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136 LIFE AND HABIT. 



that we are compelled irresistibly to do so, unless, that 

 is to say, we would think very differently concerning 

 personal identity than we do at present. We found 

 it impossible to hold the ordinary common sense 

 opinions concerning personal identity, without admit- 

 ting that we are personally identical with all our fore- 

 fathers, who have successfully assimilated outside 

 matter to themselves, and by assimilation imbued it 

 with all their own memories ; we being nothing else 

 than this outside matter so assimilated and imbued 

 with such memories. This, at least, will, I believe, 

 balance the account correctly. 



A few remarks upon the assimilation of outside 

 matter by living organisms may perhaps be hazarded 

 here. 



As long as any living organism can maintain itself 

 in a position to which it has been accustomed, more 

 or less nearly, both in its own life and in those of its 

 forefathers, nothing can harm it. As long as the 

 organism is familiar with the position, and remembers 

 its antecedents, nothing can assimilate it. It must be 

 first dislodged from the position with which it is 

 familiar, as being able to remember it, before mischief 

 can happen to it. Nothing can assimilate living 

 organism. 



On the other hand, the moment living organism 

 loses sight of its own position and antecedents, it is 

 liable to immediate assimilation, and to be thus 

 familiarised with the position and antecedents of some 

 other creature. If any living organism be kept for but 

 a very short time in a position wholly different from 



