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CHAPTEE X. 



WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT TO FIND IF DIFFERENTIATIONS 

 OF STRUCTURE AND INSTINCT ARE MAINLY DUE TO 

 MEMORY. 



To repeat briefly ; — we remember best our last few per- 

 formances of any given kind, and our present perform- 

 ance is most likely to resemble one or other of these ; 

 we only remember our earlier performances by way of 

 residuum j nevertheless, at times, some older feature is 

 liable to reappear. 



We take our steps in the same order on each suc- 

 cessive occasion, and are for the most part incapable of 

 changing that order. 



The introduction of slightly new elements into our 

 manner is attended with benefit ; the new can be fused 

 with the old, and the monotony of our action is relieved. 

 But if the new element is too foreign, we cannot fuse 

 the old and new — nature seeming equally to hate too 

 wide a deviation from our ordinary practice, and no 

 deviation at all. Or, in plain English — if any one gives 

 us a new idea which is not too far ahead of us, such an 

 idea is often of great service to us, and may give new 

 life to our work — in fact, we soon go back, unless we 

 more or less frequently come into contact with new 



