Translation from Hering 71 



off the stage ? For we know that they are Hving some- 

 where ; give them their cue and they reappear immediately. 

 They do not exist continuously as ideas ; what is con- 

 tinuous is the special disposition of nerve substance in 

 virtue of which this substance gives out to-day the same 

 sound which it gave yesterday if it is rightly struck.^ 

 Countless reproductions of organic processes of our brain 

 connect themselves orderly together, so that one acts as 

 a stimulus to the next, but a phenomenon of consciousness 

 is not necessarily attached to every link in the chain. 

 From this it arises that a series of ideas may appear to 

 disregard the order that would be observed in purely 

 material processes of brain substance unaccompanied by 

 consciousness ; but on the other hand it becomes possible 

 for a long chain of recollections to have its due develop- 

 ment without each link in the chain being necessarily 

 perceived by ourselves. One may emerge from the bosom 

 of our unconscious thoughts without fully entering upon 

 the stage of conscious perception ; another dies away in 

 unconsciousness, leaving no successor to take its place. 

 Between the " me " of to-day and the " me " of yesterday 

 lie night and sleep, abysses of unconsciousness ; nor is 

 there any bridge but memory with which to span them. 

 Who can hope after this to disentangle the infinite intricacy 

 of our inner life ? For we can only follow its threads so 

 far as they have strayed over within the bounds of con- 

 sciousness. We might as well hope to familiarise ourselves 

 with the world of forms that teem within the bosom of the 

 sea by observing the few that now and again come to the 

 surface and soon return into the deep. 



The bond of union, therefore, which connects the indi- 

 vidual phenomena of our consciousness lies in our un- 



^ This expression seems hardly applicable to the overtaking of 

 an internal by an external vibration, but it is not inconsistent with 

 it. Here, however, as frequently elsewhere, I doubt how far Pro- 

 fessor Hering has full){^ realised his conception, beyond being, like 

 myself, convinced tfeaf the phcnoniena of memory and of heredity 

 have a common soufce. •^^jT'sN. 



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