CHAPTER XXI 

 THE EVOLUTION OF MEMORY 



The evolution of mind Definition of memory Distinction between memory 

 and its contents Memory stores most actively in the young Memory does not 

 grow with use A vast memory is the distinguishing peculiarity of the human 

 being The mental distinctions between ancient and modern, savage and civilized 

 men Distinction between man and the lower animals Conscious and uncon- 

 scious memory Distinction between reflex and automatic action The stereo- 

 typing of mental acquirements As we sport with our bodies, so we sport with 

 our thoughts There is no impassable mental gulf between man and the lower 

 animals The neglect of memory by writers on evolution Darwin Spencer 

 Romanes Lloyd Morgan Baldwin The Mendelians The Biometricians. 



651. A CCORDING to the theory of mental evolution formu- 

 Z-^ lated in the preceding chapter, mind is not derived 

 from the non-mental. Just as life was quite a new 

 thing in the world when it first appeared, just as nervous tissue 

 however gradual its evolution was new, just as manipulation was 

 new, so was that particular function of nervous tissue which we term 

 mind. No doubt living cells and the chemical elements of which 

 they are compounded preceded nervous tissue, but that particular 

 combination of a certain class of living cells and fibrils to which 

 we apply the term had no previous existence. So also its function 

 one of its functions mind had no previous existence, nor even 

 an antecedent which remotely resembled it. If this hypothesis be 

 correct, mind in its earliest beginnings was associated with a series 

 of variations of nervous tissue which proved favourable. It 

 appeared at first in the form of rudimentary sensations which 

 served as sparks to explode reflex actions dim and faint percep- 

 tions of light, heat, sound, touch, and the like, which were more 

 delicate and discriminating than the stimuli that had hitherto 

 awakened action. The individual now received stimuli from a wider 

 and more complex environment ; and his actions, which became 

 correspondingly more numerous and varied, were adapted to 

 meet more and more distant contingencies, and achieve ends more 

 and more remote. Later to mere sensations were gradually added 

 tones of pleasure and pain, with which came desire and its corollary 

 the will, and with all a further increase of complexity of action and 



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