ASSIMILATION OF OUTSIDE MATTER. 135 



hen, and that it works towards the hen with gradual 

 and noiseless steps, which we can watch if we be so 

 minded ; whereas, we can less easily watch the steps 

 which lead from the hen to the egg, but hear a noise, 

 and see an egg where there was no egg. Therefore, 

 we say, the development of the fowl from the egg 

 bears no sort of resemblance to that of the egg from 

 the fowl, whereas, in truth, a hen, or any other living 

 creature, is only the primordial cell's way of going back 

 upon itself. 



But to return. We see an egg, A, which evidently 

 knows its own meaning perfectly well, and we know 

 that a twelvemonth ago there were two other such 

 eggs, B and C, which have now disappeared, but from 

 which we know A to have been so continuously de- 

 veloped as to be part of the present form of their 

 identity. A's meaning is seen to be precisely the same 

 as B and C's meaning ; A's personal appearance is, to 

 all intents and purposes, B and C's personal appear- 

 ance ; it would seem, then, unreasonable to deny 

 that A is only B and C come back, with such modi- 

 fication as they may have incurred since their disap- 

 pearance ; and that, in spite of any such modification, 

 they remember in A perfectly well what they did as 

 B and C. 



We have considered the question of personal 

 identity so as to see whether, without abuse of terms, 

 we can claim it as existing between any two genera- 

 tions of living agents (and if between two, then 

 between any number up to infinity), and we found 

 that we were not only at liberty to claim this, but 



