130 LIFE AND HABIT. 



and so charged with memory as to be absolutely with- 

 out all self-consciousness whatever, except as regards 

 its latest phases in each of its many differentiations, or 

 when placed in such new circumstances as compel it 

 to choose between death and a reconsideration of its 

 position. 



No conjecture can be hazarded as to how the 

 smallest particle of matter became so imbued with 

 faith that it must be considered as the beginning of 

 LIFE, or as to what such faith is, except that it is the 

 very essence of all things, and that it has no foundation. 



In this way, then, I conceive we can fairly transfer 

 the experience of the race to the individual, without 

 any other meaning to our words than what they would 

 naturally suggest ; that is to say, that there is in every 

 impregnate ovum a bond fide memory, which carries it 

 back not only to the time when it was last an impregnate 

 ovum, but to that earlier date when it was the very 

 beginning of life at all, which same creature it still is, 

 whether as man or ovum, and hence imbued, so far as 

 time and circumstance allow, with all its memories. 

 Surely this is no strained hypothesis ; for the mere 

 fact that the germ, from the earliest moment that we 

 are able to detect it, appears to be so perfectly familiar 

 with its business, acts with so little hesitation and so 

 little introspection or reference to principles, this alone 

 should incline us to suspect that it must be armed 

 with that which, so far as we observe in daily life, can 

 alone ensure such a result to wit, long practice, and 

 the memory of many similar performances. 



The difficulty is, that we are conscious of no such 



