WHAT WE MIGHT EXPECT. 197 



this wonderful and common capacity of reversion — this 

 power of calling back to life long-lost characters?" 

 ("Plants and Animals/' &c, vol. ii. p. 369, ed. 1875). 

 Surely the answer may be hazarded, that we shall be 

 able to do so when we can make intelligible the power 

 of calling back to life long-lost memories. But I grant 

 that this answer holds out no immediate prospect of 

 a clear understanding. 



One word more. Abundant facts are to be found 

 which point inevitably, as will appear more plainly in 

 the following chapter, in the direction of thinking that 

 offspring inherits the memories of its parents; but I 

 know of no single fact which suggests that parents are 

 in the smallest degree affected (other than sympatheti- 

 cally) by the memories of their offspring after that 

 offspring has been lorn. Whether the unborn offspring 

 affects the memory of the mother in some particulars, 

 and whether we have here the explanation of occasional 

 reversion to a previous impregnation, is a matter on 

 which I should hardly like to express an opinion now. 

 Nor, again, can I find a single fact which seems to indi- 

 cate any memory of the parental life on the part of 

 offspring later than the average date of the offspring's 

 quitting the body of the parent. 



