Inherited Memory. 11 



but not published, this continuity was insisted upon by means of 

 diagrams, both of animal and plant life, and its connection with here- 

 dity was clearly shown, though its relation to memory was only dimly 

 seen. From this paper the following passage may be quoted : " If, as 

 I believe, the origin of form and decoration is due to a process similar 

 to the visualising of object-thoughts in the human mind, the power 

 of this visualising must commence with the life of the being. It 

 would seem that this power may be best understood by a correct 

 insight into biological development. It has always excited wonder 

 that a child, a separate individual, should inherit and reproduce the 

 characters of its parents, and, indeed, of its ancestors ; and the 

 tendency of modern scientific writing is often to make this obscure 

 subject still darker. But if we remember that the great law of all 

 living matter is, that the child is not a separate individual, but a 

 part of the living body of the parent, up to a certain date, when it 

 assumes a separate existence, then we can comprehend how living 

 beings inherit ancestral characters, for they are parts of one con- 

 tinuous series in which not a single break has existed or can ever 

 take place. Just as the wave-form over a pebble in a stream 

 remains constant, though the particles of water which compose it 

 are ever changing, so the wave-form of life, which is heredity, 

 remains constant, though the bodies which exhibit it are continually 

 changing. The retrospection of heredity and memory, and the 

 prospection of thought, are well shown in Mrs. Meritt's beautiful 

 diagram." 



This passage illustrates how parallel our thoughts were to 

 Mr. Butler's, whose work we did not then know. What we did 

 not see at the time was, that the power of thinking or memory 

 might antedate birth. It is quite impossible adequately to express 

 our sense of admiration of Mr. Butler's work. 



Granting then the physical identity of offspring and parent, the 

 doctrine of heredity becomes plain. The child becomes like the 

 parent, because it is placed in almost identical circumstances to those 

 of its parent, and is indeed part of that parent. If memory be 

 possessed by all living matter, and this is what we now believe, we 

 can clearly see how heredity acts. The embryo develops into a man 

 like its parent, because human embryos have gone through this 

 process many times — till they are unconscious of the action, they 

 know how to proceed so thoroughly. 



Darwin, after deeply pondering over the phenomena of growth, 



D 



