VOLITION AND FKEE-WILL 221 



Everyone knows that a simple movement of the 

 body may become automatic by constant repetition. 

 We no longer require our attention to perform the 

 action, for it has become habitual. The nerve-cells , 

 which cause the muscles to contract, themselves re- 

 member the action and perform it unconsciously. 

 It has become pseudo-mechanical. Some of these 

 habits, when transmitted through many generations r 

 become instincts-; all of which are due to the un- 

 conscious memory of the nervous system. The brain 

 must have some faint resemblance to a collection of 

 Babylonian tablets. A sensation makes an inscrip- 

 tion on some part of it, and the mind can read that 

 inscription and again perform the operation to which 

 the inscription relates. 



But memory is not confined to the brain, as is 

 proved by reflex action. Any collection of nerve- 

 cells, or in the lower animals even a simple nerve- 

 cell, will respond to a stimulus. All this is due to 

 memory. But in animals like Hydra, nerve-cells 

 pass into muscle-cells, and if nerve-cells possess 

 memory, so also may the muscle-cells. And as all 

 the cells forming an animal are derived from one 

 cell the ovum each distinct cell may have its own 

 separate storehouse of memories. This implies that 

 each cell contains mind which acts unconsciously 

 during the growth of the body ; and we have inde- 

 pendent evidence to shew that mind, even intelligent 

 mind , exists in unicellular animals like the infusoria 

 and amoeba. 54 



54 See " The Physic Life of Micro-organisms," by A. Binet.. 

 The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago. 



