v] Some Implications of the Incarnation 1 59 



expect, for, as we have seen 1 , only on such a basis is the 

 emergence of freedom in a determinate environment 

 possible. We expect determination as the necessary 

 basis of intellect. Freud's psychology only transgresses 

 the bounds of legitimate (not necessarily correct, be it 

 observed) inference when he endeavours to make con- 

 sciousness an epiphenomenon of the brain states. 



The special problems that concern us at present are 

 rather (i) the meaning of memory on the mechanical 

 side, (2) the nature and function of the Censor. 



(i) Bergson, as we have said more than once, divides 

 memory into habit and pure memory; the habit-phe- 

 nomena being localised in the brain, as a mechanism*, 

 the pure memory not. The past truly exists for the 

 individual, and that portion of it which may be of use 

 in a given conjuncture is brought into present conscious- 

 ness, and made effectual in practical life, through dis- 

 charge along a selected path. Pure memory moves in 

 the past moves, that is, amid that which exists but 

 has ceased to be useful and is directed, like habit, to 

 practical ends selecting what is of use and applying it: 

 bringing it again into touch with actual experience. It 

 is freer than habit ; for in this last we see the discharge 

 along a frequented path, of some familiar impulse gener- 



1 Evolution and Spiritual Life, ch. iii. 



1 A side-issue of some interest arises here. Is habit-memory 

 determined by a molecular pattern ; and is it heritable ? There 

 seems to be some evidence for the heritability of habits : we are 

 at times appalled by the fidelity with which the outgrown tricks 

 and habits of our boyhood are reenacted in our offspring, though, 

 of course, it is the somewhat similar environment that brings 

 them out. But habit-inheritance suggests the inheritance of an 

 acquired character. Probably we should be nearer the truth if 

 we assumed that a certain molecular pattern exists and is in- 

 herited ; that this makes imitation, and similar response to similar 

 stimuli, easy, and that by reiterated response the molecular 

 pattern becomes identical 



