ORGANIC MEMORY 131 



needs not always outward objects to assist that inner 

 eye, then the marvel of animal development becomes 

 a more rational process to us. The eye, which ages of 

 experience of light and sight has brought to near 

 perfection, is moulded without a flaw in darkness; the 

 hands, which have developed by grasping, are formed 

 without a movement ; wings are made ready where 

 no air is and where stillness reigns. The responses 

 which are to govern conduct are developing there 

 also. Each unwavering act in this bodily and psychic 

 drama has a long history of effort and failure and 

 success behind it, and here it is summarised in a few 

 weeks of unchanging darkness. But if the eye re- 

 acts without light, the formation of the eye may not 

 require the original condition which called it forth. 

 All we know of development seems to show that 

 from the commencement of life each being has a 

 memory, and that each organ plays some part in 

 starting that memory into life. Each part of us is a 

 member one of another. 



The most important of these organs and the 

 earliest to appear is the nervous system, for that has 

 the most complex history to recapitulate. But for 

 its full epiphany its memory has to be stimulated by a 

 substance that comes from the thyroid gland, passes 

 into the blood, and, carried to the brain and else- 

 where, evokes the series of changes that help to build 

 up a normal child. Should this gland fail to act 

 efficiently, stunted mental and bodily growth result. 

 The child is numbered with the feeble-minded. But 



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