole substance of his eyes. 
 They both told me that they do not remember to have 
 ever dreamt of visible objects since the total loss of 
 their sight." The brain may probably be able to recall 
 sensations connected with an organ of sense after the 
 organ itself has been destroyed, in such a way that to 
 the superficial observation of the person himself there 
 may appear to be little or no difference, and yet in 
 reality the difference may be very great. 
 
 But not only is the memory not alone confined to 
 the brain, but there is every reason to believe that the 
 mind itself is not confined to that organ, but is diffused 
 throughout the system at least as far as the nerves 
 extend, and they stretch to all parts of the body. 1 
 " There is no good ground to suppose/* says Sir W. 
 
 1 " The brain is universally held to be the organ of the mind," 
 but " I do not agree in this opinion. . . . The brain is only one 
 organ of the mind, and not by any means the exclusive centre of 
 consciousness." G. H. Lewes. "The facts of physiology rightly 
 interpreted lead irresistibly to the conclusion that sensation is not 
 confined to the brain, but is spread over the whole sensory system. 
 Wherever there is a sensory nerve there there may be a sensation." 
 Dr. J. Cunningham. " We do not assert that the mental principle 
 has its seat in the brain alone. It is possible for the mind to act 
 and receive impressions by means of one organ of a determinate 
 structure, and yet be present generally throughout the body. . . . 
 The mental principle or cause of the mental phenomena, viz., the 
 conception of ideas, thought, &c., cannot be confined to the brain/ 1 
 but "exists, though in a latent state, in every part of the organism", 
 Dr. J. Miiller. 
 12 
 
150 MEMOB7. 
 
 Hamilton, "that the mind ia situate solely in the 
 brain, or exclusively in any one part of the body. . . . 
 Even if we admit that the nervous system is the part 
 to which it is proximately united, still the nervous sys- 
 tem is itself universally ramified throughout the body ; 
 and we have no more right to deny that the mind feels 
 at the finger-points, as consciousness assures us, than 
 to assert that it thinks exclusively in the brain." l "I 
 for one," says Prof. Cleland, "most strenuously deny" 
 that the cerebral hemispheres are " the only parts con- 
 nected with the mind. ... I do not think that sensation 
 can be accounted for without believing that conscious- 
 ness works in connection with as much of the nervous 
 system as is at any one time united to the brain by 
 nerve channels in an active state." " This view," says 
 Prof. M'Kendrick, "is quite consistent with all the 
 facts of nervous physiology, and presents fewer diffi- 
 culties than the one generally held, which drives con- 
 sciousness into the recesses of the nerve cells in the 
 cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. It appears to keep 
 clear of the prevailing error in the philosophy of modern 
 physiology, that of regarding the body, and even the 
 nervous system, as a vast series of almost independent 
 organs, losing sight of the community of function and 
 interdependence of parts, characteristic of the body of 
 one of the higher animals." 
 
 It would therefore seem that the organ of the mind 
 
 1 M The mind is not, as we suppose, the prisoner of the attic storey, 
 but is the occupant at large of the entire animal organisation, acting 
 in each part of the structure according to the purpose of each : in the 
 arm and leg willing the "limb hither and thither by its inherent 
 power over matter, in the skin, the eye, the ear, the tongue, the 
 nasal membrane receiving immediately the impressions of external 
 objects by its inherent susceptibility oi 5 the properties of matter, and 
 let it be granted, within the cranium carrying on the processes of 
 thought." Isaac Taylor. 
 
THE SENSES. 151 
 
 is not the brain alone, but the whole nervous system. 
 "In place of holding," says Sir W. Hamilton, "that 
 the mind is connected with the body only at the 
 central extremity of the nervous system, it is more 
 simple and philosophical to suppose that it is united with 
 the nervous system in its whole extent." The whole 
 nervous system is, in fact, to be regarded as forming 
 one organ, the ganglia and nerves being, in fact, but 
 continuations of the brain, and the mind being present 
 in all their parts. 1 The axis-cylinder of the nerve fibre 
 and the protoplasmic matter of the nerve cell are not only 
 directly continuous, but are constitutionally the same. 2 
 Physiologists are shut up to the doctrine that the 
 mind has its seat only in the brain so long as they hold 
 
 1 " Virtually the brain is prolonged by these communicating fibrils 
 to the eye, the ear, the nose, the mouth, the skin." Edinburgh Review. 
 
 2 " Anatomists are now tolerably unanimous as to the axis-cylinder 
 being identical with the protoplasmic ^cell substance." G. H. Lewes. 
 " The nerve substance, in spite of its thousandfold subdivision as 
 cells and fibres, forms nevertheless a united whole which is present 
 directly in all organs." Dr. E. Hering. The brain and nerves 
 " taken together form what is truly one complicated sensorial organ 
 the organ of all our sensations according to the different states in 
 which the organ exists, or the different parts of it which are chiefly 
 affected". Dr. Thos. Brown. According to Mr. H. Spencer, " the 
 nervous system consists of one kind of matter under different forms 
 and conditions. In the grey tissue this matter exists in masses con- 
 taining corpuscles which are soft, and have granules dispersed 
 through them, and which, besides being thus unstably composed, 
 are placed so as to be liable to disturbance in the greatest possible 
 degree. In the white tissue this matter is collected together in 
 extremely slender threads, that are denser, that are uniform in tex- 
 ture, and that are shielded in an unusual manner from disturbing 
 forces, except at their two extremities." The functions discharged 
 by the two substances are not absolutely distinct "On the one 
 hand, the vesicular substance, having for its chief office to give out 
 molecular motion when disturbed, has also a considerable power of 
 conveying or conducting molecular motion." Conversely, "the 
 matter forming the 'axis-cylinder,' or essential nerve thread, has a 
 certain power of simultaneously giving out molecular motion, BO 
 lharing the property of the vesicular matter". Herbert Spencer. 
 
152 MEMORY, 
 
 the opinion that sensory nerves are capable of con- 
 veying impressions only in one direction. The sensa- 
 tion, they say, passes to the brain, and there it stops. 
 No impulse from the brain can pass along a sensory 
 nerve, nor can the mind itself by any possibility traverse 
 the nerve to the organ of sense. If I touch the table 
 with my hand consciousness tells me that I have the 
 feeling in my hand, but the physiologist says that I can 
 only have it in the brain, because sensory nerves can 
 convey impressions only to the brain. But if, as we 
 have endeavoured to show, sensory nerves convey im- 
 pressions in both directions, then consciousness may 
 after all be right, and a stimulus pass outward from 
 the brain to the hand to constitute an act of perception. 
 " We have no reason whatever," says Sir W. Hamilton, 
 " to doubt the report of consciousness, that we actually 
 perceive at the external point of sensation, and that we 
 perceive the external reality." " We are in the habit 
 of saying," remarks Dr. Abercrombie, "that the im- 
 pressions are conveyed to the brain, but even in this 
 we may probably advance a step beyond what is war- 
 ranted. We know that the nerves derive their influence 
 from the connection with the brain, or as forming along 
 with it one great medium of sensation ; but we do not 
 know whether impressions made upon the nervous 
 fabric connected with the organs of sense are conveyed 
 to the brain, or whether the mind perceives them 
 directly as they are made upon the organs of sense." 
 The view advanced by Prof. Cleland is, " that when an 
 irritation is applied to a nerve extremity in a finger or 
 elsewhere, the impression (or rather impressed condi- 
 tion) travels, as is generally understood, to the brain, 
 but exists for at least a moment along the whole length 
 of the nerve, and that as soon as there is continuity of 
 
THE SENSES. 153 
 
 the impressed condition from finger to brain the con- 
 sciousness is in connection with the nerve, and is 
 directly aware of the irritation at the nerve extremity". 
 This goes to support the notion that in sensation con- 
 sciousness is in direct connection with the organ of 
 sense, and that what we feel is felt there, and not 
 merely in the brain ; but it gives no support to that for 
 which we contend, that in recalling a past sensation 
 the mind refers to the special organ of sense which was 
 originally concerned in it, though the two are nearly 
 connected. Only the hypothesis of the existence of 
 two kinds of motion in the nerves will meet and ex- 
 plain both cases. 
 
 The great use of the senses is to impart to us a 
 knowledge of the world in which we live and act, in 
 order that we may act wisely and live well in all the 
 relations of life. 1 The fuller and more accurate our 
 knowledge of the world around us, and of the laws in 
 accordance with which all its operations are carried on, 
 the more will our actions be characterised by wisdom 
 and prudence. Accuracy and keenness of observation 
 are essential to success in life. 2 Men must observe 
 accurately before they can reason correctly. Most of 
 the errors that prevail in the world spring not so much 
 from illogical reasoning as from ipaccurate observation. 3 
 
 1 " The senses supply the basis for the whole action of man upon 
 the outer world." H. Helmholtz. "What is the part played by 
 knowledge ? Its highest no less than its lowest aim is guidance in 
 action." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 2 " One of the principal forms of human intelligence consists of 
 a permanent hold of the external world as it strikes the senses." 
 Prof. Bain. This "gives us a sort of foresight which enables us to 
 regulate our actions for the benefit of life, and without this we should 
 be eternally at a loss : we should no. know how to act anything 
 that might procure us the least pleasure or remove the least pain of 
 sense". Bishop Berkeley. 
 
 * " The errors in the world come leas from illogical reasoning than 
 
154 ,MEMORY. 
 
 Further, the laws of onr mental life are such that it 
 is constantly necessary to bring our ideal knowledge to 
 the touchstone of experience and fact. The mind is 
 ever prone to form ideas and construct theories of 
 things. This is its nature and office, but it is to be 
 borne in mind that these ideas and theories are only of 
 use to us as they correspond with and represent external 
 realities. "Without this, in place of leading us to right 
 action, they may lead us into the greatest blunders and 
 land us in inextricable confusion. It is therefore of the 
 greatest importance ever to maintain the closest and 
 most intimate connection between the two the real 
 and the ideal. The real serves to give clearness, fixed- 
 ness, and permanence to the ideal ; the ideal to mould, 
 fashion, guide, direct, arrange the real. 
 
 Formerly men were wont to rear huge scientific 
 structures upon a few loosely observed facts ; but now, 
 perhaps one of the most marked and promising features 
 of the present day is the attempt in all cases to establish 
 a wide basis of facts, and from these to rigidly 
 deduce the principles they embody or the truths they 
 contain. 
 
 from inaccurate observation and careless hearing. Most men see as 
 much with their preoccupied imagination as with their eyes, and do 
 not know how to separate their own fancies, or their erroneous in- 
 terpretation of a fact, from the observed fact itself." Dr. Thos. Hill. 
 " Nothing, in fact, is more difficult than to have a clear and precise 
 appreciation of real things. The minute care taken by physicists 
 and chemists, and the infinite precautions with which they surround 
 themselves, in order to appreciate simple physical phenomena, show 
 us how frequent are the causes of error, and how liable to deception 
 is all observation ; since we so often find two observers, in the pre- 
 sence of the same physical and palpable phenomenon, each describing 
 it in his own fashion, and each giving a very different report re- 
 specting it." J. Luys. According to Kant, the senses never deceive 
 us, not because they always judge correctly, but because they never 
 judge at all. The error lies in the inference which is drawn from 
 the sensation. 
 
THE SENSES. 155 
 
 What we have further to say on the subject of the 
 senses will regard them principally as individuals, and 
 be mainly directed to their training and cultivation, as 
 this we regard as the great means of improving and 
 strengthening the memory. In all training of the 
 senses our endeavour must be to bring them to distin- 
 guish minute shades of difference. 1 The acuteness of 
 any sense depends upon its power of discrimination. 
 Not to be able to distinguish between one colour and 
 another, or one sound, taste, or smell, and another, is 
 to be so far defective in these senses ; and, on the 
 other hand, to be able to distinguish them in a high 
 degree is to have these senses in a high state of per- 
 fection. We must, therefore, in the training of the 
 senses, exercise them in distinguishing minute shades 
 of difference in their objects. 2 
 
 Wherever we can distinguish one object, or one part 
 of an object, from another, we must believe that there 
 is a like distinction in the physical conditions under 
 
 1 w Every case in which an advancing intelligence distinguishes 
 between objects or phenomena or laws that were previously con- 
 founded together as of like kind, implies a differentiation of states of 
 consciousness." We see " in the series of phases through which each 
 sense advances towards perfection" that "every higher phase shows 
 itself as an ability to recognise smaller and smaller differences, either 
 of kind or degree, in the attributes of surrounding bodies". H. 
 Spencer. " The more perceptive the senses are of difference, the 
 larger is the field upon which our judgment and intelligence can 
 act. Sensation mounts through a series of grades of * just perceptible 
 differences'." Francis Gallon. "The discriminative faculty of idiots 
 is curiously low ; they hardly distinguish between heat and cold, and 
 their sense of pain is so obtuse that some of the more idiotic seem 
 hardly to know what it is." Ditto. Esquirol has connected the 
 inaptitude of idiots and imbeciles, for education, with their dull sen- 
 sibility. They see badly, hear badly, feel badly, and their sensorium 
 is in consequence in a similar condition of sensitive poverty. 
 
 2 " By merely practising the organs they become more discrimina- 
 tive, and differences are felt after a time that would originally havt 
 been unfelt." Pro/, Bain. 
 
156 MEMORY. 
 
 which we perceive them that the course pursued by 
 the one, or the parts affected by the one, differ in some 
 measure from those affected by the other. 1 Where we 
 cannot make such distinction, where the two seem so 
 nearly identical that we cannot distinguish the one from 
 the other, we may take it for granted that the same 
 parts are concerned in both. 2 The aim of all training 
 of the senses being to bring them to distinguish minute 
 differences, the physical effect of this must be to 
 introduce differences in the parts concerned, to restrict 
 more and more each sensation to a distinct and more 
 limited part of the organism. It is characteristic of all 
 untrained activity that it is diffusive, while the effect of 
 all training is to limit and confine mental power to 
 special channels. 8 The more the mind is concentrated 
 upon a particular object, or its activity confined to a 
 particular part, the greater its power and force. The 
 more we limit the parts concerned in any act of per- 
 ception or other act, the more easily and efficiently is 
 it performed, and the more readily is it fixed upon the 
 memory. Hence in our remarks on the individual senses 
 
 1 w There is a change made in the medullary substance propor- 
 tional and correspondent to every change in the sensations." D. 
 Hartley. " Each distinct mode of consciousness, each distinct adhe- 
 sive grouping, would appear to appropriate a distinct track of nervous 
 communications involving a definite number of fibres and of cells or 
 corpuscles." Prof. Bain. " We have the strongest reasons for con- 
 cluding that every feeling, every change in sensibility, has its 
 coi relative material process in the organism is, in short, only the 
 subjective aspect of the objective organic change." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 2 " Two objects completely similar, or which determine undistin- 
 guishable impressions upon us, are as if they were identical." Sir 
 W. Hamilton. 
 
 1 " The boy when first learning to write is unable to prevent the 
 simultaneous motions of tongue and legs, which are ludicrously 
 irrelevant to the purpose of writing ; but he learns to keep all hia 
 organs in subjection, and only the eyes and hands active. An analo* 
 gous restriction takes place in thinking." G. H. Lewes. 
 
THE SENSES. 157 
 
 we shall treat them as much as possible analytically. 
 (See Chapter VII., " Attention".) 
 
 The muscular sense is that by which we are made 
 acquainted with the state and con Jition of the muscles, 
 particularly when in action, and are thereby enabled to 
 direct and control their movements. 1 It may be re- 
 garded as a sort of internal sense of touch, having its 
 seat in the muscles, and revealing the state of their 
 tension, in place of in the skin and acted upon by con- 
 tact with foreign bodies. 2 These two senses have, 
 indeed, much in common, and they generally go toge- 
 ther, as in judging of weight, pressure, force, resistance, 
 hardness, softness, &c. The sense of touch is more or 
 less diffused over the body, while the muscular sense is 
 confined to the muscles, especially such as are volun- 
 tary. The end plates in which the muscular nerves 
 terminate, embracing as they do one-third or more of 
 the circumference of their respective fibres, are particu- 
 larly fitted for ascertaining the state of the muscles. 
 It is by means of the muscular sense that we are made 
 aware of the effort put forth in performing the different 
 movements of the body, and are thus able to direct and 
 control them. 3 Without it all voluntary movement 
 
 1 It is by means of the muscular sense " that we become conscious 
 of the existing state of the muscles which are subject to the will, or 
 rather to the position and direction of the limbs and other parts 
 which are moved through means of the voluntary muscles, and we 
 are thereby guided in directing our voluntary movements towards 
 the end in view ". Quain's Anatomy. 
 
 * " The nerves of the muscles differ from those of the skin only . . . 
 by terminating in the muscles and being excited by the stretching 
 out or shortening of the muscles. But here there is no difference of 
 action, the difference is in the excitant." H. Taine. " In every 
 different contraction of the muscles there is a difference of sensation." 
 -/as. Mill. 
 
 1 " A harmonious combination of muscular actions must depend 
 ... on the capability of appreciating the condition of the muscles 
 with regard to their teusioii, and to the force with which they are 
 
158 MEMORY. 
 
 movement directed by the will would be impossible, 
 except in so far as one of the other senses might be 
 able to supply its place. 1 
 
 The muscular sense is that which is first brought 
 into action ; for as motion precedes sensation, the fact 
 of our having moved " must be made known to us by 
 some feeling connected with the act itself. . . . "We 
 cannot as yet see that our limb moves ; we must there- 
 fore in some manner feel that it does so ; and this, in 
 point of fact, is effected by means of the muscular sen- 
 sations of the limb itself." Dean Mansel. 
 
 By means of this sense we discriminate (1) between 
 different degrees of exertion put forth, or called out ; (2) 
 the duration of different muscular sensations, giving an 
 idea of time, as also of space in movement through 
 space ; and (3) between the speed or velocity of diffe- 
 rent movements. We thus by it determine the resist- 
 ance of bodies, their force, weight, and other mechanical 
 properties ; measure distances and velocities ; and ascer- 
 tain the form, size, position, and so forth of external 
 objects. 
 
 Our muscular movements greatly impress the memory, 
 so that what we have done is usually easily remembered 
 and recalled. 2 Through the retentive power inherent in 
 
 contracting." Dr. Kirkes. "The skill which certain individuals 
 acquire in the mechanical part of music, as well as the great dex- 
 terity of rope-dancers, tumblers, and jugglers, depend in a great 
 measure upon their accurate perceptions of the contractions of the 
 muscles." Dr. Bostock. 
 
 1 " No voluntary action can be performed without the assistance 
 of a guiding sensation. ... In the majority of cases the guiding or 
 controlling sensation is derived from the niuscles themselves" ; but 
 "if the muscular sense be deficient, one of the special senses may 
 supply the requisite information". Dr. Carpenter. " When the 
 muscular sense is lost while the power of motion remains . . . the 
 person cannot direct the movements of the afflicted limbs without 
 the guidance of the eye." Quairis Anatomy. 
 
 * " There is nothing so well remembered by us as the results o| 
 
THE SENSES. 159 
 
 muscle, by means of which what is once done comes by 
 repetition to be more and more easily done, our present 
 movements are moulded and guided by those that went 
 before, and we come to be able by practice to regulate 
 with great nicety the amount of energy requiring to be 
 put forth in any particular case. 1 The importance of 
 this will be seen if we happen to miscalculate, or are 
 deceived as to the amount of effort necessary to be put 
 forth in order to perform a particular movement, as in 
 taking a false step, when not only is the movement ill- 
 performed, but the system receives a shock not unlike 
 that of electricity. 
 
 Our mental life is largely made up of experiences 
 received through this sense. In ordinary cases we are 
 unconscious of the effort put forth in the directing of 
 our movements, but we are fully conscious of it at first 
 in learning the movements, and also when called upon 
 to exert it under unusual or trying circumstances, as 
 when we attempt to stand or walk in a difficult or 
 dangerous place. 2 The probability, therefore, is that 
 these movements are always under the direction of the 
 mind, though we may not be conscious of it. The 
 effect of exercise on this sense is seen in the case of the 
 blind, who by means of it are able to pursue a straight 
 path, which is beyond the power of one who is only 
 
 our own actions," and "hence in studying natural processes we 
 succeed best by making the observations and experiments for 
 ourselves ". Prof. Bain. 
 
 1 " When we are about to make a muscular effort, the amount of 
 force which we put forth is governed by the mental conception of 
 that which will be required as indicated by the experience of former 
 sensations." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 a " A large amount of sensation is derived from the muscular 
 sense, yet we are not aware of the nice adjustments of the muscles 
 regulated by this sensibility when we sit or walk. No sooner are 
 we placed in an exceptional position than we become distinctly 
 aware of the effort." & H. Lewes. 
 
160 MEMOBY. 
 
 blindfolded for the occasion. 1 In this, as in other cases 
 where we usually rely upon sight, the inferior sense is 
 deprived of its due amount of exercise. 
 
 By practice a very high degree of accuracy in the 
 regulation of our movements is attained. 2 In drawing, 
 painting, engraving, the power of directing the different 
 movements and effecting the most delicate touches is 
 very great. Persons dealing in articles sold by weight 
 are able to form very precise estimates of the weight of 
 such articles by balancing them in their hands. 3 
 
 The pleasures derived from this sense are of a highly 
 enjoyable kind. The feelings of freshness, vigour, 
 activity, the consciousness of physical power, the sense 
 of being able to encounter and overcome difficulties, all 
 spring from this source. It is particularly in early life, 
 when the limbs quiver with activity, and when it re- 
 quires no inconsiderable effort to be still, that these 
 feelings are most intense. 
 
 Touch. The sense of touch is, physiologically consi- 
 dered, the simplest and least complex of the senses, 
 
 1 " The blind man who has been accustomed to rely exclusively 
 upon his muscular sense has no difficulty in keeping to a straipht 
 path, and moves onward with a confidence which is in remarkable 
 contrast with the gait of a man who has been deprived of sight for 
 the occasion only.'^Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 8 " By constant practice there is acquired from its exercise a pecu- 
 liar skill and aptitude. It admits of infinite variety, as in active 
 and passive motions, or in adaptation to various purposes with great 
 nicety, as in estimating weight, balancing, throwing weapons, playing 
 on various musical instruments, skilful workmanship, sense of resist- 
 ance, &c., &c. Like the other senses, it adds largely to our feeling of 
 pleasure and intellectual enjoyment." Dr. J. H. Bennett. 
 
 * " According to the delicacy of the muscular tissue, we can by 
 shorter or longer practice acquire distinct impressions from every 
 standard of dimension, and "can decide at once whether a given 
 length is four inches or four and a half, nine or ten, twenty or 
 twenty-one. ... In drawing, painting, and engraving, and in the 
 plastic arts, the engrained discrimination of the most delicate differ* 
 ences is an indispensable qualification." Prof. Bain. 
 
THE SENSES. 161 
 
 being, in fact, only an exalted form of common sensa- 
 tion, while it is also the most generally diffused, existing 
 in almost every part of the body. 1 Its seat is the skin, 
 the entire surface of which is eminently sensitive, but 
 it is especially on the palmar surface of the hands and 
 fingers that it is most developed, and these are there- 
 fore regarded as the principal organs of the sense. 
 
 The acuteness of this sense differs greatly in different 
 parts of the body, depending, doubtless, mainly upon 
 the number of terminal nerve filaments proceeding to 
 the part, and their isolation from each other. 2 By 
 means of a pair of compasses it was ascertained that 
 the two points could be perceived as distinct when 
 \ line apart at the point of the tongue, 1 line on the 
 palmar surface of the third finger, and 2 lines on the 
 red surface of the lips and the palmar surface of the 
 second finger, up to 30 lines, or 2J inches, on the skin 
 of the back over the spine, and on the middle of the 
 arm and thigh. Considerable differences, however, are 
 
 1 Touch " is the simplest and most rudimentary of all the special 
 senses, and may be considered as an exalted form of common sensa- 
 tion, from which it rises by imperceptible gradations to its state of 
 highest development in some particular parts. It has its seat in the 
 whole of the skin, and in certain mucous membranes, as that of the 
 mouth, and is therefore the sense most generally diffused over the 
 body." Todd and Bowman. " We must consider the skin as a sen- 
 sory organ which encloses our entire body, and is adapted to render 
 every part of the surface of our body sensible of external impressions, 
 and, indeed, of impressions of manifold kinds, which arouse in us 
 peculiar sensations, and are inseparably connected with mental pro- 
 cesses." Prof. J Bernstein. 
 
 2 " The perfection of the sense of touch on different parts of the 
 surface is proportioned to the power which such parts possess of dis- 
 tinguishing and isolating the sensations produced by two points 
 placed close together This power depends, at least in part, on the 
 number of primitive nerve fibres distributed to the part." Dr. 
 Kirkes. " Whenever two points produce a double sensation, we may 
 imagine that one point lies on the area supplied by one distinct 
 nerve, while the other point lies on the area of a second nerve," 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
162 MEMORY. 
 
 found to exist among different individuals in this respect, 
 some being able to distinguish the points at much less 
 distances than others. If the points, in place of being 
 stationary, are made to move over the surface, or, still 
 better, if the surface is moved over them, the limit will 
 be much diminished, probably to the extent of half or 
 more. Hence the importance of having this sense 
 most highly developed in those parts which are most 
 capable of motion, namely, the hands. 1 
 
 The objects of touch are principally solid substances, 
 and their mode of action is by simple pressure, through 
 which we estimate the hardness, softness, roughness, 
 smoothness, &c., of substances with which we come in 
 contact. 2 Prof. Weber found that the tips of the fin- 
 gers could distinguish between the weights of 20 and 
 19'2 ounces. This is best done by placing the two 
 successively upon the same part or finger, rather than 
 the two together upon different parts or fingers. Much, 
 too, depends upon the briefness of the interval between 
 the two instances. "The difference between 14, or 
 even 14' 5, could be distinguished from 15 within 30 
 seconds; 4 and 5 could be distinguished within 90 
 seconds." Prof. Bain. When the action of the mus- 
 cles is introduced, by the hand being moved up and 
 down, minuter differences will be distinguished. Weber 
 
 1 The hand, u from its perfect adaptation to the uses to which 
 it is devoted, its power, its delicacy, and the infinite movements 
 which it can accomplish, is not surpassed as an example of the 
 adaptation of means for the accomplishment ot an end by any struc- 
 ture of the body". Dr. Dalton. 
 
 2 " Touch is that peculiar sensibility which gives the consciousness 
 of the resistance of external matter, and makes us acquainted with 
 the hardness, smoothness, roughness, size, and form of bodies. It 
 enables us to distinguish what is external from what belongs to us ; 
 and while it informs us of the geometrical qualities of bodies, we 
 must refer to this sense also our judgment of distance, of motion, of 
 number, and of time." tftr C. BelL 
 
THE SENSES. 163 
 
 infers that the measure of weight by mere touch is 
 more than doubled by the play of the muscles. By 
 touch and motion combined we receive notions of size, 
 shape, direction, distance, and situation of bodies. 
 Hence this sense and the muscular are valuable as 
 auxiliaries to sight, at first instructing and informing it 
 regarding these conditions of bodies, and afterwards 
 serving to correct many indefinite or fallacious impres- 
 sions that might be received from that sense alone. 
 Owing, however, to our usually relying upon sight for 
 information on these points, the muscular and tactile 
 senses are not sufficiently exercised, and we do not 
 have them in that efficiency that we should have. 1 
 
 The sensations of heat and cold are so different from 
 those of ordinary touch as to afford some ground for 
 the opinion that they depend upon a different set of 
 nerves. 2 There does not, however, seem to be sufficient 
 evidence in support of this view, and there are several 
 very strong objections that may be urged against it. 8 
 
 1 " Evidently at present as to the muscular and tactile sensations 
 we have rough discrimination only ; we can hardly distinguish their 
 shades of difference for want of being compelled to do so. ... With 
 some blind persons the perfection of the sense of touch surpasses all 
 imagination. ... It is enough to see blind men read with their 
 fingers books printed in relief almost as rapidly as we read books 
 printed in black and white, to comprehend all the power of discri- 
 mination which our touch might have, but has not acquired." H. 
 Taine. 
 
 2 Sir W. Hamilton thinks it probable that the sensation of heat 
 depends on a peculiar set of fibres for two reasons : " 1. Because cer- 
 tain sentient parts of the body are insensible to this feeling ; and, 2. 
 Because I have met with cases recorded in which, while sensibility 
 in general was abolished, the sensibility to heat .remained apparently 
 undiminished". 
 
 3 " There is no reason for supposing that any other nerves than 
 those of touch are needed to arouse a sensation of warmth or of 
 coolness." Prof. Bain. " There is no adequate ground for the sup- 
 position that a set of nerve fibres is provided for their transmission 
 distinct from those which minister to common sensation.* Dr. Cor- 
 Center. 
 
164 MEMOBY. 
 
 We believe that most of the phenomena connected 
 with this class of sensations may be explained by sup- 
 posing that they are mainly owing to the action of the 
 minute capillaries, which permeate all parts of the skin, 
 upon the nerves. While touch may be said to result 
 from direct pressure upon the nerves, heat or cold may 
 act more directly upon the bloodvessels, causing them 
 to expand or contract, and so affecting the nerves. 
 Hence the sensation is more perceptible when a large 
 surface is exposed to a change of temperature. A 
 change which will be imperceptible to a single finger 
 will readily be perceived if the whole hand be submitted 
 to it. 1 
 
 While regarded physiologically as the simplest of the 
 senses, intellectually, touch is entitled to occupy a 
 much higher place, whether we regard the number and 
 variety of the ideas which it communicates to the mind, 
 the pleasures or pains which may spring from it, or the 
 important part which the mind plays in its operations. 2 
 In none of the other senses does man stand superior to 
 all other animals, save touch, and Anaxagoras was wont 
 to say that animals would have been men had they had 
 hands* 
 
 1 " If the forefinger of one hand be immersed in water ai 104, 
 and the whole of the other hand be plunged in water at 102, the 
 cooler water will be thought the warmer ; whence the well-known 
 fact that water in which a finger can. be held will scald the whole 
 hand." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 Why touch, the simplest and earliest sense, should in its 
 higher forms be more than any other sense associated with the 
 advance of intelligence," is explained by "the fact that tactual 
 impressions are those into which all other impressions have to be 
 translated before their meanings can be known". Hence "a highly 
 elaborated tactual apparatus -comes to be the uniform accompaniment 
 of superior intelligence. . . . All handicrafts, and after them 
 the higher processes of production, have grown out of that manual 
 dexterity in which the elaboration of the motor faculty terminates." 
 H. Spencer. 
 
THE SENSES. 165 
 
 The distinctness and intensity of a sensation of touch 
 depends in great measure upon the degree of attention 
 that is given to it. If the attention is strongly directed 
 to any tactile sensation, the vividness of the impression 
 is much increased ; and by allowing the mind to con- 
 stantly dwell on any form of physical suffering, however 
 slight, it may be aggravated to almost any extent, and 
 real diseases induced in parts through fancied ailments. 1 
 On the other hand, when the mind is thoroughly 
 engrossed with any one object, it may become in a 
 given measure insensible to all external impressions. 
 Hence we find men possessed by one absorbing idea 
 rising above all corporeal suffering, and enduring the 
 most cruel tortures unflinchingly. 2 In no sense are sub- 
 jective sensations more frequent than in that of touch- 
 the mind having the power in a remarkable degree of 
 exciting tactile sensations in parts, without any external 
 cause, but simply by the power of imagination. 8 
 
 1 " The mind has a remarkable power of exciting sensation* in the 
 nerves of common sensibility. . . . The idea of pain gives rise 
 to the actual sensation of pain in a part predisposed to it. A painful 
 sensation becomes more intolerable the more the attention is directed 
 to it." Dr. Kirkes. "The constant direction of the attention to its 
 supposed seat (i.e., an imaginary disease) has a tendency to alter the 
 organic action of the heart, and thus to induce real disease in the 
 stead of that which was at first imaginary." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 "The martyr borne above sensuous impressions is not only able 
 to endure tortures when they come, but in great part to subdue and 
 quench them. . . . The pinching and cutting of the fle^h only add 
 energy to the death song of the American Indian even the slave 
 under the lash is sustained by the indignant sense of his wrongs." 
 S. Wyld. 
 
 1 " It is remarkable that not merely are subjective sensations, like 
 All others, rendered more intense by the direction of the attention 
 to them, but they may be actually called into existence by the 
 fixation of the attention on certain parts of the body. ... If 
 the attention be steadily directed to almost any part of the surface 
 of the body, some feeling of itching, creeping, or tickling will goon 
 be experienced." Dr. Carpenter. 
 13 
 
166 MEMOBY. 
 
 The mental ideas or impressions of this sense are 
 very vivid and durable, and readily recalled, so that 
 the different degrees of hardness, softness, weight, 
 temperature, or other qualities of objects, can be 
 determined by practice with a great measure of 
 accuracy. 1 
 
 That this sense is capable of being brought to a high 
 degree of perfection is evident from the case of those 
 who are under the necessity of using it frequently. 
 People destitute of sight, for instance, and obliged to 
 rely constantly upon this sense, come to acquire an 
 acuteness and power of discrimination in it that seems 
 almost incredible. 2 Cases are on record of such persons 
 being able, by touch alone, to distinguish the colours 
 of surfaces in other aspects alike, to distinguish between 
 genuine medals and imitations, and to recognise indi- 
 viduals, after long periods of absence, by the mere 
 contact of their hands. 
 
 Taste. Of the remaining senses, taste is the one that 
 is most nearly allied to that of touch. The tongue, 
 which is the principal organ of taste, has also the sense 
 
 1 " The after sensations left by impressions on nerves of common 
 sensibility or touch are very vivid and durable. As long as the 
 condition into which the stimulus has thrown the organ endures, the 
 sensation also remains, though the exciting cause should have long 
 ceased to act." Dr. Kirkes. " Tactile sensations, whereby surfaces 
 are discriminated, have a great degree of persistence in the recollec- 
 tion, something intermediate between tastes, and smells, and sights. 
 . . . The cloth-dealer sees whether a given specimen corresponds 
 with another piece that passed through his hands a week ago, or 
 with a permanent standard impressed upon his linger sensibility." 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " The improvement in the sense of touch in those persons whose 
 dependence upon it is increased by the loss of other senses is well 
 known." Dr, Carpenter. " A familiar illustration occurs in the case 
 of the blind, who, by constant practice, can acquire the power of 
 reading raised letters, the forms of which are almost, if not quite, 
 undistinguishable by the sense of touch to an ordinary person." 
 Dr. Kirke*. 
 
THE SENSES. 167 
 
 of touch in the highest perfection. 1 In taste as in 
 touch, the object requires to be brought into direct 
 contact with the organ of sense before it can be per- 
 ceived, which is not the case in smell, hearing, or 
 sight. In addition to this, there is no special nerve of 
 taste as there is of smell, hearing, and sight, for the 
 nerves concerned in taste are also nerves of common 
 sensibility. On the other hand, the sense of taste 
 differs from that of touch in being confined to a par- 
 ticular part, and not generally diffused over the body, 
 and in being acted upon chemically and not mechani- 
 cally the objects of taste requiring to be either liquid 
 or soluble in the mouth in order to act upon the 
 nerves. 2 If even the most sapid substance be applied 
 to the tongue in a dry state, and the tongue itself be also 
 dry, no taste will be felt. The effect is increased by 
 moving the substance over the surface of the tongue 
 the sensation being more intense the larger the surface 
 affected. 3 A short time must elapse after contact with 
 the tongue before the taste of a sapid body is felt, and 
 this varies according to the nature of the sub- 
 
 1 " The experiments of Stich and Kllaatsch show that the sense of 
 taste exists over the whole surface of the posterior third of the dorsum 
 (or upper surface) of the tongue, on the under surface of the tip, and 
 in a band or line ahout one quarter of an inch broad running along 
 its edge. The sense is also well defined in the posterior parts of the 
 hard palate, and in that portion of the soft palate which is near the 
 bone. It is further present in the anterior pillars of the fauces. The 
 middle and anterior part of the dorsum, the gums, posterior pillars 
 of the fauces, and the inner surface of the lips, possess no sense of 
 taste." Dr. /. H. Bennett. 
 
 2 " Every substance which possesses a distinct taste is more or less 
 boluble in the fluids of the mouth, while substances which are per- 
 fectly insoluble do not make their presence known in any other 
 way than through the sense of touch.": Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 8 " Thus the wine-taster takes a small quantity of the liquor into 
 his mouth, carries it rapidly over every part of its lining membrane! 
 and then ejects it." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
163 MEMORY. 
 
 stance. 1 After being exposed to two or three allied tastes 
 alternately in succession, the sense becomes blunted, 
 and loses its power of discriminating between them. 
 
 In general, the impressions of this sense have a 
 longer persistence than those of smell, hearing, or 
 sight, and everyone knows how long the taste of some 
 powerful substance remains in the mouth, and obscures 
 for a time that of all else. 2 As there is an open com- 
 munication between the back part of the mouth and 
 the nose, the sense of smell mingles largely with that 
 of taste, as will readily be perceived by chewing some 
 aromatic substance with the nostrils closed, when the 
 taste will be very much diminished, if not actually 
 lost. 3 The sense of touch, too, frequently mingles 
 with taste; and many of the impressions which are 
 commonly referred to taste are simply tactile, as for 
 instance such as are derived from acrid, irritant, astrin- 
 gent substances. 4 Such is the power of this sense, that 
 one part of sulphuric acid in 10,000 of water, one part 
 of sulphate of quinine in 33,000 of water, and one part 
 of strychnine in 1,000,000, can be detected when care- 
 fully compared with pure water. 
 
 Professor Bain makes a threefold division of the 
 sensations of taste namely (1) relishes and disgusts ; 
 
 1 "Saline solutions are most quickly perceived, sweet solutions 
 less quickly, then acid, and lastly bitter substances. Dr. J. 
 
 JL/j Til 
 
 Marshall. 
 
 2 y er y digti nc t sensations of taste are frequently left after the 
 substances which excited them have ceased to act on the nerve ; 
 and such sensations often endure for a long time, and modify the 
 taste of other substances applied to the tongue afterwards." Dr. 
 Kirkes. 
 
 " Some bodies, as cinnamon, have no taste, but only a flavour." 
 Pro/. Bain. 
 
 4 " The pungent sensations caused by mustard, pepper, &c., are 
 owing to the excitation of touch, and should be separated from those 
 of taste." Dr. J. H. Bennett. 
 
THE SENSES. 169 
 
 (2) tastes proper ; and (3) tastes involving also touch. 
 Eelishes are such as are in direct sympathy with 
 the stomach, as the different kinds of food called 
 savoury. The opposite of relishes is disgusts. Of 
 tastes proper, the divisions are sweet, as sugar; and 
 bitter, as quinine. The third class of tastes includes 
 the saline, as salt; the alkaline, as soda; the acid 
 or sour, as vinegar; the astringent, as alum; the 
 fiery, as mustard; and the acrid, a combination of 
 the fiery and bitter. 
 
 The organ of this sense, being situated at the entrance 
 to the alimentary canal, is designed to guide us in the 
 choice of our food, so that we may select what will be 
 beneficial and avoid what may be hurtful. 1 There can 
 be no doubt that if this sense were properly trained 
 and directed, in place of being, as it generally is, led 
 astray or perverted by excessive indulgence, it would 
 be a much more reliable guide than it is at present. 2 
 "In the majority of instances of actual illness/' says 
 Sir H. Holland, "provided the real feelings of the 
 patient can be safely ascertained, his desires as to food 
 and drink may be safely complied with." 3 The enjoy- 
 ment of life also depends largely upon the pleasures 
 
 1 " There is an obvious continuity of structure in the tongue and 
 alimentary canal, a common character of surface as regards mucous 
 membrane, glands, and papillae. . . . The tongue is in fact the 
 stomach begun." Prof. Bain. " The sense of taste assists us in the 
 preference of food, and superadds the agreeable enjoyment of relish 
 to the acts of eating and drinking." Dr. J. Marshall. 
 
 2 "We eat what we should not eat; drink what we should not 
 drink ; eat too much of what we may eat ; and drink too much of 
 what we may drink. And the result is that we ruin our health, 
 enfeeble our bodies, dull our intellects, brutalise our feelings, and 
 harden our hearts." Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
 s " In the case of invalids, the suggestions of the sick man's palate 
 are often safer than the dicta of the medical adviser/' Dr. J. 
 Marshall 
 
170 MEMORY. 
 
 derived through this sense. 1 A patient who was suffer- 
 ing under its deprivation said: "Everything I eat 
 seems to me to be earth". 
 
 Like the other senses, that of taste is capable of 
 being greatly improved by cultivation. The wine- 
 taster, tea-taster, cook, or chemist acquires an acute- 
 ness of taste that is quite beyond the power of ordinary 
 individuals. 2 
 
 There appear to exist certain relations among tastes 
 such as we find among colours and sounds, some 
 modifying, intensifying, or harmonising those with 
 which they are associated. Thus the taste of cheese 
 improves the flavour of wine, while that of sweet 
 substances destroys it. By the addition of sweet 
 substances, sour or bitter tastes may be made pleasant, 
 but no such change can thereby be effected on saline 
 tastes. The whole art of cooking depends on the 
 proper combining and harmonising of tastes. 3 
 
 Smell. Closely allied to the sense of taste is that of 
 smell. They are both situated at the entrance to the 
 
 1 " As it is the sense having the custodiership of the animal wants, 
 so in the exercise of this charge there is no sense more largely con- 
 tributory to our every-day enjoyments, animal spirits, health, and 
 comfort." R. S. Wyld. 
 
 2 " The experienced wine-taster can distinguish differences of age, 
 purity, place of growth, &c., between liquors that to ordinary judg- 
 ments are alike ; and the epicure can give an exact determination 
 of the spices that are combined in a particular sauce, or the manner 
 in which the animal on whose flesh he is feeding was killed." Dr. 
 Carpenter. 
 
 3 " There appears to exist the same relation "between tastes as 
 between colours, of which those that are opposed or complementary 
 render each other more vivid, though no general principles govern- 
 ing this relation have been discovered in the case of tastes. In the 
 art of cooking, however, attention has at all times been paid to the 
 consonance or harmony of flavours in their combination or order of 
 succession ; just as in painting and music the fundamental principles 
 of harmony have been employed empirically, while the theoretical 
 lawi were unknown." Dr. Mutter. 
 
THE SENSES. 171 
 
 alimentary canal, and are primarily designed to inform 
 us of the nature and qualities of our food. 1 Smell 
 being possessed of a keener and more subtle perception 
 than taste, and dealing with qualities of a different 
 kind, enables us to distinguish substances that to 
 taste alone appear identical. 2 Further, as we have 
 said, much of the discriminative power that is com- 
 monly ascribed to taste depends in reality upon smell. 
 Being seated at the principal entrance to the lungs, it 
 likewise serves to test the purity of the air we breathe. 
 It also affords a refined, delicate, and not over obtrusive 
 pleasure, and gives an additional beauty and charm to 
 many objects of nature. 
 
 The objects of smell require to be in an aeriform or 
 gaseous state, as those of taste require to be in a state 
 of solution. They are conveyed into the interior of 
 the nose in the ordinary act of breathing, and the 
 mucous membrane being in a moist state lays hold of 
 and acts upon them. The action of this sense, like 
 that of taste, is generally believed to be a chemical 
 
 1 " The great practical object of the sense oi smell is doubtless in 
 man, as in other animals, to assist in the choice of food." R. S. 
 Wyld. " It is a law in reference to ourselves to which, so far as I 
 know, there is no exception that there is not any substance having 
 a powerful smell of which it is safe to take much internally." Prof. 
 G. Wilson. "Nearly all substances with a bad smell have an injuri- 
 ous effect upon the body." Prof. Bernstein. 
 
 2 " How passing wonderful' are the various scents . . . that 
 fill the air, yet when they fall upon the fine membrane of the nose 
 . . . they are inhaled, distinguished, and called by name ! They 
 gail in numerous squadrons, close to our eyes, and close by our ears, 
 yet are so amazingly attenuated that they elude the search of both ! 
 Nevertheless, so judiciously are the olfactory nets laid, and so art- 
 fully their meshes sized, that they catch these vanishing fugi- 
 tives. They catch the roaming perfumes which fly off from the 
 opening honeysuckle, and take in tne stationed sweets which hover 
 round the expanded rose. They imbibe all the balmy fragrance of 
 spring, all the aromatic exhalations of autumn, and enable us to 
 banquet even on the invisible dainties of nature," /. Hervey. 
 
172 MEMORY. 
 
 one. Most bodies throw off from their substance 
 minute particles of matter, or it may be that the air 
 acting upon the exposed surfaces of bodies dissolves 
 minute portions of their substance, and these, held in 
 suspension in the atmosphere, constitute their smell. 
 The extreme minuteness of these particles is evident 
 from the fact that a grain of musk will impregnate a 
 large quantity of air for years without any sensible 
 diminution of its weight. 1 
 
 In order to smell it is necessary that the odorous 
 particles enter the nostrils in a current of air,, for one 
 may be in a room impregnated with odour, and be in- 
 sensible to its presence, if he do not breathe it through 
 the nostrils breathing only through the mouth. 2 On 
 the other hand, in order to perceive a smell most dis- 
 tinctly or powerfully, recourse is had to sniffing, by 
 which the air containing the odorous particles is drawn 
 up forcibly against the upper part of the mucous mem- 
 brane lining the nose, where the sense of smell is most 
 acute. In order to smell the mucous membrane re- 
 quires to be in a moist state. When this is dry the 
 sense is impaired or lost. In like manner, odours are 
 not nearly so readily perceived in a dry as in a moist 
 atmosphere. On the other hand, an excessively moist 
 state of the mucous membrane, as when suffering from 
 a cold, impairs or destroys smell. Some time elapses 
 
 1 " The minuteness of the particles of bodies acting on the sense 
 of smell has often been dwelt upon as a striking example of the 
 divisibility of matter. Sulphuretted hydrogen in the atmosphere in 
 the proportion of one to a million is distinctly perceptible. Am^ 
 monia is perceptible in the proportion of 1 to 33,000." Prof. Bain. 
 
 g " Odorous substances in general are such as can be readily acted 
 on by oxygen ; " and " unless a stream of air containing oxygen pass 
 into the cavities of the nostrils along with the odoriferous effluvia 
 no smell is produced". Prof. Bain. " By breathing through the 
 mouth we may avoid being affected by odours even of the strongest 
 and most disagreeable kind," Dr. Carpenter. 
 
THE SENSES. 173 
 
 after the particles reach the mucous membrane before 
 they are perceived, as in taste, and the effect often per- 
 sists for a long time after the cause has been removed. 
 Under the continued action of the same stimulus the 
 sensation rapidly diminishes in intensity, and may soon 
 cease to be perceived. Man is inferior to many animals 
 in the acuteness of this sense for particular odours, but 
 he excels them all in the variety of objects to which it 
 extends. 
 
 Though our nomenclature of odours is exceedingly 
 restricted, "there are," says Prof. Wilson, "probably 
 as many odours as there are colours or sounds". 1 
 Various classifications of odours have been attempted. 
 Linnaeus divides them into seven different classes : (1) 
 aromatic, as the carnation; (2) fragrant, as the lily; (3) 
 ambrosiac, as musk; (4) alliaceous, as garlic; (5) foetid, as 
 ragwort ; (6) virulent, as the Indian pink ; and (7) nau- 
 seous, as the gourd. Professor Bain has three principal 
 classes : (1) odours in sympathy with the lungs, (2) 
 those of smell proper, and (3) those involving excita- 
 tion of the nerves of touch. In the first class he has 
 fresh odours, or such as accelerate the action of the 
 lungs, as eau-de-cologne, and close or suffocating odours, 
 which depress the action of the lungs. He has also 
 here nauseous or disgusting odours, which manifest a 
 sympathy with the stomach. In the second class are 
 sweet or fragrant odours, as of the rose; and their 
 opposites or malodours, as of assafoetida. In the third 
 class are pungent odours; as of mustard; ethereal odours, 
 
 1 " , . . Let those who doubt this visit a scientific chemist's labo- 
 ratory and examine his specimens one by one, and they will easily 
 satisfy themselves that a fac-simile of the largest church organ might 
 readily be constructed in which each organ pipe sounding a different 
 note should be represented by a phial exhaling when opened a dif- 
 ferent odour." Pro/. G. Wilson. 
 
174 MEMOEY. 
 
 as of alcohol; appetising odours and flavours, as of 
 
 cinnamon. 
 
 The sense of smell, like the other senses, may be 
 brought to a very high degree of perfection by cultiva- 
 tion. 1 In blind persons this sense is sometimes so 
 acute that they are able to distinguish individuals by 
 it. In the well-known case of James Mitchell, who 
 was blind, deaf, and dumb from his birth, it was his 
 principal means of distinguishing persons, and enabled 
 him at once to perceive the entrance of a stranger. 
 Among savage tribes, too, who depend much on this 
 sense, it is very acute. 
 
 Besides its importance as an instrument in the 
 discrimination of bodies, and in extending our know- 
 ledge of the world around us, as a valuable source of 
 pleasure and of mental enjoyment, it demands much 
 more care and attention than it commonly receives. 
 Mental associations frequently cluster round sensations 
 of smell more strongly than round any other sensations 
 we receive from without. 2 The suggestive power of 
 odours is to many persons greatly superior even to that 
 of sight. Among the civilised nations of antiquity, as 
 among the Oriental and Southern peoples of the present 
 
 1 "The wine-merchant, the distiller of perfumes, the manufacturer 
 of drugs, the grower of scented plants, the tobacco-dealer, and many 
 others, have, by long training, educated themselves to distinguish 
 differences of odour which escape an uneducated and unpractised 
 nostril, however acute by natural endowment." Pro/. G. Wilson* 
 a " Why should, at times, a passing scent, 
 Just sniffed a moment on the breeze^ 
 Its sensuous power so swiftly spent, 
 Come laden with more memories 
 Than the low hum of honey bees, 
 Or sound of old familiar strains, 
 Or rustling of the autumn grains, 
 
 Or voices from the whispering trees, 
 Or the running brooks or the pattering rains ? n 
 
 Olrig Grange. 
 
THE SENSES. 175 
 
 day, the pleasures of this sense were much more culti- 
 vated, and the use of perfumes much more common, than 
 with us ; while among the ancient Hebrews the use of 
 incense entered largely into the worship of God. 1 
 
 Hearing. In hearing and in sight we have to deal 
 with higher classes of sensations, and more complex 
 organs, than those already mentioned. In touch, taste, 
 and smell, the objects or their particles require to be 
 brought into direct contact with the terminal nerve 
 apparatus in order to be perceived, whereas in hearing 
 and in sight the peripheral end filaments of the nerves 
 terminate in enclosed sacs, containing a fluid substance 
 by which they are protected and kept in a constantly 
 moist state, and through which they are acted upon. 
 This contrivance is doubtless rendered necessary by 
 the delicate and susceptible nature of their structures, 
 for were they subjected to the drying and other in- 
 fluences of the atmosphere, or kept in a moist state 
 only by such means as those adopted for taste or 
 smell, they could not retain their delicacy. If by any 
 accident this fluid escapes from the ear, entire and 
 incurable deafness is the result, in like manner as 
 blindness results from loss of the humours of the eye. 
 Sonorous waves give rise to no sound when directly 
 acting upon the end filaments of the auditory nerve. 2 
 
 1 " To an ancient Hebrew, in the days when symbols spoke to 
 men's imaginations as they do not now to ours, it seemed most 
 natural to regard incense as prayer, and to feel, when the perfumed 
 smoke was ascending from the altar, as if it were the voice of the 
 High Priest, in silent eloquence, making a new confession of the 
 sins of the people, beseeching forgiveness for them, and offering their 
 thanksgivings to God." -Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
 2 " Waves of sound falling on the auditory nerve itself produce no 
 effect whatever ; it is only when, by the medium of the eridolymph, 
 they are brought to bear on the delicate* and peculiar epithelium 
 cells which constitute the peripheral terminations of the nerve, that 
 sensations of sound arise." Dr. M. Foster. 
 
176 MEMOET. 
 
 Sound, the object of hearing, is a special sensation 
 produced by the vibrations of some sonorous body solid, 
 liquid, or gaseous conveyed to the ear, and affecting 
 the auditory nerve. 1 All sonorous bodies are bodies 
 in a state of vibration; and when such vibrations are 
 communicated to the ear with sufficient rapidity and 
 force, a sensation of sound is the result. The sono- 
 rous body, which vibrates in air, throws the air which 
 surrounds it into similar vibrations; and these, extending 
 in waves, enter the ear, and acting upon its delicate ap- 
 paratus, impress the end-filaments of the auditory nerve. 2 
 
 The ear is specially constructed for receiving impres- 
 sions from the surrounding air, and unless conveyed by 
 the air or some other medium, no sound can reach the 
 ear. 8 A bell rung in an exhausted receiver gives forth 
 no sound. In hearing, then, we do not take cognisance 
 of the sonorous body directly, but only of the effect 
 produced by it upon an intervening medium the air 
 which acts upon the organ of hearing. 
 
 The atmosphere whose vibrations impart sound to 
 the ear is regarded as composed of an infinite number 
 of atoms, acted upon and governed by two nicely- 
 balanced forces mutual repulsion and attraction so 
 
 1 " The sensation of sound is excited by the concussion of the 
 acoustic nerve, occasioned in most cases by the vibration of the 
 external air." H. Taine. 
 
 2 " Every body which vibrates in the air throws the air which 
 surrounds it into similar vibrations. . . . The vibrations consist of 
 condensations and expansions of the air, which follow one another 
 like circles of waves upon the surface of water." Prof. Bernstein. 
 
 8 " Sound can pass through solid bodies also without the interven- 
 tion of air, and reach the labyrinth in this manner." Prof. Bernstein. 
 " There are instances, for example, of persons who are totally deaf to 
 sounds produced by excitements of the air, but who can hear the 
 sound of a watch or a bell when held by the teeth, the sound being 
 then conveyed by the bony and other portions of the head to the 
 auditory nerves." Prof. Airy. 
 
THE SENSES. 177 
 
 as to admit of the greatest freedom of motion among 
 each, other. In vibrations of the atmosphere, then, we 
 have a state of alternate condensation and rarefaction, 
 and sound is produced when these succeed each other 
 with a certain rapidity and intensity. 1 The lowest and 
 highest number of vibrations in a given time that are 
 audible to the human ear are variously given by dif- 
 ferent authorities ; and in this respect great differences 
 exist among individuals some perceiving sounds so 
 deep as to be inaudible to other ears ; others, sounds 
 of so high a pitch as to be generally unheard. Accord- 
 ing to Helmholtz and others, vibrations under 16 or 
 over 38,000 in a second are quite inaudible, though for 
 most persons the range is much less, not exceeding 
 16,000. 2 All sound, whatever its pitch or intensity, 
 travels at the same rate, being in dry air at 32 Fahr. 
 1090 feet per second, but it varies with the elasticity 
 and density of the air. 3 
 
 Professor Bain distinguishes sounds considered as 
 sensations into three classes : " The first comprises the 
 
 1 "The atmosphere may be described as consisting of an infinity 
 of atoms capable of moving freely amongst each other, and which 
 are held separate by virtue of a law of mutual repulsion, each atom 
 repelling its neighbours, and tending to fly farther asunder. . . . 
 Sound is produced by a succession of quick, minute condensations 
 and rarefactions in the air, and these must follow each other with a 
 certain velocity in order to excite that sensation." E. S. Wyld. 
 
 2 " The gravest sound audible to the human ear is (according to 
 Helmholtz) 16 vibrations a second ; the highest audible sound, 
 38,000 vibrations a second, being a compass of 11 octaves." Prof. 
 Bain. 
 
 8 " The velocity of sound in air depends on the elasticity of the 
 air in relation to its density. The greater the elasticity, the swifter 
 is the propagation ; the greater the density, the slower is the propa- 
 gation. . . . The velocity of sound in water is more than four times 
 its velocity in air. The velocity of sound in iron is seventeen timei 
 its velocity in air. The velocity of sound along the fibre of pine* 
 wood is ten times its velocity in air." Prof. Tyndall. 
 
178 MEMORY. 
 
 general effects of sound as determined by quality, 
 intensity, and volume or quantity, to which all ears 
 are sensitive. The second class includes musical 
 sounds, for which a susceptibility to pitch is requisite. 
 Lastly, there is the sensibility to the articulateness, 
 distance, and direction of sounds, which are the more 
 intellectual properties." 
 
 The first and principal difference between sounds 
 experienced by the ear is that between noises and 
 musical tones, every variety of which depends on the 
 rapidity, form, size, and order of succession of the 
 vibrations. In musical tones, the vibrations are 
 periodic, or succeed each other at regular intervals ; 
 in noises, they follow each other irregularly. 1 Musical 
 tones begin to be perceived at about 30 vibrations in a 
 second, but a determinate musical pitch is not percep- 
 tible till about 40 vibrations are reached. 2 
 
 Musical tones are distinguishable from each other (1) 
 by their intensity, force, or loudness ; (2) by their pitch 
 or relative height; and (3) by their quality or timbre. 
 The intensity, force, or loudness of a tone depends 
 upon the extent or amplitude of the vibrations, the 
 greater the extent of the vibrations the louder the 
 sound. Pitch depends on the number of the vibrations 
 that strike the ear in a given time, the greater the 
 number of vibrations the higher the pitch. As the 
 number of vibrations increase, the time occupied 
 by each diminishes, and the length of the wave is 
 shortened. Hence, the shorter the vibrations or waves 
 
 1 " The sensation of a musical tone is due to a rapid periodic 
 motion of the sonorous body ; the sensation of a noise, to non- 
 periodic motions." H. Helmholty. 
 
 2 " The musical tones which can be used with advantage, and 
 bave clearly distinguishable pitch, have between 40 and 4000 vibra- 
 tions in a second, extendng o ver seven octaves." H. HelmhoUz. 
 
THE SENSES. 179 
 
 of sound the higher the tone, and the longer the waves 
 the deeper the tone. The quality, colour, or timbre of 
 a tone is that peculiarity attaching to each, which 
 renders it easy to distinguish notes of the same in- 
 tensity and pitch proceeding from different instruments. 
 Thus we can readily distinguish the same note as 
 coming from a piano, a violin, a flute, &c. This has 
 been proved by Helmholtz to arise from the presence 
 of a certain number of overtones, which are produced 
 with every tone which is sounded. 1 These overtones 
 are usually called the harmonics of the given funda- 
 mental tone. They are present to a greater or less 
 extent in the sounds of all instruments used in music, 
 and it is their presence and strength that give to each 
 kind of instrument its peculiar tone. Thus each 
 musical tone is a compound made up of a series of 
 different tones the first being the fundamental, or 
 prime partial tone of the compound, and the rest its 
 harmonic upper partial tones. 
 
 Great differences exist among individuals with regard 
 to the acuteness of this sense, and some possess it in 
 greater perfection in certain directions than in others. 
 One whose hearing is good for sound in general may 
 yet have but little ear for musical tones ; and, on the 
 other hand, one with a good ear for music may yet be 
 deficient as regards hearing in general. 2 Some ears, 
 
 1 " The difference between sounds, otherwise the same, proceeding 
 from different materials, instruments, or voices . . . are now ex- 
 plained by the presence of auxiliary upper tones in all instruments, 
 which tones vary with the material and the instrument" Prof. 
 Bain, 
 
 2 " In different individuals the sense of hearing is more perfect 
 for sounds of different pitch ;" and " one whose hearing is good as far 
 as regards the sensibility to feeble sounds, is sometimes deficient in 
 the power of recognising the musical relation of sounds, and in the 
 sense of harmony and discord ; while another individual, whose 
 
180 MEMOBY. 
 
 again, are more acute for articulate sounds, or sounds 
 of a particular kind, than others. There also appear 
 to be considerable differences among individuals as to 
 the time it takes for an impression to reach conscious- 
 ness or to be apprehended by the intelligence. There 
 are persons who have no difficulty in hearing sounds, 
 but yet fail in readily interpreting or understanding 
 them. This is frequently the case with persons in old 
 age, or suffering from mental debility, and is to be 
 attributed to a condition of mind rather than to any 
 defect in the organ of hearing. 1 What is commonly 
 termed deafness is not unfrequently to be attributed to 
 this cause the sounds being heard, but not being 
 interpreted or recognised through mental defect or 
 failure of memory. The power of attention is strongly 
 marked in regard to this sense, and sounds may be 
 distinctly heard when the attention is directed towards 
 them that in ordinary circumstances would be imper- 
 ceptible ; and people often fail to hear what is said to 
 them because they are not paying attention. 2 
 
 The power of perceiving the direction of sounds is 
 not a faculty of the sense of hearing, but is an act of 
 the mind judging from experiences previously acquired. 3 
 
 hearing is in other respects imperfect, has these endowments". Dr. 
 Kirkes. " It is even possible for a person whose hearing is very 
 defective from disease to have a better ear for musical sounds than, 
 has another person who is not at all deaf." W. Harvey. 
 
 1 " Persons on whom old age or debility brings deafness frequently 
 describe themselves as having no difficulty in hearing sounds, but aa 
 being unable to disentangle and identify words when they are indis- 
 tinctly and rapidly uttered." This defect "is most marked early in 
 the day, and is diminished by whatever invigorates the circulation ". 
 H. Spencer. 
 
 2 " That one-half of the deafness that exists is the result of inat- 
 tention cannot be doubted." fP. Harvey. 
 
 8 In hearing u we must distinguish two different points the 
 audible sensation as it is developed without any intellectual inter- 
 
THE SENSES. 181 
 
 From the modifications which the sensation of sound 
 undergoes according to the direction from which it 
 reaches us, the mind infers the position of the sounding 
 body. In forming this judgment we are doubtless 
 greatly aided by the possession of two ears. In like 
 manner the distance of the source of a sound is not 
 recognised by the sense itself, but is inferred from its 
 intensity. 
 
 The ear ranks as the most intellectual of our senses 
 after the eye, while as a power of moving our emotional 
 nature, and calling forth our activities, it is superior 
 even to that. 1 To the majority of mankind music is a 
 greater source of enjoyment than a scene or a picture. 2 
 The ear is the organ by which man listens to the voice 
 of his fellow-man, and the wail of anguish, the cry of 
 pity, the word of exhortation, find an entrance here to 
 his inmost soul, moving him, it may be, to deeds of the 
 greatest self-denial or of the utmost. heroism. 3 
 
 ference, and the conception which we form in consequence of that 
 sensation". Dr. Kirkes. 
 
 1 " All the delights of music, all the charms of society, all the 
 power of language, all the expressions of love, pity, anger, remorse, 
 ]oy, and fear, which we encounter in our way through life all are 
 out the developments of the one elementary perception of sound as 
 conveyed to us through waves of the atmosphere in combination 
 with the susceptibility of the appropriate organ." J. D. MorelL 
 What is received by the ear makes a deeper impression on the 
 mind than anything received through the organs of sight. It is a 
 known thing that nothing so much awakens the Switzer's longing 
 for home as the peculiar series of modulations, without any words, 
 which compose the so-called Ranz des vaches, which is only to be 
 heard in that country, bat which has neither music nor melody in 
 it" W. von Humboldt. 
 
 2 " A love of music is much more frequent than a love of painting 
 or sculpture ; and you will reach the hearts and touch the feelings 
 of the majority of mankind more quickly by singing them a song 
 than by showing them a picture." Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
 8 In the hands of genius the sense of hearing " is made to move 
 00 gently with the pastoral ditty ; to excite our pity or desire ; to stir 
 14 
 
 i c 
 
182 MEMOEY. 
 
 Almost everything in nature may be said to have its 
 voice by which it speaks to man, who is thus, as it 
 were, brought into fellowship and sympathy with it. 1 
 Without the hearing ear all nature is silent, and 
 stripped in a great measure of its charms. 2 To be 
 without this sense, to be shut out from listening to the 
 voices of our fellow-men, to be cut off from all the 
 sounds of nature, is a heavier privation than even the 
 loss of sight. 8 
 
 The ear is the sense that is most closely associated 
 with the voice and speech. 4 It guides and directs the 
 action of the vocal organs, in much the same way that 
 the action of the muscles is guided by the muscular 
 sense. 6 Language is also primarily and most directly 
 
 up a national, patriotic, or martial spirit ; to celebrate a victory ; to 
 subdue us with devotional melodies ; or to overwhelm us with those 
 marvellous creations of the human soul and mind, the grand and 
 majestic combinations of the oratorio". Dr. J. Marshall. "The 
 firmness of a word and a gesture has often staid a flying army, and 
 the fate of nations has turned upon the tones of determination 
 Bounded by a single patriot." R. S. Wyld. 
 
 1 " It is the sense through which all nature speaks to us in her 
 manifold voices, excites within us the higher emotions, and feeds the 
 sense of harmony, which is a mental quality." Dr. J. Marshall. 
 
 2 "Apart from sound, the outward world has a dreamlike and un- 
 real look we only half believe in it, we miss at each moment what 
 it contains." H. R. Haweis. 
 
 8 " It is a sorer affliction to be cut off from listening to the tongues 
 of our fellow-men, than it is to be blinded to the sights on which 
 they gaze." Prof. G. Wilson. " Deafness tries the temper more, 
 isolates more, unfits for social converse, cuts off from the world of 
 breathing emotional activity tenfold more than blindness." H. R. 
 Haweis. 
 
 4 " Sound is the leading element in language, both spoken and 
 written. We hear the words even when we see them, but we do not 
 ice them when we hear them." (j. H. Lewes. 
 
 9 " It appears that the vocal organs are usually guided in their 
 action by the sensations received through the ears, in the same 
 manner as other muscles are guided by the sensations received 
 through themselves." In vocalisation "the delicate gradations in 
 
THE SENSES. 183 
 
 addressed to the ear, and it is by the ear that it is most 
 readily learnt. 1 In learning a language, nothing is of 
 more importance than an ear well trained to nicely 
 discriminate and treasure up different kinds of articulate 
 sounds. The ear is the natural companion of the 
 tongue, not the eye, and a language learned by the ear 
 comes more readily and naturally to be spoken than 
 when learned by the eye. It is by the ideas of the 
 sounds as heard, rather than of the words as seen, that 
 a language is learnt. Further, the mind is more im- 
 pressed by hearing than by seeing, and the language 
 which is taken in by the ear is more readily and deeply 
 implanted in the memory than that which is acquired 
 through the eye ; in like manner as what is said to us 
 usually impresses us more deeply than what we merely 
 read. 2 Hence we hold that in teaching the ear should 
 be much more frequently called into exercise than it is 
 
 the action of each individual muscle, and the harmonious combina- 
 tion of the whole, are effected under the guidance of the ear without 
 (save in exceptional cases) the smallest knowledge on our own 
 parts of the nature of the mechanism we are putting in action ". Dr. 
 Carpenter. 
 
 1 " In the first phases of the development of the young child, it is 
 indeed acoustic impressions that first awaken his mind and lead him 
 to reproduce the sounds that strike his ears. ... It is by means of 
 this series of acts that human speech, the natural daughter of auditory 
 excitations, becomes developed in us, expresses itself outwardly, and 
 manifests through precise and appropriate sounds the emotions of 
 the sentient personality which is in action." J. Luys. " Language 
 belongs, in the first instance, to the ear, and is afterwards by a 
 transfer of associations conveyed to the eye. . . . When language is 
 mentally employed as a vehicle or medium of cogitation ... it is the 
 sound rather than the written sign that is thought of." Isaac 
 Taylor. " It would seem pretty obvious that, so far as the infant 
 thinks by means of language, it does so by means of the remembered 
 sounds, these are its linguistic symbols of thought." Dr. Bastian. 
 
 8 " The mind is more concentrated in hearing than in seeing, and 
 the ear is less apt to be distracted than the eye by the obtrusion of 
 surrounding objects." Dr. B. 
 
184 MEMORY. 
 
 at present, and that pupils should not only learn their 
 lessons by reading them, but also from hearing them 
 read, and from instruction received viva voce. 1 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that this sense be 
 fully educated and trained in order that we may receive 
 all the advantages from it that it is capable of affording, 
 as well as all the pleasure and enjoyment that it can so 
 richly bestow. 2 The ear is more susceptible of educa- 
 tion, and may be more readily trained than perhaps 
 any of the other senses. 8 Of the degree of perfection 
 to which it may be brought by education, we have 
 evidence in the case of those persons who have to 
 exercise it frequently, or who are greatly dependent 
 upon it, as the blind. An orchestral conductor can 
 detect the slightest departure from time or tune in 
 
 1 w Instruction by the living voice has this advantage over books, 
 that as more natural it is more impressive. Hearing rouses the 
 attention and keeps it alive far more effectually than reading." Sir 
 W. Hamilton. " The truth of these remarks is confirmed by the 
 fact of few of the sayings or songs learned by the ear only and in the 
 nursery being ever forgotten." Dr. B. Rush. 
 
 2 " Is it not a thing to be- deeply lamented that the sensitive ears 
 with which almost everyone of us has been gifted by God are so 
 little educated ? ... As for training them to that exquisite sense of 
 melody or harmony of which they are susceptible, how few do it ! ... 
 Let everyone so train and educate and fuJly develop the faculty of 
 hearing that is in those ears of his, that he may listen with full 
 delight and appreciation to the song of birds and the roar of the sea, 
 the wailing of the winds and the roll of the thunder ; and may be 
 able to cheer his soul and calm his heart by hearkening to the music 
 of his fellow-men, and in turn rejoice their hearts by making music 
 for them." Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
 8 The ear " is still more susceptible of education than the eye, and 
 can be educated more quickly ". Prof. G. Wilson. " The quickness 
 of perception with regard to all sounds, those especially which are 
 faint or distant, is much improved by exercise and culture, and on 
 the other hand deteriorated by inattention and neglect." W. Harvey. 
 " By cultivation hearing becomes, like all the senses, very acute 
 as in the Indian, who listens on the ground for the distant footfall of 
 his enemy or his prey." Dr. J. Marshall. 
 
THE SENSES. 185 
 
 fche sound of one out of a number of instruments, and 
 indicate without hesitation the faulty performer ; and a 
 blind man is able to thread his way safely through a 
 crowded thoroughfare by the acuteness of his ear 
 alone. 1 
 
 Sight. The sense of sight is the highest and most 
 important of all our senses. 2 It deals with the greatest 
 number of objects, gives us the most varied informa- 
 tion respecting them, and thus furnishes the mind 
 with the greatest number of its ideas concerning the 
 material universe. While most of the other senses 
 reveal only one quality or property of an object, as its 
 taste, smell, or sound, sight makes known various pro- 
 perties, as colour, form, size, roughness, smoothness, 
 and the like, as well as place, distance, direction, &c. 
 Touch is the only one of the senses that, in this respect, 
 bears some resemblance to sight, and hence sight is 
 sometimes viewed as extended or distant touch. 8 
 Touch, however, requires to be brought into direct 
 contact with its objects before it can feel them, while 
 sight can take cognizance of objects a great distance 
 
 1 " The extraordinary perfection and acuteness of hearing often 
 attained by the blind prove that the faculty of hearing, like all the 
 other physical powers of the human frame, is capable of high 
 development . . . under diligent cultivation." W.Harvey. "They 
 can even tell when they are passing a stationary object (such as a 
 lamp-post), provided it be as high as the ear, or nearly so, by the 
 reverberation of the sound of their own footsteps, and can discrimi- 
 nate between a lamp-post and a man standing still in the position of 
 one by the same means." Dr. W. B. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " Of all our members, the eye has always been held the choicest 
 gift of nature the most marvellous product of her plastic force. 51 
 H. Helmholtz. " Our sense of sight is the most perfect and delight- 
 ful of all our senses/ 1 Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
 3 " Our sight may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive 
 kind of touch that spreads itself over an infinite multitude of bodies, 
 comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach some of 
 the most remote parts of the universe." Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
186 MEMORY. 
 
 off. In this respect, too, sight is superior to any of the 
 other senses, which require to be either in immediate 
 contact with, or within a limited distance of, their 
 objects, in order to perceive them. 
 
 Sight is, at first, largely dependent upon the other 
 senses for its information. It is by means of touch 
 that it acquires its fiist notions of the form, size, dis- 
 tance, direction, &c., of bodies, but after a time it comes 
 to furnish us with this information without reference 
 to touch. Thus children manifest a great desire to 
 handle and carry to the mouth whatever they see. 
 In like manner, the senses of hearing, taste, and smell 
 first inform the eye regarding such of the properties of 
 objects as they take cognizance of, and then the eye 
 comes to associate these properties with the sight of 
 the object without their aid. We acquire our first 
 knowledge of language by the ear, but after we have 
 learnt to read we come to associate the meanings of 
 the different words with their visible forms, and not 
 with their sounds. Hence, when from the sight of an 
 object we gather all the information we require re- 
 specting it, we do not think of calling in the aid of the 
 other senses, so that they do not usually receive that 
 amount of exercise and training that should fall to 
 them. It is only in those cases where sight is wanting 
 that we find the other senses in that state of efficiency 
 in which they should be. 
 
 This sense is specially fitted to guide and direct our 
 physical activities. By means of it we are able with 
 accuracy to determine the position, distance, size, form, 
 and other properties of the objects around us, so that 
 we can readily and without difficulty move among 
 them, act upon them, touch and handle them. Thus 
 we can at once lay our hand upon any object within 
 
THE SENSES. 187 
 
 reach, make onr way in safety amid obstacles that 
 impede our progress, strike a ball, thread a needle, 
 drive a nail, and perform a multitude of other opera- 
 tions, every one of which depends upon the information 
 afforded us by the eyes. 1 Besides this, it reveals to us 
 the manifold beauties of nature, with all their wealth of 
 form and colour, of sunshine and shade, of action and 
 repose, and, stretching far into space, takes account of 
 those distant worlds that sparkle in the heavens. 2 
 Without this sense our knowledge of the external world 
 would be meagre and imperfect, and our enjoyment of 
 nature very much diminished. It continues longer in 
 action, and suffers less from fatigue than any of the 
 other senses, and its pleasures have usually a higher 
 degree of persistence, and are more easily recoverable 
 than those of any other sense. 8 
 
 The sole object of sight is light, with its various 
 modifications of shade and colour. Light was formerly 
 
 1 We owe to the eye "the security and exactness with which we 
 can judge by sight of the position, distance, and size of the objects 
 which surround us. ... Whenever we stretch forth the hand to lay 
 hold of something, or advance the foot to step upon some object, we 
 must first form an accurate optical image of the position of the object 
 to be touched, its form, distance. &c., or we shall tail." H. Helmholtz. 
 
 2 "It is by the eye alone that we know the countless shining 
 worlds that till immeasurable space ; the distant landscapes of our 
 own earth, with all the varieties of sunlight that reveal them ; the 
 wealth of form and colour among flowers ; the strong and happy life 
 that moves in animals." H. Helmholtz. "Were all the interesting 
 diversities of colour and form to disappear, how unsightly, dull, ami 
 wearisome would be the aspect of the world ! . . . The ever-varying 
 brilliancy and grandeur of the landscape, and the magnificence ut 
 the sky, sun, moon, and stars, enter more extensively into the enjoy 
 ment of mankind than we perhaps ever think or can possibly appre 
 hend without frequent and extensive investigation." Dr. Dwiyht. 
 
 3 Sight "fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses 
 with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in 
 action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments" 
 Pro/. <?. Wilson. 
 
188 MEMORY. 
 
 supposed to consist of minute particles of matter given 
 off in all directions from luminous bodies, and travelling 
 with immense rapidity; 1 but the generally received 
 opinion now is that it is occasioned by the undulations 
 of an extremely attenuated and subtle fluid or ether, 
 which pervades all space and penetrates all substances, 
 occupying the interstices between their atoms, and 
 vibrating freely, particularly in such substances as are 
 transparent. While at rest it is inappreciable by our 
 senses, but when acted upon by luminous bodies it is 
 thrown into a succession of waves which, entering the 
 eye, produce our sensations of light and colour. 2 Thus 
 light resembles sound in the mode of its action, but 
 while the latter travels at the rate of only about 1090 
 feet in a second, the former speeds at the amazing 
 rapidity of about 186,000 miles in the same space of 
 time. 8 
 
 1 Newton 4< adopted a corpuscular theory : he imagined light to 
 consist of excessively minute particles of matter projected from 
 luminous bodies, with the immense velocity of nearly 200,000 miles 
 in a second". JR. S. Wyld. . 
 
 8 " Of late certain difficulties in the explanation of the recently 
 discovered properties of light, especially its polarisation, have tended 
 to revive the doctrine maintained by Descartes, Huygens, and Euler, 
 viz., that all the phenomena of light depend on the undulations of a 
 highly attenuated fluid or ether universally diffused throughout 
 space, which, while at rest, is inappreciable by our senses, but when 
 acted on by luminous bodies is thrown into a succession of waves. 
 Luminous bodies are thus supposed to act on the universally diffused 
 fluid somewhat in the same manner that sonorous bodies do on air 
 in the production of sound." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. " Light ". 
 "Physics teach us that light is transmitted by the ether, a substance 
 of extraordinary tenuity, which extends throughout the universe, 
 penetrates all substances, exists also in empty space, and that it is 
 produced by vibrations of the ether of extraordinary rapidity." 
 Prof. Bernstein. 
 
 * " Light is without doubt the most wonderful natural agent we 
 are acquainted with ; pervading, as it appears to do, infinite space; 
 treaming from age to age from the remotest orbs the telescope can 
 
THE SENSES. 189 
 
 Just as in sound, differences of pitch in musical tones 
 are due to the rate of the undulations of air, so differ- 
 ences in colour are owing to the rate of the undulations 
 of the ether. It has been ascertained that the number 
 of undulations necessary to produce the sensation of 
 red is no less than 482 billions in a second, while the 
 number of those necessary to produce the sensation of 
 violet, at the other end of the spectrum, amounts to 
 707 billions a second, the other prismatic hues having 
 each its appropriate number between these two. 1 
 Since- the different kinds of light travel with equal 
 velocity, it follows that the length of each wave is 
 conversely proportionate to its duration. Thus the 
 wave length of the extreme red ray is 0*0,000,266 of 
 an inch, and that of the extreme violet only 0*0,000,167. 
 The number of undulations in an inch is, for the ex- 
 reach, and with a velocity which baffles our comprehension." 
 R. S. Wyld. 
 
 1 "Modern optical discoveries teach us that every point of a medium 
 through which a ray of light passes is affected with a succession of 
 periodical movements recurring regularly at intervals not less than 
 four hundred millions of millions of times in a second ; that it is by 
 such movements communicated to the nerves of our eyes that we 
 see ; nay, more, that it is the difference in the frequency of their 
 recurrence which affects us with the sense of the diversity of colour; 
 that, for instance, in acquiring the sensation of redness our eyes are 
 affected four hundred and eighty-two millions of millions of times ; 
 of yellowness, five hundred and forty-two millions of millions of 
 times ; and of violet, seven hundred and seven millions of millions 
 of times per second/ Sir John Herschel. " A man counting as hard 
 as he can repeat numbers one after another, and never counting 
 more than a hundred, BO that he shall have no long words to repeat, 
 may perhaps count ten thousand, or a hundred a hundred times over, 
 in an hour. At this rate, counting night and day, and allowing no 
 time for rest or refreshment, he would count one million in four 
 days and four hours, or say four days only. To count a million a 
 million times over he would require four million days, or, roughly, 
 ten thousand years ; and for five hundred millions of millions he 
 must have the utterly unrealisable period of live million years."^ 
 S. Sutler. 
 
190 MEMORY. 
 
 treme red, 87,640, and the extreme violet, 59,750, tha 
 others being intermediate. 1 
 
 Besides the undulations that produce light or colour, 
 there are others which, from being either too slow or 
 too rapid, do not give rise to luminous sensations. 
 Below the red the undulations do not produce light 
 but heat, and above the violet they have only a chemi- 
 cal action. The former are therefore known as the 
 dark heat rays, the latter as the dark chemical rays, of 
 the spectrum. The illuminating or light-giving power 
 is greatest in the yellow portion of the spectrum, and 
 diminishes rapidly towards the red on the one side, 
 and the violet on the other. 
 
 The colour of an object is caused by the rejection or 
 reflection of certain of the coloured rays, the others 
 being absorbed. Thus an object appears red when all 
 the coloured rays are absorbed with the exception of 
 the red, which are reflected. Where all the rays are 
 absorbed the object appears black, where all are re- 
 flected white. Thus the colour of bodies depends on 
 the rays they reject or radiate, not on those they 
 absorb. 
 
 Those colours which, when combined, constitute 
 white are always harmonious when associated together. 
 Thus blue, yellow, and red ; orange, green, and violet ; 
 red and green ; yellow and violet ; blue and orange, are 
 harmonious. The unharmonious colours, on the other 
 hand, are such as contain only a part of the consti- 
 tuents of white, as red and yellow, red and blue, yellow 
 
 1 " An increase of speed and diminution of length in the waves 
 are sufficient to determine the variations which our sensation of 
 colour undergoes in passing from red to violet. . . . Helmholtz dis- 
 tinguishes the following successive colours red, orange, golden 
 yellow, pure yellow, greenish yellow, pure green, bluish green, blue 
 of water, cyanic blue, indigo, violet and ultra- violet." H. Taine, 
 
THE SENSES. 191 
 
 anfl blue. The agreeableness of the sensations pro- 
 duced by harmonious colours is doubtless owing to the 
 wave action of their rays being in accordance with the 
 natural action of the nerve force, and tending to restore 
 the disturbed equilibrium of the retina and optic nerve. 
 
 Colour, therefore, does not exist as such in the object 
 itself, which simply reflects or transmits a certain num- 
 ber of billions of undulations a second, and these are 
 perceived as colour only when they fall upon the retina 
 of a sentient being. Light and colour have no existence 
 apart from the seeing eye, except as mechanical im- 
 pulses or undulations. 1 The sensation of light may be 
 produced by any irritation of the optic nerve, as by a 
 blow or pressure upon the eyeball, a shock of electri- 
 city, &c. 
 
 The sensations of sight are excited by the action of 
 light upon the retina of the eye, where the ultimate 
 fibres of the optic nerve terminate. This action con- 
 sists in forming upon the retina an image or repre- 
 sentation of what is before it, and this is effected by 
 means of the rays of light which all objects, being 
 either luminous in themselves or reflecting the light 
 transmitted to them from other bodies, send forth. 
 In the eye we have an optical instrument of great 
 fineness and delicacy, composed of various parts, 
 beautifully adjusted for receiving impressions of ex- 
 ternal objects, and imprinting them on the retina, 
 
 1 Light "is the product of undulations of the ether and of retinal 
 sensibility. Both factors are indispensable to the product ; but either 
 may potentially exist independently of the other." JR. S. Wyld. 
 " Colour does not exist as such in the object itself, which has merely 
 the power of reflecting or transmitting a certain number of millions 
 of undulations in a second ; and these only produce that affection of 
 our consciousness which we call colour, when they fall upon the 
 retina of the living percipient." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
192 MEMORY. 
 
 whence they are transmitted by means of the optio 
 nerve to the brain. 1 
 
 The great acuteness of this sense is owing to the 
 vast number of extremely minute nerve fibres spread 
 out on the retina. 2 An object of only -w of an inch in 
 diameter is usually visible to the naked eye ; and if it 
 powerfully reflect the light, it will be visible though 
 much smaller. 3 A line is much more readily seen than 
 a point, and objects which cannot be discerned when 
 single become visible if placed in a row. We are able 
 to see two points as distinct when they subtend an 
 angle of about 40 seconds. 
 
 1 M The essential constituents of the optical apparatus of the eye 
 may be thus enumerated : a nervous structure to receive and trans- 
 mit to the brain the impressions of light ; certain refracting media 
 for the purpose of so disposing of the rays of light traversing them 
 as to throw a correct image of an external body on the retina ; a 
 contractile diaphragm with a central aperture for regulating the 
 quantity of light admitted into the eye ; and a contractile structure 
 by which the chief refracting medium shall be so controlled as to 
 enable objects to be seen at various distances." Dr. Kirkes. 
 
 8 " The great superiority of the eye as a medium for perceiving 
 the outer world lies in the power of independent sensibility to 
 minute points" arising from "the minute size of the subdivisions 
 of the retina capable of independent sensation. . . . The nerve of 
 vision must needs consist of a number of independent fibres, main- 
 taining their distinctness all the way to the brain, and capable of 
 causing distinct waves of diffusion throughout the entire cerebral 
 mass. . . . .In the act of perceiving the objects about us, this distinct- 
 ness enables us to hold in our minds all the parts of a complicated 
 scene, each in the proper place, without mingling or confusion. . . . 
 In the nerve of sight there cannot probably be less than one hundred 
 thousand fibres, and there may be many more." Prof. Bain. 
 
 8 " It is possible to see a brilliant point in an angle even so small 
 as } of a second, and a sharp eye can see a body the ^ of a line in 
 diameter, that is, about the T fo part of an inch." Prof. M'Kendrick. 
 " Dr. Alfred Mayer estimated and demonstrated by actual experiment 
 that the smallest black spot on a white ground visible to the naked 
 eye is about -^ of an inch at the distance of normal vision namely, 
 10 inches ; and that a line, which of course has the element of 
 extension, y^ of an inch in thickness, could be seen." Anon, 
 
THE SENSES. 193 
 
 The duration of a stimulus, in order to call forth 
 a visual sensation, may be exceedingly short ; and the 
 impression made upon the retina has a certain per- 
 sistence after the removal of the cause, varying with 
 the brightness of the original light, and the existing 
 condition of the eye, from -$ to ^V of a second. 1 Two 
 or more sensations will appear as one if the interval 
 between them be less than from ^V to T V of a second, 
 and here we have an explanation of a number of curious 
 visual phenomena. It is well known that if an ignited 
 point be moved rapidly round in a circle, it ceases to 
 be seen as a single point, and presents the appearance 
 of an unbroken circle. It is in consequence of this 
 persistence of an image on the retina that the wink- 
 ing of the eyelids forms no impediment to continued 
 vision. Light must be of a certain intensity to 
 produce a luminous impression, and after the retina 
 has been for some time in the dark its excitability is 
 increased. 
 
 The various movements of the eye are effected by six 
 nicely adjusted muscles, of which four are straight 
 (recti) and two oblique. By means of these acting 
 singly or in combination, the various nice and intricate 
 movements of the eye are performed. They are largely 
 concerned in almost every act of sight, and serve to 
 bring the different parts of an object successively into 
 the axis of vision where the sense of sight is most 
 acute. They also enable us to follow objects in motion, 
 
 1 " Impressions made upon the retina do not disappear instantly, 
 but gradually fade away, and in so doing occupy a certain period of 
 time, which varies with the brightness of the original light, the 
 existing condition of the eye, and the illumination to which it is 
 exposed. ... It is a phenomenon analogous to that of the continu- 
 ance of sound in the ear, and subserves an important purpose of 
 keeping vision continuous and distinct during the winking of the 
 ey elide.* Dr, Draper. 
 
194 MEMORY. 
 
 and to determine their direction, velocity, &c. ; and by 
 means of them we judge of the form, size, and other 
 qualities of objects, distance, direction, and the like. 1 
 Sight is undoubtedly the most intellectual of our 
 senses, whether we regard the number and variety of the 
 ideas which it presents to the mind, the highly refined 
 nature of its enjoyments, or its constant and unwearied 
 activity. 2 In none of the other senses does the mind 
 itself come so largely and so manifestly into play. 
 What is seen by the bodily eye is only a small part of 
 what is conveyed to the mind through this sense. In 
 the former we have only the outline or form and colour 
 of certain objects imprinted upon the flat surface of the 
 retina ; and out of these, with their extreme delicacy 
 and minute variations, the mind forms that endless 
 variety of ideas that go to make up our visible world. 
 The retinal field of vision is very limited, but the field 
 of vision as presented to the mind is of no determinate 
 limit. All the objects depicted upon the retina are 
 represented on a plane surface, whereas to the mind 
 they appear as standing at various distances. It is 
 only through the experience gained by practice that we 
 are able to distinguish the different distances of objects. 
 Indeed, visual images are little more than signs, which 
 
 1 "Many of the aspects of the external world impress themselves 
 upon the moving apparatus of the eye. The surface of the sea, the 
 drifting of clouds, the fall of rain, the waving of trees in the wind, 
 the rushing of water, the darting of meteors, the rising and setting 
 of the sun, and all mixed impressions of spectacle and movement." 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " As regards intellect, the sensations of vision have a marked 
 superiority among the senses. They admit of being identified and 
 discriminated to an extraordinary extent . . . and they have a cor- 
 responding superiority as respects their being retained and remem- 
 bered. . . . Neither tastes nor smells, nor touches nor sounds, can 
 compare with sights in the property of mental persistence and reviva- 
 bility." Prof. Bain. 
 
THE SENSES. 195 
 
 the mind learns by degrees to understand and interpret ; 
 and the images and their interpretation come to be so 
 closely interwoven in the mind, that it is difficult or 
 impossible in all cases to say what belongs to the one 
 and what to the other, and yet it is of consequence to 
 keep the distinction clearly in view. 1 From the large 
 part that the mind plays in our visual sensations, we 
 are liable to be deceived in regard to what we actually 
 see, particularly when under strong mental excite- 
 ment. 2 
 
 Indeed, careful training is necessary in order to be 
 able to see clearly and accurately what is before us to 
 see all the parts of a complex whole in their due pro- 
 portion and in their proper relation to each other. 
 Simple as it may seem, it is very difficult for the 
 Untrained eye to observe accurately what is before it. 8 
 
 1 tt The mind is constantly co-operating in the acts of vision, so 
 that at last it becomes difficult to say what belongs to mere sensation 
 and what to the influence of the mind." Dr. Kirkes. " The figure 
 of a cube or sphere, distance, and magnitude are not acquired by 
 vision alone. Persons who have been suddenly cured of blindness 
 have no conception of the distance or magnitude of objects." Dr. 
 Abercrombie. " Regarding the perception of solidity . . . Mr. 
 Wheatstone now inclines to the view that there is a mental effect 
 produced over and above the optical effect, which mental suggestion 
 overrides the optical impression, and gives a perception really 
 different from the literal sensation." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " The eye looks, but it is the mind that sees ; and when the 
 mind contemplates phenomena under a preoccupation of thought, 
 it interprets them in the light of its own idea ; so that unless that 
 general idea be a right one, its views of every phenomenon are in some 
 measure perverted." Edward White. " The mind may be readily 
 deceived even in spite of itself, as the phenomena of the stereoscope 
 prove; and spectres having their origin in natural or diseased con- 
 ditions of the brain may accurately replace images that have been 
 painted in the eye." Dr. Draper. 
 
 8 " To the natural philosopher, the descriptive poet, the painter, 
 and the sculptor, as well as to the common observer, the power most 
 important to cultivate, and at the same time hardest to acquire, if 
 that of seeing what is before him." G. P. Marsh. 
 
196 MEMOET. 
 
 It must be taught to observe, to compare, to analyse, 
 to look at things on all sides, in order to see correctly. 
 As the sense of touch is largely employed in the first 
 instruction of this sense, it should be frequently had 
 recourse to in its after-training. In no other sense is 
 the constant verification of what is perceived, or ima- 
 gined to be perceived, more necessary than in this. 1 
 
 There exists in many respects a close analogy between 
 the senses of sight and hearing. If we strike a bar of 
 iron it emits a sound ; if we strike it frequently and 
 rapidly it becomes red-hot, and gives forth light. Both 
 light and sound travel from their source, and become 
 feebler the farther they are removed from it. Both are 
 capable of reflection, and in both the angle of reflection 
 is the same as the angle of incidence. In form and 
 colour we have beauty and harmony and their oppo- 
 sites, as we have sweetness and harmony and their 
 contraries in sound. While the ear notes its objects 
 with regard to time, the eye contemplates its objects 
 with regard to space. The ear and eye furnish the 
 mind with the greatest number of its ideas, the im- 
 pressions conveyed by them are most vivid and lasting, 
 and they are also those that most powerfully affect our 
 emotional nature and stimulate our mental and physical 
 activities. 
 
 Sight possesses a wonderful power over our muscular 
 movements in exciting, as well as in directing and con- 
 trolling them. The sight of a particular movement 
 
 1 " In most objects of sight there are numerous parts. ... Of 
 these, the parts that are more seen by one man are less seen by 
 another ; whence it is probable that from an object of any complexity 
 no two men ever receive precisely the same sensations." James 
 Mill. " The harmonious results of the perceptions of feeling and of 
 eight depend even in the adult upon a constant comparison of th 
 two." H. Helmholta. 
 
THE SENSES. 197 
 
 immediately calls out the desire to imitate it ; and this 
 feeling is particularly strong in the young, and consti- 
 tutes an important auxiliary in their education. In 
 like manner, when the eye is steadily fixed upon any 
 of our movements, particularly if they be of an unusual 
 or difficult nature, it is in general more accurately 
 performed than when this is not the case. The child, 
 in learning to walk or dance, fixes his eyes upon his 
 feet, as he fixes them upon his fingers in learning to 
 play the piano. 1 Indeed, skill in handicrafts and in 
 the use of weapons depends more upon the training 
 and acuteness of the eye than is commonly supposed. 2 
 The marksman, the bowler, the billiard-player, must 
 each fix his eye intently upon the object at which he 
 aims. 3 In certain kinds of paralysis the patient has 
 the command of his limbs as long as his eyes are fixed 
 
 1 " In learning to dance, the scholar desires to look at his feet and 
 legs, in order to judge by seeing when they are in a proper position. 
 By degrees he learns to judge of this by feeling ; but the visible idea 
 left partly by the view of his master's motions, partly by that of his 
 own, seems to be the chief associated circumstance that introduces 
 the proper motions." D. Hartley. "Where the movements which 
 it is desired to execute are complex and difficult, and we have to 
 learn them by imitation of the movements of other persons, the 
 sense of sight is then doubly brought into play. It is necessary at 
 the commencement and during the continuance of our efforts to copy 
 such movements to look alternately at our model and at our own 
 moving members." Dr. Bastian. " The difficulty of imitation is 
 greatest of all in those parts not within the sweep of the eye, as the 
 head and features." Prof. Bain. 
 
 * " In mere mechanical copying, as in handicraft operations, 
 military drill, dancing, posture, and the like, . . . granting a suffi- 
 cient flexibility and variety of fie spontaneous movements that is 
 to say, facility, the observant and imbibing eye is the next grand 
 requisite." Prof. Bain. 
 
 8 " Skill in marksmanship, whether with firearms or other projec- 
 tile weapons, depends more upon the training of the eye tnan is 
 generally supposed, and I have often found particularly good shcti 
 to possess an almost telescopic vision." G. P. Marsh. 
 15 
 
198 MEMOEY. 
 
 upon them, but loses it the moment they are with- 
 drawn. 1 
 
 As a rule, we remember best what we have seen, 
 and in cases of loss of memory we often find that the 
 sensations of sight are retained, while those of the 
 other senses are lost. Thus a sentence when written 
 has been found to be readily understood, though when 
 spoken it was unintelligible; and on the other hand, 
 persons have been found able to write what, from mere 
 obliviousness of the sounds, they were unable to utter. 
 Some persons, too, may have observed that when in 
 doubt as to the spelling of a word, they have been put 
 right by recalling the appearance of it or by writing it 
 down. All artificial modes of improving the memory 
 are based upon associating what we wish to remember 
 with visible objects. 2 
 
 To see clearly is a valuable aid even to thinking 
 clearly. In all our mental operations we owe much 
 to sight. To recollect, to think, to imagine, is to see 
 internally, to call up more or less distinct visual 
 images of things before the mind. 8 In order to under- 
 
 1 " The patient who cannot feel either the contact of his foot with 
 the ground or the muscular effort he is making, can manage to stand 
 and walk by looking at his limbs ; and the woman who cannot feel 
 the pressure of her child upon her arms, can yet sustain it so long as 
 she keeps her eyes fixed upon it, but no longer." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " We must connect the things we wish to remember with the 
 immediate objects of our senses that offer themselves daily to our 
 attention, but particularly with the objects of our sight, the most 
 vigorous and lively of all our senses, and of which the objects are 
 perhaps more numerous than those of all our other sense* pnt 
 together." Prof. Barron. " When a variety of ideas are associated 
 together, the visible idea, being more glaring and distinct tuun the 
 rest, performs the office of a symbol to all the rest, suggests them, 
 and connects them together." D. Hartley. 
 
 8 " To recollect, to imagine, to think, is to see internally, and to 
 call up the more or less enfeebled and transformed visual image of 
 things." H. Taine. " Cohering trains and aggregates of the sensa- 
 
THE SENSES. 199 
 
 stand a thing it is generally necessary to see it, and 
 what a man has not seen he cannot properly realise or 
 image distinctly to his mind. 1 Hence the importance 
 in education, of teaching as much as possible by the 
 eye, showing the objects we wish to be known, and 
 going through the operations we wish to be understood 
 and followed. 2 The sight of an object will usually give 
 a more clear and lasting impression of it than any 
 amount of verbal description. The fixing of the eye 
 intently upon an object seems to have the power of 
 holding the thoughts, and preventing them from 
 wandering, even though the object may have no real 
 connection with the subject of our thoughts. The 
 restless, unsettled eye of the insane, unable or unwill- 
 ing to fix itself upon any object, has probably much to 
 do with the wild thoughts that are coursing through 
 
 tions of sight make more than any other thing, perhaps more than 
 all other things put together, the material of thought, memory, and 
 imagination." Prof. Bain. 
 
 1 " The child, and perhaps the man as well, only knows well what 
 is shown him, and the image of things is the true medium between 
 their abstract idea and his personal experience." A. Vinet. 
 
 2 " I am of opinion that it is more than ever needful we should 
 teach as much as possible by the eye,, that in teaching any branch 
 of natural science the demonstration should be combined with oral 
 description. The student should see what is described ; and where 
 it is not possible for the teacher to exhibit illustrative specimens, 
 good models, drawings, and explanatory diagrams should be 
 supplied." Dr. L. 8. Beale: The Microscope. The distinguished 
 surgeon, Professor Syme, in speaking of the system he introduced of 
 bringing the patients before his pupils, says : " The great advantage 
 of this system is that it makes an impression at the same time on the 
 eye and ear, which is known by experience to be more indelible than 
 any other, and thus conveys instruction of the most lasting character. 
 ... It is only when an impression is made upon the eye that oral 
 instruction in regard to such matters produces a lasting impression ; 
 and unless the student can be shown either the things spoken ofj or 
 some evidence of their operation, little will be retained of what if 
 told him, however important may be its bearing upon his pro- 
 fessional life." 
 
'200 MEMORY. 
 
 his brain. Absorbed on what is going on within, he 
 cannot, or will not, give attention to anything else 
 which might tend to dispel the fascination. 1 Hence, in 
 all probability, the change of scene that is commonly 
 recommended in such cases acts in the way of serving 
 to recall his thoughts to what is going on around him. 
 There seems even reason to believe that if the eye were 
 well trained and duly exercised it would tend, in many 
 cases, to prevent insanity. 
 
 The eye has a wonderful power in lighting up and 
 animating the countenance, and reflects in a large 
 degree what is passing in the mind. Every passion of 
 the mind has its appropriate expression in the eye, 
 which sometimes speaks with a power and an eloquence 
 that cannot be equalled even by the lips. 2 
 
 The sense of sight is capable of extraordinary im- 
 provement by education, and that in the way either of 
 increased quickness or readiness in the perception of 
 objects generally, or in the power of discerning bodies 
 of extreme minuteness, and in discriminating the 
 slightest shades of difference in form, size, colour, &c. 3 
 
 1 " In a general way in persons with hallucinations . . . the 
 phenomena of the external world no longer produce in the sensorium 
 anything more than an abortive impression. . . . The patient, thus 
 shut up from external sounds, a stranger to everything that passes 
 around him, lends but an inattentive ear to the things of the external 
 world. He lives, as people say, in himself, upon remembrances of 
 the past, and upon his habitual delirious conceptions." /. Luys. 
 
 2 " It is chiefly the eye which betrays in our face the state of our 
 mind and thoughts ; and this is done for the most part by the move- 
 ment and position of the eyeball, associated with which are, of 
 course, the action of the facial muscles, of the eyelids, as well as 
 the power possessed by the eye of accommodating itself to a change 
 of circumstance. A troubled look lowers the eyes, an animated one 
 raises them ; and thus the mind, while it derives mental nourish- 
 ment from without through the eye, reveals its inner actions through 
 the same organ." Prof. Bernstein. 
 
 8 " The sense of vision may vary in its degree of perfection, as re 
 

 THE SENSES. 20i 
 
 The exercise of the sight in one direction, or on one class 
 of objects, does not of necessity improve or strengthen 
 it in other directions, or for other classes of objects. 
 In each case there is developed a certain readiness or 
 aptitude for noting appearances, or minute shades of 
 difference, of particular kinds, which pass unnoticed by 
 those who have not been accustomed to observe the 
 same kind of phenomena. 1 It is by the habitual 
 direction of our attention to the effects produced upon 
 our consciousness by the impressions made upon the 
 eye and transmitted to the sensorium that our sight, 
 like our other senses, is trained. (See "Attention".) 
 
 gards either the faculty of adjustments to different distances, the 
 power of distinguishing accurately the particles of the retina affected, 
 sensibility to light and darkness, or the perception of the different 
 shades of colour." Dr. Kirkes. 
 
 1 " The microscopist, who is constantly on the outlook for the 
 various forms of organic structure with which his mind is familiar, 
 discerns these without difficulty or hesitation where an ordinary 
 observer sees nothing but * oonfuaed jumble of tissue." Dr. 
 Carpenter. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 MENTAL IMAGES. 
 
 ** After an object is removed or the eye shut, we still retain an image of the 
 thing seen, though more obscure than when we saw it ; and this it is the Latins 
 call imagination, and apply the same . . to all the other senses. But the Greeks 
 call it fancy (Phantasici), which signifies appearance." Malebranche. 
 
 Aristotle maintains " that of every object of thought there must be in the 
 mind some form, phantasm, or species; that things sensible are perceived and 
 remembered by means of sensible phantasms, and things intelligible by intelligible 
 phantasms ; and that these phantasms have the form of the object without the 
 matter, as the impression of a seal upon wax has the form of a seal without its 
 matter ". Lord Raines. 
 
 " The word image is borrowed from the history of vision ; strictly, it only 
 denotes the cerebral revival of the optical sensation ; it is by extension that we have 
 applied the same name to the cerebral revival of muscular and tactile sensation, of 
 sensations of sound, taste, and smell." H. Taine. 
 
 " The word image must be understood as designating any recalled feeling of 
 whatever kind which wants something of the signature and energy of the feeling or 
 after-feeling it recalls. It may be a sight, a sound, a taste, a touch, a pain, an 
 effort, a terror, a word." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 We may define an image, then, as " a repetition or revival of the sensation, 
 while at the same time we distinguish it from the sensation," among other things 
 " by its origin, since it has the sensation as its antecedent, while the sensation is 
 preceded by an excitation of the nerve ". H. Taine. 
 
 " Sensation and after-sensation have their origin in an objective stimulus, the 
 image has its stimulation from within." 6?. H. Lewes. 
 
 " That which constitutes recollection or an act of memory is the present image 
 which a past sensation has left in us, an image which . . . seems to us the sensation 
 itself." H. Taine. 
 
 THR physical motion or change which occasions a 
 sensation must be apprehended by the mind before 
 it can be perceived or become an object of conscious- 
 ness. Impressions are, doubtless, being constantly 
 made upon the senses, and their influence conveyed to 
 the brain, that never come within the range of con- 
 sciousness, because the mind fails to apprehend them. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 203 
 
 In order that a sensation may be taken up and per- 
 ceived by the mind, it is necessary that an image of it 
 be formed. The mind can take no account of the 
 physical movements or changes that may be taking 
 place in the body, except in so far as they give rise to 
 mental images. 1 It can perceive nothing, understand 
 nothing, remember nothing but images. 2 
 
 We use the term " mental image " in preference to 
 the corresponding word "idea," employed by Locke 
 and others, in consequence of the frequent vagueness 
 and indefiniteness of the latter. 8 A mental image may 
 be said to be the mental side of a physical change or 
 
 1 " It is the mental not the bodily impression that constitutes the 
 actual perception." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 Is not thought " principally a calling up and arranging before 
 us of the images of physical things which have been given us through 
 sense? . . . Even in thinking of moral and abstract subjects, we 
 shall find that they present themselves to us embodied in somewhat 
 of a sensuous or physical garb, and at least always with distinct time 
 and space properties, for these are essential elements of human 
 thought." R. S. Wyld. " To recollect, to imagine, to think, is , . . 
 to call up the more or less enfeebled and transformed visual images 
 of things. . . In all the higher operations we affect by means of 
 abstract names judgment, reasoning, abstraction, generalisation, 
 combination of ideas there are images more or less effaced or more 
 or less distinct." H. Taine. " Locke holds that we cannot perceive, 
 remember, nor imagine anything but by having an idea or image 
 of it in the mind." Lord Kames. " Nothing is remembered but 
 through its idea." Jos. Mill. 
 
 8 " The word * idea ' . . being that term which I think serves 
 best to stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when 
 a man thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by 
 phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be 
 employed about in thinking." -John Locke. "The word * idea,' as one 
 prostituted to all meanings, it Trere perhaps better altogether to 
 discard. As for the representations of the imagination, or phantasy, 
 I would employ the terms image or phantasm, it being distinctly 
 understood that these terms are applied to denote the representations, 
 not of our visible perceptions merely as the terms taken literally 
 would indicate, but of our sensible perceptions in general." Sir W* 
 Hamilton. 
 
204 MEMORY. 
 
 condition of body a mental representation, or a re- 
 presentation to the mind of a physical fact. In sensa- 
 tion, as we have seen, all that passes from the organ 
 of sense to the brain is a form of motion. The sense- 
 organ is acted upon by an external object, and a form 
 of motion is set up which is conveyed to the brain, 
 and from the different kinds of motion so conveyed the 
 mind constructs images to itself of all the vast variety 
 of qualities or properties that we commonly attribute 
 to external objects. 1 
 
 These images grow and acquire strength and clear- 
 ness by slow degrees. To the opening mind of the 
 child the beautiful landscape or the lovely flower 
 presents only vague patches of colour. But by degrees, 
 as the same sensations are repeated, the mind comes 
 to distinguish the different parts, and the images 
 formed of them in the mind become more distinct and 
 clear. 8 
 
 1 a The impression on the nerve can have no resemblance to the 
 ideas suggested in the mind. All that we can say is that the agita- 
 tions of the nerves of the outward senses are the signals which the 
 Author of Nature has made the means of correspondence with the 
 realities. There is no more resemblance between the impressions on 
 the senses, and the ideas excited by them, than there is between the 
 sound and the conception raised in the mind of that man who, look- 
 ing out on a dark and stormy sea, hears the report of a cannon, 
 which conveys to him the idea of despair and shipwreck." Sir C. 
 Bell. 
 
 2 " The eye learns to discriminate colours and shades of colour 
 where at first there was only a vague blur of feeling. The flower we 
 see is not seen by the infant ; what the infant sees is what he has 
 learned to see; slowly the blur of feeling differentiates, and the stem, 
 leaves, petals, &c., once observed, are ever after observable ; they 
 then exist for the observer. . Did they not exist before ? Certainly 
 they did, but only for some observant mind, not for the infant. . . . 
 To the mind of a philosopher, every fact of colour is a complex of 
 visible and invisible facts, which differs from what it is in the mind 
 of a child or a peasant as the idea of a lily in the mind of a botanist 
 Differs from that in the mind of a savage." G. H. Lewes. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 295 
 
 The infant mind is at first only conscious of sensa- 
 tions : it simply receives the impressions that are made 
 upon it by external objects. It knows nothing of what 
 they are or whence they come has, in fact, no percep- 
 tion of them. By degrees, however, as the same 
 sensation? recur, it comes to act upon them : it com- 
 pares the present impression with the images of past 
 impressions of the same kind; marks in what they 
 resemble and in what they differ from each other; 
 distinguishes them as different from the Ego, or I, and 
 as belonging to the Non-Ego ; localises them ; and, in a 
 word, perceives them. 1 Perception is that act of the 
 mind by which we refer sensations to particular parts 
 of the body or to external objects. In every act of 
 perception what is perceived is not so much what is 
 actually present to the sense at the time, as the result 
 of a number of past sensations of a similar kind which 
 come into the mind at the same time, and serve to 
 explain or make clearer and more manifest this one. 2 
 Hence, the more frequently we have a particular sensa- 
 tion in the mind, the more do the images of past 
 sensations come into the formation of the present 
 image, which thus becomes more general and less 
 particular. 3 
 
 1 " There can be no perception of an object nothing but vague 
 feeling unless with present sensations there are linked other sen- 
 sations in ideal reproduction. * G. H. Lewes. 
 
 8 " The mind, according to Cud worth, perceives, by occasion oi 
 outward objects, as much more than is represented to it by sense as 
 a learned man does in the best-written book, than an illiterate person 
 or brute." Dugald Stewart. 
 
 8 " Artists are as a class possessed of the visualising power (that 
 is, of seeing well-defined images in the mind's eye) in a high degree, 
 and they are at the same time pre-eminently distinguished by their 
 gifts of generalisation. They are of all men the most capable of 
 producing forms that are not copies of any individual, but represent 
 the characteristic features of classes." F. Gallon. 
 
206 MEMORY. 
 
 In order to consciousness a change from one state 
 or condition of mind to another is necessary. We 
 are only conscious of a new sensation or thought 
 as we feel it to be a change from a past sensation or a 
 previous thought. While the new sensation is present 
 the past sensation exists in the mind as an after-sen- 
 sation or image. Did the past sensation disappear 
 entirely from the mind the moment it was past there 
 would be no consciousness of change, and consequently 
 no sensation. Hence, philosophers tell us that if we 
 were constantly subject to one impression it would be 
 as if we had no impression at all, for the mind would 
 have no consciousness of it. 
 
 Further, in order to recognise a present impression 
 as the same as or similar to a past, we must have an 
 image of the past impression in the mind. A man 
 might look on the face of his most intimate friend and 
 fail to recognise him if he had not an image of that 
 friend in his mind. He might perceive him as a person, 
 but if his mind were absorbed in something else, or if 
 he were what is termed "absent-minded," there might 
 no image present itself to his mind by which he could 
 recognise him. When one is engaged in seeking for a 
 thing, if he keep the image of it clearly before the mind, 
 he will be very likely to find it, and that too, probably, 
 where it would otherwise have escaped his notice. 1 So, 
 when one is engaged in thinking on a subject, thoughts 
 of things resembling it, or bearing upon it, and tending 
 to illustrate it, come up on every side. Truly, we may 
 well say of the mind, as has been said of the eye, that 
 
 1 " No one ever found the walking fern who did not have the 
 walking fern in his mind. A person whose eye is full of Indian 
 relics picks them up in every field he walks through. 7 ' They are 
 u quickly recognised because the eye has been commissioned to find 
 them M . /. Burroughs. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 207 
 
 " it perceives only what it brings with it the power of 
 perceiving". 1 
 
 A mental image is no mere mental abstraction, but, 
 like all the properties of mind, it has a material basis, 
 and possesses many of the characteristics of matter. 
 It is an image of something that we have seen, or felt, 
 or thought, or done ; and as these have all a material 
 basis, so in our view have the images that belong to 
 them. In recalling the image of a past sensation in 
 other words, in recollecting it, or representing it to the 
 mind not the brain alone, but also the special organ 
 of sense is called into exercise. That the body is 
 largely concerned in the formation of these images is 
 evident from the fact that a large measure of nervous 
 waste takes place during the operation. It is probably 
 in this process that the greatest amount of nervous 
 waste takes place, and it is this that first feels fatigue. 
 In reading a book, in listening to a discourse, in 
 studying a subject, it is not the eye that tires with 
 seeing or the ear with hearing, but it is the image- 
 forming power of the mind which becomes fatigued, in 
 which state we may read page after page of a book, or 
 hear sentence after sentence of a speech, and have little 
 or no notion of the meaning intended to be conveyed. 
 When the subject is familiar or interesting, this process 
 of image-formation is less arduous, and may be carried 
 on for a considerable time without fatigue ; but when, 
 on the other hand, the subject is unfamiliar or distaste- 
 
 1 Where two pictures are put before the two eyes, " it is not 
 enough to form the conscious intention of seeing first with one eye 
 and then with the other ; we must form as clear a notion as possible 
 of what we expect to see. Then it will actually appear. If, on the 
 other hand, we leave the mind at liberty, without a fixed intention 
 to observe a definite object, that alternation between the two pictures 
 ensues which is called retinal rivalry." H. Helmlwlte. 
 
208 MEMOBY. 
 
 ful, the labour of forming the images is much greater, 
 and the mind soon becomes fatigued. 
 
 This subject of mental images is one that has 
 hitherto received but little attention, and yet it is one 
 of the deepest interest, and calculated to throw light 
 upon many obscure mental phenomena. Whenever a 
 sensation or an idea is presented to the mind, a mental 
 image or conception of it must be formed in order to 
 its being perceived or understood. r v ln proportion to 
 the clearness and distinctness of the image will be the 
 understanding of it by the mind and the hold taken of 
 it by the memory. \ 
 
 As there are different kinds of sensations and different 
 classes of ideas, there exists a like variety among men- 
 tal images, and some minds excel in some, others in 
 other. 1 Thus some may excel in the formation of 
 visual images, others of auditory ones. The former 
 will remember best those things that are presented to 
 the eye, and of which they can form visual images ; the 
 latter, such as are addressed to the ear, and form audi- 
 tory ones. The former will take in and remember 
 most readily what they read, the latter what they hear; 
 the one will learn a language most easily by the eye, 
 from books ; the other by the ear, from conversation. 
 
 1 " In the normal state, we think by words mentally heard, read, 
 or pronounced, and what passes through our minds are images of 
 certain sounds, certain letters, or certain muscular and tactile sensa- 
 tions of the throat, the tongue, and the lips." H. Taine. "Our 
 intellectual operations are indeed mostly confined to the auditory 
 feelings (as integrated into words) and the visual feelings (as inte- 
 grated into impressions and ideas of objects, their relations and their 
 motions)." H. Spencer. When "by aid of mental words I follow 
 out a long train of reasoning," I have " in my mind . . . the image 
 of the sounds and vocal movements which my arguments would 
 require if uttered aloud, the image of the gestures, emotions, and 
 events which my conduct would excite in myself and others ". H* 
 Taine. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 209 
 
 Some, in whom the visualising faculty is very strong, 
 may, in listening to a discourse, image every word they 
 hear as it appears to the eye ; while others, with the 
 auditory faculty largely developed, will image what 
 they read as if it were addressed to the ear. 1 Others, 
 again, in reading or in listening to a discourse, will 
 attend only to the sense or meaning, and form sense- 
 images. These can give the substance of what they 
 have read or heard with great accuracy, though they 
 may not perhaps be able to recall any of the words. 
 In each case it is of importance to ascertain in what 
 direction the image-forming power of the mind chiefly 
 lies. 2 
 
 Further, not only are there images of the eye and ear, 
 and of the other senses, but there are also images of 
 muscular movements as of the tongue and hand. 3 Some 
 
 1 " Every word heard may excite a visible idea, and every 
 word seen an audible one." D. Hartley. " If a man with an acute 
 faculty of hearing, but a preference for thinking by the agency of 
 mental sight, listens to a lecture, he sits with his eyes closed, and, 
 unconsciously perhaps, pictures the words he hears as if writing 
 them. . . . Another person will convert the impressions he receives 
 by sight into sounds. ... A man who uses mental sight in this way 
 will gaze intently when he forgets anything, or perhaps closes his 
 eyes to avoid distraction ; while a person who employs mental sound 
 is more likely to put his finger to his lips as though to enforce 
 silence, and perhaps incline his head as though listening." Dr. M. 
 Granmlle. " The memory is aided in hearing, and after reading, by 
 shutting the eyes." Dr. B. Rush. 
 
 2 " The man who remembers by sound will find it easier and 
 better to recall a fact, event, or circumstance, by some formula which 
 connects it by sound, than by trying to picture the subject ; while 
 the reverse will be the case with the man who remembers by sight. 
 The latter must fancy he sees the object, or recall to mind some 
 written or printed description of it, before he can remember the 
 details." Dr. M. Granville. 
 
 8 " We remember our verbal utterances partly as connected threads 
 of vocal exertion. ... A well-known aid to verbal memory is to 
 write with one's own hand what has to be remembered." Prof, 
 Bain. 
 
210 MEMOBY. 
 
 may not remember much of what they see or hear, but 
 remember readily what they say or do. Hence some 
 children learn best by repeating aloud, others by writ- 
 ing down what they wish to remember. Most persons 
 have probably observed, in writing a word in regard 
 to the spelling of which they are sometimes in doubt, 
 that if they write it at once without thinking about it, 
 they usually spell it correctly, but if they doubt and 
 hesitate and think, they become uncertain, and most 
 probably spell it wrong. 1 The reason is that the mental 
 image which directs the hand is, in this instance, a 
 surer guide than that furnished by the intellect. In 
 such cases, the more the mind is engaged in thought 
 the less able is it to listen to those inner promptings 
 of our nature the muschlar images of past movements, 
 on which so much that is finest and most delicate in 
 our actions depends. 2 
 
 1 " We frequently experience when we are in doubt about the 
 spelling of a word that the greater voluntary exertion we use, that is, 
 the more intently we think about it, the 'farther are we from re- 
 gaining the lost association between the letters of it, but which 
 readily recurs when we become careless about it." Dr. E. Darwin. 
 "As everyone knows, a writer is less likely to make egregious errors 
 in spelling ... if he be so absorbed in the matter of what he is 
 writing as to give no conscious attention to forms of words or con- 
 struction of sentences." A. S. Hill. 
 
 2 " If a performer has forgotten some word of her song, the more 
 energy of mind she uses about it the more distant is she from 
 regaining it, and artfully employs her mind in part on some other 
 object, or endeavours to dull its "perceptions by continuing to repeat, 
 as it were unconsciously, the former part of the song that she 
 remembers in hopes to gain the lost connection. For if the activity 
 of the mind itself be more energetic, cr takes its attention more than 
 the connecting word which is wanted, it will not perceive the 
 Blighter link of this lost word, as who listens to a feebler sound 
 must be very silent and motionless, so in this case the very vigour of 
 the mind itself seems to prevent it from regaining the lost catenation." 
 Dr. E. Darwin. "In reciting, for instance, a passage of poetry 
 from memory, there is generally better success from trusting to the 
 mere mechanism of the faculty to the unbidden flow of words 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 211 
 
 But not only are there in the mind mental images of 
 sensible objects, and of muscular movements, of what 
 we feel and of what we do, but every thought, however 
 abstract or apparently disconnected from sensible 
 objects, has it image in the mind. We can only con- 
 ceive an abstraction by having an image of it. The 
 abstract idea of a triangle, which is not any particular 
 triangle but represents the properties common to all 
 triangles, has as much its image in the mind as any 
 individual triangle that may have been before it. 
 Further, we must regard each abstract idea as having 
 a physical state corresponding to it ; and hence we can 
 localise abstract ideas, and recall the occasions when 
 they were present. 
 
 It is as serving to guide and direct our various 
 activities that mental images derive their chief 
 value and importance. In anything that we purpose 
 or intend to do, we must first of all have an idea or 
 image of it in the mind, and the more clear and correct 
 
 than from any effort to guide it by thought or suggestion." Sir H. 
 Holland. "It is notorious that in games of skill any lengthened 
 consideration or active interference on the part of the higher 
 faculties almost invariably causes a failure. The direct guidance 
 that has been established between the constituent sensations and the 
 constituent motions must be allowed free play ; and success becomes 
 sure in proportion as by constant co-ordination the combined changes 
 become practically one change." H. Spencer. "In playing by 
 memory on a musical instrument, the muscular sense often 
 suggests the sequence of movements with more certainty than 
 the auditory." Dr. Carpenter. We are told of a celebrated 
 teacher of drawing in Paris, who was very successful with his pupils, 
 that he made them study the models thoroughly before they tried to 
 draw them. One favourite expedient was to make them follow, at a 
 distance, the outlines of the figure with a pencil held in their hands, 
 and then draw them from memory. Colonel Moncrieff mentioned 
 a North American Indian coming to see him, and " tracing the out- 
 line of a print from the Illustrated News very carefully with the 
 point of his knife. The reason he gave for this odd manoeuvre was 
 that he would remember the better how to carve it when he returned 
 home." F. Gallon. 
 
212 MEMORY. 
 
 the image, the more accurately and efficiently will the 
 purpose be carried out. We cannot exert an act of 
 volition without having in the mind an idea or image 
 of what we will to effect. 1 The will has no direct power 
 over the muscles but only over the images in the mind, 
 and it is in accordance with these that the muscles act, 2 
 By suggesting ideas to the mind of the mesmerised sub- 
 ject he may be made to do the most absurd things. It 
 is well known, too, in the treatment of the insane that if 
 a patient is violent from the presence of a particular idea 
 in the mind, the introduction of a new idea by a well- 
 directed question or otherwise will often at once change 
 the current of his thoughts, and so allay his excitement. 8 
 Clearness and accuracy of image is only to be obtained 
 by repeatedly having it in the mind, or by repeated 
 action of the faculty. Each repeated act of any of the 
 
 1 " It is certain that in order to execute consciously a voluntary 
 act we must have in the mind a conception of the aim or purpose of 
 the act." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 8 " The will which carries into action the determinations of the 
 intellect has no direct power over the muscles which execute its 
 mandates." Dr. Carpenter. " Our power of willing consists in the 
 power of calling into existence the appropriate idea. . . . The 
 power of the will is not immediate over the muscle but over the idea. 
 . . . Whenever we have obtained a command over the ideas, we have 
 also obtained a command over the motions," and " we cannot perform 
 associated contractions of several muscles till we have established by 
 repetition the ready association of the ideas ". James Mill. 
 
 3 " The insane impulse appears to be not unfrequently the ex- 
 pression of a dominant idea . . . which operates by taking full 
 possession of the mind, and by forcing the body (so to speak) into 
 the movements which express it. ... Of all the features of insanity, 
 morbid impulses, emotions and feelings, and the loss of control over 
 them, are the most essential and constant." Dr. Carpenter. The late 
 Prof. Traill, of Edinburgh, was on one occasion in the room with a 
 madman, who suddenly locked the door and threatened to throw 
 him out of the window. "I can do better than that," said the Pro- 
 fessor, " I can go down to the street and jump in at the window." 
 The extravagance of this boast gave a new turn to his thoughts ; he 
 opened the door to allow the Professor to go down to the street, and 
 was at once secured. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 213 
 
 faculties renders the mental image of it more clear and 
 accurate than the preceding, and in proportion to the 
 clearness and accuracy of the image will the act itself 
 be performed easily, readily, skilfully. The course to 
 be pursued, the point to be gained, the amount of 
 effort to be put forth, become more and more clear to 
 the mind. It is only from what we have done that we 
 are able to judge of what we can do, and understand 
 how it is to be effected. 1 When our ideas or concep- 
 tions of what we can do are not based on experience, 
 they become fruitful sources of error. 
 
 A clear and accurate idea of what we wish to do, and 
 how it is to be effected, is of the utmost value and im- 
 portance in all the affairs of life. 2 A man's conduct 
 naturally shapes itself according to the ideas in his 
 mind, and nothing contributes more to success in life 
 than having a high ideal and 'keeping it constantly in 
 view. 3 Where such is the case one can hardly fail in 
 attaining it. Numerous unexpected circumstances will 
 be found to conspire to bring it about, and even what 
 
 1 " We cannot do an act voluntarily unless we know what we arc 
 going to do, and we cannot know exactly what we are going to do 
 until we have taught ourselves to do it." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 2 " By aiming at a new construction, we must clearly conceive 
 what is aimed at. ... Where we have a very distinct and 
 intelligible model before us we are in a fair way to succeed ; in 
 proportion as the ideal is dim and wavering we stagger and miscarry." 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
 8 " The continued concentration of attention upon a certain idea 
 gives it a dominant power, not only over the mind but over the 
 body." Dr. Carpenter. " The idea of our own strength gives strength 
 to our movements. A person who is confident of effecting anything 
 by muscular efforts will do it more easily than one not so confident 
 in his own power." Dr. /. Milller. " The entire man in his body 
 and soul, his actions and moral feelings, is governed by what he 
 believes." Anon. "To believe firmly is almost tantamount in the 
 end to accomplishment. Extraordinary instances are related showing 
 the influence of the will over even the involuntary musclea." Dr. 
 Tanner. 
 
 16 
 
214 MEMOBY. 
 
 Beemed at first to be hostile may be converted into 
 means for its furtherance; while by having it constantly 
 before the mind he will be ever ready to take advantage 
 of any favouring circumstances that may present them- 
 selves. 1 " A passionate desire and an unwearied will 
 can perform impossibilities, or what seem to be such, 
 to the cold and feeble." Sir J. T. Simpson. " Dream, 
 youth, dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams 
 shall be prophets." Lord Lytton. 2 
 
 But in order properly to understand the importance 
 of these images, and to perceive the power and extent 
 of their influence, it is necessary to keep in view that 
 much that exists in the mind, and exerts an influence 
 in it, does so unconsciously, as will be shown at greater 
 length in the next chapter. While a mental image 
 must first have been consciously in the mind before we 
 could afterwards recognise it as having been there at 
 all, yet after a time, or after many returns, it may be in 
 the mind, and exert an active influence there without 
 our being conscious of its presence. 3 Time is a neces- 
 sary element in consciousness, and an idea or image 
 
 1 " It is wonderful how even the casualties of life seem to bow to 
 a spirit that will not bow to them, and yield to subserve a design 
 which they may, in their first apparent tendency, threaten to 
 frustrate. . . . When a firm decisive spirit is recognised it is curious 
 to see how the space clears around a man and leaves him room and 
 freedom." John Foster. 
 
 2 "Thus it is that aspirations are often prophecies, the harbingers 
 of what a man shall be in a condition to perform." Dr. Maudsley. 
 It is related of Warren Hastings that when only seven years old 
 ** there rose on his mind a scheme which through all the turns of hia 
 eventful life was never abandoned. He would recover the estate 
 which belonged to his father he would be Hastings of Dalyesford." 
 T. B. Macaulay. 
 
 8 " An idea sometimes arises and produces a movement without 
 there having been any active consciousness of it, the effect being that 
 which first arouses consciousness if it be aroused at alL hr. H 
 Maudsley. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 215 
 
 must be ft certain time before the .mind in order to its 
 being consciously apprehended. But the more fre- 
 quently ideas recur, and the more familiar they become, 
 the less time do they occupy, and the less impression 
 do they make, coming and going, frequently, without 
 ourheingat all aware of it. We only know of their presence 
 from the effects they produce, or the results that follow 
 from them. In learning to play on the piano, for 
 instance, one is at first fully conscious of every note as 
 he goes over it ; but after a lengthened practice he may 
 be able to play the most difficult pieces without giving 
 any attention to them, carrying on, perhaps, an animated 
 conversation on an entirely different subject at the same 
 time. There is every reason to believe that mental 
 images were present in the latter case as in the former, 
 guiding and directing every step of it, but their passage 
 through the mind was too rapid for them to be taken 
 notice of. Sometimes an unconscious idea will prevail 
 over a conscious one, and one may purpose or intend 
 to do a certain thing, or to follow out a certain line of 
 conduct, but other influences, the result of previous 
 actions, may prevail, and what he would he does not, 
 and what he would not that he does. 1 In the same 
 way a man may wish to give expression to certain 
 thoughts in his mind and yet, from the presence of 
 different or perverted images, he may say or write 
 something different or even contrary to what he intended. 
 
 1 ** In certain individuals and in a certain state of mental concen- 
 tration the expectation of a result is sufficient to determine, without 
 any voluntary effort and even in opposition to the will, the muscular 
 movements by which it is produced." Dr. Carpenter. " Everyone's 
 experience will recall to him occasions on which an idea excited in 
 his mind could not be dismissed therefrom by the wilJ, and perhapa 
 would not let him rest until he had realised it in action, even though 
 euch realisation appeared to his judgment inadvisable," Dr. H t 
 Maudsley. 
 
216 MBMOBT. 
 
 Perhaps something like the following may have at some 
 time or other occurred to most of our readers : He 
 wishes to write a letter, has paper and pens before him, 
 but wants ink. He knows he wants something, and 
 paper being before him puts the idea of paper into his 
 mind, and he says, "Bring me some paper" instead of 
 ink. We believe that telegraph-offices are not without 
 instances of clerks sending messages very different from, 
 if not directly contrary to, what was before them. The 
 message probably suggested to the mind ideas of the 
 contrary, and the latter were accordingly sent. 1 
 
 If we bear in mind that every sensation or idea must 
 form an image in the mind before it can be perceived 
 or understood, and that every act of volition is preceded 
 by its image, it will be seen that images play a very 
 important part in all our mental operations. According 
 to the nature of the ideas or images which he entertains 
 will be the character and conduct of the man. The 
 man tenacious of purpose is the man who holds tena- 
 ciously certain ideas ; the flighty man is he who cannot 
 keep one idea before him for any length of time, but 
 
 1 " Ideas which have passed out of the conscious memory some- 
 times express themselves in involuntary muscular movements to the 
 great surprise of the individual executing them." Dr. Carpenter. In 
 certain forms of mental insanity " we find a sort of duplication of 
 the mental unity. The individual thus divided into two parts one 
 portion of himself remaining healthy while the other is at the mercy 
 of the phenomena of automatic involuntary impulse looks on as a 
 conscious spectator at certain extravagant acts that he is forced tc 
 commit, at certain senseless words that he utters. . . . There 
 are patients sometimes who write and describe their distresses the 
 involuntary agonies through which they pass, the words they have 
 pronounced unwittingly, how they are impelled to speak in spite of 
 themselves, to say what they would not have wished to say, to go 
 through ridiculous gesticulations, and to commit extravagances they 
 believe themselves incapable of restraining." J. Luys. "When 
 anyone is thinking intensely about one thing and carelessly con- 
 versing x about another, he is liable to use the word of a contrary 
 meaning to that which he designed, as cold weather for hot weather, 
 summer for winter." Dr. E. Darwin. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 217 
 
 constantly flits from one to another ; the insane man 
 is he who entertains insane ideas often, it may be, on 
 only one or two subjects. 
 
 We may distinguish two great classes of individuals 
 according to the prevailing character of their images. 
 They are those in whose mind sensory images predomi- 
 nate, and those whose images are chiefly such as tend 
 to action. Those of the former class are observant, 
 often thoughtful, men of judgment, and, it may be, of 
 learning ; but if they have not also the active faculty in 
 due force, they will fail in giving forth or in turning 
 to proper account their knowledge or learning, and 
 instances of this are by no means uncommon. The 
 man, on the other hand, who has ever in his mind 
 images of things to be done, is the man of action and 
 enterprise. If he is not also an observant and thought- 
 ful man, if his mind is backward in forming images of 
 what is presented to it from without, he will be con- 
 stantly liable to make mistakes. We sometimes meet 
 with persons whose minds are so taken up with some- 
 thing or other to be done, that they pay little heed to 
 any impressions they may receive from things around 
 them. They are careless and unobservant of these 
 things. There are persons whose minds are so filled 
 wiih what they themselves have to say, that they can 
 scarcely give a moment's thought or attention to what 
 anyone else may have to say in return. 1 
 ' Many of the peculiarities that are to be met with in 
 abnormal conditions of the mind are, in our opinion, to 
 be attributed to defects in the power of image-formation, 
 or to the loss of it in certain directions. /The presence 
 
 1 " To some men and women the incessant exercise of speech seema 
 to be no less necessary than the function of respiration ; and to such 
 persons, while indulging this uncontrollable propensity, the enter- 
 tainment of their hearers is not at all an object." D. Stewart. 
 
218 MEMORY. 
 
 of a mental image being necessary to an act of volition, 
 if the mental image is lost or cannot be recalled, the 
 voluntary action will fail to be performed. This would 
 seem to be what really takes place in certain kinds of 
 paralysis (Locomotor Ataxia), in which the motor power 
 is intact, while the sense of feeling is lost, and with it 
 the power of motion, unless sight or touch comes to form 
 an image of the parts in the mind. 1 It is a well-known 
 fact that a patient of this kind who has lost the use of 
 his legs may yet be able to walk if he keep his eyes fixed 
 upon them, and so convey an image of them to the 
 mind ; and in like manner a mother who has lost the 
 use of her arms is able to hold her child as long and no 
 longer than her eyes are centred on them. 2 It is 
 
 1 fc In hemiphlegia, the patient may will to move to the utmost, 
 yet no motion follows." Dr. Laycock. " When sensation is lost, so 
 is motor power; when sensation is restored, motor power returns 
 along with it. The want of sensibility and the want of motor power 
 not only come and go together, but they are confined to the same 
 part of tiie body, thus apparently showing that they are inseparably 
 interlinked." Dr. J. Cunningham. " As soon as the patients take 
 their eyes off their limbs, they have no more consciousness of their 
 position or even of their existence. When in bed they lose them as 
 it were, and are obliged to look for them, not knowing where they 
 are. Sometimes they try to stretch out or bend some limb already 
 stretched out or bent. On moving, they are ignorant of the extent 
 of their movement, and frequently do not know whether they have 
 moved or not. If they intend to move, but are prevented, they are 
 unaware of it, and think they have moved from having willed to do 
 so." H. Taine. 
 
 2 " A woman who had suffered complete loss of sensation in one 
 arm, but who retained its motor power, found that she could net 
 support her infant upon it without constantly looking at the child ; 
 and that if she were to remove her eyes for a moment, the child 
 would fall, in spite of her knowledge that her infant was resting 
 upon her arm, and of her desire to sustain it. Here the muscular 
 sense being entirely deficient, the sense of vision supplied what was 
 required so long as it was exercised upon the object ; but as soon as 
 this guiding influence was withdrawn, the strongest will could not 
 sustain the muscular contraction." Dr. Carpenter. "Sir Astley 
 (Cooper) cited to me the case of a man completely deprived of the 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 219 
 
 evident that the eye can do nothing towards communi- 
 cating sensibility to the part affected. It can only 
 supply the mind with an image of the affected limb, 
 and of the movements it is desired to effect ; which 
 would go to prove that it is the mental image, and not 
 merely muscular sensibility, that directed the movement, 
 that in the normal state, it is the mental image derived 
 from muscular sensibility that guides the movements. 1 
 
 In Aphasia, or loss or impairment of the faculty of 
 speech, there is no paralysis of the organs of the voice. 
 It is owing to a mental defect arising, we believe, from 
 inability to form in the mind the motor images neces- 
 sary to speech. There is no impairment of power or 
 control over the muscles of the voice ; they may even 
 be able to repeat the words spoken by another, but 
 they are unable of themselves to recall the ideas or 
 images that are necessary to vocal expression. " If," 
 says M. Eibot, " we adopt the theory that the amnesia 
 of signs (aphasia) is a disease of the motor memory, we 
 discover at once its distinguishing characteristic, and 
 are able to study the subject from a new point of 
 view." 2 In what is known as "hysterical paralysis," 
 
 faculty of sensation in one arm and hand, the muscular power ot 
 which was, however, preserved. When this man was desired to 
 take hold of and to lift anything, he did so quite well ; but if, whilst 
 holding the object, his attention was taken away from the hand, 
 irregular contractions of the limb commenced, and very soon the 
 object fell to the ground ; as soon as the patient ceased to follow the 
 contractions of his fingers with his eyes, nothing remained to inforn 
 him that he held the object when, of course, it escaped from hi 
 grasp." Dr. Solly. 
 
 1 " The difference between an involuntary movement of the le<j 
 and a voluntary one is that whereas the involuntary one takes place 
 without any previous consciousness of the movements to be made, 
 the voluntary one takes place only after it has been represented in 
 consciousness." H. Spencer. 
 
 2 Movements "which are employed in articulate speech, writing, 
 drawing, music, gestures, can only be conserved and reproduced on 
 
220 MEMOBY. 
 
 there is no imperfection of muscle or nerve, but simply 
 absence of all desire to will absence of the images 
 necessary to voluntary action. 1 The like holds true 
 with regard to what is called "psychical blindness," 
 where there is no imperfection of the organs of vision, 
 but simply the inability to form an intelligible image of 
 the visual impression received. 2 
 
 Loss of memory, again, which is a frequent atten- 
 dant of paralysis, is also to be attributed to in- 
 ability to form or recall mental images ; and the 
 remarkable thing here is, that it will affect certain 
 classes of images and not others, thus going to prove 
 what has already been pointed out, that different kinds 
 of memory have different seats. 8 Thus a man forgets 
 
 the condition that there are motor residua. It is clear that if nothing 
 remained of a word uttered or written for the first time it would be 
 impossible to learn to speak or write. , . . We are able to speak 
 with facility our own or a foreign tongue where these (vocal) move- 
 ments are easily reproduced that is to say, when the motor residua 
 are organised." Th. Eibot. 
 
 1 In hysterical paralysis " there is no imperfection of muscle, 
 nerve, or kinetic substrata, but simply an absence of all desire to 
 will ... An organism may conceivably desire to be happy but 
 may not desire to act to attain the desirable state ". Dr. Laycock. 
 " The want not really of power to move but of a belief in the posses- 
 sion of that power is the characteristic of the peculiar form of 
 paralysis which is commonly designated as * hysterical '; and the 
 most efficacious treatment of this remarkable disorder is to work the 
 patient up to the conviction that the ability has been or will be 
 restored. . . . And such is the manner in which similar marvels have 
 been brought about by any modus operandi whatever which begets 
 in the mind of the * subject 1 a confidence that the thing hitherto 
 deemed impossible can be accomplished, and concentrates all the 
 mental and physical powers on the effort to perform it." Dr. 
 Carpenter. 
 
 2 " Muntz has put forth the important distinction that there may be 
 blindness in the sense of total deprivation of vision and * psychical 
 blindness/ or the inability to form an intelligent comprehension of 
 the visual impressions received." Prof. M'Kendrick. 
 
 1 " A stroke of the palsy has been known (while it did not destroy 
 the power of speech) to render the patient incapable of recollecting 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 221 
 
 the words with which to express his ideas, though he 
 knows very well what he wishes to say, and knows 
 when it is said by another. He may know very well 
 what is said to him, but be unable to put in words what 
 be wishes to say ; or he may fail to understand what is 
 said to him orally, but be able to follow it at once when 
 written or printed ; or, conversely, the written word may 
 not"belmaerstood, while he readily comprehends what 
 is spoken. Some know a thing when they hear it 
 named, but are unable to name it, or they can give all 
 the letters of a word, and yet be unable to pronounce 
 it. One could write distinctly to dictation but could 
 not read a moment afterwards what he had written. 
 Some can name objects when they are set before them, 
 but are unable to do so when they are withdrawn. The 
 memory for names may be lost, while the memory for 
 things remain ; and one may know his friends perfectly 
 and yet be unable to name them, 1 These and similar 
 
 the names of the most familiar objects. What is still more remark- 
 able, the name of an object has been known to suggest the idea of 
 it as formerly, although the sight of the object ceased to suggest the 
 name." D. Stewart. " There are individuals who having suffered 
 from disease of the brain are unable to express their thoughts by 
 speech although, their faculties being little or not at all impaired 
 otherwise, they have a perfect comprehension of what others say and 
 of what they wish to say themselves." Sir B. Brodie. " The loss of 
 the memory of words ... is a special disorder which not unfre- 
 quently presents itself the patient understanding perfectly well 
 what is said, but being unable to reply in any other terms than yes 
 or no or by affirmative or negative gestures ; not from any paralysis 
 of the muscles of articulation, but from incapability of expressing 
 the ideas in language." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 1 "The memory of only a particular class of words such as nouns 
 or verbs may be lost ; or the patient may remember the letters of 
 which a word is composed, and may be able to spell his wants though 
 he cannot speak the word itself, asking for bread, for example, by 
 the separate letters b, r, e, a, d. A very curious affection of the 
 memory is that in which the sound of spoken words does not convey 
 any idea to the mind, yet the individual may recognise in a written or 
 
222 MEMORY. 
 
 phenomena become intelligible when we connect them 
 with the disappearance from the mind of certain classes 
 of images visual, auditory, or vocaly^ 
 
 Sometimes words or aames are used wrongly, but 
 always in the same sense, as if the images had got out 
 of their proper places. Thus Mr. A. may always be 
 called Mr. B., and Mr. B., Mr. A. ; paper may be called 
 coals and coals paper. 1 Sir B. Brodie gives the case of 
 a gentleman who, having had a stroke of apoplexy, " lost 
 the power not only of expressing himself in intelligible 
 language, but also of comprehending what was said 
 to him by others. He spoke what might be called 
 gibberish, and it seemed to him that his friends spoke 
 gibberish in return. But while his memory as to oral 
 language was thus affected, as to written language it 
 was not affected at all. If a letter was read to him it 
 conveyed no ideas to his mind, but when he had it in 
 his own hand and read it himself he understood it per- 
 fectly. " In this case we may be said to have an instance 
 of double dislocation, two classes of images having got 
 displaced. The sounds he heard no longer gave rise 
 to their proper images in his mind those, namely, with 
 which they were formerly associated but to others of 
 a different kind, which conveyed no intelligible meaning 
 to him. In addition to this, the images of his vocal 
 
 printed list of words those which have heen uttered by the speaker, 
 the sight of them enabling him to understand their meaning. Con- 
 versely, the sound of the word may be remembered and the idea it 
 conveys fully appreciated, but the visual memory of its written form 
 may be altogether lost, although the component letters may be re- 
 cognised." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 1 " Occasionally patients have forgotten the signification of words 
 and designated the thing by a term which has not the least con- 
 nection with it. Generally speaking, the patients are quite aware 
 that they are using a wrong word, for often if we suggest the term 
 intended they immediately recognise it and rejoice at having re- 
 covered it." Prof, van der Kolk. 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 223 
 
 utterances had been displaced, and when he gave ex- 
 pression to those that were in his mind, they were 
 destitute of meaning to others. 
 
 It is with these mental images, then, that the memory 
 has more particularly and directly to do. It is these 
 that it treasures up and recalls, and it is upon the nature 
 and character of the image which is formed in the mind 
 that the power of the memory to reproduce it depends. 
 ^Whein the image is clear, distinct, and vivid, it is readily 
 reproduced with much of its original character and 
 force; but when, oa-the other hand, it is indistinct, 
 hazy, ill-formed, it will be recalled, with difficulty, and 
 only in a very imperfect manney.-/ The image which is 
 recalled may be of any degree of clearness and complete- 
 ness, from the most distinct and perfect, scarcely to be 
 distinguished from the original impression, to the most 
 indistinct and fragmentary, bearing but little resem- 
 blance to the original. When the image has disap- 
 peared and cannot be recalled the memory of it is 
 gone. j^The defects of memory of which most persons 
 complain are usually to be attributed to imperfectly 
 formed and indistinct images. If sufficient time and 
 attention are not bestowed upon the original impression, 
 the image that is formed of it in the mind and stored 
 up in the memory will be indistinct and imperfect, and 
 correspondingly difficult of recall. 'The great means, 
 then, for strengthening and improving the memory are 
 such as tend to the formation of clear and distinct 
 images in the mind^^^X 
 
 We are usually told that all memory is association, 
 and that if we wish to fix a thing in- the memory we 
 must associate it with something that is in the mind 
 already. It is upon this principle that all systems of 
 mnemonics are constructed, Association, as we shall 
 
224 MEMORY. 
 
 see, has its place and work in regard to memory, but it 
 is not upon it that the memory itself mainly rests. 
 Association is merely the means by which what is in 
 the memory is recalled and brought again before con- 
 sciousness. But the subject-matter of memory, that 
 which is treasured up and recalled, is the image which 
 has been formed in the mind ; and"ilnless this is clear 
 and accurate, that which is recalled will in like manner 
 be defective. In order, then, to a good memory one 
 that will bring the past clearly and accurately before us 
 we must attend to the formation of the images in the 
 mind, and see that they clearly and accurately represent 
 the original sensations or ideas. In other words, in 
 order to remember well we must observe well and with 
 attention. 
 
 A main point in all education should be the formation 
 of clear and distinct images in the mind. '.We cannot 
 think clearly, or express ourselves clearly, unless we 
 have^ clear iiu^.^3 in* the mind. It is not necessary to 
 understand a thing in order to form a clear image of it. 
 In fact sometimes things not understood are most 
 clearly imaged in the mind. Our earliest, clearest, 
 and most lasting images are those that come to us 
 through the senses; and hence the training of the 
 senses to form clear and accurate images of things is 
 principally to be considered in the improvement of the 
 memory. The .great advantage of object-lessons to 
 children springs from this, that they present to the 
 mind sensible images of the instruction which is com- 
 municated^ Hence, too, the advantage of pictures, 
 plans, and maps in imparting clear ideas, and in fixing 
 them in the memory,. In the case of any subject 
 capable of illustration a visible representation of it wiU 
 greatly help the mind in imaging and in remembering 
 
MENTAL IMAGES. 225 
 
 it. 1 It is to be regretted that bits of science, bits of 
 natural history, bits of mechanics, which can take but 
 little hold on the imagination of a child, should occupy 
 so large a space in our elementary school books in place 
 of fables, fairy tales, stories of daring, and romance, 
 which call out the imagination of the child and make a 
 lasting impression on the memory. 2 Speaking of the 
 visualising faculty, Mr. F. Galton says : " Our bookish 
 and wordy education tends to repress this valuable gift 
 of nature. A faculty that is of importance in all tech- 
 nical and artistic occupations, that gives accuracy to 
 our perceptions and justness to our generalisations, is 
 starved by lazy disuse, instead of being cultivated 
 judiciously in such a way as will on the whole bring 
 the best return. > I believe that a serious study of the 
 best method of developing and utilising this faculty 
 without prejudice to the practice of abstract thought in 
 
 1 " A few dots like those used by the bushmen give great assist- 
 ance in creating an imaginary picture, as proved by our general habit 
 of working out ideas by the help of marks and rude lines." F. 
 Galton. 
 
 2 " The modern practice of occupying the minds of children with 
 the reasons of things, i.e. 9 with laws, principles, &c., in the form of 
 compends of astronomy, natural or mental philosophy, natural 
 theology, &c., is one that cannot be too earnestly deprecated." N. 
 Porter. " It is probable that fables, parables, similes, allegory, &c., 
 please, strike, and instruct, chiefly on account of the visible imagery 
 which they raise up in the fancy. They are also the more easily 
 remembered on the same account" Dr. Hartley. " Of all people 
 children are the most imaginative. Every image which is strongly 
 presented to their mental eye produces on them the effect of reality." 
 Lord Macaulay. " I have often maintained that fiction may be 
 much more instructive than real history." John Foster. "The world 
 may rely upon it that catechisms, whether Pinnock's or the Church 
 of England, will be found a poor substitute for those old romances, 
 whether of chivalry or of faery, which, if they did not give a true 
 picture of actual life, did not give a false one, since they did not 
 profess to give any, but (what was much better) filled the youthful 
 imagination with pictures of heroic men, and of what are at least aa 
 much wanted, heroic women." J. S. Mill. 
 
226 MEMOBY. 
 
 symbols is one of the many pressing desiderata in the 
 yet unformed science of education." 1 But the faculty 
 of forming mental images is not confined to the eye. 
 It extends to all of the other senses, to all our volun- 
 tary movements, and to every subject of thought ; and 
 therefore the importance of cultivating it in all these 
 directions is so much the greater. 
 
 The natural course of our knowledge is from the 
 general to the particular. Our first impression of an 
 object is a general one, but as we contemplate it we 
 pass in review its several parts successively before the 
 mind and thus obtain a clear idea of the whole. In 
 gazing on a landscape, for instance, we first of all get a 
 general impression of it, but this will be very crude 
 and imperfect unless we come down to particulars and 
 concentrate the attention successively upon its different 
 parts. 2 
 
 In order to form a clear and distinct image of an ob- 
 ject in the mind, it is usually necessary to analyse it 
 and to concentrate the attention upon its different parts 
 one by one. (See " Attention," Chapter VII.) 
 
 1 " There can be no doubt as to the utility of the visualising faculty 
 where it is duly subordinated to the higher intellectual operations. 
 A visual image is the most perfect form of mental representation 
 wherever the shape, position, and relations of objects in space are 
 concerned. It is of importance in every handicraft and profession 
 where design is required. The best workmen are those who visualise 
 the whole of what they Dropose to do before they take a tool in their 
 hands." F. Galton. 
 
 2 "When we wish to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with 
 a landscape or a picture, we intentionally direct the axes of our 
 eyes to each particular part of it successively, and study that part in 
 its details, until we have formed a composite conception of the 
 whole." Dr. CarpenUr, 
 
CHAPTEB VL 
 
 MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 
 
 " The teaching of most modern psychologists is that consciousness forms but a 
 small item in the total of psychical processes. Unconscious sensations, ideas, and 
 judgments are made to play a great part in their explanations. It is very certain 
 that in every conscious volition every act that is so characterised the larger part 
 of it is quite unconscious. It is equally certain that in every perception there are 
 unconscious processes of reproduction and inference, there is ... a middle dis- 
 tance of sub-consciousness, and a ' background ' of unconsciousness." 0. H. Lewes. 
 
 " I do not hesitate to affirm that what we are conscious of is constructed out of 
 what we are not conscious of that our whole knowledge in fact is made up of the 
 unknown and the incognisable." The sphere of our consciousness is " only a small 
 circle in the centre of a far wider sphere of action and passion, of which we are only 
 conscious through its effects ".Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 " Mental events imperceptible to consciousness . . . are far more numerous 
 than the others, and of the world which makes up our being we only perceive the 
 highest points the lighted up peaks of a continent whose lower levels remain in the 
 shade. Beneath ordinary sensations are their components, that is to say, the 
 elementary sensations, which must be combined into groups to reach our conscious- 
 ness. . . . Outside a little luminous circle lies a large ring of twilight, and beyond 
 this an indefinite night ; but the events of this twilight and this night are as real 
 as those within the luminous circle." H. Taine. 
 
 " Examine closely, and without bias, the ordinary mental operations of daily- 
 life, and you will surely discover that consciousness has not one tenth part of the 
 function therein which it is commonly assumed to have. ... In every conscious 
 state there are at work conscious, sub-conscious, and infra-conscious energies, the 
 last as indispensable as the first."- Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 " Memory is a faculty not only of our conscious states, but also, and much more 
 so, of our unconscious ones." Dr. E. Bering. 
 
 IT is impossible to understand the true nature of 
 memory, or how to train it aright, unless we 
 have a clear conception of the fact that there is 
 much in the mind of which we are unconscious. 
 Formerly consciousness wag regarded as being co- 
 extensive with mind the mind being held to be 
 conscious of all its own activities, of all the changes 
 
228 MEMOBY. 
 
 or modifications that take place in it. Leibnitz 
 was the first to confute this opinion, and to establish 
 the doctrine that there are energies always at work, 
 and modifications constantly taking place in the 
 mind, of which we are quite unconscious. 1 Since his 
 time this opinion has been gradually gaining ground, 
 and now it is a generally received doctrinS in philo- 
 sophy. 2 
 
 Consciousness, or the internal sense, whicL'reveals to 
 us what exists or is taking place in the mir.d, is, like 
 the external senses, which take cognisance of outer 
 objects, limited in its sphere of operation. We cannot 
 by means of the bodily senses take cognisance of all 
 that exists in the physical world, nor can we by con- 
 sciousness comprehend all that is taking plae ** the 
 mind. " Consciousness," says H. Taine, " is ~e 
 
 sufficient in psychological inquiries than the na 
 in optical inquiries." " Could we magnify the Discern- 
 ing power of consciousness as we can magn ; f> the 
 power of vision by the microscope, we might enable 
 consciousness to extend its cognisance to modifications 
 
 1 u The psychologists of Germany, from the time of Leibnitz, have 
 taught that much of our mental work is done without conscious- 
 ness." Dr. Carpenter. "To this great philosopher belongs the 
 honour of having originated this opinion, and of having supplied 
 some of the strongest arguments in its support." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 "D'ailleurs il y a mille marques qui font juger qu'il y a a tout 
 moment une infinite* de perceptions en nous, mais sans Apperception 
 et sans Reflexion, c'est & dire des changements dans 1'Ame meme, dont 
 nous ne nous appercevons pas, parce que ces impressions sont ou trop 
 petites et en trop grand nombre, ou trop unies en sortes qu'elles 
 n'ont rien d'assez distinguant a part mais jointes a d'autres, elles ne 
 laissent pas de faire le*ur effet et de se faire sentir dans 1'assemblage 
 ou moins confuse"ment." Leibnitz. 
 
 1 "The fact of such latent mental modifications is now established 
 qeyond a rational doubt ; and, on the supposition of their reality, we 
 are able to solve various psychological phenomena otherwise inex- 
 plicable."^ W. Hamilton. 
 
BOND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 229 
 
 twice, ten times, ten thousand times less than it is now 
 competent to apprehend." Sir W. Hamilton. 1 
 
 In order to consciousness the mind requires to be in 
 a state of activity. " In so far as we are conscious," 
 says Sir W. Hamilton, "we are active. . . We are 
 never directly conscious of passivity." Further, " Con- 
 scious' s exists only, in virtue of a change from one 
 state 01 condition of mind to another, by the occurrence 
 of a st *e unlike the previous state, and can continue 
 only f > long as the change continues ".H. Spencer. 2 
 " W ay fairly presume that when all the currents of 
 the i-am are in a balanced condition, when no one is 
 commencing, increasing, or abating, consciousness or 
 feeling is null, mind is quiescent. A disturbance at any 
 point wakens up consciousness for the time, a second 
 disturbance continues it from another point, and so on, 
 the., variety of stimulus in the waking state forbidding 
 the perfect equilibrium of the mind." Prof. Bain. 
 TK * continuance of the same state of mind is opposed 
 *fo C&ftteciousness, for it is possible for a man to think on 
 a Subject till he ceases to be conscious of it, as he may 
 gaze on an object till the eye becomes blind. 8 Hence 
 
 1 There is no good reason " for doubting that, if our powers of 
 attention and memory were more perfect than they are, so as to give 
 us the same advantage in examining rapid events which the micro- 
 scope gives for examining minute portions of extension, they would 
 enlarge our views with respect to the intellectual world no less than 
 that instrument has with respect to the material ". D. Stewart. 
 
 8 " We are only conscious as we are conscious of a determinate 
 state or mental modification, the existence of which supposes a 
 change or transition from some other state or modification." Sir W. 
 Hamilton. 
 
 8 " The very condition on which only consciousness exists is 
 perpetual change ; . . . a truth illustrated by the fact that when, as 
 under intense agony, the sensation ultimately becomes strong enough 
 totally to exclude all thought, totally to absorb consciousness con* 
 Bciousness ceases ; the patient faints." H. Spencer. 
 17 
 
230 MEMOEY. 
 
 the evil of allowing the mind to dwell too long on any 
 one subject. There must be change and variety in 
 order to clearness and vigour of thought. 
 
 It is owing to the effort, or the resistance, put forth by 
 the Ego against whatever is opposed to it that conscious- 
 ness exists. " Consciousness/' says Prof. Ferrier, " is 
 an act of antagonism put forth against whatsoever state 
 or modification of humanity it comes in contact with." 
 " The impression we call resistance is the primordial, 
 the universal, the ever-present constituent of conscious- 
 ness/' H. Spencer. Did complete and perfect harmony 
 exist between the Ego and the Non-Ego the world 
 within and the world without no jarring, no struggle, 
 no resistance, consciousness as we now know it could 
 have no existence. 1 Hence, there have not been want- 
 ing those who have regarded consciousness as an evil 
 or defect of our nature. 2 
 
 The degree or strength of our consciousness " always 
 exists in an inverse ratio to the degree of intensity of 
 any of our sensations, passions, emotions," &c. ; and 
 " consciousness is never so effectually depressed, or 
 
 there an entire and perfect fitness of relations between 
 the Ego and the Non-Ego, a complete certitude in every respect, a 
 full and exact harmony, consciousness would be extinguished." Dr. 
 Maudsley. " Know ye not that ye are what ye are only on account of 
 the antagonism between you and it (i.e., the external world) ; that ye 
 perceive things only by resisting their impressions, by denying them, 
 not in word only, but also in vital deed ; that your refusal to be 
 acted upon by them constitutes your very personality, and your very 
 perception of them." Prof. Ferrier. 
 
 a " Many besides Schopenhauer have secretly regarded conscious- 
 ness as the hideous mistake and malady of nature." Prof. 
 Drummond. "Children are, by learned men, said to be long 
 ignorant of the Ego blessed in many respects by their ignorance I 
 This same Ego, as it now exists, being perhaps part of the fruit of 
 that forbidden tree, that mere knowledge of good as well as of evil 
 which our great mother bought for us at such a price." Dr. John 
 Brown. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 231 
 
 perhaps we may say, never so totally obliterated within 
 us, as when we are highly transported by the vivid- 
 ness of any sensation, or absorbed in the violence of any 
 passion ; while, on the other hand, returning conscious- 
 ness, or increasing self-reference, has always the effect of 
 deadening the sensation and suspending the passion, 
 until at length, when it reaches its ultimatum, the sensa- 
 tion or passion becomes totally extinct". Prof. Ferrier. 1 
 A sensation, thought, or motion requires to be of a 
 certain magnitude or intensity, and to persist before the 
 mind for a certain time, in order to our being conscious 
 of it. 2 The mind is constantly receiving impressions, 
 thoughts are incessantly passing through it that are un- 
 perceived, because they are not of sufficient magnitude 
 or intensity to make themselves felt. 3 In like manner, 
 
 1 u When passion or any state of mind, at the one pole, is at its 
 maximum, consciousness is at its minimum, this maximum being 
 sometimes so great as absolutely to extinguish consciousness while it 
 continues ; and vice versa, when consciousness is at its maximum, the 
 passion, or whatever the state of mind at the opposite pole may be, is 
 at its minimum, the maximum being in this case, too, sometimes so 
 great as to amount to a total suspension of the passion," &c..Prqf. 
 Ferrier. "By a wise ordinance of nature our feelings have no 
 abiding place in our memory ; nay, the more vivid they are in the 
 moment of their existence, the more dim and difficult to be 
 remembered do they make the thoughts which accompanied ' 
 them. Those of my readers who at any time of their life 
 have been in the habit of reading novels may easily con- 
 vince themselves of this truth by comparing their recollections of 
 those stories which most excited their curiosity, and even painfully 
 affected their feelings, with their recollections of the calm and medi- 
 tative pathos of Shakespeare and Milton." S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 2 " If one of the conditions of consciousness is wanting, whether 
 intensity or duration, or others of which we are ignorant, . % . con- 
 sciousness disappears." Th. Eibot. 
 
 8 Many impressions " are either so faint in themselves, or so 
 familiar, so submerged in stronger sensations, or so incapable of 
 exciting trains of reflex feeling in the preoccupied mind, that we 
 are 1 neither conscious of them when present, nor capable of re- 
 membering them afterwards." G. H. Lewes. 
 
232 MEMOBY. 
 
 "a certain amount of time is necessary for an impres- 
 sion to be perceived," and " an essential condition of 
 consciousness is wanting when the duration of the 
 nervous process falls below this minimum". Th. Ribot. 1 
 Thus, acts which are at first executed slowly, and with 
 full consciousness, become gradually less and less per- 
 ceptible as they gain in ease and rapidity by repetition, 
 till they fall below the minimum necessary for con- 
 sciousness, and become unconscious. 2 In this way im- 
 pressions we have frequently received, thoughts we 
 have often entertained, actions we have many times 
 done, come to pass through the mind so rapidly, that we 
 may cease to be conscious of them. * 
 
 It is not to be supposed, however, that these uncon- 
 scious impressions or thoughts exert no influence upon 
 the mind. " There are thoughts," says 0. W. Holmes, 
 " that never emerge into consciousness, which yet make 
 their influence felt among the perceptible mental 
 currents, just as the unseen planets sway the move- 
 ments of those that are watched and mapped by the 
 astronomer." 3 In every case of perception there is an 
 ultimate perceptible minimum, which if we conceive to 
 
 1 " Some minimum of time must be admitted as the condition of 
 consciousness ; and as time is divisible ad infinitum, whatever 
 minimum be taken there must be admitted to be beyond the 
 cognisance of consciousness intervals of time in which, if mental 
 agencies be performed, these will be latent to consciousness."' 
 Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 2 " An act is first performed slowly and cautiously ; by repetition 
 we gain ease and rapidity, that is, the nervous process which serves 
 as a base, finding a path already marked out, moves more rapidly, 
 until it gradually falls below the minimum necessary for con- 
 sciousness." Th. Ribot. 
 
 8 " It is surprising how uncomfortable anyone may be made by 
 the obscure notion of something which he ought to have said or done 
 on some occasion, but did not say or do, and which he cannot for the 
 life of him now remember." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 233 
 
 be divided into two, each half will be unperceived, but 
 each contributes its part towards rendering the whole 
 perceptible. 1 The rapidly revolving wheel, bearing the 
 seven prismatic colours, presents to the eye only the 
 appearance of white, though each separate colour must 
 have contributed to produce that result. " A sensation 
 indecomposible by consciousness, and apparently 
 simple, is a compound of successive, simultaneous 
 sehsations which are themselves highly complex." 
 H. Taine. 
 
 The rapidity with which ideas which are familiar to 
 us pass through the mind is truly marvellous. A 
 mathematician can go through a long and intricate 
 calculation so rapidly that only the result comes before 
 consciousness, and yet there can be no doubt that each 
 step of the process passed through the mind. " The 
 rapidity of the succession of transactions in our dreams 
 is almost inconceivable, insomuch that when we are 
 awakened by the jarring of a door which is opened 
 into our bedchamber we sometimes dream a whole 
 history of thieves or fire in the very instant of waken- 
 ing." Dr. K Darwin. According to Kant, as quoted 
 by Sir W. Hamilton, "we can dream more in a 
 minute than we can act during a day"; and "the 
 great rapidity of the train of thought in sleep is one of 
 the principal causes why we do not always recollect 
 what we dream". 
 
 We are not immediately and directly conscious of 
 
 1 " The minimum visible is the smallest expanse which can be 
 seen. ... If we divide this into two parts, neither half can by itself 
 be an object of vision. . . . But it is evident that each half must of 
 itself have produced in us a certain modification, real though un- 
 perceived." Sir W. Hamilton. "Two (or more) successive sensa- 
 tions, which singly are insensible to consciousness, may, when com- 
 bined, form a total sensation which consciousness perceives." 
 H. Taint. 
 
234 MEMOBY. 
 
 what may be in the mind. Consciousness requires 
 some time in order to apprehend what may be pre- 
 sented to it, and by the time it has apprehended it the 
 idea or impression may have passed away and given 
 place to something else. What we are conscious of, 
 then, is not what is in the mind at the time, but what 
 was there some time before, and is now matter of 
 memory. " Consciousness," says Dr. Thomas Brown, 
 " is not that faculty by which we become sensible of 
 the feelings that are present to the mind, but that by 
 which we remember the feelings that have recently 
 passed through it." " The undeniable condition oi 
 consciousness," says Sir W. Hamilton, " is memory." l 
 The time taken by consciousness to perceive an im- 
 pression varies greatly in different individuals and 
 under different circumstances, being longer in old age 
 or when the mental faculties are impaired. 
 
 In order to consciousness an impression must be in 
 connection with the nervous system, and reach the 
 sensorium or seat of consciousness, which, according to 
 Mr. Lewes, is not the brain alone, but extends to all 
 the ganglionic centres throughout the body. 2 Impres- 
 sions are being constantly received and changes effected 
 in different parts of our bodies, of which we are un- 
 
 1 " Before we can observe a modification (of mind) it is already 
 altered. ... It hence results that the phenomena can only be 
 studied through its reminiscence.*" Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 2 Mr. G. H. Lewes argues with great ability, and with seemingly 
 irresistible cogency, in favour of the position that sensation or feeling 
 that is, consciousness is a property of all nervous ganglia. " That 
 every ganglionic excitement whatever (cerebral, spinal, sympathetic) 
 gives birth to sensibility, seems a more likely supposition than that 
 sensibility should attach to certain ganglia (those in the cerebrum) 
 and be absent from others made up of exactly the same nervous 
 elements. . . . We may contend for the sensibility of all the organa 
 of the system that are in any way connected by nerves to nerve- 
 centres." Prof. Bain. 
 
HIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 235 
 
 conscious, because they are not connected with nerves 
 and nerve-centres. These changes constitute what has 
 been called the organic memory, "which," says M. 
 Eibot, " resembles the psychological ^in all but one 
 point the absence of consciousness ".* 
 
 Consciousness, then, is not to be regarded as synony- 
 mous or coextensive with mind. To have an idea or 
 an i impression in the mind, and to be conscious of it, 
 are not one and the same thing, for there are ideas and 
 impressions constantly in the mind of which we are 
 totally unconscious. 2 
 
 We have already expressed the opinion that every 
 impression we receive, every thought we think, as well 
 as every action we do, causes some change in the 
 material structure of our bodies, and that this change 
 v is permanent, forming an imperishable record of all 
 that we have experienced, thought, or done in the 
 past. 8 In like manner we believe that every impression 
 or thought that has once been before consciousness 
 remains ever after impressed in the mind. 4 It may 
 
 1 " Psychical memory is nothing but the highest and most com- 
 plex form of organic memory." Th. Ribot. 
 
 8 " Consciousness is not to be regarded as synonymous or as co- 
 extensive with mind. . . . It is not to be regarded as an essence, a 
 fundamental property, of mind, but as a phenomenon having its own 
 conditions of existence." Th. Ribot. "Those who speak of mind 
 and consciousness as coextensive, . . . and treat the notion of un- 
 conscious mind as a gross absurdity, should soberly explain where, 
 during a particular conscious state, all the rest of the mind is ; where, 
 in fact, all that furniture beyond the particular piece then in use is 
 stored." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
 8 " After both conscious sensation and perception have been ex- 
 tinguished, their material vestiges yet remain in our nervous system 
 by way of a change in its molecular or atomic disposition, that enables 
 the nerve substance to reproduce all the physical processes of the 
 original sensation, and with these the corresponding psychical pro- 
 cesses of sensation and perception." Dr. E. Hering. 
 
 4 tt If every state of consciousness implies as an integral part a 
 
236 MBMOEY. 
 
 never again come up before consciousness, but it will 
 doubtless remain in that vast ultra-conscious region of 
 the mind, unconsciously moulding and fashioning our 
 subsequent thoughts and actions. 
 
 It is only a small part of what exists in the mind 
 that we are at any time conscious of. There is always 
 much that is known to be in the mind that exists in it 
 unconsciously, and must be stored away somewhere. 
 We may be able to recall it into consciousness when W T G 
 wish to do so, but at other times the mind is uncon- 
 scious of its existence. Further, everyone's experience 
 must tell him that there is much in his mind that he 
 cannot always recall when he may wish to do so, much 
 that he can recover only after a laboured search, or that 
 he may search for in vain at the time, but which may 
 occur to him afterwards when perhaps he is not 
 thinking about it. 1 Again, much that we probably 
 would never be able to recall, or that would not recur 
 to us under ordinary circumstances, we may remember 
 to have had in the mind when it is mentioned to us by 
 others. In such a case there must still have remained 
 some trace or scintilla of it in the mind before we could 
 recognise it as having been there before. 
 
 nervous action, and if this action produces a permanent modification 
 of the nervous centres, the state of consciousness will also be recorded 
 in the same place and manner." Th. Ribot. " We have every reason 
 to believe that mental power when once called forth follows the 
 analogy of everything we see in the material universe in the fact of 
 its perpetuity. . . . Every single effort of mind is a creation which 
 can never go back again into nonentity. It may slumber in the 
 depths of forgetfulness as light and heat slumber in the coal seams, 
 but there it is, ready at the bidding of some appropriate stimulus 
 to come again out of the darkness into the light of consciousness." 
 /. D. MorelL 
 
 1 " That which has been long forgotten, nay, that which we have 
 often in vain endeavoured to recollect, will sometimes, without any 
 effort of ours, occur to us on a sudden, and, if I may so speak, of iU 
 own accord." Dr. Beattie. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 237 
 
 These cases occur in ordinary states of the mind, but 
 in abnormal or exalted mental conditions we find still 
 more remarkable instances. Thus in somnambulism, 
 dreams, hysteria, the delirium of a fever, or on the 
 approach of death, persons have been known to recall 
 events of their past life, long since forgotten, and 
 unable to be recalled under ordinary circumstances. 1 
 Persons in the delirium of a fever have been known to 
 speak in a language which they had known in their 
 childhood, but which for many years had passed from 
 their memory ; or to repeat with apparent accuracy 
 discourses to which they had listened many years pre- 
 viously, but of which before the fever they had no recol- 
 lection. They have even been known to repeat accu- 
 rately long passages from books in foreign tongues, of 
 which they never had any understanding, and had no 
 recollection of in health, but which they had casually 
 heard recited many years before. 2 The most remark- 
 
 1 " The mind frequently contains whole systems of knowledge 
 which, though in our normal state they have faded into absolute 
 oblivion, may in certain abnormal states, as madness, febrile delirium, 
 somnambulism, catalepsy, &c., flash out into luminous consciousness, 
 and even throw into the shade of unconsciousness those other systems 
 by which they had for a long period been eclipsed and even extin- 
 guished. For example, there are cases in which the extinct memory 
 of whole languages was suddenly restored, and, what is even still 
 more remarkable, in which the faculty was exhibited of accurately 
 repeating in known or unknown tongues, passages which were never 
 within the grasp of conscious memory in the normal state." Sir W. 
 Hamilton. " It is now fully established that a multitude of events 
 which are so completely forgotten that no effort of the will can 
 revive them, and that the statement of them calls up no reminiscences, 
 may nevertheless be, so to speak, embedded in the memory, and may 
 be reproduced with intense vividness under certain physical condi- 
 tions." Mr. E. H. Lecky. 
 
 2 A case is related by S. T. Coleridge of a young woman of four or 
 five and twenty who could neither read nor write, and who was 
 eeized with a nervous fever, during which she continued incessantly 
 talking Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in very pompous tones, and with 
 
238 MEMORY. 
 
 able cases, however, are those of persons who have 
 been resuscitated from drowning or hanging, and who 
 have reported that they had a sudden revelation of 
 all the events of their past life presented to them 
 with the utmost minuteness and distinctness just before 
 consciousness left them. 1 Sir Francis Beaufort, in 
 describing his sensations when rescued from drowning, 
 says that " every incident of his former life seemed to 
 glance across his recollection in a retrograde succession, 
 not in mere outline, but the picture being filled with 
 every minute and collateral feature " forming " a kind 
 of panoramic view of his entire existence, each act of 
 it accompanied by a sense of right and wrong". "I 
 have also been informed/' says Sir B. Brodie, " of 
 other instances of individuals whose minds have been 
 affected very much in the same way, when they were 
 suddenly placed in a situation which threatened imme- 
 
 a most distinct enunciation. Sheets of her ravings were taken down 
 from her own mouth, and at last it was found that she had been for 
 some years servant to a Protestant pastor, who was in the habit of 
 walking up and down a passage of his house adjoining the kitchen, 
 and reading aloud to himself portions of his favourite authors. 
 In the books that had belonged to him were found many passages identi- 
 cal with those taken down from the girl's mouth. 
 
 1 " It is affirmed of the drowning man that in the brief space of 
 time which precedes unconsciousness, every event of his past life 
 passes in rapid review before his eyes." Dr. M'Cosh. " I was 
 once told by a near relative of mine that having in her childhood 
 fallen into a river and being on the very verge of death but for the 
 assistance which reached her at the last critical moment, she saw in 
 a moment her whole life clothed in its forgotten incidents, arranged 
 before her as in a mirror, not successively, but simultaneously ; and 
 she had a faculty developed as suddenly for comprehending the 
 whole and every part." T. De Quincey. Dr. Abercrombie gives the 
 case of a naval officer who fell overboard and was taken up in a state 
 of suspended animation. " In giving an account of his feelings he 
 stated his only distinct recollection to be, that in the act of drowning 
 fts it might correctly be called, the whole events of his past life 
 were represented to him at the instant in the most clear and dis- 
 tinct manner." 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 239 
 
 diate death, although they were not at all deprived of 
 their sensibility and self-possession." 
 
 There ia, indeed, every reason to believe that there 
 is no such thing with any of us as absolutely forgetting 
 anything that has once been in the mind. "All mental 
 activities, all acts of knowledge," says H. Schmid, as 
 quoted by Sir W. Hamilton, " which have been once 
 excited persist. . . . We never wholly lose them, but 
 they become obscure. ... The obscure cognition may 
 exist simply out of consciousness, so that it can be 
 recalled by a common act of reminiscence. Again, it 
 may be impossible to recover it by an act of voluntary 
 recollection ; but some association may revivify it 
 enough to make it flash after a long oblivion into con- 
 sciousness. Further, it may be obscured so far that it 
 can only be resuscitated by some morbid affection of 
 the system ; or, finally, it may be absolutely lost to us 
 in this life, and destined only for our reminiscence in 
 the life to come." 
 
 By adopting the opinion that every thought or im- 
 pression that had once been consciously before the 
 mind is ever afterwards retained, we obtain light on 
 many obscure mental phenomena; and especially do we 
 draw from it the conclusion of the perfectibility of the 
 memory to an almost unlimited extent. * We cannot 
 doubt that, could we penetrate to the lowest depths of 
 our mental nature, we should there find traces of every 
 impression we have received, every thought we have 
 entertained, and every act we have done throughout our 
 past life, each one making its influence felt in the way 
 of building up our present knowledge, or in guiding 
 our everyday actions ; and if they exist in the mind, 
 might it not be possible to recall most if not all of 
 them into consciousness when we wished to do BO, if 
 
240 MEMOBY. 
 
 our memories or powers of recollection were what they 
 
 should be? 1 
 
 Our judgment of things depends on our past experi- 
 ence, the particular instances of which we may be 
 unable to recall, but which undoubtedly have their 
 effect in determining the result at which we arrive. A 
 merchant can test a piece of goods and declare its 
 quality and value with the greatest accuracy from hav- 
 ing previously examined numerous examples of the 
 same kind, none of which may be consciously before 
 the mind at the time, but many of which must have 
 unconsciously aided him in coming to a decision. 
 " What is termed ' common sense/ " says J.D. Morell, 
 " is nothing but a substratum of experiences out of 
 which our judgments flow, while the experiences them- 
 selves are hidden away in the unconscious depths of 
 our intellectual nature ; 2 and even the flow of public 
 opinion is formed by ideas which lie tacitly in the 
 national mind, and come into consciousness, generally, 
 a long time after they have been really operating and 
 shaping the course of events in human history." 
 
 One's present actions and thoughts depend more 
 upon his previous thoughts and actions that he himself 
 is aware of, or than is generally recognised. 8 We ima- 
 gine that we ordain the direction of our thoughts, but 
 may it not be that our thoughts merely go in the direc- 
 
 1 " There is not a single act nor a single thought of our past life," 
 says one, " that has not had an influence in fixing our present intel- 
 lectual and moral condition." 
 
 1 " Man's ordinary common sense is the resultant of the uncon- 
 scious co-ordination of a long succession of small experiences mostly 
 forgotten or perhaps never brought out into distinct consciousness." 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 8 " Every action is rigorously determined by the nature of the 
 agent and the conditions under which the act takes place." G. H, 
 Lewes. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 241 
 
 tion towards which they are unconsciously drawn, being 
 swayed by the unconscious influence of past thoughts ? 
 so that in place of commanding our thoughts we are 
 led by them, and simply follow in their wake. " I 
 imagine/' says M. Luys, " that I think of an object by 
 a spontaneous effort of my mind ; it is an illusion. . . . 
 I obey when I think I am commanding, merely turning 
 in a direction towards which I am unconsciously 
 drawn." A man fancies he is free and can act in this way 
 or that as he pleases, but others who know him and 
 have studied his character are usually better able to 
 determine how the man will be likely to act under 
 given circumstances than the man himself. 1 If all the 
 elements that go to form a man's character could be 
 taken into account and duly estimated, we believe that 
 his conduct in any particular case could be infallibly 
 predicted. " Ever since men lived in society they have 
 been in the habit of predicting the future conduct of 
 each other from the past. . . . Men are perpetually 
 staking pleasure, and fortune, and reputation, and even 
 life itself, on the very principle (of necessity) that they 
 speculatively reject." S. Bailey. 
 
 If every thought or impression that bas once been 
 consciously before the mind is ever afterwards retained, it 
 will retain along with it all those thoughts or impressions 
 with which at any time it has been associated. Thus 
 the words "man," "horse," " child," will come in time 
 to be associated with an immense number of men, 
 horses, children, and that some rather than others come 
 before the mind on any particular occasion will depend 
 on a variety of circumstances, more particularly on the 
 
 1 " Les hommes se trompent en ce point qu'ils pensent etre 111 ires. 
 Or en quoi consiste une telle opinion? En cela settlement, qu'ila 
 ont conscience de leurs actions et ignurent les* causes qui lea deler- 
 minent." Spinoza. 
 
242 MEMOET. 
 
 particular frame of mind or train of thought at the 
 time. 1 Thus every phase of thought finds its ap- 
 propriate expression, and a man is able to clothe his 
 ideas in suitable language without any conscious effort 
 or recognised act of judgment. The exact words that 
 serve to express his ideas come up selected from a host 
 of others, by a power of whose operations he is uncon- 
 scious. 2 
 
 In learning anything, particularly if it be of a diffi- 
 cult or complicated nature, it is necessary to reduce it 
 to its elements, and bring the mind to master them 
 one by one. Thus, in teaching a child to read or write, 
 we begin by making it acquainted with the individual 
 letters. These are afterwards combined into words, 
 which again go to form sentences by which ideas are 
 conveyed to the mind. In reading with the mind 
 directed to the meaning, we are no longer distinctly 
 conscious of the words and letters by means of which 
 
 lw We must, I tli ink, admit that the thought of an object ... is 
 always accompanied by an escort more or less numerous of accessory 
 thoughts equally present to the mind though in general unknown 
 in themselves to consciousness ; that these accessories are not without 
 their influence in guiding the operations elicited by the principal 
 notion, and it may even be added that they are so much the more 
 calculated to exert an effect in the conduct of our procedure in pro- 
 portion as ... the influences they exert are farther withdrawn 
 in ordinary from the ken of consciousness." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 2 " From what cause does it happen that a good speaker no sooner 
 conceives what he would express, than the letters, syllables, and 
 words arrange themselves according to innumerable rules of speech 
 while he never thinks of these rules? He means to express certain 
 sentiments ; in order to do this properly, a selection must be made 
 of the materials out of many thousands. He makes this selection 
 without any expense of time or thought. The materials selected 
 must be arranged in a particular order according to innumerable 
 rules of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and accompanied with a par- 
 ticular tone and emphasis. He does all this as it were by inspiration, 
 without thinking of any of these rules, and without breaking one of 
 them." Dr. Thomas Reid. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 243 
 
 it is conveyed, but that these have all been before the 
 mind can scarcely be doubted. 1 Our recognition of a 
 word is not merely the recognition of the word as a 
 whole, but it is the recognition of the individual letters 
 of it, so that in reading, if a letter of a word is mis- 
 placed, we at once detect it. Hence it is that we may 
 be able to recall certain letters of a word or a name 
 without being able to remember the whole. We can, 
 perhaps, say that it begins with a certain letter or ends 
 with a certain other letter, and yet for a time may be 
 unable to recall it. In . like manner, a hint from a 
 single letter may serve to recall a word or even a whole 
 sentence. In looking over a book for the occur- 
 rence of a particular word or name, we cast the 
 eye over a page and can almost immediately tell 
 whether it is to be found there or not. " Here," says 
 Sir W. Hamilton, " the mind is hardly conscious of a 
 single word but that of which it is in quest ; but yet it 
 is evident that each word and letter must have produced 
 an obscure effect, and which effect the mind was ready 
 to discriminate and strengthen so as to call it into con- 
 sciousness whenever the effect was found to be that 
 which the letters of the word could determine." 
 
 In thought, too, doubtless the elementary parts of 
 which an idea or thought is composed are present to 
 
 1 In learning to read, " each word, each, letter was originally a 
 separate object of consciousness. At length the knowledge of letters, 
 and words, and lines being, as it were, fused into our habits, we no 
 longer have any distinct consciousness of them as severally con- 
 curring in the result of which alone we are conscious. But each 
 word and letter has its effect, an effect which can at any moment 
 become an object of consciousness." Sir IV. Hamilton. " In read- 
 ing the page of a book, it is clear to me, however rapidly you may 
 read it, that every letter of that pasje passes in review through the 
 mind. The mind first combines the letters upon the page into words, 
 then the words into sentences, and from those sentences it extract* 
 the meaning," G. P. Bidder. 
 
 
244 MEMORY. 
 
 the mind though they may not come before conscious*- 
 ness. 1 An expert accountant can run his eye over a 
 column of figures and give the total correctly, without 
 having had a conscious appreciation of any of the 
 figures. 2 According to Dugald Stewart, " the mind 
 may think and will without attending to its thoughts 
 or volitions so as to be able afterwards to recollect 
 them. ... A man may be conscious of a perception 
 without being able afterwards to recollect it." 3 May 
 not this account for the fact that "persons under the 
 influence of chloroform have been known to hear them- 
 selves shriek during the performance of a surgical opera- 
 tion at the very moment when they had no feeling of 
 pain whatever " ? Dr. Lay cock. May they not have felt 
 the pain for a moment but ceased to remember it ? 
 
 In our first attempts to walk, to write, to play on an 
 instrument, or to carry on any other operation, we are 
 intensely conscious of every movement that we. make. 
 By degrees, as we acquire more ease and dexterity in 
 their performance, we become less and less conscious of 
 them, till we may come to perform them quite uncon- 
 sciously. " When a beginner is learning his notes on 
 
 1 " In ordinary thinking we are as little conscious of the particular 
 steps our interest being concentrated on the result as we are of 
 the particular stages of an action. 7 ' G. H. Lewes. 
 
 2 " An expert accountant, for example, can sum up almost with 
 a single glance of his eye a long column of figures. He can tell 
 the sum with unerring certainty, while at the same time he is 
 unable to recollect any one of the figures of which that sum is coin- 
 posed, and yet nobody doubts that each of these figures has passed 
 through his mind or supposes that when the rapidity of the pro- 
 cess becomes so great that he is unable to recollect the various 
 steps of it, he obtains the result by a sort of inspiration." D. 
 Stewart. 
 
 3 " A perception or an idea which passes through the mind 
 without leaving any trace on the memory may yet serve to intro 
 duce other ideas connected with it by the laws of association." 
 D. Stewart. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 245 
 
 the pianoforte, he has deliberately to call to mind each 
 note ; but when, by frequent practice, he has acquired 
 complete skill in playing on that instrument there is no 
 conscious memory, but his movements are automatic.*' 
 Dr. H. Maudsley. There are some who hold that 
 when actions thus come to be performed unconsciously, 
 the mind ceases to have any part in the direction of 
 them. 1 " In the case of some operations which are very 
 familiar to us, we find ourselves unable to attend 
 to or to recollect the acts of the will by which they 
 were preceded ; and accordingly some philosophers of 
 great eminence have called in question the existence 
 of such volitions, and have represented our habitual 
 actions as involuntary and mechanical. But surely the 
 circumstance of our inability to recollect our volitions 
 does not authorise us to dispute their possibility any 
 more than our inability to attend to -the process of the 
 
 1 " When we perform a train of movements without any further 
 aid of the will than to commence the series, there must be a fixed 
 connection between each and the one that follows." Prof. Bain. 
 We however agree with those who regard these movements as being 
 still under the control of the will as at first, through the presence in 
 the mind of ideas of which we are unconscious, and that the asso- 
 ciated movements are in consequence of association of the ideas. 
 " Where a person performing a difficult piece of music converses 
 freely at the same time on some subject wholly alien to his occupa- 
 tion, . . . the consciousness passes with inappreciable rapidity from 
 one subject to the other, giving the effect of being simultaneous to 
 what is in reality a succession of states." Sir H. Holland. " We are 
 not conscious of the separate sensations which guide speech and 
 w riting. . . . Are these processes mechanical ? By no means. We 
 know that they were laboriously learned by long tentative efforts, 
 each of which was accompanied by distinct consciousness. ... To 
 suppose that they pass from the psychical to the physical by frequent 
 repetition would lead to the monstrous conclusion that, when a 
 naturalist has by laborious study become so familiarised with the 
 specific marks of an animal or plant that he can recognise at a glance 
 a particular species, or recognise by a single character the nature 
 of the rest, the rapidity and certainty of this judgment proves it to 
 be a mechanical, not a mental act." Q. H. Lewes. 
 18 
 
246 MEMOB*. 
 
 mind in estimating the distance of an object from the 
 eye authorises us to affirm tliat the perception is instan- 
 taneous." D. Stewart. 1 
 
 Did our actions not become more and more easy of 
 execution, and gain in rapidity by repetition, were we 
 still as conscious of them as at first, comparatively little 
 could be accomplished in the course of a lifetime. If, 
 in order to walk, we had ever to carefully consider each 
 step we took, or, in order to write, had always to attend 
 to the formation of each letter were all our other 
 operations performed as painfully and as consciously as 
 
 cannot help thinking it more philosophical to suppose 
 that those actions which are originally voluntary always continue 
 so, although ... we may not be able to recollect every different 
 volition. Thus, in the case of a performer on the harpsichord, I 
 apprehend that there is an act of the will preceding every motion 
 of every finger, although he may not be able to recollect these 
 volitions afterwards, and although he may, during the time of his 
 performance, be employed in carrying on a separate train of thought. 
 . . . The truth seems to be that, in consequence of the association 
 of ideas, the different steps of the process present themselves succes- 
 sively to the thoughts without any recollection on our part, and 
 with a degree of rapidity proportioned to the length of pur ex- 
 perience, so as to save us entirely the trouble of hesitation and 
 reflection, by giving us every moment a precise and steady notion 
 of the effect to be produced." D. Stewart. "The point never te 
 be left out of sight is that actions which are known to be preceded 
 and accompanied by sensations do not lose their special character of 
 sentience . . . because they are not preceded and accompanied by 
 that peculiar state which is specially called consciousness. When 
 we see a man playing the piano, and at the same time talking of 
 something far removed from the music, we say his fingers move 
 unconsciously, but we do not conclude that he is a musical machine 
 muscular sensations and musical sensations regulate every move- 
 ment of his fingers ; and if he strikes a false note, or if one of the 
 notes jangles, he is instantly aware of the fact. . . . That a particular 
 group of sensations, such as musical tones, will set going a particular 
 group of muscular movement without the intervention of any 
 conscious effort is not more to be interpreted on purely mechanical 
 principles, than that a particular phrase will cause a story-teller to 
 repeat a particular anecdote, or an old soldier ' to fight his battles o'er 
 again V G. H. Lewes. 
 

 MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 247 
 
 at first life could scarcely fail to be a burden. In like 
 manner, did everything that exists in the inind exist 
 there consciously; or did every time that an idea 
 occurred to the mind all the other ideas that had at 
 any time been associated with it come up along with it, 
 and a selection have to be consciously made of the right 
 one, inconvenience and loss of time could not fail to 
 result. In some persons, from habit or lack of proper 
 training, an idea in the mind immediately recalls a 
 number of other ideas, having more or less, and some- 
 times very little, connection with it, thus distracting 
 the mind with a multitude of thoughts, making the 
 selection of the best a conscious act, producing hesi- 
 tation and indecision, and causing loss of time. The 
 selection of the right thoughts should be an act of the 
 unconscious mind, and take place unconsciously. 
 
 The more wo cultivate and train any power or 
 faculty, the more easily and rapidly does it perform its 
 work, the less is consciousness concerned in it, the 
 more work does it accomplish, and the less does it 
 suffer from fatigue. 1 Our mental progress, then, is in 
 the direction of our becoming unconscious, or largely 
 unconscious, of many of our activities. Consciousness 
 has at first an important place in the training of our 
 
 1 " There is a remarkable law of the system by which actions 
 at first requiring much attention are after frequent repetition 
 performed with a much less degree of it, or without the mind 
 being conscious of any effort. This is exemplified in various pro- 
 cesses of daily occurrence, as reading and writing, but most remark- 
 all ly in music." Dr. Abercrombie. "Careful practice alone is 
 needed in order that previously strange, difficult, and complex 
 movements should be capable of being performed with ease, and 
 that after a time, during the process of learning, first the '.Con- 
 ception' of the movements needed, and subsequently the desire 
 which originally prompted to their execution, may alike vanish as 
 conscious states by which they are necessarily preceded." Dr. 
 Bastian. 
 
248 MEMOEY. 
 
 faculties and the building up of our knowledge. The 
 more consciousness is concentrated upon any new 
 operation, the more readily is it mastered; and the 
 more it is concentrated upon any idea brought before 
 the mind, the better is it impressed upon the memory. 
 But as we acquire facility and skill in the operation, as 
 the memory acquires strength we become less conscious 
 of them. 1 " The interference of consciousness," says 
 Dr. Maudsley, "is often an actual hindrance to the 
 association of ideas, as it notably is to the performance 
 of movements that have attained the complete ease of 
 an automatic execution." " In proportion as volition has 
 to be exercised in carrying them on, in that proportion 
 are they imperfectly performed, and then only at the 
 expense of much labour and fatigue." J. D. Morell. 
 
 The great object of education, then, should be to 
 transfer as much as possible of our actions from the 
 conscious to the unconscious region of the mind. 
 " The possibility of all education," says Prof. Huxley, 
 " is based upon the existence of this power, which the 
 nervous system possesses of organising conscious 
 actions into more or less unconscious or reflex opera- 
 tions." " A purely reflex action is accompanied with 
 no fatigue at all, so that operations which were painful 
 in the extreme to .the muscles engaged so long as the 
 will had to compel every movement for their per- 
 formance, can after a while be kept up the whole day 
 with scarcely any sense of weariness whatever." 
 /. D. Morell. 
 
 It is in the ultra-conscious region of the mind that 
 
 1 " Consciousness does essential service in the building up of 
 faculties of thought and action ; its part is comparatively small in the 
 use which we make of them afterwards. . . . There is not a faculty 
 of the mind which, though they began by using it consciously, they 
 do not after habitual practice exercise unconsciously." Dr. Maudsley. 
 
MIND, CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. 249 
 
 all its highest operations are carried on. It is here that 
 genius works. " Shakespeare's intellect/' says Carlyle, 
 " is what I call an unconscious intellect ; there is more 
 virtue in it than he himself is aware of. ... The latest 
 generations of men will find new meanings in Shake- 
 speare, new elucidations of their own human being.'' 
 "I prefer," says Goethe, "that the principle from which, 
 and through which, I work should be hidden from me." 
 " Zerah Colburn, the American calculating boy, on 
 being interrogated as to the way in which he obtained 
 the results, constantly declared that he did not know 
 how the answers came into his head." Dr. Carpenter. 
 " The sublimest works of intelligence are quite possible, 
 and may be easily conceived to be executed, without 
 any consciousness of them on the part of the apparent 
 and immediate agent." Prof. Ferrier. 
 
 How many thoughts, how much knowledge, would 
 come into our minds if we would only let them if we 
 would simply keep our minds open to receive them ! l 
 Unfortunately, however, our minds are too much pre- 
 occupied, are ever going after other things, and we are 
 unable to hear the still, small voice within. " Were 
 man to be without consciousness," says Prof. Ferrier, 
 "by reason of the very absence of consciousness, the 
 
 1 " Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. 
 ... It shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe." 
 W. Emerson. 
 
 " Delicate omens traced in air 
 To the lone bard true witness bare ; 
 Birds with auguries on their wings 
 Chanted undeceiving things 
 Him to beckon, him to warn ; 
 Well might then the poet scorn 
 To learn of scribe or courier 
 Hints writ in vaster character." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
250 MEMORY. 
 
 flood-gates of his being would stand wider than before, 
 and let in upon him stronger and deeper currents of 
 inspiration." " It is by spontaneous and not by reflec- 
 tive thought that the mind attains its clearest and most 
 penetrating visions of things. . . . Almost always there 
 is involved in them the gathered wisdom of long, and 
 varied, and ripened experience ; very often there are 
 analyses, more or less refined ; generalisations of a 
 narrower or wider scope ; and not unfrequently ratio- 
 cinations passing so rapidly, that the processes are not 
 only not analysed, they are not even observed." 
 Dr. M'Cosh. 
 
 The highest form of memory, as of all the mental 
 powers, is the unconscious when what we wish to 
 recall comes to us spontaneously, without any conscious 
 thought or search for it. Frequently when we wish to 
 recall something that has previously been in the mind 
 we are unable to do so by any conscious effort of the 
 will ; but we turn the attention to something else, and 
 after a time the desired information comes up spon- 
 taneously when we are .not consciously thinking of it. 
 " There is the working of a mechanism beneath the 
 consciousness which, when once set going, runs on of 
 itself, and which is more likely to evolve the desiderated 
 result when the conscious activity of the mind is 
 exerted in a direction altogether different." Dr. 
 Carpenter. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 ATTENTION. 
 
 M Memory ia Tery much influenced by attention, or a full and distinct perception 
 of the fact or object, with a view to its being remembered." Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 " It is a matter of common remark that the permanence of the impression, which 
 anything leaves on the memory, is proportioned to the degree of attention which 
 was originally given to it." D. Stewart. 
 
 " The experiences most permanently impressed upon consciousness are those 
 upon which the greatest amount of attention has been fixed." D. O. Thompson. 
 
 Attention "is so essentially subservient" to memory, "that without some 
 degree of it the ideas and perceptions which pass through the mind seem to leave 
 no trace behind them". D. Stewart. 
 
 " An act of attention, that is an act of concentration, seems thus necessary to 
 every exertion of consciousness, as a certain contraction of the pupil is requisite to 
 every exertion of vision. . . . Attention, then, is to consciousness what the contrac- 
 tion of the pupil is to sight, or to the eye of the mind what the microscope or tele- 
 scope is to the bodily eye. . . It constitutes the better half of all intellectual 
 power." Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 " It is this, much more than any difference in the abstract power of reasoning, 
 which constitutes the vast difference which exists between miuds of different indi- 
 viduals." Sir B. Brodie. 
 
 "The most important intellectual habit that I know of is "the habit of 
 attending exclusively to the matter in hand. ... It is commonly said that 
 genius cannot be infused by education, yet this power of concentrated attention, 
 which belongs as a part of his gift to every great discoverer, is unquestionably 
 capable of almost indefinite augmentation by resolute practice." W. A. Butler. 
 
 "The force wherewith anything strikes the mind is generally in proportion to 
 the degree of attention bestowed upon it. . The great art of memory is atten- 
 tion. . . . Inattentive people have always bad memories." Dr. /. Beattie 
 
 A TTENTION is necessary to memory. The remem- 
 jLA. brance of anything depends upon the clearness 
 and vividness of the impression originally made by it 
 upon the~*mind, and this on the degree of attention 
 with which it was regarded. 1 It is generally held by 
 
 1 u It is a law of mind that the intensity of the present conscious- 
 ness determines the vivacity of the future memory ; memory and 
 consciousness are thus in the direct ratio of each other. . . . Vivid 
 consciousness, long memory ; faint consciousness, short memory ; no 
 consciousness, no memory*" Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
252 MEMOET. 
 
 philosophers that without some degree of attention no 
 impression of any duration could be made on the mind 
 or laid up in the memory. 1 \|mpressions may be made 
 on the senses, thoughts may pass through the mind, 
 but unless the attention is directed to them they will 
 be unobserved */ The defects of memory, of which most 
 persons complain, are owing more to want of attention 
 than to any other cause. 3 / We remember what we 
 attend to, but what we do not attend to we readily forget. 
 Attention is the fixing of the mind intently upon one 
 particular object, to the exclusion for the time of all 
 
 1 " Every phenomenon of consciousness proper must possess in 
 some degree the attributes of clearness and distinctness without 
 which it can leave no trace in the memory, and cannot be compared 
 with other phenomena of the same class ; and in order to this it ia 
 necessary that the phenomenon in question should have been ob- 
 served with some degree of attention." Dean Hansel. " I am 
 inclined to suppose that it is essential to memory that the 
 perception, or the idea which we would wish to remember, should 
 remain in the mind for a certain space of time, and should be con- 
 templated by it exclusively of everything else." D. Stewart. 
 
 8 " It is clearly not sufficient that an impression should be trans- 
 mitted to the brain for it to be remembered. An act of the mind 
 itself is necessary for that purpose, and that ... is attention." Sir 
 B. Brodie. " Place yourself in the crowded streets of a city, a thou- 
 sand objects of vision before your eye, sounds hardly less various 
 coming upon the ear, odours also constantly changing, contact or 
 collision at any moment with some external object. Amidst this 
 multitude of physical objects, and with all the organs of sense 
 seemingly open, one alone will be found at each moment distinctly 
 present to the mind. ... Or let the mind pass suddenly by will or 
 accident into a train of inward thought . . . and all the external 
 objects thus crowded around you utterly disappear, though the phy- 
 sical agents producing, and the organs receiving, sensations remain 
 precisely as before." Sir H. Holland. 
 
 8 " It is only a small proportion of what we see, or hear, or feel, 
 or imagine, that is not immediately forgotten, simply because there 
 are very few of these things to which we pay more than a momentary 
 attention." Sir B, Brodie. " The habit of hasty and inexact obser- 
 vation ... is necessarily the foundation of a habit of remembering 
 wrongly ; and the habit of remembering wrongly is of necessity the 
 cause of an incorrect judgment and erroneous imagination." Dr. 
 f. Maudsley. 
 
ATTENTION. 253 
 
 other objects that solicit its notice. It is not, strictly 
 speaking, a special faculty of the mind, but is a mode 
 of activity equally applicable to all its states. It is a 
 particular form of consciousness, and acts altogether 
 irrespective of the object to which it is applied, being 
 equally suitable to every occasion for which it is re- 
 quired. Sir W. Hamilton defines it as " consciousness 
 voluntarily applied under its law of limitations to some 
 determinate object ". This law of limitations, he says, 
 is "that the intention of our knowledge is in the inverse 
 ratio of its extension," in other words, "that the greater 
 the number of objects to which our consciousness is 
 simultaneously extended, the smaller is the intensity 
 with which it is able to consider each, and consequently 
 the less vivid and distinct will be the information it 
 obtains of the several objects. . . . When our interest 
 in any particular object is excited, and when we wish 
 to obtain all the knowledge concerning it in our power, 
 it behoves us to limit our consideration to that object 
 to the exclusion of others." 
 
 The human mind is single, and can only be in one 
 state or engaged in one kind of activity at the same 
 instant of time. 1 It can, however, pass with amazing 
 rapidity from one state or from one form of activity to 
 
 1 "Whether we have the power of attending to more than one 
 thing at one and the same instant?" The negative opinion " appears 
 to me to be the most reasonable and philosophical that we can form 
 on the subject". D. Stewart. " A plurality of stimulations of the 
 nerves may coexist, but they can affect the consciousness only by 
 turns, or one at a time." Prof. Bain. u It is established by ex- 
 perience that we cannot give our attention to two different objects 
 at the same time."M.Jouffroy. " Two thoughts or act-e of memory, 
 however closely related to one another, cannot be presumed to exist 
 at the same instant, each has its individuality in time." Sir H. 
 Holland. " The nature of our organism prevents our having more 
 than one aspect of an object at each iustant presented to conscious- 
 ." G. H. 
 
254 MEMOET. 
 
 another, so as to give the impression that it may be in 
 several states or carry on several operations at once, 
 but this is simply owing to the rapidity with which it 
 can pass from one to another. 1 Hence, when taken up 
 with one object others may present themselves to it 
 and be unobserved. Thus, the clock may strike in the 
 room beside us, and, if the mind is otherwise engaged, 
 we may fail to perceive it. 2 In like manner wounds 
 received in the heat of battle may be unfelt for a time, 
 owing to the mind being otherwise occupied. 3 
 
 When, on the other hand, the attention is unengaged 
 or free, the lightest impressions will be perceived; 4 
 and it has the power of intensifying or magnifying any 
 impression or thought to which it may be directed. 5 
 Thus impressions, feeble or insignificant in themselves, 
 
 1 u The best philosophers are agreed that the mind cannot actually 
 attend to more than one tning at a time, but, when it so appears, is 
 in reality shifting with prodigious rapidity backwards and forwards 
 from one to the other." Arclibp. Whately. It is " impossible that 
 the mind should be engaged in two topics at the same instant. The 
 expertness which seems to accomplish this feat is, in fact, a highly 
 developed power of glancing from one subject to another with great 
 rapidity a sort of mental trapeze-flying, wherein the performer 
 often gets an ugly fall, and may be permanently disabled." Dr. M. 
 Granville. " The fact never to be forgotten is that the human mind 
 can attend to only one thing at a time, although it may shift the 
 attention very rapidly, and thus overtake two or more things by 
 turns." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " He whose mind is intensely employed in any particular pur- 
 suit, may have his eyes open upon an object which he sees not, or 
 he may not hear the sound of a clock striking within two yards of 
 him." Dr. G. Payne. 
 
 3 " It is well known that impressions fail to produce consciousness 
 when the mind is strongly pre-engaged. In the heat of a battle 
 wounds may be for a time unfelt." Prof. Bain. 
 
 4 " Those things are ... best remembered which occur when th 
 mind is at ease and unemployed," Dr. J. Beattie. 
 
 6 "Whatever be its relations to the special faculties, attention 
 doubles all their efficiency and affords them a power of which they 
 would otherwise be destitute." Sir W. Hamilton* 
 
ATTENTION. 255 
 
 may be raised to even a painful degree of acuteness by 
 having the attention strongly directgji to them, and 
 may thus occasion much suffering. 1 'By concentrating 
 the attention upon an object, we not only perceive it 
 more clearly, but we call forth the ideas that have at 
 different times been associated with it ; and at the same 
 time all that we hear or read concerning it makes a 
 deeper impression.^ Hence, if we form in the mind a 
 general idea of the contents of a book before reading it, 
 we grasp at different parts much more readily, and 
 fix them in the memory much better than we could 
 otherwise do. 3 It is by means of attention that one is 
 able to listen to one or other of several persons speaking 
 at the same time, or to one voice or instrument in a 
 concert to the neglect of others. 4 
 
 l "A painful sensation becomes more intolerable the more the 
 attention is directed to it. A sensation, in itself inconsiderable, as an 
 itching in a very small spot of the skin, is thus rendered very 
 troublesome and enduring." Dr. J. Miiller. "If the attention be 
 steadily directed to almost any part of the surface of the body, some 
 feeling of itching, creeping, or tickling will soon be experienced." 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 * " By attending to an object we give it the opportunity of excit- 
 ing all the ideas with which it is associated. " Jas. Mill. " When 
 the attention is strongly fixed on any particular subject, all that is 
 said concerning it makes a deeper impression upon the mind." 
 Isaac Watts. 
 
 8 "After a rapid glance on the subject and distribution of a new 
 book, I suspend the reading of it, which I only resume after having 
 myself examined the subject in all its relations." E. Gibbon. 
 
 4 " Although many images may be simultaneously existing upon 
 the retina, the mind' possesses the power of singling out any one of 
 them and fastening attention upon it, just as among a number <t' 
 musical instruments simultaneously played, one, and that perhaps 
 the feeblest, may be selected and its notes exclusively folluwed."- 
 Dr. Draper. " In a concert of several voices, the voices being of 
 nearly equal intensity, regarded merely as organic impressions on the 
 auditory nerve, we select one, and at will we lift it out and disjoin 
 it from the general volume of sound ; we shut off the other voices 
 five, ten, or more and follow this one alone. When we have dona 
 
256 MEMOBY. 
 
 The greater one's power of attention, the longer and 
 more steadily he is able to fix it upon a .subject, the 
 better will he be able to follow out the" same train of 
 thought, and the greater will be the amount of success 
 attending his labours. 1 It is this power of attention, 
 this power of keeping a particular object before the 
 mind till he has thoroughly mastered it, that more than 
 anything else distinguishes the man of genius from 
 others. / Indeed, it is said that "possibly the most 
 comprehensive definition of genius is the power of con- 
 centrating and prolonging the attention upon any one 
 given subject". Sir Isaac Newton, in describing his 
 method of study, said : "I keep the subject continually 
 before me, and wait till the first dawning opens slowly 
 by little and little into a clear light"; and, when com- 
 plimented on his great discoveries, he modestly replied, 
 " that if he had made any improvements in the sciences, 
 it was owing more to patient attention than to any 
 other talent". "For rising to eminence in any intel- 
 lectual pursuit," says Dr. Abercrombie, " there is not a 
 rule of more essential importance than that of doing 
 one thing at a time, avoiding all distracting and 
 desultory occupations, and keeping a leading object 
 continually before the mind." " The mind that pos- 
 sesses this faculty in the greatest degree of perfection 
 will take cognisance of relations of which another mind 
 has no perception." Sir B. Brodie. 
 
 On the other hand there is no more marked charac- 
 
 so for a time, we freely cast it off and take up another." Isaac 
 Taylor. 
 
 1 " The more completely the mental energy can be brought into 
 one focus, and all distracting objects excluded, the more powerful 
 will be the volitional effort." Dr. Carpenter. " The power and 
 habit of thinking closely and continuously upon the subject in hand, 
 to the exclusion for the time of all other subjects, is one of the prin- 
 cipal, if not the principal, means of success." Sir J. Y. Simpson. 
 
ATTENTION. 257 
 
 teristic of ft weak mind than that of want of power to 
 concentrate the attention upon an object for any length 
 of time. 1 "Imbeciles and idiots/' says Esquirol, " are 
 destitute of the faculty of attention;" 2 and medical men 
 say that " one of the most constant and characteristic 
 symptoms of coming insanity is a debilitated power of 
 attention. . . . The growing deficiency of attention 
 points to a coming imbecility, and especially to an im- 
 pending attack of softening of the brain."* 
 
 It is commonly said that in the decay of our powers 
 through age the memory is the first faculty that fails ; 
 but this is not strictly correct, for it is the power of 
 attention, on which the memory depends, that is the 
 first to deteriorate. Hence, it is the most recent sub- 
 jects, the things of yesterday or last week, those that 
 have not been sufficiently attended to, that are the first 
 to disappear. The things of years ago and of early life, 
 those that have been attended to and are established, 
 are the last to be forgotten. 4 
 
 1 " The mind which is deficient in concentrative power is lament- 
 ably deranged by any kind of emotional excitement in the perfor- 
 mance of any volitional effort." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 2 " They see badly, hear badly, feel badly, and their sensorium is, 
 in consequence, in a similar condition of sensitive poverty. Its im- 
 pressionability for the things of the external world is at a minimum, 
 its sensibility weak, and consequently it is difficult to provoke the 
 condition of physiological erethism necessary for the absorption of 
 the external impression." J. Luys. 
 
 3 " In all forms of mental disease the faculty of attention becomes 
 gradually weaker, and presents, according to the intensity of the 
 morbid process, different and fatally progressive modifications." J. 
 Luys. 
 
 4 In the natural decay of memory it is observed that M recent 
 events are retained with difficulty and soon forgotten ; while those 
 of older date are easily and accurately recalled. This has been re- 
 ferred, and rightly I believe, to the differing degree of interest, and 
 therefore of attention, which the same objects excite in the young 
 and in the old. It would seem as if the effort of attention stamped 
 characters upon the material fabric which are deep and lasting in the 
 
258 MEMOBT. 
 
 Seeing, then, the importance of attention, it is of the 
 utmost consequence, not only for memory but for all 
 our faculties, that we strive to improve and strengthen 
 it by every means in our poweri' In order to this it is 
 necessary to acquire the habit of thinking of, or doing, 
 only one thing at a time. 2 There is nothing contributes 
 more to success in any pursuit than that of having the 
 attention concentrated on the matter in hand ; and, on 
 the contrary, nothing is more detrimental than when 
 doing one thing to have the mind taken up with some- 
 thing else. 8 We read of one that "she did things 
 easily, because she attended to them in the doing. 
 When she made bread she thought of the bread, and 
 not of the fashion of her next dress, or of her partner 
 at the last dance." 4 One, when asked how he found 
 time to do so much, said that it was by always concen- 
 centrating his attention upon that which was before 
 him. " There is time enough for everything in the 
 course of the day," says Lord Chesterfield, "if you do 
 but one thing at once ; but there is not time enough in 
 
 youthful brain, faint in advanced life, and often altogether effaced in 
 old age." Sir Thos. Watson. 
 
 1 " It would form a most valuable article in a systematical treatise 
 on education to point out the means by which this habit of attention 
 may be cultivated, or the contrary habits of inattention corrected 
 where they have unfortunately been contracted." D. Stewart. 
 
 2 " It is a matter of no small importance that we acquire the 
 habit of doing only one thing at a time ; by which I mean that 
 while employed on any one object, our thoughts ought not to 
 wander to another." Dr. J. Beattie. 
 
 3 " A frequent cause of failure in the faculty of attention is 
 striving to think of more than one thing at a time." Dr. M. 
 Granville. 
 
 4 " When we go from home, or to the fields for exercise, we should 
 leave all our speculations behind, otherwise we will fatigue the body 
 and distract the mind, and will confirm ourselves in those habits of 
 inattention which, when persisted in, form what is called an absent 
 person." Dr. J. Beattie. 
 
ATTENTION. 259 
 
 the year if yon will do two things at a time.'* Many 
 a clever man has made shipwreck of his life by striving 
 to do two things at once. It is by doing one thing at 
 a time that we come in time to do many things. " The 
 shortest way/' says Lord Burleigh, " to do many things 
 is to do one thing at a time." It is as one is able to 
 shut out every other object, every other idea, even self, 
 from the mind that he attains the highest degree of 
 mental power. 1 The actor or the orator, who can so. 
 throw himself into his character or subject as to be 
 oblivious of everything but that, is the one that is most 
 natural and therefore moves the audience more power- 
 fully. 2 Mrs. Siddons, we are told, was wont to so throw 
 herself into the character of the person she was repre- 
 senting as to quite lose sight of her own personality, 
 and to think and act in the character of her heroina* 
 
 It may seem to militate against this view that some- 
 times the mind appears to attend best to a thing when 
 
 1 Archbishop Whately cured a person of shyness by saying : " You 
 are shy because you are thinking of the impression you are making. 
 Think only of the pleasure you can give to others, and not of your- 
 self." In speaking of bashfulness he says : " Let both the extem- 
 porary speaker and the reader of his own compositions study to avoid 
 as far as possible all thoughts of self, earnestly fixing the mind on 
 the matter of what is delivered ; and the one will feel the less of 
 that embarrassment which arises from the thought of what opinion 
 the hearers will form of him, while the other will appear to be 
 speaking, because he actually will be speaking, the sentiments, not 
 indeed which at that time first arise in his own mind, but which are 
 then really present to, and occupy, his mind ". 
 
 8 " If a public speaker or tragedian thinks of the action which he 
 is about to use while he is striving to feel what he is uttering, he is 
 as likely as not to give the right action in the wrong place, or the 
 wrong action in the right place, or to give the wrong action in the 
 wrong place." G. W. Smith. 
 
 8 " Some of our greatest actors especially of the female sex be- 
 come so completely engrossed in the * parts' they play as to lose alto- 
 gether for the time the sense of their own personality, and to be 
 rather than act the characters they have assumed." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
260 MEMOBY. 
 
 it has something else, which does not greatly call forth 
 the attention, to occupy it at the same time. Thus 
 some persons think best on a subject when their hands 
 are taken up with something, or when listening to a 
 piece of music or a dull sermon. 1 We do not obtain 
 the highest form of attention in this way, and it is a 
 bad habife requiring to be corrected; but sometimes it is 
 well to take advantage of it. We account for it thus : 
 when the attention is feeble or exhausted, when it can- 
 not retain hold of a thing for any length of time, but is 
 constantly wandering off to others, then it is well that 
 something be found for it that will not make great 
 demands upon it, on which it may fall back from time 
 to time, and from which it may return refreshed to the 
 principal subject. 
 
 If we would possess the power of attention in a high 
 degree, we must cultivate the habit of attending to what 
 is directly before the mind, to the exclusion of all else. 
 All distracting thoughts and feelings that tend to with- 
 draw the mind from what is immediately before it are 
 therefore to be carefully avoided. 2 This is a matter of 
 great importance, and of no little difficulty. Fre- 
 quently the mind, in place of being concentrated on 
 what is immediately before it, is thinking of something 
 else something, it may be, that went before or that 
 
 1 " It is a fact, and a very curious one, that many people find they 
 can best attend to any serious matter when they are occupied with 
 something else which requires a little, and but a little, attention ; 
 euch as working with the needle, cutting open paper leaves, or, for 
 want of some such employment, fiddling anyhow with the lingers." 
 Archbp. Whately. 
 
 8 " It is necessary, then, that one single impression at a time shall 
 be imprinted upon the sensorium, and that moreover the elements of 
 the sensorium shall themselves be in a kind of silence and relative 
 catlm." J. Luys. "There are two great causes of distraction or 
 inattention external impressions and internal emotions." -Wi 
 ftofc* 
 
ATTENTION. 261 
 
 may come after, or something quite alien to the sub- 
 ject. 1 Sometimes the very anxiety to remember a 
 thing causes the forgetting of it ; the mind, in place of 
 simply receiving the impressions as they are presented 
 to it, harassing itself with such questions as " Shall I 
 remember this?" "Have I forgotten that?" "What 
 was said just now?" 2 Sometimes the mind may be 
 taken up with the meaning of a word or sentence, to 
 the neglect of the letters or words or sounds that go to 
 make it up, and which it is desired to impress upon 
 the mind. 3 Hence, in training the mind to remember 
 words or sounds, it is sometimes desirable that the 
 words be such as convey, or be used in such a way as 
 
 1 " While listening to a sermon or lecture, or whilst reading . . . 
 our thoughts are apt to revert to the ideas which preceded, instead 
 of being concentrated upon the required point. In public speaking 
 this ... is still more distracting, as not only that which has been 
 said, but that which is about to be said, thrusts itself forward and 
 effectually interferes with that which is being said, and which ought 
 to receive undivided attention." W. Stokes. " A diffident but quick 
 reader or speaker not uncommonly worries himself about the pro- 
 nunciation of a word some distance in advance of him, and even re- 
 hearses it mentally." Dr. M. Granville. 
 
 2 " The mind, instead of being occupied in grasping that which is 
 wanted, may be soliloquising thus ' Dear me, I fear I shall not 
 remember all this ; I wonder whether I have forgotten what v\a 
 said just now ! What was it ? Let me see 1' " W. Stokes. 
 
 8 " In a large class of minds the faculty of apprehension is deve- 
 loped, as it were, at the cost of that of mental registering or memory ; 
 the force of the intellect being expended in understanding, while tin- 
 storing of impressions is left to chance, which generally means that 
 it is neglected. ... A man may concentrate his attention and brin<. r 
 his reasoning faculties to bear on a subject of study, mastering its 
 details and obtaining a clear comprehension of the whole, while he 
 is not registering any impression to form the basis of a memory." 
 Dr. M. Granville. " The effect of etymological knowledge concerning 
 the origin and the changes in meaning of a perfectly intelligiMt 
 word, where such knowledge is awakened in our minds at the sight 
 or on the utterance of the word, ... is undoubtedly to divide the 
 attention between the present and the past significations, whence in 
 the rapidity of discourse vacillation and confusion are naturally apt 
 to arise." S. Bailey. 
 19 
 
262 MEMOBY. 
 
 to convey, no meaning by which the attention may be 
 distracted. 1 
 
 De Quincey gives a very striking instance of the way 
 in which the understanding sometimes steps in and 
 perverts impressions received by sense, in the case of a 
 man ignorant of perspective attempting to draw ai 
 object depending on the laws of that science. "H& 
 will be utterly unable," he says, " to make the smallest 
 approximation to it. Yet why ? For he has actually 
 seen the effect every day in his life. The reason is that 
 he allows his understanding to overrule his eyes . . s 
 for not only does the man believe the evidence of his 
 understanding in opposition to that of his eyes, but the 
 idiot is not aware that his eyes ever gave him such evi- 
 dence. He does not know that he has seen that which 
 he has seen every day of his life." 
 
 Further, almost every object presented to the mind 
 is compound, made up of several parts, so that if we 
 would obtain a clear and accurate impression of the 
 whole or of any of its parts, it is necessary to bring 
 each part individually before the mind by itself. Thus 
 an apple presents to us form, colour, taste, smell, &c. ; 
 and if we would obtain a clear idea of any one of these, 
 we must contemplate it by itself and compare it with 
 other impressions of the same kind that we have pre- 
 viously experienced. So in viewing a landscape, it is 
 not enough to regard it merely as a whole, but we must 
 regard each of its different parts individually by itself if 
 we would have a clear idea of it. We can only obtain 
 a full and complete knowledge of an object by analysing 
 
 1 w Unconnected words form the very best material for inflective 
 exercise." A. M. Bell. "The language memory . . . carries a 
 great many things in the unmeaning state ; and the more we are 
 endowed with it the farther we can go in dispensing with the full 
 comprehension ot what we are laying up." Prof. Bain. 
 
ATTENTION. 263 
 
 it and concentrating the attention upon its different 
 partb one by one. " It is not," says Dr. T. Reid, " by 
 the senses immediately, but rather by the power of ana- 
 lysing and abstraction, that we get the most simple and 
 the most distinct notions even of objects of sense." 
 Still more is this true with regard to our intellectual 
 ideas. " It is scarcely possible/' says Dr. T. Brown, 
 " to advance even a single step in intellectual physics 
 without the necessity of performing some sort of 
 analysis." 
 
 In the acquisition of any particular set of movements 
 we do so best and most readily by analysing them, and 
 bringing the attention to bear upon them one by one. 1 
 In the simple process of walking we have three distinct 
 movements. " The heel of the foot extended first 
 touches the ground, then the sole just as the heel oi 
 the other foot begins to leave the ground, and last of 
 all the pupil rises upon the ball of his toes." These 
 three movements performed in turn by both feet con- 
 stitute walking, and by directing attention to each of 
 these movements in turn one will soon learn to walk 
 easily and well. 2 It is not the length of time that one 
 may be engaged in any exercise, nor the frequency with 
 
 1 " In our mechanical education complex and difficult actions are 
 acquired by taking the simple acts separately. We learn part No. 1 
 by itself ; then part No. 2, No. 3, and so on ; and if each of these 
 parts be so firmly acquired as to be maintained without any exercise 
 of the attention, there will be no new labour in performing tlu-m 
 together." Prof. Bain. " Man can readily acquire surprising kinds 
 of dexterity if he confines his attention to their acquisition. Spe- 
 cialisation is the mother of proficiency." Dr. E. llcring. 
 
 3 In training recruits to use the rifle they are first made to tal<e 
 sights with the musket laid on a rest. They* are afterwards taught, 
 one by one, the different movements connected with firing, close 
 attention being paid to each ; and they practise blank firing for sonio 
 time, so w to get accustomed to the report and recoil before 
 ball. 
 

 
 264 MEMOBY. 
 
 which he may practise it, but it is the amount of atten- 
 tion that is bestowed upon it that constitutes its advan- 
 tage. 1 In this, as in other things, " a month of training 
 is worth years of practice". 
 
 In teaching any subject, then, we should seek to 
 reduce it to its simplest parts, and bring the mind to 
 concentrate its energies upon them one by one. 2 The 
 more minute and simple the object to which the atten- 
 tion is directed, the clearer and more vivid will be the 
 impression formed of it in the mind. 8 It is in learning 
 as in war : the more we divide our foes the more easily 
 do we conquer them. In this way much time and 
 labour will be saved to the pupil, and greater accuracy 
 secured. The more complicated and difficult the sub- 
 ject, the greater will be the advantages to be derived 
 from this mode of procedure. (See Chapter IX.) 
 
 It is on this principle that the advantages arising 
 from " division of labour " depend. As is well known, 
 the same number of men will produce a much greater 
 amount of work in a given time by each one confining 
 his attention to a certain part of the process than by 
 
 1 Horatio Ross, a great authority on shooting, says that 20 shots 
 a day fired carefully and the results noted are better than 100, from 
 the fact that one could not bestow the same care and attention on 
 the 100 as on the 20. 
 
 2 " In matters of education . . . where different subjects have to 
 be mastered, or where numerous details have to be impressed on the 
 memory, concentration on one exercise for a certain time is indis- 
 pensable ; and in those subjects that proceed on a double line the 
 attention should be sustained in one of the two directions, instead ol 
 flitting between both." Prof. Bain. " One of the chief results " ol 
 education " is that it exercises us in the habit of thinking of one 
 thing at a time, of thinking therefore without cor Vision, and of 
 arriving at conclusions with precision and decision". Dr. Draper. 
 
 1 " In learning any new thing there should be as little as possible 
 first proposed to the mind at once, and that being understood and 
 fully mastered, proceed then to the next adjoining part then un 
 known," Isaac Watts. 
 

 ATTENTION. 265 
 
 each carrying out the whole. Pin making and steel-pen 
 making are well-known instances of this (p. 83). The 
 reason is that, the attention being thus confined to only 
 a small part of the process, the muscles employed 
 acquire increased dexterity, and can continue longer in 
 action without suffering from fatigue. In addition to 
 this, there is always a considerable amount of time 
 wasted in passing from one form of activity to another. 
 When the attention has been for some time engaged 
 upon a particular occupation, it cannot at once with full 
 effect pass to a different one. 1 It can, however, pass 
 more readily from one form of activity to another of 
 the same kind than from one to another of different 
 kinds. Thus it passes more readily from one object of 
 sight to another, or from one sound to another, than 
 from a sight to a sound or a sound to a sight. After a 
 flash of light we more readily apprehend another flash 
 than a sound or any other sensation. It has been 
 proved by experiment that if we are led to expect a 
 particular kind of sensation, the mind apprehends it 
 more readily than if left in doubt as to what the kind 
 of sensation is to be. 2 This will be readily understood 
 
 1 " When the human hand or human head has been for some time 
 occupied in any kind of work it cannot instantly change its employ- 
 ment with full effect. ... A similar result seems to take place in 
 any change of mental exertion ; the attention bestowed on the new 
 subject not being so perfect at first as it becomes after some exercise." 
 G. Babbage. 
 
 * This is proved among others by the experiments of MM. Bon- 
 ders and De Jaager : " One of them pronounced a syllable ; the 
 other repeated it as soon as he heard ic. . . . When the repeated 
 syllable had been agreed on beforehand the difference observed was 
 two- tenths of a second ; in the other case it was three- tenths. Ana- 
 logous results were obtained by an observer noting the appearance of 
 a white or red light, and being in turn informed and not informed 
 which would be shown. . . . M. de Jaager told the person on whom 
 he was experimenting to touch the key of the electric machine with 
 his left hand when he received the shock on his right side, and 
 
266 MEMOBY. 
 
 when we consifler that the human min3 is single, and 
 can only be in one place or engaged in one form of 
 activity at the same instant of time, and that each of 
 the different faculties has its distinct seat. 
 
 The principle of "division of labour" holds equally 
 true in intellectual as in manual or bodily occupations. 
 Thus, if one has occasion to write on any subject, he 
 will do so most satisfactorily by first thinking out his 
 subject thoroughly before attempting to clothe it in 
 language ; and when this is once done he will then be 
 able to give all his attention to the selection of the 
 best modes of expression. It is said of the late eloquent 
 preacher, Dr. Chalmers, that " he never had the double 
 task to do at once of thinking what he should say and 
 how he should say it. The one was over before the 
 other commenced. . . . When engaged, therefore, in 
 writing his whole undivided attention was given to the 
 best and most powerful expression of preconceived 
 ideas." 
 
 With every act of attention there is a corresponding 
 physical change in the parts of the body directly con- 
 cerned in it. 1 In particular it produces a certain amount 
 
 with his right hand when he received the shock on his left side. . . . 
 Sometimes the person was told beforehand that the shock would be 
 received on a particular side, the right for instance ; in this case the 
 interval between the shock he received and the consecutive signal he 
 gave amounted to *2 of a second. Sometimes he was not told on 
 what side he would receive the shock ... in this case the interval 
 between the shock he received and the consecutive signal he gave 
 amounted to -27 of a second." H. Taine. 
 
 1 " Physiologically, attention consists of two processes, each dis- 
 tinct, yet mutually dependent. First, the organs of special sense by 
 which the vague impressions are received are put into such a vital 
 condition that the influence of the impressions upon the recipient 
 nerves is intensified. . . . This occurs when we try to smell, to 
 taste, to hear, to feel by touch more distinctly. . . . Secondly, the 
 nerves by which the impressions are received, and the corresponding 
 ganglia to which they are conveyed, are at the same time so modified 
 
ATTENTION. 267 
 
 of waste which calls for an additional snpply of blood 
 to compensate for the loss thereby sustained. 1 Hence 
 whatever interferes with a due supply of blood to the 
 parts as physical weakness or exhaustion, or the mind 
 being taken up with something else impairs the act of 
 attention. 2 In this way we can understand how it is 
 that if the attention be strongly directed to any part or 
 organ of the body congestion and disease may be pro- 
 duced in it. 8 A person imagining that he is suffering 
 from disease of the heart, and frequently directing his 
 attention to the movements of that organ, may produce 
 I disease there where originally there was none ; and, in 
 
 in function that they also become more susceptible of the influence 
 of the impressions thus more determinately received in consequence 
 of the volitional act." Dr. Laycock. 
 
 1 It is at the expense of its substance that it (the cerebral cell) 
 produces movement, vibrates, enters into erethism, and becomes 
 attentive." J. Luys. 
 
 2 " A certain expenditure of nervous power is involved in every 
 . . . act of impressing the memory . . . and the more the better. 
 This supposes, however, that we should withdraw the forces for a 
 time from every other competing exercise, and especially that we 
 should redeem all wasting expenditure for the purpose in view." 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
 8 " The continuous direction of the attention to vital tissues ima- 
 gined to be in an unhealthy state undoubtedly causes an exaltation 
 of their special functions and an increase of sensibility, by (it may 
 be presumed) diverging to them an abnormal quantity of blood, this 
 being followed consecutively by (1) undue vascular action, (2) capil- 
 lary congestion, (3) an excess in the evolution of nerve force, and (4) 
 appreciable structural alterations." Dr. Forbes Window. "When 
 the attention is directed to any portion of the body, innervation and 
 circulation are excited locally, and the functional activity of that 
 portion developed. This is well shown in the common forme of 
 hypochondriasis, in which the patient being morbidly anxious as to 
 the state of some particular organ e.g., the heart constantly directs 
 his attention to it, and thus functional disorder, and even structural 
 disease, are caused." Dr. Laycock. "There can be no doubt that 
 real disease often supervenes upon fancied ailment, especially through 
 the indulgence of what is known as the hypochonariacal tendency 
 to dwell upon uneasy sensations ; these sensations being 
 in many instances purely subjective," Dr. 
 
268 MEMORY. 
 
 like manner, we are told that "the idea that a struc- 
 tural defect will certainly be removed by a certain act 
 increases the organic action of the part, and sometimes 
 produces a cure". Dr. J. Muller. 
 
 The effect on the body of concentrating the attention 
 on any particular operation is to confine its activity to 
 certain channels and to withdraw it from others. 1 It 
 is, as we have said, characteristic of all untrained ac- 
 tivity that it is diffuse, more parts being brought into 
 action than are necessary to effect the required result. 2 
 The effect of training and attention is more and more 
 to confine the activity to special channels, so that the 
 actions themselves are better performed, and can be 
 kept up longer without producing fatigue. All progress 
 in animal bodies proceeds by differentiation. Certain 
 organs at first perform a number of different functions, 
 but by degrees they differentiate, parts of them appro- 
 priating to themselves certain of the functions, and 
 
 1 " Now the only view that we can take of the physical machinery 
 of those actions is to suppose that the originally diffused wave that 
 accompanied them has become contracted within some narrow circles 
 of the brain which just suffice for the bare performance of the opera- 
 tions implied in them." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 " An awkward person in performing one voluntary movement 
 makes many others, which are produced involuntarily by consensual 
 nervous action. It is only by education that we acquire the power 
 of confining the influence of volition in the production of voluntary 
 motions to a certain number of nervous fibres issuing from the 
 brain." Dr. J. Muller. " In our first attempts to write, to cipher, 
 to play on an instrument, to speak, or in any other work of mecha- 
 nical skill, the inward sense of labour and difficulty is corresponded 
 to by the number of awkward and irrelevant gesticulations. On the 
 other hand, in the last stage of consummated facility and routine 
 the consciousness is almost nothing ; and the general quietude of the 
 body demonstrates that the course of power has now become nar- 
 rowed to the one channel necessary for the exact movements re- 
 quired. . . . The tendency of all nervous states" is " by repetition 
 to narrow their compass of action and to run into special channels of 
 connection with the states that happen to succeed them, substituting 
 intellectual trains for emotional outbursts". Prof. Bain. 
 
ATTENTION. 269 
 
 other parts other functions. Thus the spheres of their 
 activities become narrowed, fewer cells and fibres are 
 called into play in the performance of any particular 
 operation, which comes thereby to be more efficiently 
 performed in consequence of the attention being more 
 concentrated upon it. 
 
 The effect of attention upon our physical organs is 
 very remarkable. We all know the difference between 
 a thing happening to us unexpectedly as the foot slip- 
 ping by accident and when we are on the outlook for 
 it. " "We have all experienced," says Sir Charles Bell, 
 " the difference between a blow unexpectedly received 
 and one received when on our guard. Even on the 
 same part of the body the effect will be very different. 
 Boxers receive the hardest blows without injury. In 
 consequence of the state of preparation in which they 
 hold themselves when about to receive a blow, and the 
 habit of sudden and powerful exertion of the muscles, 
 the opponent's fist is repelled as from a board. . . . 
 Thus we can explain the feat sometimes performed of 
 breaking a poker over the arm, by which without a 
 strong action and preparation of the muscles the arm 
 bone would probably be fractured and the flesh bruised." 
 In feats of dexterity and skill, in like manner, everything 
 depends upon having the attention fully concentrated 
 upon the parts immediately concerned. It would seem 
 as if the mind itself in the act of attention passed into 
 these parts, and was the moving, guiding, and sus- 
 taining spirit therein, or, in the words of Prof. Cleland 
 already quoted, that it M works in connection with as 
 much of the nervous system as is at any one time 
 united to the brain by nerve channels in an active 
 state ". This seems at least as probable as the received 
 opinion that the mind has its seat only in the distant 
 
270 MEMORY. 
 
 brain, from which it goeth not out, but directeth there- 
 from all the movements of the body (p. 149 et seq.). 
 
 The attention, like any other power or iaculty of the 
 mind, comes through practice to act in a great measure 
 unconsciously. When thinking on a subject it will no 
 longer be necessary as at first to exclude every other 
 subject from the mind, for the mind will do this of 
 itself ; nor, when it is necessary to analyse a subject 
 and to concentrate the attention upon its different parts 
 separately, will any great conscious effort be involved, 
 for it will be done so naturally and expeditiously that 
 the mind will be but little, if at all, conscious of it. 
 
CHAPTEE 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 
 
 " Next to the effect of attention is the remarkable influence prodnoed upon 
 memory by association." Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 " The recording power (of memory) mainly depends upon the degree of attention 
 we give ... to the idea to be remembered. . . . The reproducing power again 
 altogether depends upon the nature of the associations by which the new idea has 
 been linked on to other ideas which have been previously recorded." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 "The connection between memory and the association of ideas is so striking 
 that it has been supposed by some that the whole of its phenomena might be re- 
 solved into this principle. . . . The association of ideas connects our various 
 thoughts with each other, so as to present them to the mind in a certain order ; but 
 It presupposes the existence of these thoughts in the mind, or, in other words, it 
 presupposes a faculty of retaining the knowledge which we acquire. ... On the 
 other hand it is evident that without the associating principle the power of retain- 
 ing our thoughts, and of recognising them when they occur to us, would have been 
 of little use ; for the most important articles of our knowledge might have remained 
 latent in the mind, even when those occasions presented themselves to which they 
 were immediately applicable." Dugald Stewart. 
 
 " The most fundamental law which regulates psychological phenomena is the 
 law of association. In its comprehensive character it is comparable to the law of 
 attraction in the physical world." Th. Ribot. 
 
 * ' That which the law of gravitation is to astronomy, that which the elementary 
 properties of the tissues are to physiology, the law of the association of ideas is to 
 psychology." J. S. Mill. 
 
 " The habit of correct association ... Is one of the principal means of improv- 
 ing the memory, particularly that kind of memory which is an essential quality of a 
 cultivated mind namely, that which is founded not upon incidental connections 
 but on true and important relations." Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 " Every case of forgetfulness is a case of weakened or extinct association." 
 Jos. Mill. 
 
 IN order to impress a thing upon the memory it is 
 necessary, as we have seen, to regard it apart from 
 other things, and to concentrate the attention upon it 
 by itself. In order, however, that what is in the 
 memory may be recalled or brought again before con- 
 sciousness, it is necessary that it be regarded in con- 
 nection, or in association, with one or more other things 
 
'272 MEMORY, 
 
 or ideas, 1 and, as a rule, the greater the number of 
 other things with which it is associated the greater the 
 likelihood of its recall. 2 The two processes are involved 
 in every act of memory. We must first impress, and 
 then we must associate. Without a clear impression 
 being formed, that which is recalled will be indistinct 
 and inaccurate, and unless it is associated with some- 
 thing else in the mind it cannot be recalled. If we 
 may suppose an idea existing in the mind by itself un- 
 connected with any other idea, its recall would be im- 
 possible. In this way we account for those states of 
 double consciousness, in which an individual appears to 
 exist in two distinct states of mind, having no recol- 
 lection in the one state of what he thought or did in 
 the other. 8 The transition from the one state to the 
 
 1 " The principle of association is founded upon a remarkable 
 tendency by which two or more facts, or conceptions which have 
 been contemplated together, or in immediate succession, become so 
 connected in the mind that one of them at a future time recalls the 
 others." Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 2 " Although the single relations established between ideas . . . 
 may suffice for their mutual Connection, yet that connection becomes 
 much stronger when two or more such relations exist consentane- 
 ously." Dr. W. B. Carpenter. "Associations that are individually 
 too weak to operate the revival of a past idea may succeed by acting 
 together." Prof. Bain. 
 
 s What is called double consciousness " consists in an individual 
 recollecting, during a paroxysm, circumstances which occurred in a 
 former attack, though there was no remembrance of them during the 
 interval". Dr. Abercrombie. " If two groups (of ideas) are distinctly 
 severed, so that no element of the one calls up any element of the 
 other, we shall have . . . two moral personalities in the same indi- 
 vidual." H. Taine. " It is the peculiarity of somnambulism . . . 
 that we have no recollection when we awake of what has occurred 
 during its continuance. Consciousness is thus cut in two ; memory 
 does not connect the train of consciousness in the one state with the 
 train of consciousness in the other. When the patient again relapses 
 into the state of somnambulism he again remembers all that had 
 oecurred during every former alternative of that state." Sir W 
 Hamilton. 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 273 
 
 other would appear to be so abrupt and complete that 
 there is no link of association to connect them. We 
 often fail to recall a past idea through the links of 
 association being too feeble to bring it up before the 
 mind. 1 
 
 When once an idea is clearly impressed upon the 
 mind, we can readily associate it with other ideas 
 however dissimilar, but to seek to associate it with 
 others before it is clearly impressed, or to attempt to 
 carry out the two processes at once, is contrary to the 
 principles on which the mind acts, as explained in the 
 last chapter. 
 
 The two leading principles or laws on which asso- 
 ciations are formed are contiguity and similarity.* 
 Every sensation or thought that enters the mind is 
 connected with the sensation or thought that imme- 
 diately preceded it, and is in like manner connected 
 with that which directly follows it. This is association 
 by contiguity. Besides this a present sensation or 
 thought in the mind may recall previous sensations or 
 thoughts of a like kind, and become associated with 
 them. This is association by similarity. 
 
 The great law of mental association is that of con- 
 tiguity, by means of which sensations or ideas that 
 have been in the mind together or in close succession, 
 tend to unite together, or cohere in such a way that the 
 
 1 " Numerous links of association are so feeble that they an 
 speedily snapped like threads, and when the mind tries to return to 
 them it finds the line of continuity broken and the recovery of the 
 lost ideas hopeless." Anon. " There are things of which I have 
 entirely lost the recollection, . . . the associations which were 
 formed between the ideas of them are so completely dissolved that 
 none of my present ideas has the power of exciting them." Ja$. 
 Mill. 
 
 2 " The two principal facts which serve as the basis of association 
 are resemblance and contiguity." 17*. Ribot. 
 
274 MEMORY. 
 
 one can afterwards recall the other. 1 The connection 
 that naturally subsists between a sensation or idea in 
 the mind, and that which immediately preceded or 
 followed it, is of the strongest and most intimate 
 nature. The two, strictly speaking, are but one, form- 
 ing one complete thought. " To speak correctly," says 
 H. Taine, " there is no isolated or separate sensation. 
 A sensation is a state which begins as a continuation of 
 preceding ones, and ends by losing itself in those fol- 
 lowing it ; it is by an arbitrary severing, and for the 
 convenience of language, that we set it apart as we do ; 
 its beginning is the end of another, and its ending the 
 beginning of another/' 2 "When we read or hear a 
 sentence for example," says Th. Eibot, " at the com- 
 mencement of the fifth word, something of the fourth 
 word still remains. Each state of consciousness is only 
 progressively effaced; it leaves an evanescent trace, 
 similar to that which, in the physiology of sight, is 
 called an after-sensation. Hence the fourth and fifth 
 words are in contiguity, and the end of the one impinges 
 upon the beginning of the other. That is the impor- 
 tant fact. There is not an indeterminate contiguity of 
 two somethings, but the initial point of one actual state 
 touches the final point of the anterior state.*' 
 
 Contiguity is of two kinds successive and synchro- 
 
 1 u The connection which is formed in the mind between the 
 words of a language and the ideas they denote ; the connection 
 which is formed between the different words of a discourse we have 
 committed to memory ; the connection between the different notes 
 of a piece of music in the mind of the musician, are all obvious in- 
 stances of the general law of our nature.*' Sir W. Hamilton. 
 
 2 " The impression A. (having previously been many times 
 followed by B) must lean in its vibration towards B. Thus, the 
 latter part of A will be modified and altered by B, at the same time 
 that it will a little modify or alter it, till at last it be quite over* 
 powered by it and end in it." D. Hartley. 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 273 
 
 nous, or contiguity in time and contiguity in space. 1 
 In the former the one impression occurs after the other, 
 and when recalled they come up in the same order, the 
 one recalling the next in succession to it. Thus, the 
 first suggests the second, and the second the third, and 
 so on. We cannot reverse the order, or proceed from 
 the third to the second and the second to the first 
 without great difficulty, if at all, unless we have prac- 
 tised it. 2 Thus, it is easy to repeat the alphabet in the 
 order in which we have learnt it, but it will be found to 
 be extremely difficult to repeat it in the reverse order, 
 beginning at the end. Sermo may recall speech, and 
 speech sermo, because they have been presented to the 
 mind in both ways ; but if the order was for speech 
 always to follow sermo, then the word speech would 
 hardly suggest sermo. Thus one may be able to tran- 
 slate freely from a foreign tongue into English, but if 
 he has not also practised translating into that language 
 or speaking it, he will be little able to do so. 
 
 It is on this principle of association by successive 
 contiguity that verbal memory depends, and those in 
 whom this faculty is strong, or who have greatly culti- 
 vated it, can perform great feats in this way, being 
 able to repeat long passages of a book after having 
 once read them, or a speech or a sermon from once 
 hearing it. As a rule, however, they cannot single 
 
 1 "Contiguity of two sensations in time means the successive 
 order. Contiguity of two sensations in spoie means the synchronous 
 order." Jas. Mill. 
 
 f " It is easy to repeat familiar sentences in the order in which 
 they always occur, but impossible to do it rendily in an inverted 
 order." I). Hartley. "In a poem, the end of each preceding word 
 being connected with the beginning of the succeeding one, we can 
 easily repeat them in that order, but we are not able to repeat tin in 
 backwards till they have been frequently named in that contrary 
 order." Dr. Priestley. 
 
276 MEMOBY. 
 
 out a particular passage or sentence, and repeat it by 
 itself; for each succeeding part depends for its recall 
 on that which immediately preceded it, so that it is 
 only by beginning at the commencement, and repeating 
 till they come down to it. that they can recall any 
 particular passage. 1 
 
 In synchronous contiguity, or contiguity in space, a 
 number of things are presented to the mind at the same 
 time, but differing in position and distance from a par- 
 ticular point, as the various objects in a landscape. 2 
 These are not observed in any definite order, the mind, 
 as it were, passing to and fro among them in every 
 direction, and therefore they may be recalled in any 
 order, or the whole may be brought up simultaneously. 8 
 From this we have local memory, in which the sight, or 
 the idea of a place, tends to recall various objects or 
 incidents that have been associated or connected with 
 it in the mind. 
 
 Association by contiguity is the first to come into 
 exercise, and is also the strongest form of association. 
 The memory, therefore, that depends upon it is of great 
 strength. Children are remarkable for having this 
 kind of memory in great vigour, as we see in the facility 
 with which they learn words, and to repeat long pas- 
 
 1 "Let us suppose that we have forgotten the tenth verse of the 
 first Book of the Odyssey of Homer. Because the tenth verse usually 
 occurs to us after the first nine, we begin to be moved by thinking 
 of the first verse, after which the second occurs, then the third, &c., 
 till after the ninth verse the tenth occurs, and thus we recollect the 
 tenth verse, which we had forgotten." Aristotle. 
 
 2 " The second is the order of position when the objects are con- 
 sidered as simultaneous, but different in distance and direction from 
 a particular point." Jos. Mill. 
 
 8 " The relation of coexistence is distinguished from the relation 
 of sequence by the readiness of its terms to follow one another 
 through consciousness in 'either order with equal facility and vivid* 
 ness." E. Spencer. 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 277 
 
 sages by rote. 1 We also find it very strong in persons 
 in whom the higher form of association, that by simi- 
 larity, is undeveloped, as in ignorant persons and 
 those that are of weak intellect. These, as we have 
 seen, sometimes manifest a very remarkable strength of 
 verbal or local memory. It is on this principle of con- 
 tiguity that mnemonical systems are constructed, as 
 when what we wish to remember is associated in the 
 mind with a certain object or locality, so that, when we 
 see or think of the object or locality, the ideas asso- 
 ciated with it will at once come up ; or when each word 
 or idea is associated with the one immediately preced- 
 ing it, so that when the one is recalled the other comes 
 up along with it, and thus long lists of names or long 
 passages of a book can be readily learnt by heart. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that we strive to 
 develop and cultivate this faculty in early life, when it is 
 most susceptible of cultivation. This is necessary not 
 only for itself, but also because association by conti- 
 guity enters largely into the higher form of association 
 by similarity, for the similars require to be brought 
 together in order to be associated, and unless the power 
 of association by contiguity be strong, that by similarity 
 will be defective. 
 
 The great principle to be observed in association by 
 contiguity is to bring the sensations or ideas two and 
 two together before the mind, each with the one imme- 
 diately following it, and fixing the attention upon them, 
 so that the two become as one. The concentration of 
 
 1 M It is surprising to what a degree of culture onr power of re- 
 taining a succession even of insignificant sounds is Bttsceptible. . . . 
 This susceptibility of memory with respect to words is possessed by 
 all men in a very remarkable degree in their early years, and la 
 indeed necessary to enable them to acquire the use of language." 
 D. Stewart. 
 
 20 
 
278 MEMOBl. 
 
 the attention is as necessary here as we have seen it to 
 be in forming the mental impression. " We cannot," 
 says Dr. Pick, " too strongly insist on the importance 
 of completely isolating each couple of ideas at the 
 moment of comparing them, and confining our attention 
 solely to them, until the comparison be made through- 
 out the series." 
 
 As a general rule, the more closely the ideas that we 
 wish to associate together are brought together in the 
 mind the more strongly will they cohere, and the greater 
 will be their power of reproducing each other. If an 
 interval takes place between the one idea and the other 
 in being presented to the mind, there is ever a tendency 
 for irrelevant ideas to spring up between them, and in- 
 terfere with their cohesion. 1 
 
 When the mind has experienced a number of dif- 
 ferent sensations, when it has come to possess a num- 
 ber of different ideas, then a new principle of associa- 
 tion is introduced, the new sensation or idea recalls 
 past sensations or ideas of the same kind which are 
 brought up and compared with it, and so they become 
 associated together in the mind. 2 The principle of 
 association is still contiguity, but it ie not contiguity 
 depending merely upon proximity in time or place, but 
 arising from similarity. The similars may be widely 
 
 1 " In carrying out the principle of association it will be found 
 that if one idea is not quickly and very closely connected with 
 another, and an interval takes place, be it ever so slight, there is a 
 tendency of irrelevant ideas to spring up in the mind interfering 
 with those which it is desired to connect." Anon. " The rapidity 
 and strength with which two given notions stick together is in the 
 inverse ratio of their phrenotypic distance ... by which I mean 
 the time that elapses between the two notions that are to be con- 
 nected together acting upon the brain." Major Beniowski. 
 
 a " The law of similarity . . . expresses the general fact that any 
 present state of consciousness tends to revive previous states which 
 are similar to it." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 279 
 
 apart in space or in time, but they are brought together 
 and associated through their resemblance to each other. 
 Thus, a circumstance of to-day may recall circum- 
 stances of a similar nature that occurred perhaps at 
 very different times, and they will become associated 
 together in the mind, so that afterwards the presence 
 of one will tend to recall the others. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance to us in forming a 
 judgment of things, or in determining upon a particular 
 line of conduct, to be able to bring together before the 
 mind a number of instances of a similar kind, recent or 
 long past, which may aid us in coming to a right deter- 
 mination. 1 Thus, we judge of the nature or quality of 
 an article, and obtain light and leading in regard to any 
 subject that may be before us. In this way we arrange 
 and classify, and reason by induction and deduction. 
 This is known as rational or philosophical association. 2 
 
 If there were no other principle of association than 
 that of contiguity, then each individual thought or im- 
 pression would depend for its recall on that which 
 immediately preceded it, and, in order to recover it, it 
 would be necessary to begin at the beginning of the 
 series, and retrace our course till we reached it. 3 When, 
 however, association by similarity comes into operation, 
 then our ideas become linked together according 
 to their resemblances, so that if we wish to recall 
 something that is in the mind, and cannot do so 
 
 1 * It is exceedingly important in science and in the business of 
 life that like should recall like." Prof. Bain. 
 
 2 "Rational or philosophical association is when a fact or stntn- 
 menton which the attention is fixed is associated with sonn- tact 
 previously known, to which it has a relation, or with some subject 
 which it is calculated to illustrate." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 8 " If to reach a distant recollection it were necessary to traverse 
 the entire series of intervening terms, memory would be impossible, 
 because of the length of time required for the operation." Th. EiboU 
 
280 MEMOBT. 
 
 directly, we seek for something bearing some resem- 
 blance to it, and in this way we recover it. 
 
 Over the associations formed by contiguity in time or 
 space we have but little control. They are in a manner 
 accidental, depending on the order in which the objects 
 present themselves to the mind. On the other hand, 
 association by similarity is largely put in our own 
 power, for we, in a measure, select those objects that 
 are to be associated, and bring them together in the 
 mind. We must be careful, however, only to associate 
 together such things as we wish to be associated to- 
 gether, and to recall each other ; and the associations 
 we form should be based on fundamental or essential, 
 and not on mere superficial or casual, resemblances. 1 
 When things are associated by their accidental and not 
 by their essential qualities, by their superficial and not 
 by their fundamental relations, they will not be available 
 when wanted, and will be of little real use. 2 When we 
 associate what is new with what most nearly resembles 
 it in the mind already, we give it its proper place in our 
 fabric of thought. By means of association by similarity 
 we, as it were, tie up our ideas in separate bundles, and 
 it is of the utmost importance that all the ideas that 
 most nearly resemble each other be in one bundle. 
 
 1 " The habit of correct association that is, connecting facts in the 
 mind according to their true relations, and to the manner in which 
 they tend to illustrate each other ... is one of the principal 
 means of improving the memory, particularly that kind of memory 
 which is an essential quality of a cultivated mind namely, that 
 which is founded not upon incidental connections, but on true and 
 important relations." Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 2 " In a mind where the prevailing principles of association are 
 founded on casual relations among the various objects of its know- 
 ledge, the thoughts must necessarily succeed each other in a very 
 irregular and disorderly manner, and the occasions on which they 
 present themselves will be determined merely by accident." D* 
 Stewart* 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 281 
 
 When our ideas are associated together in the mind 
 according to their resemblances, they can be recalled 
 when and as they are required. To a mind so stored 
 when thinking on any subject, those ideas that are 
 most nearly connected with it, and most likely to throw 
 light upon it, will come up. 1 Such a mind will not be 
 harassed or distracted by the springing up of alien or 
 irrelevant thoughts, for only such will present them- 
 selves as have a direct bearing upon the subject. 
 
 The wrong association of ideas in the mind is a 
 source of endless mischief. 2 " The connection in our 
 minds of ideas, in themselves loose and independent of 
 one another," says John Locke, " has such an influence, 
 and is of so great force, to set us awry in our actions, 
 as well moral as natural, passions, reasonings, and 
 notions themselves, that, perhaps, there is not any one 
 thing that deserves more to be looked after. " It is 
 particularly in early years, and in the education of the 
 young, that we must guard against wrong associations. 
 " From the intimate and almost indissoluble combina- 
 tions which we are thus led to form in infancy and early 
 youth may be traced many of our speculative errors 
 . . . many perversions of our moral judgment, and 
 many of those prejudices which mislead us in the con- 
 duct of life/' D. Stewart. " We should never suffer any 
 ideas to be joined in their (i.e., children's) understand- 
 ing in any other or stronger combination than what their 
 own nature and correspondence give them." JolmLocke* 
 
 1 " In consequence of this law of our nature . . . when an occa- 
 sion occurs which calls for the aid of our past experience, the occasion 
 itself recalls to us all the information upon the subject which that 
 experience has accumulated." D. Stewart. 
 
 8 " Ideas that in themselves are not at all of kin, come," by chance 
 or custom, "to be so united in some men's minds that it is very hard 
 to separate them ". John Locke. 
 
 9 " In the case of right belief the association IB between ideas 
 
282 MEMOBY. 
 
 "In reference to the whole science of education," gays 
 Dr. Abercromhie, "nothing is of greater importance 
 than the principle of association. 1 . . . By means of a 
 judicious education, this susceptibility of the infant 
 mind (to form associations) might be rendered subser- 
 vient not only to moral improvement, but to the en- 
 largement and multiplication of our capacities of enjoy- 
 ment." 
 
 In order to the formation of right associations in the 
 minds of children there is no method more suitable 
 than that of asking them questions not, as is usually 
 done at present, in order to find out what they know, 
 still less to puzzle them about what they don't know, 
 or know only imperfectly ; but for the purpose of un- 
 folding their minds and teaching them to lay up their 
 knowledge in a natural and regular way. This should 
 be done viva voce, and not from books, the questions 
 springing naturally out of the child's answers, and being 
 as nearly as possible in its own words, a principle 
 of similarity guiding the whole. Socrates, Plato, and 
 others among the ancients, and some moderns, have 
 been masters of this art. 1 The principle of asking 
 
 which, in the language of Locke, ' have a natural correspondence and 
 connection one with another ' ; in the case of wrong belief, it is be- 
 tween ideas which, 'in themselves, are not at all of kin, and are 
 joined only by chance or custom V James Mill. " All the dif- 
 ferences, moral and intellectual, observable in human character, are 
 only differences in the order of mental sequences, that is, of the 
 order in which the thoughts and feelings succeed each other in the 
 individual mind." B. Cornelius. 
 
 1 " This habit of ... association ought to be carefully cultivated, 
 as it must have a great influence on our progress in knowledge, and 
 likewise on the formation .of intellectual character, provided the 
 associations be made upon sound principles, or according to the true 
 and important relations of things." Dr. Abercrombie. 
 
 2 In proposing questions it is very necessary to keep in view the 
 importance of ... arranging them in the exact order in which the 
 subject would naturally develop itself in the mind of a logical aud 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS, 283 
 
 questions and obtaining answers to them may be said 
 to characterise all intellectual effort. The child makes 
 its first entrance into the field of knowledge by asking 
 questions, and the crowning efforts of the philosopher 
 are still asking questions and attempting to find answers 
 to them. The great thing is to ask the right questions 
 and to obtain the right answers. 
 
 When association by similarity comes to be more and 
 mo're the habit of the mind, association by contiguity 
 becomes weaker the simple process of connecting each 
 following sensation or idea with the one just past is 
 interfered with, and a new principle is introduced. 
 When the mind is occupied in seeking among its past 
 experiences for similars to something that is now present. 
 it cannot give the same attention to what immediatel} 
 preceded. .Hence men of learning and culture arc 
 commonly said to have bad memories, but this is onl) 
 because their ideas are associated on a different principle 
 from those of the less educated. 1 
 
 These two laws of association by contiguity and simi- 
 larity have so much in common that it is not to b< 
 wondered at that attempts have been made to reduc^ 
 
 systematic thinker." Dr. Fitch. " This art of questioning posseted 
 by Dr. Hodgson was something wonderful and unique, and was to 
 the minds of most of his pupils a truly obstetric art He told tlu-n 
 little or nothing, but he showed them how to find out for themsel 
 ' The Socratic method,' he said, < is the true one, especially with tin 
 young.' " Life, by Prof. Meiklejohn. 
 
 1 "The bulk of mankind, being but little accustomed to refli"-' 
 and to generalise, associate their ideas chiefly according to their n 
 obvious relations . . . and above all according to the casual ivlatioii> 
 arising from contiguity in time and place ; whereas in the mind ol ,- 
 philosopher ideas are commonly associated according to those rela 
 tions which are brought to light in consequence of particular ell'- 
 of attention, such as the relations of cause and effect, or of pren 
 and conclusion." Hence "it must necessarily happen that when he 
 has occasion to apply to use his acquired knowledge, time and reflec- 
 tion will be requisite to enable him to recollect it ".-D. tit wart. 
 
284 MEMOET. 
 
 them to one leading principle. 1 The first attempt of 
 this kind was made by Augustine, who reduced them 
 both to coexistence thoughts that had once coexisted 
 in the mind being afterwards associated together. Sir 
 "William Hamilton adopts the same view, and names it 
 the law of * redintegration " or " totality/' explaining it 
 by saying that "those thoughts suggest each other 
 which had previously constituted parts of the same 
 entire or total act of cognition". It includes "in the 
 first place those thoughts which arose at the same time 
 or in immediate consecution ; and in the second those 
 thoughts which are bound up into one by their mutual 
 affinity". "By this one law," he adds, "the whole 
 phenomena of association may be easily explained." 
 
 The law of association prevails not only in our 
 thoughts and sensations, but also in our actions, one 
 action becoming associated with another, and tending 
 to recall it. Thus the acquired movements of a soldier 
 or of a skilled workman are so connected together that 
 the one succeeds the other as it were of necessity, the 
 various movements are " so firmly associated that when 
 
 1 Aristotle reduced the laws of association " to four, or rather to 
 three contiguity in time and space, resemblance, and contrariety. 
 He even seems to have thought they might all be carried up into the 
 one law of coexistence. Aristotle implicitly, St. Augustine explicitly 
 what has never been observed reduces association to a single 
 canon, viz., thoughts which have once coexisted in the mind are 
 afterwards associated. This law, which I would call the law of 
 Redintegration, was afterwards enounced by Malebranche, Wolf, and 
 Bilfinger, but without any reference to St. Augustine." Sir W. 
 Hamilton. "Both (Hartley and Condillac) agree in referring all the 
 intellectual operations to the association of ideas, and in representing 
 that association as reducible to the single law, that ideas which enter 
 the mind at the same time acquire a tendency to call up each other, 
 which is in direct proportion to the frequency of their having 
 entered together." Sir Jos. M'Intosh. Dr. Thomas Brown is of 
 opinion that " all suggestion may be found to depend on prior co- 
 existence, or at least on such proximity as is itself very probably ft 
 modification of coexistence ". 
 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 285 
 
 we will to do the first, the rest follow mechanically and 
 unconsciously ". Prof. Bain. We have already stated 
 (p. 245) that we do not consider this as a distinct form 
 of association, depending merely on physical causes, but 
 that the associated movements are owing to the presence 
 of corresponding ideas which exist and form their asso- 
 ciations in that ultra-conscious region of the mind in 
 which so many of our highest mental operations are 
 carried on. Thus even our mechanical habits depend 
 on the association of our ideas. 
 
 But while we hold that all our physical associations 
 have their mental side, we are likewise of opinion that 
 all our mental associations have their physical side. 1 
 As every thought that passes through the mind is 
 attended by motion and change in our physical struc- 
 ture, the associations that are formed between these 
 thoughts must likewise have corresponding physical 
 changes attending them. Hence it is, in our opinion, 
 that we find so close a resemblance between the law of 
 attraction in the physical world and the law of associa- 
 tion of ideas in the mental. 2 The latter may perhaps 
 be said to depend on, or at least to derive its character 
 from, the law of attraction which pervades all matter. 1 
 
 1 " Two ideas will cohere feebly or strongly according as the cor- 
 relative nervous states involve a feeble or a strong discharge along 
 the lines of nervous connection ; and hence a large wave of feeling, 
 implying as it does a voluminous discharge in all directions, renders 
 such two ideas more coherent." Herbert Spencer. 
 
 3 " It is neither an inapt nor a strained comparison to call this 
 power (association by similarity) the law of gravitation of the intel- 
 lectual world." Prof. Bain. Hume calls it "a kind of attraction 
 which in the mental world will be found to have as cxtnionli: 
 effects as in the natural, and to show itself ill as many and as various 
 forms ". 
 
 8 " One may expect that vibrations should infer association aa 
 their effect, and association point to vibrations as ita cause." Dr. D. 
 Hartley. 
 
286 MEMORY. 
 
 It is by means of association that we recall to mind 
 past ideas and sensations. This is evident in those 
 cases where we cannot at once recall a past idea, but 
 have, as it were, to search for it, which we do by endea- 
 vouring to bring to mind something that occurred at 
 the same time, or something that bears some resem- 
 blance to what is wanted. In the higher form of 
 memory, where what is wanted occurs readily, natu- 
 rally, and at once, without any conscious effort or 
 search for it, the place of association is not so apparent, 
 but there can be little doubt that here too it operates, 
 though as a rule we are not conscious of it. 
 
 In order to fix a thing in the memory we must asso- 
 ciate it with something in the mind already, and the 
 more closely that which we wish to remember resembles 
 that with which it is associated, the better is it fixed 
 in the memory, and the more readily is it recalled. 1 If 
 the two greatly resemble each other, or are not to be 
 distinguished from each other, then the association is 
 of the strongest kind. 1 In like manner, feelings of the 
 
 w The remembrance of isolated facts does not depend merely on 
 the degree of attention directed to them, but also on the existence in 
 Jthe mind of subjects of thought with which the new fact may be 
 associated." Dr. Abercrombie. " The facility of retaining a new fact 
 or a new idea will depend on the number of relations which it bears 
 to the former objects of our knowledge." D. Stewart. " The more 
 relations or likenesses that we find or can establish between objects, 
 the more easily will the view of one lead us to recollect the rest." 
 Dr. Jas. Beattie. " The greater the similitude and the more nume- 
 rous the points of resemblance, the surer is the stroke of recall. . . . 
 In reading a poem the memory is assisted to remember it by all the 
 similarities of thought, of imagery, of language, of metre and rhythm 
 that one is able to evoke from the traces of former readings and 
 recollections." Prof. Bain. 
 
 1 " Two objects completely similar, or which determine undistin- 
 guishable impressions upon us, are as if they were identical." Sir 
 W. Hamilton. " In the case of perfect identity between a present 
 and a past impression, the past is recovered and fused with the pre- 
 eent instantaneously and surely." " To whatever extent one thing 
 
ASSOCIATION OP IDEAS. 287 
 
 same order cohere more readily and surely than feelings 
 of different orders. 1 Hence the importance of having 
 the mind well stocked with materials with which to 
 associate what we wish to remember. Each faculty 
 and each division of a faculty is more or less limited. 
 There are only a certain number of distinct acts 
 that it is capable of performing, a certain number of 
 separate impressions that it can receive, and hence if 
 we train each to a due and accurate performance of all 
 these acts, store it with all these impressions, then we 
 have, as it were, a graduated scale of objects or ideas 
 with which to associate whatever we wish to remember. 
 Thus there are only a certain number of distinct sounds 
 that the tongue can utter, and if it is taught to utter 
 each of these distinctly, so as to have a distinct impres- 
 sion of it in the mind, and be able to recall it at will, 
 then every new sound, every new utterance, would at 
 once find its proper place, form its right association, 
 and be remembered and recalled at will. 2 The same is 
 
 is the repetition of another, the cost of contiguous acquisition is 
 saved." Prof. Bain. 
 
 1 " Feelings of different orders cohere with one another less 
 strongly than do feelings of the same order. The impressions which 
 make up the visual consciousness of an object hang together more 
 firmly than the group of them does with the group of sounds making 
 up the name of the object." H. Spencer. "We can more easily 
 think of the whiteness and figure of a lump of sugar at the same 
 time than the whiteness and sweetness of it." E. Darwin. " The 
 relational element of mind ... is greater between feelings of the 
 same order than between feelings of one order and those of another. 
 This answers to the fact that the bundles of nerve fibres and clusters 
 of nerve vesicles belonging to feelings of one order are combined 
 together more directly arid intimately than they are with the fibres 
 and vesicles belonging to feelings of other orders. " U. Spencer. 
 
 2 " It appears, then, that an analysis and scale of articulate soun<ls, 
 with minute description of the organic actions required to produce 
 them, like the scale which we possess for music in the gamut and 
 rules for fingering, should give nearly the same assistance to the 
 tpeaker which the gamut gives to the player. . . . The modifier 
 
288 MEMOBY. 
 
 true with regard to the other senses and the mental 
 faculties generally. The memory is able to retain and 
 reproduce a vastly greater number of ideas if they are 
 associated or arranged on some principle of similarity 
 than if they are presented merely as isolated facts. 1 It 
 is not by the multitude of ideas, but the want of ar- 
 rangement among them, that the memory is burdened 
 and its powers weakened. 
 
 Where two ideas that are very dissimilar are wished 
 to be associated we may by means of analysis find parts 
 of one closely resembling or identical with parts of the 
 other, and by means of these may associate them. 
 Thus words having certain letters or syllables the same 
 tend to suggest each other. 
 
 tions of voice easily made and easily distinguishable by the ear, and 
 therefore fit elements of language, are about fifty in number, but few 
 languages use more than about half of them." Dr. N Arnott. " Of 
 late years physiologists, especially Briicke, have actually undertaken 
 to draw up a complete system of all the vocables that can be pro- 
 duced by the organs of speech, and to base upon it propositions for 
 a nuniversal alphabet adapted to all human languages." Helmholtz. 
 " All human utterances may be resolved into e" ^mentary sounds ; 
 and all the varieties of elementary sounds in different languages are 
 the result of definite mechanical adjustments of the organs of speech. 
 The organs are the same in all men, and, consequently, every man 
 possesses naturally the ability to speak any or every language." A. 
 M. Bell. Mr. A. M. Bell has invented a system of characters, thirty- 
 four in number, by which every variety of sound is accurately re- 
 presented, and by the aid of which " different readers are enabled to 
 place the organs of speech so as to yield with readiness and unifor- 
 mity the minutest varieties of articulate sounds ". " It will stand 
 the following test : Let any sound, of which the human organs of 
 speech are capable, be pronounced in his hearing, and he will engage 
 to write it on paper, so that one who knows the characters shall be 
 able to imitate the sound correctly at sight, though he has never 
 heard it before, and has no other means of guessing what it was like." 
 1 " The ignorant man may be said to have charged his hundred 
 hooks of knowledge, to use a rude simile, with single objects, while 
 the 'informed man makes each support a long chain to which thou* 
 sands of kindred and useful things are attached."- Dr. N. Arnott. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 MEMOEY: HOW TO IMPKOVB rr. 
 
 "The natural as opposed to the artificial memory dep'ends on the relations cf 
 ense and the relations of thought, the spontaneous memory of the eye and the 
 ear availing itself of the obvious conjunctions of objects which are furnished by 
 space and time, and the rational memory of those higher combinations which the 
 rational faculties superinduce upon those lower. The artificial memory proposes to 
 substitute for the natural and necessary relations under which all objects must 
 present and arrange themselves an entirely new set of relations that are purely 
 arbitrary and mechanical, which excite little or no other interest than that they are 
 to aid us in remembering. It follows that if the mind tasks itself to the special 
 effort of considering objects under these artificial relations, it will give less attention 
 to those which have a direct and legitimate interest for itself." Dr. N. Porter. 
 
 " By an artificial memory is meant a method of connecting in the mind thingg 
 difficult to be remembered with things easily remembered, so as to enable it to 
 retain and recollect the former by means of the latter. . . . One important objec- 
 tion applies to all of them, that they accustom the mind to associate ideas by acci- 
 dental and arbitrary connections." D. Stewart. 
 
 "The defect of most methods which have been devised and employed for im- 
 proving the memory lies in the fact that while they serve to impress particular 
 subjects on the mind, they dfr not render the memory, as a whole, ready or reten- 
 tive." r. M. Granville. 
 
 " Surely an art of memory may be made no more destructive to natural memory 
 than spectacles are to eyes." Thomas Fuller. 
 
 "The extent of the memory depends, first, on the daily use we make of It; 
 secondly, on the attention with which we consider the objects we would impress 
 upon it ; and thirdly, on the order in which we range our ideas." Helvetius. 
 
 " This is the faculty that most of all concerns us in the work of education, . . . 
 All improvement in the art of teaching depends on the attention that we give to the 
 various circumstances that facilitate acquirement or lessen the number of repeti- 
 tions for a given effect." Prof. Bain. 
 
 " The whole art of education as respects this faculty consists hi regulating the 
 reception of first impressions so as to give them the firmest hold on the mind ; and 
 in furnishing methods by which the power of recollection, in dependence on the 
 will, maj best be guided and maintained." -Sir H. Holland. 
 
 THAT the memory is capable of indefinite improve- 
 ment there can be no manner of doubt ; but with 
 regard to the means by which this improvement is to 
 be effected mankind are still greatly in ignorance. 
 
290 MEMOEY. 
 
 Numerous books have indeed been written on Arts of 
 Improving the Memory, and various schemes have been 
 devised with that object, but they are all based on partial 
 or erroneous views of the true principles of memory, and 
 are, therefore, of little or no real value, tending rather 
 to distort than to improve and strengthen the memory. 
 Any means that are adopted for the improvement of 
 the memory must be based on an intimate knowledge 
 of its true nature, and the principles on which it acts. 
 
 We have distinguished three kinds or degrees of 
 memory, the local, the rational, and the representative 
 or imaginative. The first of these depends upon 
 locality, or objects that appeal to the sight, which have 
 great power in vividly impressing the mind, so that 
 whatever is associated with them is easily remembered. 
 It is on this principle that systems of Mnemonics are 
 usually constructed. 1 Most persons must have ob- 
 served that when in a locality where they had been 
 before, things that had happened then come very 
 vividly before them. " In passing along a road/' says 
 D. Stewart, " which we had formerly travelled in the 
 company of a friend, the particulars of the conversation 
 in which we were then engaged are frequently suggested 
 to us by the objects we meet with. In such a scene 
 we recollect that a particular subject was started, and in 
 passing the different houses, and plantations, and rivers, 
 the arguments we were discussing when we last saw 
 them recur spontaneously to the memory." Taking 
 advantage of this principle, then, we may connect what 
 we wish to remember with certain localities, the public 
 
 1 " Locality is the most efficacious medium of recollection ; and that 
 system of memory will be the most serviceable which brings this 
 principle into the most extensive operation. For that reason locality, 
 or the connection of our ideas with places, is made the foundation of 
 the present system." G. von Feinaigle. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 291 
 
 buildings of a town, the houses of a street, or the furnl* 
 ture of a room, and, by going over these actually or in 
 imagination, the ideas associated with them will readily 
 come up. Cicero, Quintilian, and others of the ancients 
 practised and recommended this plan. 1 "By those who 
 would improve the memory," says Cicero, " certain 
 places must be fixed upon, and of those things which 
 they desire to keep in memory symbols must be con- 
 ceived in the mind and ranged, as it were, in those 
 places; thus, the order of places would preserve the 
 order of things, and the symbols of the things would 
 denote the things themselves; so that we should use 
 the places as waxen tablets and the symbols as letters." 
 Quintilian recommends persons " to fix in their minds 
 places of the greatest possible extent, diversified by 
 considerable variety, such as a large house, for example, 
 divided into many apartments. Whatever is remark- 
 able in it is carefully impressed on the mind, so that 
 the thought may run over every part of it without 
 hesitation or delay." They are then to distinguish 
 what they wish to remember by some symbol, by which 
 they may be reminded of it. The symbols are then 
 arranged in their proper order in the different parts of 
 the house, or on articles of furniture. " Places," he 
 says, "we must have either fancied or selected, and 
 images or symbols which we may invent at pleasure. 
 
 1 " There can scarcely be anyone of so acute a memory that he 
 can retain the order of words and sentences without observing and 
 associating them with material objects ; nor, on the other hand, is 
 there anyone of so dull a memory as not to receive aid from the use 
 of this plan . . . those things being most fixed in the mind which 
 have been given to it and impressed upon it by sense."--(/ ! icro. 
 " The memory is assisted by localities impressed upon the mind . . . 
 for when we return to places after an absence of some time, we not 
 only recognise them, but recollect also what we did in them ; persons 
 whom we saw there, and sometimes even thoughts that passed within 
 our minds recur to our memory." Quintilian. 
 
292 MEMOEY. 
 
 These symbols are marks by which we may distinguish 
 the particulars which we have to get by heart." 
 
 The modern system is to select a number of rooms, 
 and to divide the walls and floor of each, in imagina- 
 tion, into nine equal parts or squares, three in a row, 
 On the front wall that opposite the entrance of the 
 first room are the units, on the right hand wall the 
 tens, on the left hand the twenties, on the fourth wall 
 the thirties, and on the floor the forties. Numbers 10, 
 20, 30, and 40 each find a place on the roof above their 
 respective walls, while 50 occupies the centre of the 
 roof. One room will thus furnish 50 places, and ten 
 rooms as many as 500. Having fixed these clearly in 
 the mind, so as to be able readily and at once to tell 
 the exact position of each place or number, it is then 
 necessary to associate with each of them some familiar 
 object (or symbol), so that the object being suggested 
 its place may be instantly remembered, or when the 
 place is before the mind its object may immediately 
 spring up. When this has been done thoroughly, the 
 objects can be run over in any order from beginning to 
 end, or from end to beginning, or the place of any par- 
 ticular one can at once be given. All that is further 
 necessary is to associate the ideas we wish to remember 
 with the objects in the various places, by which means 
 they are readily remembered, and can be gone over in 
 any order. In this way one may learn to repeat several 
 hundred disconnected words or ideas in any order after 
 hearing them only once. 
 
 Nearly allied to local is verbal memory, or memory 
 by contiguity, in which by being strongly associated 
 together, one word or one sentence will at once suggest 
 the one next to it. 1 " The recollection of them," says 
 
 * " In what we call * learning by heart/ which should be rather 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 293 
 
 Feinaigle, "is assisted by associating some idea of 
 relation between the two ; and as we find by experience 
 that whatever is ludicrous is calculated to make a strong 
 impression upon the mind, the more ridiculous the 
 association is the better." In this way one may learn 
 to repeat whole speeches verbatim, or long passages of 
 a book after one reading, or a number of names or dis- 
 connected words from once hearing them. But he can 
 repeat them only in the order in which they have been 
 presented to his mind ; and as each succeeding word or 
 sentence depends for its recall on the one immediately 
 preceding, he cannot, as a rule, recollect any particular 
 part without commencing at the beginning and repeat- 
 ing down to it ; nor can he readily transpose or omit 
 portions. 
 
 All such systems for the improvement of the memory 
 belong to what we have considered the first or lowest 
 form of it. They are for the most part based on light L ^ 
 or foolish associations which have little foundation in 
 nature, and are hence of little practical utility; and 
 they do not tend to improve or strengthen the memory 
 as a whole. Lord Bacon long ago characterised such 
 systems as " barren and useless ". " For," said he, 
 " immediately to repeat a multitude of names or words 
 once repeated before ... I esteem ... no more than 
 rope-dancing, antic postures, and feats of activity ; and, 
 indeed, they are nearly the same things, the one being 
 the abuse of the bodily as the other is of the 
 mental powers ; and though they may cause admiration 
 
 called learning by sense ... we try to imprint on onr memory a 
 certain sequence of words, numbers, musical notes, and the like ; the 
 reproduction of these being mainly dependent upon the association 
 of each item with that which follows it, so that the utterance of the 
 former, or the picture of it in the mind's eye, suggests the next." 
 Dr. Carpenter. 
 21 
 
234 MEMOEY. 
 
 . they cannot be highly esteemed/' Another writer 
 truly says of them : " The systems of mnemonics as 
 taught are no better than crutches, useful to those who 
 cannot walk, but impediments and hindrances to those 
 who have the use of their limbs, and who only require 
 to exercise them properly in tfrder to have the full use 
 of them ". 
 
 *+ The second kind of memory the rational likewise 
 depends upon association, but^of a very different kind 
 from the former. In this the associations formed do not 
 depend on locality, or on contiguity, but the ideas pre- 
 sented to the mind recall ideas of a similar kind in the 
 mind already and become associated with them, j The 
 similarity or resemblance, between the ideas thus' asso- 
 ciated together, should not be merely superficial or 
 fanciful, but be of an intimate or radical nature, and 
 based on scientific or philosophical principles. " Sound 
 logic," says Coleridge, " as the habitual subordination 
 of the individual to the species, and of the species to the 
 genus ; philosophical knowledge of facts under the rela- 
 tion of cause and effect, . . . these are the best arts of 
 memory.'* 1 
 
 According to the associations that are formed among 
 ideas is their power of recalling each other. When 
 
 1 " Those things are easily remembered which are in order . . ' 
 but those which are not well arranged are with difficulty remem- 
 bered." Aristotle. " Whatever you would trust to your memory, let 
 it be disposed in a proper method, connected well together, and 
 referred to distinct and particular heads or classes, both general and 
 particular." Isaac Watts. " I am inclined to believe . . . that if we 
 wish to fix the particulars of our knowledge very permanently in the 
 memory, the most effectual way of doing it is to refer them to general 
 principles." By means of general principles the mind " can summon 
 up, as occasion may require, an infinite number of particulars asso- 
 ciated with them, each of which, considered as a solitary truth, would 
 have been as burdensome to the memory as the general principle 
 with which it is connected ". D. Stewart. 
 
HOW TO IMPEOVB IT. 295 
 
 ideas are associated together according to their leading 
 or essential qualities, those that most nearly resemble 
 each other will come up together, and will throw light 
 upon each other. The more closely two ideas resemble 
 each other, the more readily does the mind pass from 
 the one to the other, and does the one suggest the 
 other. If the two are identical, if what we wish to fix 
 in the mind is exactly the same as, or not to be distin- 
 guished from, something in the mind already, then is 
 the association of the strongest kind, the one is but a 
 repetition of the other. The more there are of ideas 
 of the same kind in the mind already, the more will 
 there be of similar material for new ideas to be asso- 
 ciated with, and the more easily will they be remem- 
 bered. The medical man, or lawyer, has no difficulty in 
 fixing in his memory any new facts that may come 
 before him in connection with his profession, because 
 he has in his mind already numerous facts of the same 
 or a similar kind, among which the new facts find their 
 proper place, and become associated with those they 
 most nearly resemble. 
 
 In the cultivation of this kind of memory, Dr. Aber- 
 crombie recommends " the constant practice of tracing 
 the relation between new facts and others with which 
 we are previously acquainted ; and of referring facts to 
 principles which they are calculated to illustrate, or to 
 opinions which they tend to confirm, modify, or over- 
 turn ". Further, he recommends, in the education of 
 children, to cultivate " habits of association, by point- 
 ing out to them the relation of facts to each other, and 
 the manner in which they illustrate one another, or 
 lead to some general conclusion". 
 
 This kind of memory is not, like the other, calculated 
 to produce startling effects in a short space of time, or 
 
296 MEMORY. 
 
 to be mastered in a few lessons. It is of gradual 
 growth, of universal application, and its effects are 
 lasting. 
 
 These two kinds of memory depend, as we have seen, 
 upon association, but association is properly only the 
 means by which what is in the memory is recalled or 
 brought again before consciousness, the subject-matter 
 of memory, that which is treasured up and recalled is 
 the impression made upon the mind itself by the sensa- 
 tion or idea, and unless this is clear and distinct that 
 whi h i recalled will be imperfect. 1 In order then to/10' 
 a good memory, one that will bring the past clearly and 
 ' accurately before us, we must attend to the formation 
 of the original impression. When the impression that 
 ' is formed in the mind is clear, distinct, and vivid, it 
 1 will be readily reproduced with much of its original 
 character and force ; but when, on the other hand, it is 
 indistinct, hazy, or ill-formed, it will be recalled with 
 difficulty, and only in a very imperfect manner. 
 
 The highest form of memory then regards the im- 
 pression, and has to do with the means by which it may 
 be made most clear and lasting. 2 We have termed it 
 the " representative " or "imaginative memory," be- 
 cause by it past sensations or ideas are imaged forth, or 
 presented to the mind as nearly as possible in their 
 original form, as if they were again objects of actual 
 perception. In place, then, of striving to fix a thing in 
 the memory by associating it with something that is 
 
 1 " Objects distinctly beheld are longest retained in the mind and 
 most readily recalled." Paxton Hood. "If we would treasure up the 
 ideas of things, actions, propositions, arguments, and sciences, these 
 should be recommended to our memory by a clear and distinct per- 
 ception of them." Isaac Watts. 
 
 a "The natural and only true basis of memory is a well-founded 
 impression," Dr. M. Granville. 
 
HOW TO IMPEOVE IT. 297 
 
 more easily remembered, or with something in the mind 
 already, we seek to strengthen the power of memory 
 itself, so that it can readily seize upon whatever is pre- 
 sented to it, and by concentrating the attention upon 
 it form a clear and distinct image in the mind, which 
 can afterwards be recalled at will i% -* 
 
 By noting what takes place when the original im- 
 pression is first presented to the mind, we shall better 
 understand the conditions most favourable to its recall. 
 When, then, an impression is made upon an organ of 
 sense, a form of motion, as we have seen, is set up in 
 it, which is conveyed by means of connecting nerves to 
 the brain, where it becomes an object of consciousness. 
 In like manner, in order to the performance of a con- 
 scious voluntary act, a motion originates in the brain, 
 and passes along connecting nerves to the muscles, 
 which are thus brought into action. And as with sen- 
 sation and muscular action, so with thought every 
 thought that passes through the mind producing mo- 
 tion m the part of the brain where it is seated. These 
 motions effect changes in the material constituents of 
 the parts where they take place, which changes are 
 permanent, and form, in our view, the physical basis of 
 memory. 
 
 The changes thus effected are not confined to the 
 brain, but extend to all the other parts in which the 
 motions took place, particularly the organs of sense and 
 the muscles. The effect of these motions in other 
 words, of exercise upon a muscle, is well known. It 
 increases in size, and becomes stronger and more fitted 
 for the performance of its work, each individual act 
 doubtless contributing somewhat towards producing the 
 total result. " This gain in size," says Dr. Hering, 
 " consists not only in the enlargement of the individual 
 
298 MEMOEY. 
 
 cells or fibres of which the organ is composed, but in 
 the multiplication of their number ; for when cells have 
 grown to a certain size, they give rise to others which 
 inherit more or less completely the qualities of those 
 from which they came, and, therefore, appear to be re- 
 petitions of the same cell. 7 ' 1 In like manner, when we 
 exercise a sense, it acquires strength and delicacy in the 
 direction in which it is exercised, which can only be 
 by the physical organ acquiring additional power and 
 fitness. 2 The eye daily employed in comparing and 
 measuring distances and relations in space gains more 
 and more in precision, doubtless through a growing 
 adaptability in the visual organ. Speaking of the im- 
 provement of the sense of touch in the blind, Dr. Car- 
 penter says: " This is doTrbtless to be in part attributed 
 to the increased attention which is given to the sensa- 
 tions, and in part, it may be surmised, to an increased 
 development of the tactile organs themselves, resulting 
 from the frequent use of them". In all such cases the 
 improvements that take place are not confined to the 
 brain, but extend to the muscles or organs of sense 
 concerned in them. 
 
 In every sensation, in every thought, as well as in 
 every muscular movement, there is activity, and 
 
 1 " How is it that new groups of cells are formed in accordance 
 with the infinitely varied combinations of the muscles in all those 
 numerous instances on which skill in art, work, habitual move- 
 ments, or even writing and speaking, depend ? " Dr. Lay cock. " The 
 aptitude which is acquired by practice for the performance of certain 
 actions that were at first accomplished with difficulty seems to result 
 as much from a structural change which the continual repetition of 
 them occasions in the muscle, as in the habit which the nervous 
 eystem acquires of exciting the movement." Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 3 ** That a continuous development of new nerve fibres takes place 
 in the adult has been proved beyond question by facts demonstrated 
 in many of the textures of man and the lower animals." Dr. L. 
 Beale. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 299 
 
 memory may be said to be the remembrance of acti- 
 vities of acts done in the body. 1 Every form of activity 
 registers itself, as it were, in the particular part of the 
 body in which the action takes place, and hence it 
 comes to be more and more easily performed with each 
 repetition. 2 The seat of the activity is also the seat of 
 the memory of it, which is not the brain" alone, but 
 extends to the different parts in which the activity 
 has taken place. Activities of the same kind takeplace"* 
 and are registered in the same parts, and activities of 
 different kinds in different parts, of the body. 
 
 Whatever tends to prevent the mind from acting 
 upon the same parts as were concerned in the original 
 impression is detrimental to its recall. Thus, emotion, 
 passion, and other feelings that are of a diffusive nature, 
 and affect the brain generally, prevent action along 
 limited tracts. 8 Hence the apparent antagonism be- 
 tween our feelings and our intellect, the one acting, as 
 it were, in direct opposition to the other. In order to 
 the clear, unbiassed action of the intellect, we must 
 put away feeling and passion. Owing to their diffusive 
 nature, our past feelings are very difficult of recall, and 
 we cannot reflect upon them with any degree of clearness. 
 
 1 " The cultivation of every science and the practice of every art 
 are in fact a species of action." Sir J. Mackintosh. " Knowledge is not 
 acquired by mere passive affection, but through the exertion of 
 spontaneous activity on the part of the knowing subject." Sir W. 
 Hamilton. 
 
 2 " The registering of experiences, it appears, is accomplished by 
 a modification of the nervous structure, making the part affected 
 more susceptible to a recurrence of the same movements which took 
 place in the original stimulation. The greater the amount of force 
 brought to bear in affecting the nerves, the more complete and per- 
 manent will be the modification, and hence the more indelible will 
 be the registry." D. G. Thompson. 
 
 8 " Emotion spurns nice distinctions and incapacitate! the mind 
 for feeling them . Pro/. Bam, 
 
300 MEMOEY. 
 
 When a sensation or a movement is recalled to mind 
 in its highest form, when it is imagined, we believe 
 that the same parts are affected, and the same kind of 
 motion takes place as in the original impression, but in 
 a reverse order, the recalled sense-motion commencing 
 in the brain where the idea originates, and terminating 
 in the organ of sense, and the recalled muscular motion 
 commencing in the muscles and terminating in the 
 brain. In order to this we have attempted to prove 
 that, contrary to the received opinion, each class of 
 nerves is capable of conveying impressions both to and 
 from the brain, that afferent nerves, while primarily 
 conveying impressions from the organs of sense to the 
 brain, are also capable of conveying impressions from 
 the brain to the organs of sense, and, in like manner, 
 that efferent nerves, while they primarily convey im- 
 pressions from the brain to the muscles, likewise carry 
 impressions from the muscles to the brain. We cannot 
 suppose that a different class of nerves would be em- 
 ployed in the recollection of a sensation or a movement 
 from what was originally concerned in producing it. 
 
 That the organs of sense and the muscles are con- 
 cerned in this highest form of memory has also been 
 attempted to be shown. The artist who can recall and 
 paint a scene from memory must be able to bring its 
 various features very vividly before his mind's eye. 
 The calculator who can carry out long and intricate 
 processes of calculation mentally, does so, we are told, 
 by having in his mind's eye something resembling a 
 black board, on which he has the power of making the 
 figures appear and disappear at will. 1 In these and the 
 
 1 " I have had occasion to note that several calculators do not see 
 the figures in their problems, but hear them. It matters little, so far 
 as our theory is concerned, whether the images are visual or audi 
 tory. w Th. Ribot. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 301 
 
 like cases the mind's eye can be no other than the 
 bodily one, on the retina of which the impressions are 
 mentally imaged. All objects of sight impress them- 
 selves upon the retina, and we believe that all mental 
 visual impressions imprint themselves there and no- 
 where else. And as with sight, so with hearing, touch, 
 taste, smell, and muscular feeling. 1 When we recall a 
 movement or a series of movements very completely, 
 we seem to be actually going over them again, not only 
 in idea in the brain, but in the nerves and muscles, so 
 that "in mentally recalling a verbal train, we seem to 
 repeat on the tongue the very words ; the recollection 
 consists of a suppressed articulation". Prof. Bain. The 
 fact of example being more powerful than precept may, 
 perhaps, find its explanation here, for when we see a 
 thing done we are in a measure doing it ourselves, be- 
 cause we are mentally going over the different steps of 
 the process one by one. 
 
 But in our view the senses are concerned not only in 
 the recalling of our sensations, but also of our ideas. 
 Every idea in the mind must have entered it by some 
 sense, and in order to its full and complete recall, we 
 believe that it must be again projected or imaged in an 
 organ of sense. Even the most abstract of our ideas 
 are abstracts of sensations belonging to some sense 
 which is also concerned in the recollection of them. In 
 every act of knowledge we distinguish between the sub- 
 ject knowing and the object known, between the 
 thinking Ego and the object about which we think. In 
 all right thinking we must clearly distinguish between 
 the two, and hold up the object in the clear, steady, 
 
 1 " It is probable, if not certain, that the renewed feeling or idea 
 occupies the same parts, and in the same manner, as the original or 
 actual feeling." Th. Eibot. 
 
302 MEMOBT. 
 
 concentrated light of consciousness. " Thought,'* saya 
 Heyse, " is not even present to the thinker till he has 
 set it forth out of himself." 1 " We cannot think," says 
 Dr. Cunningham, " without thinking of something, and 
 that subject must be thought of as outside the mind. 
 It is not our thoughts, but the things we think of that 
 are present to our consciousness ; and thus our thinking 
 consists of a series of visions." " In the act of estimat- 
 ing what is right in morals, or what is sound in reason- 
 ing, or what is correct in taste, we no more look to the 
 mind than we do in the act of estimating what is true 
 in geometry, or of estimating any of the properties of 
 material substances." Dr. Chalmers. 
 
 When a man thus puts forth the ideas in his mind 
 they become, as it were, objects of sense, things that 
 he can see, hear, or handle. They are imaged or re- 
 presented to the mind by the aid of some sense. The 
 eye is the sense that is most frequently employed in 
 this way, for it is usually a visual image that we en- 
 deavour to form of what we are thinking about. 
 /Memory in our view, then, is not simply an intellectual 
 faculty having its seat in the brain, but is, in a great 
 measure, a sense faculty, including in its seat the senses, 
 the voluntary muscles, and other parts of the body. A 
 man remembers forms, colours, faces, places, &c., because 
 his eye is naturally strong, and has been cultivated in 
 that direction. When we cannot readily recollect 
 something we wish to remember, we endeavour to re- 
 call its visual appearance, or to go back to the time or 
 occasion when it was previously in the mind and an 
 object of sense. It has frequently been remarked that 
 
 1 " The intellectual operations always imply an externality ; even 
 where we are speculating about our own feelings or mental opera- 
 tures, we always view them as if apart from ourselves," G. H. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 303 
 
 those who are accustomed to deal with material objects, 
 or are much in converse with nature, and have conse- 
 quently their senses greatly exercised, have great 
 powers of memory, and in the arrangement and expres- 
 sion of their thoughts. 1 
 
 The object of memory is the impression or image 
 "which is formed in the mind, and this depends upon 
 the clearness and accuracy with which it is taken up 
 and 'apprehended by the senses. In proportion, then, as 
 we train and cultivate any sense do we improve the 
 memory of that sense, g,nd as we improve the memory of 
 a sense do we tram~alid cultivate it. The perfection of 
 any sense consists in its being able to perceive minute 
 shades of differenee, and in order to^this a good ^ 
 memory is necessary, one having a strong hold of past 
 sensations. 2 And as with sensations so with muscular 
 movements. We strengthen the memory of any set of 
 movements by practising the movements, and the im- 
 provement that is effected through practice in the move- 
 ments depends on the memory of past movements; 
 when that is strong new acquisitions are easy. 
 
 There are three principal ways in which the mind 
 receives its information, and treasures it up in the 
 
 1 " One man in attempting to convey a notion of any object he baa 
 seen, seems to place it before him and to paint from actual perception ; 
 another, although not deficient in ready elocution, finds himself in 
 such a situation, confused and embarrassed among a number of parti- 
 culars imperfectly apprehended, which crowd into his mind without 
 any just order or connection." D. Stewart. "I have always re- 
 marked (and so have most people who have read any scientific work 
 at all) the great power and command of language that is generally 
 possessed by persons possessing high scientific attainments." Robt. 
 Lowe. 
 
 2 " No law of the intellect appears to be more certain than 
 the law that connects our discriminating power with our retentive 
 power. In whatever class of subjects our discrimination is great 
 colours, forms, tones, tastes in that class our retention is great." 
 Prof. Bain. 
 
304 MEMORY. 
 
 memory. These are by seeing, by hearing, and by 
 speaking or acting. Some remember best what they 
 see, others what they hear, and others what they say 
 or do. There are many persons who do not remember 
 much of what they see or hear, but they remember 
 well what they say or do. This is particularly the case 
 with children, and hence they usually learn their lessons 
 best by repeating them aloud. What is learnt by rote 
 is of this nature. It is not by the eye or ear so much 
 as by the muscular exertion of speaking that it is re- 
 membered. "We remember our vocal utterances," 
 says Prof. Bain, " partly as connected threads of vocal 
 exertion. , . . Our memory for spoken language is 
 a mixture of articulate and auditory recollections." 
 Writing with one's own hand what has to be remem- 
 bered is a well-known aid to verbal memory. " The 
 effect of this," says Prof. Bain, " is not simply to add 
 a new line of adhesion the arm and finger recollections, 
 although we might remember by these, but to impress 
 the forms upon the eye through the concentrated atten- 
 tion of the act of copying." Mr. Stokes lays great stress 
 upon written exercises, but it is mainly as addressed to 
 the visual memory, so that the written words may be 
 recalled as the printed words of a book. On this he 
 bases a system of mental writing. "At first," he says, 
 " the letters used in mental writing should be slowly 
 and carefully formed and combined; but afterwards 
 the speed should be increased, and ultimately whole 
 words or sentences ready-made will appear instantly 
 before the mind's eye at pleasure." There can be no 
 doubt that our motor feelings and motor memory count 
 for more in our mental phenomena than is commonly 
 supposed. " Every conscious state," says Eibot, " de- 
 pends to a certain extent upon motor elements." 
 
HOW TO IMPEOVB IT. 305 
 
 In education, then, it is necessary to attend to the 
 training of each of these kinds of memory ; and in order to 
 this they must be kept carefully apart, and each trained 
 by itself. 1 When we wish to exercise the visual 
 memory we must be careful not to call forth the audi- 
 tory or muscular memories, nor with the motor memory 
 should the forms or even the sounds be awakened. 
 The sounds will, doubtless, in some measure, be pre- 
 sent, and guide the vocal utterances, but it should be, 
 as it were, unconsciously, the attention being concen- 
 trated mainly on the movements, and one movement 
 calling forth another. In order to train the auditory 
 memory, the pupil should have the matter read or re- 
 peated to him till he has taken it in by the ear; in 
 order to learn by sight he must take in the words by 
 the eye, and form visual images of them, and to learn 
 by means of the vocal organs he must have recourse to 
 reading or repeating aloud. 
 
 The first requisite to a good memory, to the forma- 
 tion of clear and lasting impressions, is sound physical 
 health, with all the functions of the body going on 
 easily and naturally. 2 When the body is fresh and 
 vigorous, plentifully supplied with sound arterial blood, 
 impressions are easily made, and are usually lasting. 
 
 1 " A common error into which beginners are apt to fall is to try 
 to combine, and therefore confuse, the two methods of remembering 
 by sight and by sound. They should be kept carefully apart." Dr. 
 M. Granville. "The initial and prevailing difficulty in teaching lan- 
 guage in general and the mother tongue in particular is due to the 
 doubleness of the acquisition the union of language and thought 
 . . . and the attention is divided between the two factors instead of 
 being concentrated upon one to the neglect of the other." Prof. 
 Bain. 
 
 3 It is " obvious that this organic mental faculty (*.., memory), as 
 at present possessed even by the most highly favoured individuals, is 
 susceptible of much enhancement and extension, merely by an im 
 proveinent of the corporeal constitution ". haac Taylor. 
 
306 . MEMORY. 
 
 When, on the other hand, the body 5s exhausted by 
 fatigue or disease, or suffers from want of nourish- 
 ment or impoverishment of blood, the impressions will 
 be slight and made with difficulty. 1 In youth the body 
 is easily impressed, and the impressions made are last- 
 ing, 2 whereas in old age impressions are formed with 
 difficulty, and are also difficult of recall. The time to 
 be chosen for exercise is when the physical powers are 
 most active and vigorous. Whatever strongly excites 
 the mind, or presents itself when the mind is under 
 strong excitement, usually makes a lasting impression. 3 
 If the curiosity is strongly excited about a thing it 
 readily fixes itself in the memory. As a rule the mind 
 looks upon a thing with more interest, and its curiosity 
 is more excited concerning it on its first appearance 
 than on any subsequent occasion. Hence the first 
 occasion of an impression reaching the mind is always 
 tlje most favourable for fixing it in the memory. 4 Each 
 
 1 "A normal exercise of the memory supposes an active circulation 
 and blood rich in the materials necessary for integration and disin- 
 tegration." Th. Ribot. " Disturbance to the memory may arise from 
 too feeble circulation through the brain as well as from over-excite- 
 ment or congestion of blood there." Sir H. Holland. 
 
 2 " In youth memory is strong, for then our sensations are keen." 
 Dr. Beattie. 
 
 * " That is likely to be long remembered which, at its first appear- 
 ance, affects the mind with a lively sensation, or with some pleasure- 
 able or painful feeling." Dr. Beattie. 
 
 4 " The sensations which affect us the most are those which we 
 never before have experienced. The consequence is that in propor- 
 tion as the same sensations are repeated the less impression do they 
 make upon us, because the comparison between the present and the 
 past becomes less sensible." Dr. Bichat. " The surest and most 
 effectual way to ensure an easy and accurate reproduction of ideas is 
 to deal with the first impression. . . . Reproduction of ideas is 
 mainly dependent upon the strength or vivacity with which the ideas 
 primitively come to the mind, or, in other words, upon the first im- 
 pressions which the mind receives. . . . Supposing the primitive 
 ideas to have been strong and vivid, their reproduction will be eaay, 
 almost spontaneous." Dr. Pick. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 807 
 
 subsequent recurrence of it renders it more familiar to 
 the mind, which is therefore less curious about it ; and, 
 besides, the repeated appearance of the same impression 
 under different circumstances tends to diminish the 
 clearness and distinctness of the original. 1 
 
 In order to recall a previous impression or idea in the 
 fullest and most complete manner possible, the same 
 parts must be affected and the same kind of motion set 
 up as when it was originally before the mind ; that is, 
 not only the brain but the nerve-fibres and the special 
 organ of sense, or muscles traversed by the original 
 movement, must again be acted upon. When the 
 renewed motion is confined to the brain and does not 
 extend to any of the other parts, the recalled impression 
 is imperfect, and this is the character of the great 
 majority of our remembrances. We are content with 
 only a partial recall, in which none of the senses but 
 only the brain is concerned. The reason why objects 
 of sense make a stronger impression on the mind than 
 ideas, is because the senses and the nerves are concerned 
 in the former but not in the latter. Did we bring the 
 
 Most persons find " that the first image they have acquired of 
 any scene is apt to hold its place tenaciously in spite of subsequent 
 need of correction. ... If they see an object equally often in many 
 positions, the memories combine and confuse one another, forming a 
 composite blur which they cannot dissect into its components. They 
 are less able to visualise the features of intimate friends than those 
 of persons of whom they have caught only a single glance," F. 
 Gallon. " A person who leaves a place, and who has consequently 
 no later associations with which to obliterate the earlier ones, looks 
 back through a clearer medium, so to speak, to a former period, and to 
 the circumstances of where he then lived. In that direction of his 
 thoughts nothing seems to stand between him and the distant object 
 To one, on the other hand, who has passed through a long series of 
 events and sociul communications in the same neighbourhood, these 
 would be found to occupy and crowd the latter part of the retrospect 
 so much as possibly to render the remoter circumstances much leu 
 distinct." John Foster. 
 
308 MEMOEY. 
 
 senses and the nerves to act along with the brain in the 
 recalled impression, there is every reason to believe that 
 it would be equally clear and distinct with the sensation. 
 
 In order to effect this, and to attain the highest form 
 -of memory, we must cultivate the faculty of imagina- 
 tion, or the power of holding up to the mind past sen- 
 sations or impressions, as if they were again actually 
 present to us. We can retain the impression of an 
 object in the mind for some time after the object itself 
 has passed away by allowing the mind to dwell upon it, 
 and we can afterwards readily recall it. If I lay an object, 
 say my watch, upon the table and look at it intently 
 for a few seconds, I shall find on shutting my eyes that 
 I still retain a more or less distinct image of it. I may 
 even, after a considerable time, be able to recall the 
 image of the watch, and the exact spot where it lay. 
 If, in place of one, I take three or four or half-a-dozen 
 different objects and arrange them on the table, I can, 
 arter contemplating them for a short time, imprint a 
 mental image of them in the mind, and can afterwards 
 i ocall them with great distinctness. By practice we 
 may largely increase the number, and may alsolmprmt 
 them with great readiness, so that they can afterwards 
 be recalled with accuracy. 1 
 
 The French conjuror, Robert Houdin, many of 
 whose tricks depended on the renlarkable powers of 
 memory he and his son had acquired, relates in his 
 Autobiography that they would " pass rapidly before 
 a toy shop, or any other displaying a variety of wares, 
 and east an attentive glance upon it". A few steps 
 
 1 "A useful faculty, easily developed by practice, is that of retain- 
 ing a retinal picture. A scene is flashed upon the eye ; the memory 
 of it persists, and details which escaped observation during the brief 
 time when it was actually seen may be analysed and studied at 
 leisure in the subsequent vision." F. Galton. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 309 
 
 farther on they took paper and pencil from their pockets, 
 and tried which could describe the greater number of 
 objects seen in passing. In this, we are told, the son 
 excelled the father, for he could often write down forty 
 objects, while the latter could scarcely reach thirty; 
 and yet they rarely made a mistake. We cannot sup- 
 pose that in the brief glance they cast on the shop in 
 passing they were able to see and individualise thirty 
 or fprty different articles. We can only account for it 
 by supposing that, in that brief glance, they took, as it 
 were, a photograph of the shop in question, and with 
 this in the eye before it vanished, they jotted down on 
 paper as many of the articles as they could distinguish. 
 Should they afterwards have occasion to recall this shop 
 they would do so by reviving the photograph in the 
 eye, and from this they would be able to recount the 
 various articles more readily and certainly than by any 
 other mode of committing to memory. " That power 
 of memory," he says, " which my son possessed in an 
 eminent degree, did us the greatest service. When we 
 went to private houses he needed only a very rapid in- 
 spection in order to know all the objects in a room, as 
 well as the various ornaments worn by spectators, such 
 as chatelaines, pins, eye-glasses, fans, brooches, rings, 
 bouquets, &c. He thus could describe these objects 
 with the greatest ease when I pointed them out to him 
 by our secret communication." ATI instance is also 
 given in which he saw at a glance and remembered 
 the titles of many of the books in a library he passed 
 through in a house in Paris. 
 
 Nor was this great power of memory a natural gift, 
 
 but was acquired by great application. M. Houdin 
 
 commenced to teach his son by taking " a domino, the 
 
 cinq-quater for instance, and laid it before him. In* 
 
 22 
 
310 MEMOBY. 
 
 stead of letting him count the points of the two num- 
 bers, I requested the boy to tell me the total at once. 
 'Nine/ he said. Then I added another domino, the 
 quater-troy. * That maizes sixteen/ he said without 
 any hesitation. I stopped the first lesson here; the 
 next day we succeeded in counting at a single glance 
 four dominoes, the day after six, and thus we at length 
 were enabled to give instantaneously the product of a 
 dozen dominoes." This result obtained, they proceeded 
 to apply themselves to more difficult tasks. 
 
 In this way one may soon learn to remember all the 
 cards that have been played in a game of whist, which 
 mere playing for a lifetime may fail to teach him. Let 
 him begin by throwing down four cards one by one 
 upon the table, observing each by itself and the order 
 in which it is laid down, as well as the whole together, 
 till he feels that he has learnt them. Let him then 
 take them up, and after a time replace them as they 
 were before from memory, and this till he feels that 
 he has thoroughly mastered them. For a second 
 lesson let him take first four cards and treat them 
 in this way, and then other four; and let him pro- 
 ceed in this way, always increasing the number till 
 he can take in the whole pack, and tell of each card 
 when and where it was thrown down. That mere 
 playing may never teach a man this is owing to the 
 attention being taken up with the play and not suffi- 
 ciently directed to this operation. 
 
 / In systems of mnemonics we are taught to remember 
 figures by means of letters which are formed into words, 
 words being generally more easily remembered than 
 figures. But if the eye is properly trained there is no 
 more difficulty in remembering figures than words or 
 letters, and it may be done with infinitely less trouble. 
 
HOW TO IMPEOVE IT. 311 
 
 Commence with two or three figures on a black board 
 or slate, regard them attentively for a short time, so 
 that they may be well impressed on the retina, then rub 
 them out, and afterwards restore them from memory. 
 Let the number of figures be gradually increased in 
 subsequent exercises, and in a short time one will find no 
 difficulty in fixing in the mind large sums or a number 
 of dates by simply looking at them. Care should be taken 
 not to name or pronounce any of the figures, because, 
 in so doing, we distract the attention by bringing into 
 exercise other forms of memory, the auditory or the 
 muscular, whereas, at present, we wish only to train 
 the visual. And as with figures, so with names, words, 
 sentences, and the like. We believe it to be possible by 
 practice to photograph, as it were, on the retina page after 
 page of a book by simply glancing over each, and to after- 
 wards repeat their contents word for word, as if reading 
 them from the printed page. "The scholar," says 
 Eichter, "when he reflects . . . really seems to read 
 a printed page; and when he speaks to give a little 
 declamation out of a quickly and well-written pamphlet." 
 And as with sight, so with the other senses of hear- 
 ing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. We cultivate the 
 imaginative faculty in each and all of them by training I 
 the mind to dwell upon the original impression, and to 
 recall it in its entirety afterwards. We can retain the 
 impression of a sound upon the ear for some time after 
 it has passed away, and by cultivating this power we 
 can subsequently recall any sound we have heard with 
 great accuracy. The like is true of our muscular move- 
 ments : by going over them step by step mentally we 
 can afterwards readily recall them. In all these cases 
 the principle at work is the same, it is the calling 
 again into action of the parts that were concerned in the 
 
31 2 MEMORY. 
 
 original sensation or movement, and our training should 
 be directed to this end. 
 
 Education is the great means by which the memory 
 is made either good or bad. Nothing can do more for 
 its improvement than a rightly conducted system of 
 education, and nothing can do more to injure it than 
 one wrongly conducted. Unfortunately our present day 
 education partakes more of the latter than the former. 
 We may say of memory what the authors of the Port 
 Eoyal Logic say of reason, we employ it " merely as 
 an instrument for acquiring the sciences, whereas we 
 ought to avail ourselves of the sciences as an instru- 
 ment for perfecting our memory". The great business 
 of education should be the cultivation of the memory, 
 for upon this everything else depends. By means of it 
 we develop and instruct the intellect, build up the 
 moral character, and even train the physical powers. 
 " The leading inquiry in the Art of Education/* says 
 Prof. Bain, " is how to strengthen the memory." 
 
 It may well be questioned whether the great powers 
 of memory displayed by young children are not sub- 
 sequently lost mainly through wrong methods of 
 teaching. 1 When a child first sees a thing it takes 
 
 1 " At the age of six years a child will learn the common words 
 of a language in less than twelve months if he hear it continually 
 spoken ; which, as he acquires the pronunciation and accent as well 
 as the meaning, is a proof not only of quick memory, but also of an 
 exact ear and of great flexibility in the organs of articulation. . . . 
 As we advance in life the acquisition of languages becomes more and 
 more difficult ; the talent of remembering new words decays gradu- 
 ally, nor is the ear so quick in catching a foreign accent, or the 
 organs of speech so pliable in articulating unusual sounds." Dr. J. 
 Beattie. A child ten years old, " by dint of a succession of efforts of 
 observation, imitation, and repetition, at very short intervals con- 
 trives both to understand and to speak a foreign language in a few 
 weeks. This twofold process baffles an adult, because ... he tries 
 rather to understand than to reproduce what is spoken. 7 ' T. Pren* 
 dergast. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 313 
 
 it in by the eye, when it first hears a thing it takes 
 it in by the ear; in each case the whole mind is 
 concentrated upon the sensation, which, as Dr. Car- 
 penter says, "is the natural state 'of the infant". 
 But as soon as its education begins all this is changed, 
 and the mind, in place of being concentrated upon 
 one thing, is distracted by several. 1 We have said 
 that in order to impress a thing clearly and accurately 
 upon the mind, we must contemplate it by itself, for 
 the mind cannot be in two places or engaged in two 
 operations at the same instant of time ; further, that 
 it passes more readily and easily from one object to 
 another of the same kind than from one to another of 
 different kinds, from one object of sight to another 
 or one sound to another, than from an object of sight 
 to a sound, or a sound to an object of sight. These 
 ought to be leading principles in every rightly con- 
 ducted system of education, but, unfortunately, they 
 are almost totally ignored. To take the earliest, and 
 what should be made the simplest and easiest, process 
 to the child, that of learning the alphabet, we have three 
 distinct operations, we have the form of each letter to 
 be apprehended by the eye, the sound to be taken up 
 by the ear, and the pronunciation to be mastered by the 
 tongue. In the ordinary way the child is expected to 
 carry on these three operations at one and the same 
 time, and hence none of them is efficiently performed, 
 for when the mind is attempting to apprehend the 
 form it cannot give sufficient attention to the sound, 
 nor to the form when attending to the sound, nor to 
 
 1 "The methods of education should recognise the wise arrange- 
 ment of nature in developing and maturing the memory. In tho 
 earlier periods of life the spontaneous memory should be stimulated 
 and enriched by appropriate studies." N. Porter. 
 
314 MEMOBY. 
 
 cither when taken np with the pronunciation. 1 In- 
 stead of this the child's ear should first of all be accus- 
 tomed to the sounds of the different letters, arranged 
 not in their alphabetical order, but according to their 
 sounds, beginning with the simplest, even before he 
 attempts to utter them. 2 There can be no doubt that 
 children learn much by the ear ID infancy before they 
 can speak or utter articulate sounds. 8 Then, as a next 
 step, let him be taught to repeat accurately the different 
 sounds as he hears them; and only when he can do 
 this perfectly should he be made acquainted with the 
 forms of the different letters. Thus, the sounds of the 
 different letters will be clearly and accurately imprinted 
 on the ear, and the different forms on the eye, while 
 the vocal organs will also have learnt their correct pro- 
 nunciation. 
 After the alphabet the child should be taught to pro- 
 
 1 " Why thould he (i.e., a child) be troubled with the form of the 
 letters till once he has acquired the sound of them ? Why should he 
 be taught to read before he is taught to speak ? " John Herries. 
 
 2 J. Brinsly, in his " Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar School" 
 (1612), dwelling upon the importance of the child acquiring a correct 
 pronunciation of each letter, says : " This may be done, and also the 
 teaching of children to spell any syllable before the child do know 
 any letter on the booke, and that some wise and experienced do hold 
 the surest and best course ". Pestalozzi says : " When I had begun 
 to teach reading I found out, after a while, that my pupils wanted 
 first to be taught speaking," and this led him to begin with teaching 
 pronunciation. Before his pupils were taught reading, or even the 
 alphabet, he exercised them in articulating not only the elementary 
 sounds of the language, but also their most difficult combinations, 
 until they could pronounce them easily and correctly. " Sound is 
 the leading element in language both spoken and written. We hear 
 the words even when we see them, but we do not see them when we 
 hear them. The visible symbols are accessory and subordinate. 
 But to the born deaf the visible symbols dominate." G. H. Lewes. 
 
 8 M It is notorious that children and animals are affected by our 
 voices when quite incapable of understanding the meaning of our 
 words." G. H. Lewes. 
 
HOW TO IMPBOVE IT. 315 
 
 nonnce single syllables, and then words of two or three 
 syllables. In imparting a correct pronunciation, the 
 words chosen should be such as convey no connected 
 meaning to the mind, for the meaning tends to with- 
 draw the attention from the sound ; and hence children 
 learn unmeaning words and phrases much sooner than 
 such as have meaning. On this account some recom- 
 mend the taking the words of a sentence backwards. 
 " The object in taking the words in backward order," 
 sayg C. W. Smith, "is to disassociate them from their 
 sense as connected with the sentence, so that the 
 student can . , give his entire attention to the mere 
 utterance of the words instead of being wholly or partly 
 occupied with the meaning or feeling of the language." 1 
 In this way a correct pronunciation is acquired at first 
 in place of a faulty one which has afterwards to be cor- 
 rected. In order that the ear may form correct im- 
 pressions of sound, the child should be read to before 
 he attempts to read himself; and as the ear and not 
 the eye is the proper guide to the tongue, he should be 
 accustomed to repeat from having read or repeated to 
 him. 2 Spelling, on the other hand, should be taught 
 
 1 " The pupil should be able to concentrate his attention entirely 
 upon the mechanism of the matter, instead of having his mind partly 
 or wholly directed to the language, as it should be in reading or 
 reciting passages." G. W. Smith. "It would, of course, be more 
 amusing to recite connected than unconnected words, as it is more 
 amusing to sing passages than single notes ; but as assuredly no 
 singing voice ever yet was formed by the exclusive utterance of any- 
 thing that could be called music, so no speaking voice will ever yet 
 be formed by the exclusive utterance of anything that can be called 
 literature." John Hullah. 
 
 * "There is reason to believe that the incitations which evoke speech 
 start primarily from the auditory word centre." Dr. Bastian. 
 misleading principle of governing the voice by forms of language baa 
 done much to hinder the progress of elocutionary science. A. to 
 Bell "As to him that learns from another person who reads to him 
 . . . after he has heard a passage once or twice, he may immediately 
 
31 G MEMORY, 
 
 not orally but visually, by accustoming the eye to the 
 appearance of the words. 1 
 
 In teaching a foreign language, the method usually 
 adopted is so contrary to the principles we have been 
 endeavouring to lay down, that it may be said tu be 
 " the way not to do it ". It seems mainly designed 
 to give the teacher as little to do as possible, and the 
 pupil as much as possible. The ear is the organ that 
 should be chiefly employed in the learning of a foreign 
 language, the ear to take up the sounds when spoken, 
 and to guide the tongne in speaking. 2 But in place of 
 teaching by the ear, it is much easier for the master to 
 teach by the eye, making the pupil read books, learn 
 grammar rules, and turn up words in a dictionary. 3 A 
 language learnt simply from books can never be used 
 with any degree of readiness, for the words present 
 themselves as they appear to the eye in place of as they 
 
 begin to try his memory and attempt to rival the reader." Quintilian. 
 In reading aloud, " if we are not accustomed to it, the sound of our 
 voice and the fear of going wrong, will withdraw our attention and 
 prevent remembrance ". Dr. J. Beattie. 
 
 lu Spelling shouM never be taught orally. It is required for 
 writing, only for the eye ; and it should therefore (at this early 
 stage) be taught only by dictation." Sonnenschein and Meiklejohn. 
 " The memory for spelling lies more in the eye than in the ear ; the 
 orthography of words is associated less with the sounds of their com- 
 ponent letters than with the pictorial aspect of the verbal combina- 
 tions as a whole." A. M. Bell. 
 
 8 " All languages both learned and mother tongues be gotten, and 
 gotten solely, by imitation. For as ye use to hear, so ye learn to 
 speak." R. Ascham. " By far the shortest way to learn to read a 
 language is to begin by speaking it. The colloquial tongue is the 
 basis of the literary tongue." P. G. Hamerton. 
 
 1 " Languages are then spoken in greatest perfection when all rules 
 of grammar are utterly forgotten.' 3 - John Locke. " A dictionary 
 causes grievous interruption to the trains of thought, besides involv- 
 ing loss of time, uncertainty, misdirection, and confusion . . . and 
 it ought never to be resorted to when a native is at hand, or when a 
 translation is available." T. Prendergast. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 
 
 strike the ear. 1 " Languages," says John Locke, " are 
 only to be learnt by rote ... so that having thought 
 of the thing he would speak of, his tongue, of course, 
 without thought of rule or grammar, falls into the 
 proper expression and idiom of that language." But a 
 language learnt by means of a grammar and the 
 application of grammar rules is not learnt by rote, 
 but by a process of reasoning, which is also called 
 intp operation in selecting the proper words in a 
 dictionary ; from which, as Ascham says, he " learneth 
 first an evil choice of words, then a wrong placing of 
 words, and lastly, an ill-framing of sentences, with a 
 perverse judgment both of words and sentences". 2 
 " Hence," as Milton says, " we spend seven or eight 
 years in merely scraping together as much miserable 
 Latin and Greek as might be learnt otherwise easily 
 and delightfully in one year." 
 
 In learning a foreign language the ear of the pupil 
 should first of all be familiarised with the different 
 sounds even before he attempts to utter them, still more 
 before seeing them in print. If the sounds are once 
 mastered by the ear it will guide to the correct pronun- 
 ciation of them, after which the association of them 
 with their appropriate letters and words will be a matter 
 of little difficulty. For the learning of languages it is 
 of the utmost importance to have an ear well trained 
 to distinguish and retain every variety of sound, and 
 vocal organs capable of giving them accurate expression. 
 
 1 " To understand a language by the eye and by the ear are dis- 
 tinct attainments . . . and a person who reads a dead language 
 fluently and with accuracy may be incapable of understanding it 
 otherwise than very imperfectly when spoken." Dr. StmcmlU. 
 
 2 The less reasoning that is brought to bear upon the sounds when 
 they are first uttered for imitation, the better chance will there be of 
 success." T. Prendergatt, 
 
318 MEMORY. 
 
 Mezzofanti is said to have possessed a retentive 
 memory, a quick ear, and an incredible flexibility of 
 the organs of speech. 
 
 The Prendergast system of teaching languages pro- 
 ceeds very much upon the plan we advocate, except 
 that it does not make the training of the ear a distinct 
 process, as we are inclined to do. At the outset a cer- 
 tain number of sentences are " committed to memory 
 one by one very perfectly from the teacher's voice, 
 without seeing their symbols on paper or even imagin- 
 ing their spelling". "Every sentence of a new lan- 
 guage," he says, "must be regarded as an indivisible, 
 inseparable combination, until the memory has grasped 
 it securely. . . . No clause or phrase is to be analysed, 
 or even divided into words, until an easy and correct 
 utterance of the whole of its combined sounds has been 
 obtained." 1 A translation may then be received of each 
 word, but the learner must not ask for the nominative 
 case, or the root or any other variety of any word. 
 " There must be no hesitation in the delivery; but the 
 learner must be prompted whether he likes it or not, 
 whenever a word does not come instantaneously to his 
 
 * w The construction of the sentence being studiously concealed 
 from him ... he does not know which of the new sounds, or how 
 many of them, belong to each word, and he can form no idea of the 
 meaning of any one syllable. This ignorance is his safeguard in re- 
 spect to pronunciation ; for if he understood the words he would 
 infallibly employ the peculiar intonation, the accents, the cadences, 
 and the emphases of his own language, because they have become 
 habitual to him." The beginner must keep " his reasoning powers 
 in abeyance, and his imagination under control, until he can utter 
 the first sentence with a good intonation, as if it were only one long 
 word. . . . The memory and the understanding have so little given 
 them to do, that the attention may be concentrated on the pronun- 
 ciation." T. Prendergast. " The less you understand of a language, 
 the more sensible you are to the melody or harshness of its sounds.* 
 T. De Quincey. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 319 
 
 lips.* To hesitate or to doubt leads to reason and 
 reflection, which are hostile to memory. Afterwards 
 he is to practise new varieties of sentences with the aid 
 of a paradigm, or table of inflections, prepared so that 
 the eye may command at one view the whole of the 
 terminations of all the variable parts of speech. Sub- 
 sequently he is to read some foreign book with a native, 
 with the aid of a translation, the learner reading out 
 from the translation a clause or short sentence to the 
 native, whose business it will be to read aloud in return 
 the corresponding foreign words, the pupil following 
 the reader's course with the eye, and carefully echoing 
 the tones of his voice, not word by word but clause 
 by clause. These principles will be understood when 
 it is borne in mind that the mind is differently placed 
 in acquiring sights, sounds, vocal movements, and in- 
 telligible ideas, all of which are included in learning a 
 language. 1 
 
 In learning to write there are two distinct operations 
 to be mastered. There are the forms of the different 
 letters to be impressed on the eye, and the copying of 
 them to be effected by the hand. 2 In place of carrying 
 on these two operations together the eye should first be 
 familiarised with the forms of the different letters, and 
 afterwards they should be written not from a copybook 
 but from dictation not from examples before the eye, 
 
 1 " Kussmaul says : ' If we consider memory as a general function 
 of the nervous system, there must be, for the combination of sounds 
 into words, at once an acoustic memory and a motor memory*. 
 Memory of words is thus double : (1) there is a memory for words, 
 as far as they may be regarded as groups of acoustic phenomena ; 
 (2) there is another memory for words, as motor images." IK RiboL 
 
 2 " When we learn to write we fix the eyes upon a copy ; the 
 visual signs are registered in the brain, and then, with great effort, 
 we learn to reproduce them by movement of the hand. . . . We are 
 able to write only when the visual signs are translated immediately 
 into movements." Th. Ribot. 
 
820 MEMOEY. 
 
 but from impressions formed in the memory. 1 It might 
 be well, too, that the hand be trained to perform the 
 various movements that are involved in writing before 
 actually beginning to write. 2 
 
 In the teaching of arithmetic Mr. Bidder laid great 
 stress upon having the actual numbers vividly impressed 
 upon the mind in place of the mere symbols of them. 
 To this he attributed his wonderful power of mental 
 calculation, and expressed his strong conviction that 
 most children, if taught in this way, might achieve 
 similar results. 3 We are told that before he was six 
 years old, when he was sent to school, and when he did 
 not know the common numerical symbols, he was 
 . accustomed to amuse himself by arranging peas, 
 marbles, or the like in rows and squares of different 
 numbers, and by counting them over to ascertain the 
 results of the combinations. Thus 8 rows of 8 = 64, 
 10 rows of 10 = 100. Hence the figures did not pre- 
 sent themselves to him merely as symbols, but they 
 represented to his mind an equal number of definite 
 
 1 " There is reason to believe that the incitations which evoke 
 writing movements start primarily from the visual word-centres." 
 Dr. Bastian. 
 
 2 " No person is prepared to begin to write until the hand, arm, 
 and fingers have been so trained or drilled that they have become 
 perfect instruments of the will for the purpose of executing all the 
 movements involved in writing. All the time given before that 
 ability is attained, to practise after copies, is time very unprotitably 
 passed, and is calculated to confirm the worst of habits in the use of 
 the pen." A. Maclaren. 
 
 8 " I have for many years entertained a strong conviction that 
 mental arithmetic can "be taught as easily, if not even with greater 
 facility than ordinary arithmetic, and that it may be rendered con- 
 ducive to more useful purposes than that of teaching by rule ; that 
 it may be taught in such a way as to strengthen the reasoning 
 powers of the youthful mind so to enlarge it as to ennoble it and 
 render it capable of embracing all knowledge, particularly thai 
 appertaining to the exact sciences." G. P. Bidder. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 321 
 
 objects. He never went beyond 100. In this way he 
 taught himself the values and relations of the actual 
 numbers, and acquired a marvellous facility in dealing 
 with them. He could multiply a row of fifteen figures 
 by another row of the same number, and give the actual 
 result in a few minutes without seeing or writing down 
 a single figure. 
 
 ' Till a man has had considerable practice, there 
 are,," says James Mill, " few acts of the mind more 
 toilsome " than " the addition of a long column of num- 
 bers"; 1 and yet, if properly learnt, there is no reason 
 why this should be the case. If we analyse the opera- 
 tion of addition, we find that it consists in bringing 
 together two sums and associating them with a third 
 sum. Thus, 6 and 7 are 13 ; 13 and 6 19 ; 19 and 9 
 = 28 ; 28 and 6 = 34 ; and so on. Now, if we concen- 
 trate the attention upon each of these groups by itself, 
 and associate them together in the mind, so that after- 
 wards, whenever the two former occur, the third, being 
 their sum, will at once come up ; and if we treat every 
 association of units with units, or units with tens, in 
 the same way, then one may sum up a whole column 
 of figures almost at sight. This is best done by simply 
 using the eye without naming the figures. That we 
 fail in being able to do this now is owing to the f;u t 
 that the two sums are not sufficiently associated in 
 the mind with the third for the latter to come up at 
 
 1 " The reason is that the names of the numbers which cm respond 
 to the different steps do not rea<lily occur ; that is, are not Mn.; 
 associated with the names which precede them. Thus, 7 added to 5 
 make 12 ; but the antecedent 7 added to 5 is not strongly assori.r I 
 with the consequent 12 in the mind of the learner, and lie has to 
 wait and search till the name occurs. Thus, a<;niii, 1-aml 7 make 
 19 ; 19 and 8 make 27, and so on to any amount ; but it tii< 
 of the learner has been small, the association in ra-b in.-uuice is iiu 
 periectj and the process irksome and slow." Jos. Mill* 
 
322 MEMOKY. 
 
 once, but it is usually arrived at after a process of 
 thought and, perhaps, of finger-counting. Let a man 
 once learn thoroughly that 9 and 8 are 17, and he 
 learns it for ever, but he will never learn it thoroughly 
 if he immediately adds and 6 = 23, and 7 = 30. The 
 mind must dwell upon the one set of figures, and 
 thoroughly master it before proceeding to the next. 
 
 In learning by heart we usually attempt to master 
 too much at once, and hence the impressions formed 
 in the mind lack clearness and distinctness. The better 
 way is to take only a few words at a time, perhaps only 
 two or three, so as to have little difficulty in fixing 
 them clearly in the mind, then a few more, being .care- 
 ful to confine the attention to the words immediately 
 before it. 1 
 
 Probably there is nothing more hurtful to the 
 memory than the system of cramming that so largely 
 characterises the education of the present day. " Cram- 
 ming," says Prof. Bain, "is a scheme for making tem- 
 porary acquisitions regardless of the endurance of 
 them," and " is extremely unfavourable to permanent 
 acquisitions ". The analogy evidently is, as Dr. Car- 
 penter says, " to the overloading of the stomach with a 
 mass of food, too great to be digested and assimilated 
 within a given time, so that a large part of it passes out 
 of the body without having been applied to any good 
 purpose in it". "Everyone is aware/* he continues, 
 "that what is rapidly learnt ... is very commonly 
 
 1 In committing to memory " it is proper that we dwell on every 
 part till we have thoroughly acquired it before we proceed to any 
 other". Dr. Gerard. " In learning a language the leading principle 
 is to learn a very little at "a time ; not in a loose, careless way, but 
 perfectly." T. Prendergast. "A person ought at first to commit 
 every word and syllable to heart whatever trouble it may cost him ; 
 for this will most speedily perfect the habit of remembering, and 
 make it more easj for him to remember afterwards." Dr. Gerard. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT, 823 
 
 forgotten as quickly, one set of ideas driving out an- 
 " Individuals often remember clearly and well 
 up to the time when they have to use their knowledge 
 and then, when it is no further required, there fallows 
 a rapid and extensive decay of the traces." # Verdon. 1 
 
 Learn to trust the memory, and, in order to trust it, 
 strive to make it worthy to be trusted. 2 It grows in 
 trustworthiness by being trusted. " By trusting his 
 metaory, even though it oftens fails him, and by giving 
 himself up with undivided attention to what he would 
 remember, any person may increase his powers of 
 memory to any degree." Sir Philip "Warwick says of 
 Jjord Stratford : " His memory was great, and he made 
 it greater by confiding in it ". 
 
 AH doubting, suspecting, questioning, of the memory 
 should be avoided as being highly prejudicial to it. 
 " Spoil not thy memory," says Thomas Fuller, " with 
 thine .own jealousy, nor make it bad by suspecting it. 
 How canst thou find that true which thou wilt not 
 trust?" Dr. Adam Clarke relates, in his Autobio- 
 graphy, that when a young man in a shop, soon after 
 his conversion, he became possessed with the idea of 
 asserting nothing of whcih he was not absolutely cer- 
 tain, and the result was that he lost certainty of any- 
 
 1 Dr. Abercrombie gives the case of a distinguished actor who was 
 called, on a few hours' notice, to take a part that was entirely new to 
 luin. "He acquired it in a very short time, and went through it 
 with perfect accuracy, but immediately after the performance forgot 
 it to such a degree that, though he performed the character 
 several days in succession, he was obliged every day to study it 
 anew. Characters which he had acquired in a more deliberate 
 manner he never forgets, but can perform them at any time without 
 a moment's preparation." 
 
 2 " Learn to trust your memory and not be always viewing it 
 with suspicion." W. Stokes. 4t The memory should be brought to 
 such a condition by exercise that one may never learn to excuse iu 
 failures." Quintilian. 
 
324 MEMOBY. 
 
 thing. If asked if he had done such a thing, or gone 
 such a message, he would reply that he thought he had, 
 but he was not sure, perhaps he hadn't. In fact, his 
 memory became utterly useless for any practical pur- 
 pose. No reliance could be placed on it either by him. 
 self or others. "He either forgot to do what he was 
 ordered, or forgot when he had done it ... and 
 wondered to find the work done which he had been 
 sent to execute, though himself a little before had been 
 the agent." " He prayed much, immediately forgot 
 that he had prayed, and went to prayer again." It 
 was only after a lengthened period of careful exercise 
 that he was able to overcome this weakness, but his 
 memory never came to be what it was before, though 
 he afterwards rose to eminence. 
 
 It not unfrequently happens that the more a person 
 endeavours to recall a thing, the more it seems to elude 
 his grasp. The very effort to recover it seems rather 
 to drive or keep it away. 1 In such a case there should 
 be no attempt to force the memory, or to keep it on the 
 subject, for this only injures it. 2 It will be more likely 
 to recur to us if we turn the attention to something 
 else. "If," says Hartley, "the desire (to recollect a 
 thing that has escaped us) be great it changes the state 
 of the brain, and has an opposite effect, so that the 
 
 1M We frequently experience, when we are doubtful about the 
 spelling of a word, that the greater voluntary exertion we use, that 
 is, the more intensely we think about it, the farther are we from re- 
 gaining the lost association between the letters of it, but vvhich 
 readily recurs when we have become careless about it. ... So in 
 endeavouring to recall to our memory some particular word of a 
 Bentence, if we exert ourselves too strongly about it we are less likely 
 to regain it." Dr. E. Darwin. 
 
 1 " Recollection that is, the effort of the will to recover what is 
 laid up in the memory cannot be carried beyond a particular 
 point without inducing a certain confusion of mind hurtful to the 
 faculty itself, and probably to others also." Dr. Forbes Wvuskw. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 32") 
 
 desired idea does not recur till all has subsided ; per- 
 haps not even then." " The first mistrust of memory," 
 says Sir H. Holland, "leads many persons to tax it in 
 the way of trial. . . . They persist in harassing efforts 
 to recover a word, a name, or a number . . . whereas 
 the labour of the attempt is in itself the cause of present 
 failure, and of future mischief if often repeated. . . . 
 The apprehension of inability actually creates it, and 
 one, failure begets another." 
 
 Further, in order to improve and strengthen tl 
 memory, we must be constantly exercising it. 1 We 
 must be constantly supplying it with materials fitted 
 for its use, and we must also be frequently calling upon 
 it to produce its treasures, so that we may know exactly 
 what they are and where to find them when they are 
 wanted. 2 Hence we should be frequently reviewing 
 the past, day by day, week by week, year by year ; re- 
 viewing every book we read, every conversation we 
 hear, every act we do. 8 Infinite injury is done to the 
 
 1 " If anyone ask me what is tlie only and great art of memory, 
 I shall say that it is exercise and labour. To learn much by heart, 
 to meditate much, and, if possible, daily, are the most efficacious of 
 all methods. Nothing is so much strengthened by practice or 
 weakened by neglect as memory." Quintilian. 
 
 2 " The habit of frequently reviewing the information we possess 
 ... is the most effectual of all the helps to memory that can possibly 
 be suggested." I). Stewart. "The frequent representations of the 
 same objects to the memory are, in a manner, so many touches of the 
 graver, which cuts them deeper in proportion to the frequency with 
 which they are represented. Helvetius. 
 
 8 "It was an excellent advice which an ancient philosopher gave 
 to his scholars at the end of every day, to recollect all the actions of 
 it, that if they had done anything amiss they might amend it next 
 day, and that if they had done anything well they might enjoy tlu> 
 comfort of it." Dr. A. Gerard. "After reading as much as you can 
 easily retain, be careful always to reckon up the facto or iU'ins that 
 you have gained. If imperfectly remembered, turn back and re- 
 fresh the memory." Anon. " It is a good plan to imagine always 
 that you will be required to give a full description of that which you 
 see and hear." W. Stokes. A character in one of Mr. 0. Retort 
 23 
 
MEMOET. 
 
 memory by the habit of loading it with matter that is 
 seldom or never recalled. This, is unfortunately, the 
 character of much of the reading of the present day, 
 which has for its object merely the satisfying of a mo- 
 mentary curiosity, after which the subject is perhaps 
 never again thought of, and speedily passes entirely 
 from the mind. 1 The evil habit thus induced rapidly 
 extends to more important matters, and much that it is 
 wished and desired to retain is found to slip away from 
 the memory, its entire character comes to be under- 
 mined, and little reliance can be placed in it for any- 
 
 novels says : " My mother . . . taught me three rarities attention, 
 observation, and accuracy. If I went a walk in the country, I had 
 to bring her home a budget : the men and women on the road, their 
 dresses, appearance, countenances, and words ; every kind of bird in 
 the air, and insect and chrysalis in the hedges, the crops in the 
 fields, the flowers and herbs on the banks. . . . Another time 
 mother would take me on a visit : next day, or perhaps next week, 
 she would expect me to describe every article of furniture in her 
 friend's room, and the books on the table, and repeat the conversa- 
 tion the topics at all events." 
 
 1 " Most people read merely to pass an idle hour, or for something 
 to talk about, or for their own immediate pleasure, without any 
 attempt to impress the memory. Nothing in truth has such a ten- 
 dency to weaken . . . the intellectual powers in general as a habit 
 of extensive and various reading without reflection." D. Stewart. 
 " Tales, novels, and histories derive their greatest charm from the 
 curiosity they excite, to know what will become of the hero or 
 heroine." Dr. Laycock. " I believe the habit of perusing periodical 
 works may be properly added to Averroe's catalogue of anti-mne- 
 monics or weakeners of the memory." S. T. Coleridge. " She read 
 whatever excited public attention and curiosity, but she read to little 
 or no effect ; she impatiently hurried over the volumes before her 
 that she might begin something else ; the consequence unavoidably 
 was that in a very short interval she retained no recollection of the 
 
 hings. lielvetius. * It requires 
 courage indeed,' as Helvetius has remarked, ' to remain ignorant of 
 those useless subjects which are generally valued ;' but it is a courage 
 necessary to men who either love the truth or who aspire to establish 
 a permanent reputation." D. Stewart. " If I had read as much M 
 other men, I had been as ignorant as they." T. Hobbe*. 
 
HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 327 
 
 tiling. Note-books and common-place books, however 
 useful and necessary they may be to many of us, have 
 certainly an injurious effect upon the memory, for one 
 will be at little pains to commit to memory what he 
 can readily find by turning to a note-book. 1 
 
 " It is said by Plato that the nse of writing is detrimental to 
 memory, because, as he intimates, what we have committed to writing 
 we cease in some degree to guard and lose it through mere neglect. 
 Quintilian. "The bad effects of writing down those facts and 
 events which we wish to remember" is that "they are taken down 
 for future consideration, and consequently receive very little present 
 consideration ". Sydney Smith. " It is certain that when we read 
 with a view to fill up commonplaces, we are apt to attend rather to 
 particular passages than to the scope and spirit of the whole ; and 
 that, having transcribed the favourite paragraph, we are not solicitous 
 to remember it, as knowing that we may at any time find it in our 
 common-place book." Dr. J. Beattie. " In regard to memory, it is 
 remarkable how much its power is increased, in many instances, by 
 that kind of exercise by which it is alone trusted to^ without any aid 
 from writing." Dr. Abercrwnbi* 
 
SYLLABUS OF 
 KAY'S MEMORY AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 
 
 From the International Reading Circle Course of 
 Professional Study. 
 
 Pages i to 46. i 
 
 ii In what sense is memory the most important faculty 
 of the mind ? 
 
 2. How does memory serve to guide future conduct ? 
 
 3. How does memory add to the pleasures of the pres- 
 
 ent? 
 
 ^ 4. What is the office of attention as an aid to one power 
 or act of memory ? 
 
 5. What is the influence of association as an aid to the 
 
 other act of memory ? 
 
 6. Why is the type of memory having contiguity as its 
 
 associative principle deemed the lowest ? 
 
 7. What advantage over the other has the type of 
 
 memory in which .similarity is the associative prin- 
 ciple ? 
 
 8. What power characterizes the highest type of memory ? 
 
 9. What evidence is there that nerves and even muscles 
 
 may have a part in the act of remembering ? 
 10. What is your own judgment concerning the doctrine 
 of a physical basis of memory ? 
 
 Pages 47 to 6}. 
 
 n. How do we know the existence and nature of matter ? 
 
 12. Do we know in any other way the existence and na- 
 ture of mind ? 
 
 *3. What can we know of the relations existing between 
 mind and matter in the human being ? 
 
 829 
 
330 SYLLABUS OF 
 
 14. Why has the material theory of mind no bearing on 
 
 the question of man's immortality ? 
 
 15. What are the most striking analogies that lead to the 
 
 conclusion of a material basis of memory ? 
 
 Pages 64 to 124. >X 
 
 16. What part do the several organs of the body sustain 
 
 in acts of memory ? 
 
 17. What influence has the condition of the blood and its 
 
 circulation on the ability to remember readily ? 
 
 18. How do the bones, and more positively the muscles, 
 
 have a part in the work of memory ? 
 
 19. How does it become apparent that memory in the 
 
 nervous system is not confined to an action of the 
 chief seat of mental activity, but resides, in part at 
 least, in the condition of the whole nerve tract ? 
 
 20. Does the argument of this third chapter seem conclu- 
 
 sive in favor of a physical basis of memory ? 
 
 NOTE. The elements of physiology presented in this chapter of Mr. Kay's 
 book should be made very familiar to every one who desires to read intelligent- 
 ly the current discussions of questions of Physiological Psychology. 
 
 Pages 125 to 156. 
 
 21. What limitation is placed upon our acquiring a knowl- 
 
 edge of the external world ? 
 
 22. What is a sensation, and what are the several elements 
 
 or steps in its production ? 
 
 23. Into what three parts is each organ of sense di- 
 
 vided, and what is the separate function of each 
 part ? 
 
 24. How does it occur that the idea in the mind does not 
 
 at all times correspond to the external object pro- 
 ducing the sensation ? 
 
KAY'S MEMORY AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT. 331 
 
 25. How do the organs of sense appear affected in the act 
 
 of remembering past impressions ? 
 
 26. Does mind reside in the brain alone, or in the entire 
 
 nervous tissue ? 
 
 27. What relation does accuracy of sense-perception bear 
 
 to wisdom of action ? 
 
 28. In what does sense training consist ? 
 
 Pages 157 to 201. 
 
 29. How is the muscular sense distinguished from the 
 
 sense of touch ? 
 
 30. What evidences are there of a power of memory in- 
 
 herent in the muscles ? 
 
 31. Do you see a valid objection to calling the "retentive 
 
 power " of the muscles a form of memory ? 
 
 32. For what reasons may the sense of touch be deemed 
 
 the one upon which superior intelligence most de- 
 pends ? 
 
 33. \Vhat force would you give to this fact in an argument 
 
 in favor of manual training in public schools ? 
 
 34. In considering the cultivation of taste and smell do 
 
 you see any reason to suppose a power of memory 
 to exist in the sense-organ or nerves as well as in 
 the brain proper ? 
 
 35. Has the fact that the ear is more susceptible of train- 
 
 ing than any other sense led into too exclusive 
 appeal to this sense in the imparting of knowl- 
 edge ? 
 
 36. In what respects is sight of higher value than 
 
 touch ? 
 
 37. If you conceive a person with the sense of sight un- 
 
 impaired but never having possessed the sense of 
 touch, what lines of knowledge now revealed by the 
 eye would be lost ? 
 
SYLLABUS OF 
 
 Pages 202 to 226. 
 
 38. What relation does the mental image bear to the ac- 
 
 tion of a sense-organ in any case of sensation or 
 perception ? 
 
 39. How do the vague mental images of early life become 
 
 clear and distinct ? 
 
 40. In what way, or to what extent, do you deem the 
 
 sense-organ exercised in recalling the image of a 
 past sensation ? 
 
 41. What class of mental images should school training 
 
 especially develop the power of forming ? 
 
 42. Do you see how any abstract idea, as of a triangle, 
 
 can have its mental image ? 
 
 43. What relation do mental images bear to the action of 
 
 the will-power in volition ? 
 
 44. How is memory to be strengthened and improved 
 
 upon the basis of mental images ? 
 
 45. Do you agree with the assertion that " the natural 
 
 course of our knowledge is from the general to the 
 particular " ? 
 
 46. To what extent should the processes of education be 
 
 directed to the formation of mental images ? 
 
 Pages 226 to 250. 
 
 47. What is the parallel between unconscious states of 
 
 mental activity and invisible existences in the mate- 
 rial world ? 
 
 48. What are the necessary conditions in order that the 
 
 mind may become conscious of its states or acts ? 
 
 49. Why are some dreams remembered and some not ? 
 
 50. In what sense is every act of consciousness an act of 
 
 memory ? 
 
 51. What testimony is given by some who have experi- 
 
 enced the approach of death in drowning ? 
 
KAY'S MEMORY AND IIOW TO I.M I'K< >Y i; IT. 333 
 
 52. How is the transition from conscious effort to uncon- 
 
 scious execution in walking, writing, playing upon 
 instruments, etc., explained ? 
 
 53. What, then, should be the aim of educational method 
 
 as regards the consciousness of mental processes ? 
 
 ^ Pages 251 to 270. 
 
 54. In what respect is careful attention essential to readi- 
 
 ness and accuracy of recollection ? 
 
 55. In what does the distinctive act of attention consist ? 
 
 56. How does the power of fixing and retaining the at- 
 
 tention affect the general ability to do mental work ? 
 
 57. How is this power of attention to be duly developed? 
 
 58. What part has the power of analysis, as related to at- 
 
 tention, in the acquisition of new knowledge or skill ? 
 
 59. How does the principle of " division of labor " affect 
 
 attention in any given occupation ? 
 
 60. How does the act of attention give unusual power to 
 
 the body under certain circumstances ? 
 
 61. How may the power of concentrating the attention 
 
 come to require little or no apparent effort ? 
 
 J Pages 271 to 288. 
 
 62. How are dissociation and association related to the 
 
 fixing of ideas in memory and the recalling of ideas 
 that are held in memory ? 
 
 63. How are ideas associated under the law of conti- 
 
 guity ? 
 
 64. What are the characteristics of association by succes- 
 
 sive contiguity as determining the relation of ideas 
 in the memory ? 
 
 65. How does synchronous contiguity differ from suc- 
 
 cessive contiguity as a condition of association ? 
 
334 SYLLABUS. 
 
 66. To what extent or in what way does the power of asso- 
 
 ciation by similarity depend upon the power of asso- 
 ciation by contiguity ? 
 
 67. How would you drill a class of pupils upon a lesson 
 
 in order to best associate ideas by contiguity ? 
 
 68. What manner of presentation and of recitation would 
 
 serve to fix a lesson in memory by association of 
 similarity ? 
 
 69. To what single proposition may the several laws of 
 
 association be reduced? 
 
 70. What mutual relation seems to exist between the 
 
 physical organization and the mental states in this 
 matter of association of ideas ? 
 
 71. What general principle should be present to the mind 
 
 of the teacher as directing the association of ideas 
 in presenting a new lesson to the class ? 
 
 Pages 289 to 327. 
 
 72. What characteristics distinguish local or verbal mem- 
 
 ory from the higher forms of rational and representa- 
 tive memory ? 
 
 73. Upon what principle of memory are systems of mne- 
 
 monics usually constructed ? 
 
 74. Upon what principle is the cultivation of rational -mem- 
 
 ory to be based ? 
 
 75. Upon what original act of the mind does the strength 
 
 of representative memory depend ? 
 
 76. How are the sense-organs and the muscles concerned 
 
 in this form of memory ? 
 
 77. How do persons differ as to memory of impressions 
 
 received by seeing, -by hearing, and by acting ? 
 
 78. What are some of the chief applications in school- 
 
 room practice of the principles of memory training ? 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abercrombie. Dr., quoted, 16; 69; 
 152; 256; 282, et passim. 
 
 Abstract ideas, 36 ; 301. 
 
 Action, memory a guide to, 4; 6; 
 necessary to thought, 87-8. 
 
 Activities, memory the remembrance 
 of, 298-9. 
 
 Addition, how to teach, 821. 
 
 Alphabet, how to teach, 313-4. 
 
 Analysis necessary in education, 226; 
 242; 264; in attention, 262-3: 
 288. 
 
 Aphasia, 219. 
 
 Arithmetic, how to teach, 820. 
 
 Arrangement, importance of, to 
 memory, 288. 
 
 Art, the, preceding the science, 87. 
 
 Association of ideas, 271-88 ; by con- 
 tiguity, 17-18; 273-88; by simi- 
 larity, 19; 278-88; these reduced 
 to one, 284 ; necessary to recol- 
 lection, 11; 223-4; 271-8; 286; 
 296; rational or philosophical, 
 20; 279; 294-6; importance of 
 forming right, 281 ; 295 ; in edu- 
 cation, 282 ; 295 ; in our actions, 
 245; 284; has a material basis, 
 285 ; resembles attraction in 
 matter, ib. ; importance to, of 
 having mind well stocked with 
 ideas, 287. 
 
 Ascham, E., quoted, 817. 
 
 Attention, 251-70; necessary to me- 
 mory, 10; 41; 251; defects of 
 memory owing to want of, 11; 
 252 ; what it is, 259-8 ; conscious- 
 ness concentrated, 253; intensi- 
 fies our impressions, 165 ; 180; 
 254 ; by means of, we can follow 
 one voice or instrument among 
 many, 255 ; chiefly distinguishes 
 the man of genius among others, 
 
 256 ; deficient in idiots, 257 ; first 
 to decay, ib. ; importance of 
 cultivating, 258; doing one thing 
 at a time, 258-60 ; 313; avoiding 
 distracting thoughts, 260-1 ; divi- 
 sion of labour, 264-6 ; physical 
 basis of, 266 ; physical conditions 
 which interfere with, 267; effects 
 of, on the bodily organs in pro- 
 ducing disease, &c., 267-9 ; culti- 
 vation of, 270. 
 
 Auditory memory, to train the, 304 ; 
 816. 
 
 Axis-cylinder, 97-8; identical with 
 nerve-cell substance, 94; 161. 
 
 Bailey, S., quoted, 241. 
 
 Bain, Prof., quoted, 30; 64; 162; 168; 
 173; 177; 229; 801; 804; 812; 
 822, et passim. 
 
 Bastian, Dr., quoted, 148, et pattitn. 
 
 Beaufort, Sir P., case of, 288. 
 
 Bell, Sir C., quoted, 269. 
 
 Bernstein, Dr., quoted, 142, et pastim. 
 
 Bidder, G. P., his calculating powers, 
 25; 820. 
 
 Blindness, psychical, 220. 
 
 Blood, the, 69-74. 
 
 Body, the, 64-124; connects man with 
 material world, 64; conn- 
 between mind and, 66 ; con- 
 stantly undergoing change, 68; 
 blood, 69-74 ; heart, 70-1 ; motor 
 organs, 74-5; bones, 76-7; joinU, 
 77-8 ; muscles, 78-86 ; nervous 
 system, 89-120; cerebro- 
 and ganglionic or sympathetic 
 systems, 90-1 ; white and grey 
 matter, 92; grey matter, 92-4; 
 nerve cells, \b. ; nerves, 94-7 ; 
 cerebrum, 98-104; cerebellum, 
 104; corpora quadrigemina, 106; 
 
 335 
 
336 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 optic thalami and corpora striata, 
 105-6; crura cerebri, 107; pons 
 varolii, ib. ; medulla oblongata, 
 107 - 10 ; cerebral membranes, 
 110-1; spinal cord, 114-5 ; nerves 
 of, 115-7; cerebral nerves, 117-20; 
 exercise, effects of, 120-2; aot of 
 locomotion, &c., 122-4. 
 
 Bones, the, 76-7. 
 
 Brain, the, 98-114; membranes of, 
 110-1 ; quantity of blood going 
 to, 111-2 ; cerebro-spinal fluid, 
 112; weight of, 112-3; when, at- 
 tains full size, 113-4 ; not the 
 sole seat of memory, 141-9 ; nor 
 of mind, 149-53. 
 
 Brodie, Sir B., quoted, 222; 238; 
 256, et passim. 
 
 Brown, Dr. T., quoted, 16 ; 17 ; 234 ; 
 263, et passim. 
 
 Brown- Sequard, Dr., quoted, 148. 
 
 Calculation, mental, 25. 
 Carlyle, T., quoted, 248. 
 Carpenter, Dr. W. B., quoted, 9 ; 78 J 
 
 249; 250; 291; 313; 322, et 
 
 passim. 
 
 CeUlife, 60; 61. 
 Cerebellum, 104. 
 Cerebrum, 98-104; convolutions of, 
 
 99-100; grey matter of, ib. ; 103 ; 
 
 white matter, 100-3; seat of 
 
 mind, 102; number of cells in, 
 
 103 ; cerebral nerves, 117-20 see 
 
 Brain. 
 Chalmers, Dr., case of, cited, 266; 
 
 quoted, 302. 
 
 Chess playing, blindfolded, 24-5. 
 Cicero, quoted, 291. 
 Clarke, Dr. Adam, his loss of memory, 
 
 090 
 
 Cleland, Prof., quoted, 150; 152. 
 
 Colburn, Zerah, 25, 249. 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., quoted, 294. 
 
 wolour, undulations of, 188-91 ; har- 
 mony in, 190. 
 
 Common sense, derived from experi- 
 ence, 240. 
 
 Consciousness, memory necessary to, 
 2; 234; formerly regarded as co- 
 extensive with mind, 48; 227; 
 much regarding which, gives us 
 no information, 50-1 ; change 
 necessary to, 206; 229; an act 
 of antagonism, 230 ; exists in an 
 inverse ratio to degree of in- 
 tensity of sensations, &c., ib. ; 
 time necessary to, 214-6 ; 231-2 ; 
 
 244-5; not co-extensive with 
 mind, 235 ; always much in the 
 mind of which we are uncon- 
 scious, 236-9 ; whatever has once 
 been consciously in the mind is 
 ever after retained, 239; the 
 more any power or faculty is 
 trained the less consciously it 
 acts, 247; necessary at first, 247- 
 8 ; afterwards it may be a hin- 
 drance, 248; progress towards 
 unconsciousness, ib. ; the highest 
 operations are carried on uncon- 
 sciously, 249; the highest form 
 of memory unconscious, 250; 
 regarded by some as an evil, 230. 
 
 Consciousness, double, 272. 
 
 Contiguity, association by, 17; 18; 
 273-4; two kinds of, successive 
 and synchronous, 274-6; strong 
 in children, &c., 277 ; to be culti- 
 vated, 277-8; disadvantage of, 
 279-80. 
 
 Corpora quadrigemina, 105. 
 
 Corpora striata, 105. 
 
 Corpus callosum, 99 ; 102. 
 
 Cramming, evil of, 322. 
 
 Crura cerebri, 107. 
 
 Cunningham, Dr. J., quoted, 302. 
 
 Curiosity favourable to memory, 41 ; 
 306. 
 
 Darwin,' Dr. E., quoted, 148; 888, et 
 
 passim. 
 
 Democritus, 135. 
 De Quincey, T., quoted, 9; 262. 
 Differentiation, 268. 
 Division of labour, advantages of, 
 
 264-5 ; 266. 
 
 Doing one thing at a time, 258-9. 
 Draper, Dr., quoted, 59, et passim. 
 Drowning persons recalling their 
 
 past life, 238. 
 
 Ear, the, 175; 181; associated with 
 the voice and speech, 182-3 ; 
 315-7. 
 
 Education, defects of present system, 
 8; 225; 312-3; should form clear 
 images in mind, 224-6; science of, 
 yet unformed, 225; importance 
 of analysis in, 226; 242; 264; 266; 
 great object of, 248; untrained 
 activity diffusive, 268; associa- 
 tion of ideas in, 282 ; 295 ; art of 
 questioning, 282 ; on training the 
 vocal organs, 287 ; 304-6 ; cultiva- 
 tion of memory the great business 
 
INDEX. 
 
 337 
 
 of, 912; howto teach the alphabet, 
 813-4; pronunciation, 816; spell- 
 ing, ib. ; foreign languages, 816-9 ; 
 writing, 819; arithmetic, 820; 
 addition, 321 ; cramming, evil of. 
 822. 
 
 Ego and non-ego, 205 ; 230; 801. 
 
 Example, power of, 801. 
 
 Exercise, effects of, on bones, 76-7; 
 muscles, 84; 86; 297; nervous 
 system, 120-2; senses, 298. 
 
 Expression necessary to thought, 76; 
 87-8. 
 
 Eye, the, 191-8; movements of, 193; 
 the mind's, the retina, 301. 
 
 Fairy tales, &c., value of in educa- 
 tion, 215. 
 
 Feelings opposed to memory, 299. 
 
 Feinaigle, G. von, quoted, 293, et 
 passim. 
 
 Ferrier, Prof. J., quoted, 230-1; 249, 
 et passim. 
 
 Figures, dates, &o.,howto remember, 
 310-1. 
 
 Forget, does the mind ever, ? 9 ; 11 ; 
 12; 235-9. 
 
 Fuller, Thos., quoted, 824. 
 
 Galton, F., quoted, 225, et passim. 
 Ganglia, the, 90-1. 
 
 Genius, the concentrating of atten- 
 tion, 256. 
 
 Goethe, quoted, 249. 
 Griesinger, Dr., quoted, 182. 
 Grotius, H., his great memory, IX 
 
 Habit, power of, 85-6. 
 
 Hamilton, Sir W., quoted, 1; 9; 21; 
 26; 82; 148; 149; 161; 162; 
 229; 233; 234; 239; 243; 253; 
 284, et passim. 
 
 Hartley, D., quoted, 824, et passim. 
 
 Hearing, 175-85; organ of, 176-6; 
 sonorous vibrations, 176-9; musi- 
 cal tones, 178-9; differences in 
 acuteness of, 179-80; deafness, 
 180; attention in, ib.; direction 
 of sounds, 181; value of, ib. ; 
 loss of, 182; closely associated 
 with the voice, ib. ; highly sus- 
 ceptible of education, 184. 
 
 Hehnholtz, Dr., quoted, 137; 177; 
 179, et passim. 
 
 Hereditary transmission of qualities, 
 61-3. 
 
 Hering, Dr. E., quoted, 297, et passim. 
 
 Heyse, Dr. K. W. L., quoted, 202. 
 
 Holland, Sir H., ^notefl, Tij 169; 
 824, et passim. 
 
 Holmes, 0. W., quoted, 282. 
 
 Houdin, Eobert,his method of train- 
 ing the memory, 808-10. 
 
 Huxley, Prof. T., quoted, 218, et 
 passim. 
 
 Ideas, 203; 212; 218; senses con- 
 cerned in, 86; 801; see Mental 
 Images. 
 
 Idiots, memory for words in some, 14 ; 
 277; lack power of attention, 
 257. 
 
 Imagination, 21-22; a sense basis, 
 83-4; 146; diseases caused or- 
 cured by, 267-8 ; to be cultivated, 
 808. 
 
 Imaginative memory, 21; 28; 26; 
 superiority of, 27-8; 296; 800; 
 how to cultivate, 808-12. 
 
 Insanity, exercise of sight in, 199-200; 
 power of ideas in, 212; 217. 
 
 Joints, the, 77-8. 
 
 Judgment depending on past experi- 
 ence, 240. 
 
 Kirkes' Physiology, quoted, 109; 
 116; 117. 
 
 Knowledge, no, without memory, 2 ; 
 from general to particular, 226 ; 
 in, we distinguish between object 
 and subject, 801; acquired 
 chiefly through sight, hearing, 
 doing, 803-4. 
 
 Language should be learnt by ear, 
 182-3; foreign, how to learn, 
 816-9; the Prendergast system, 
 818-9. 
 
 Laycock, Dr., quoted, 244, et pasrim. 
 
 Leibnitz, quoted, 228. 
 
 Lewis, G. H., quoted, 234, et passim. 
 
 Leyden, Dr. J., his great memory, 
 12; 19. 
 
 Liberty and necessity, 241. 
 
 Light, 188-91 ; undulations of, ib. 
 
 Local memory, 16-17 ; 290-2. 
 
 Locke, John, quoted, 12; 68; 218; 317, 
 et passim. 
 
 Locomotor ataxia, 218. 
 
 Loisettian system, xiii 
 
 Luys, J., quoted, 241, ct passim* 
 
 M'Cosh, Dr. J., quoted, 260. 
 M'Kendrick, Prof., quoted, 160. ei 
 
 passim. 
 
338 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mansel, Dean, quoted, 158. 
 
 Materialism not opposed to immor- 
 tality, 52-3 ; 55. 
 
 Matter, 47-8; 51; value of, to mind, 
 65 ; 65 ; limits of, unknown, 56 ; 
 minuteness of, ib. ; retains traces 
 of changes it has undergone, 67 ; 
 seen ir> the earth's crust, ib. ; in 
 trees, 58 ; in all material things, 
 59 ; in our bodies, 60. 
 
 Maudsley, Dr., quoted, 245 ; 248, < 
 passim. 
 
 Medulla oblongata, 107-10. 
 
 Memory, what it is, 1; importance 
 of, 2; 4-6; good, rare, 3; pleasures 
 of, 6 ; defects of, what owing to, 
 8 ; 11 ; too limited views of, 8 ; 
 never forgets, 9 ; 11 ; 12 ; 235-9 ; 
 241 ; includes retention and re- 
 production, 10; not a single 
 faculty, 12 ; each faculty has its 
 distinct, ib. ; 39 ; errors from 
 regarding, as a single faculty, 
 13-14 ; for words the lowest form 
 of, 14-15 ; invention depends on, 
 15-16; three kinds of, 16; 290; 
 (1) local or verbal, ib. ; (2) ra- 
 tional or philosophical, 19; 294-6; 
 (3) representative or imaginative, 
 21; 296-7; superiority of last, 
 27 ; similarity between original 
 and recalled impression, 29; 
 owing to the same parts being 
 affected, 30 ; 300 ; 807 ; whatever 
 prevents mind from acting on 
 the same parts, prejudicial to, 
 299 ; not confined to the brain, 
 82-3; 39; 66-7; 141-9; 297; 307; 
 not an intellectual but rather a 
 sense-faculty, 302; physical basis 
 of, 85; 37-9; 45; 65-6; 60; 65; 
 84; 123-4; 297; conditions of 
 body favourable to, 41; 805-6; 
 depends on the blood, 71-4; senses 
 necessary to, 140 ; loss of, 220-3 ; 
 has to do with mental images, 
 223-4 ; exalted states of, in fever, 
 &c., 237; perfectibility of, 239; 
 the highest acts of, unconscious, 
 250 ; attention necessary to, 251 ; 
 defects of, owing to want of at- 
 tention, 252; how to improve 
 the, 289-327 ; capable of indefinite 
 improvement, 289; arts of im- 
 proving the, 290; 293; depends 
 on the character of original 
 impressions, 296; 303; the re- 
 membrance ol activities, 298-9; 
 
 should be trusted, 323; fpofle<3 
 by doubt, 323-4 ; not to be forced, 
 324; first impressions, value of, 
 to, 306; of figures, dates, &c., 
 810-1; to be exercised, 825; 
 reading without reflection in- 
 jurious to, 325-6; use of note- 
 books injurious to, 327. 
 
 Mental images, 202-26; mind can 
 only perceive, 203 ; become clear 
 by degrees, 204 ; 212 ; conscious- 
 ness, 206 ; have a material basis, 
 207 ; not alone <in the brain, ib. ; 
 have hitherto received but little 
 attention, 208 ; different kinds of, 
 visual, auditory, &c., ib.', some 
 persons excel in one kind, others 
 in another, ib. ; of muscular 
 movements, 209; of thoughts, 
 211 ; serve to guide our actions, 
 211; 213; necessary to volition, 
 212; a high ideal necessary to 
 success, 214; unconscious, 214-6; 
 importance of, 216 ; different 
 kinds of, 216-7; loss of, 218- 
 22; are what memory has to 
 deal with, 223-4; its strength 
 depends on the clearness and 
 distinctness of the, ib. ; not con- 
 fined to the eye, 226; present 
 in associated movements, 246; 
 284-5. 
 
 Mezzofanti, Cardinal, his great me- 
 mory, 12 ; 818. 
 
 Mill, James, quoted, 321, et passim. 
 
 Milton, John, quoted, 62; 63; 65; 
 817. 
 
 Mind, single, 42; 253; 266; 813; 
 what? 47; erroneous view of, 
 48 ; by some held to be material, 
 49; impossible for our present 
 faculties to determine, 50; 61; 
 materiality does not involve im- 
 mortality, 62 ; Milton's view, 63 ; 
 65 ; every act of, leaves a bodily 
 impress, 65-6 ; in sensation, 133 ; 
 in sight, 194-5; in whole body, 
 149-53 ; 267-9 ; passing from one 
 form of activity to another, 265. 
 
 Mind-wandering, 148 ; to cure, ib. 
 
 Mnemonical systems, v ; 277 ; 290-2 ; 
 293-4; 310. 
 
 Morell, J. D., quoted, 240; 248, ei 
 passim. 
 
 Motion in sensation, 81; 134; 147; dif- 
 ferent rates of, in different kinds 
 of sensation, 185-6; no voluntary, 
 without memory, 2; memory ol 
 
INDEX. 
 
 
 ttoh kind of, distinct, 12; in 
 recollection, 82 ; in thought, 
 85-6; effects of, permanent, 87; 
 89; 66. 
 
 Motor organs, the, 74-89; 1224; 
 memory of, 804-5. 
 
 Mtiller, Dr. J., quoted, 268, et passim. 
 
 Muscles, the, 78-89 ; contractility of, 
 78-9 ; voluntary and involuntary, 
 79-80; fibres of, ib.; blood vessels, 
 81; nerves, 81-2; sensibility of. 
 82-3; exercise, 84; power of will 
 over, 85-6; 212; necessary to 
 memory, 40; 84; 146-7; 297; 
 800-1. 
 
 Muscular sense, the, 82-8; 142-4; 
 157-60 ; loss of, 86 ; memory of, 
 168-9; 209-10; 300; mental images 
 of, 209-10; exercise of, 159-60. 
 
 Musical tones, 178-9; pitch, 178; 
 timbre, 179 ; harmonics, ib. 
 
 Nerve force and electricity, 188. 
 
 Nerves, the, 94-8; afferent and effe- 
 rent, 95 ; 141 ; 300; each capable of 
 conducting impressions in either 
 direction, 141-9. 
 
 Nervous system, the, 89-124; nerves 
 and nerve centres, 90; ganglia, 
 90-1 ; grey and white substances, 
 92 ; nerve cells, 92-4 ; fibres, 97 ; 
 effects of exercise on, 120-2. 
 
 Newton, Sir I., quoted, 256. 
 
 Note-books, use of, injurious to 
 memory, 827. 
 
 Object lessons, value of, 224. 
 Olfactory nerves, 117. 
 Optic nerves, 118. 
 Optic thalami, 105. 
 Organic memory, 60-62 ; 285. 
 
 Paralysis, 88; 197; 218; hysterical, 
 
 219. 
 
 Pascal, B., his great memory, 11. 
 Perception, 144-6; 206; minimum 
 
 of, 232-3. 
 
 Philosophical memory see Bational. 
 Physical basis of memory, 85; 87-9; 
 
 45; 55-6; 60; 66; 84; 123-4; 
 
 297; of association of ideas, 286; 
 
 of attention, 266. 
 Pick, Dr., quoted, 278. 
 Pineal gland, 105. 
 Pons varolii, 107. 
 Port Eoyal Logic, quoted, 812. 
 Prendergast system, the, of learning 
 
 languages, 318-9* 
 
 Quain's Anatomy, quoted, 81 ; 118, 
 
 et passim. 
 
 Questions, art of asking, 2824. 
 Quintilian, quoted, 291. 
 
 Eational memory, 19; 90; 979; 
 294-6. 
 
 Reading without reflection hurtful 
 to memory, 825-6; in, we un- 
 consciously observe the letters 
 of each word, 242-8; a 
 suggests a word, 243 ; looking for 
 a word, ib. 
 
 Eeid, Dr. T., quoted, 146; 263, et 
 passim. 
 
 Recollection, 43-6; 67; beginning 
 difficult, 46; 147-8; depends on 
 association, 296. 
 
 Repetition, effect of, 8; 41; 66-7; 
 246. 
 
 Representative memory, 21 ; 28; 96; 
 296; superiority of, 27-8; 996; 
 800 ; how to cultivate, 306-12. 
 
 Retention and reproduction in 
 memory, 10 ; 11. 
 
 Retina, 33-4; 191-4; the, the mind's 
 eye, 301. 
 
 Ribot, T., quoted, 72; 122; 123; 219; 
 232; 236; 274; 804, 0* pot****. 
 
 Rote, learning by, 304 ; 817. 
 
 Sohmid, H., quoted, 239. 
 
 Sensation, produced by motion, 81-8 ; 
 36-6; 89-40; 134-7; what it is, 
 129-80; mind most important 
 factor in, 133; understanding 
 sometimes overrides, 262; only 
 symbolic, 187-8 ; and perception, 
 144-7; 205. 
 
 Senses, the, 125-201 : impart know- 
 ledge of external world, 125-6; 
 128 ; 163-4 ; instruments for im- 
 proving the, 127-8; number of, 
 128; stimulus of, 180-1; "multi- 
 pliers of disturbance," 181 ; outer 
 organ, 182; connecting nerrM, 
 ib.; central portion, ISM; loss) 
 of organ, 148-9; muscular, M7- 
 60; touch, 160-6; taste, 166-70; 
 smell, 170-5; heating, 17W; 
 sight, 186-201; training ot% 89; 
 166-6; 808; n**uxjtomtnaeft 
 40; i40; 146: 80(U| Mi; to 
 thought, 86; 188; to Tolun terv 
 motion, 189; cultivation of, 80f- 
 12. 
 
 Sensorium, 106 ; 284* 
 
340 INDEX. 
 
 Sight, 185-201 ; at first largely de- ance of, 169-70 ; improvement of, 
 
 pendent on touch, &c., 186 ; 170 ; harmony in, ib. 
 
 guides our physical activities, Taylor, Isaac, quoted, 55, et passim. 
 
 186-7 ; light the object of, 187-91 ; Thought, seat of, 36 ; 38 ; in recalling, 
 
 colour, ib. ; acuteness of, 192-3 ; 43 ; expression necessary to, 76 ; 
 
 the most intellectual sense, 194 ; 87-8,{ rapidity of, 233 ; imperish- 
 
 training of, 195 ; touch as an aid able, 38 ; 235 ; regarding it as an 
 
 to, 196 ; compared with hearing, object, 802. 
 
 ib. ; power of, over muscular Tongue, 166. 
 
 movements, 196-7 ; importance Touch, sense of, 160-6 ; acuteness of, 
 
 of, to memory, 198; to thought, 161-3; heat and cold, 163-4; 
 
 198 - 9 ; in insanity, 199-200 ; superiority of, in man, 164 ; at- 
 
 improvement of, by education, tention in, 165 ; exercise of, 166 ; 
 
 200. in the blind, 198. 
 
 Similarity, association by, 19-20 ; Training tends to confine energy to 
 
 278-9 ; 294-6 ; value of, 279-80 ; special channels, 156 ; untrained 
 
 the greater the, the stronger the activity diffusive, 268 see Edu- 
 
 association, 286; 295; training cation. 
 
 of, 282 ; 295. Tyndall, Prof., quoted, 51, etpauim. 
 Smell, sense of, 170-5; objects of, 
 
 171-2 ; minuteness of, 172 ; action TTeberweg, Dr., quoted, 145. 
 
 of, 172-3 ; classification of odours, Ultra-conscious mental states, 50 ; 
 
 173; cultivation of, 174; pleasures 214-6; 227-34; 236-40; 241-4; 
 
 of, ib. 247-9 ; affect our conscious states, 
 
 Smith, C. W., quoted, 315, et passim. 232; progress in direction of, 
 
 Soul, immortality of the, materialism 247-9 see Consciousness. 
 
 not opposed to, 52-3; Milton's 
 
 view, 53 ; a belief among the Verbal memory, 16-19 ; 275-7 ; 292-3. 
 
 ancients, 54 ; not held by some of Visual memory, 305 ; how to culti- 
 
 the early fathers, ib. vate the, 311. 
 
 Sound, 176-9 ; vibrations of, 176 ; Vocal organs guided by the ear, 
 
 three classes of, 177-9 ; tones, 182-3 ; on training the, 287 ; 305 ; 
 
 178-9 ; interpretation of, 180 ; utterances, memory of, 804-5. 
 
 attention to, ib. ; direction of, Volition, mental image necessary to, 
 
 180-1. 212; 216; 218. 
 
 Spectator, the, quoted, 23 ; 25 ; 27. 
 
 Spencer, H., quoted, 31; 72; 229; Whist memory, 310. 
 
 230, et passim. Will, power of, over onr movements, 
 Spinal cord, 114-5 ; nerves, 115-6. limited, 85-6 ; mental images 
 
 Stewart, Dugald, quoted, 55; 244; necessary to, 212; 216; 218; 
 
 245 ; 281 ; 290, et passim. requires to be trained, 86. 
 
 Stokes, W., quoted, 804, et passim. Wilson,Prof.G.,quoted,173,e^asiw. 
 
 Words, memory for, 14; 15; un- 
 Taine, H., quoted, 228 ; 233 ; 274, et meaning, best fixed in the me- 
 
 passim. mory, 261 ; 315. 
 
 Taste, sense of, 166-70 ; acuteness of, Writing as an aid to memory, 304 ; 
 
 168; objects of, 168-9; import- how to teach, 319. 
 
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