8o Unconscious Memory 



in respect of which parents and children resemble one 

 another is a more reasonable ground for our surprise. 



But if the substance of the germ can reproduce charac- 

 teristics acquired by the parent during its single life, how 

 much more will it not be able to reproduce those that were 

 congenital to the parent, and which have happened through 

 countless generations to the organised matter of which 

 the germ of to-day is a fragment ? We cannot wonder 

 that action already taken on innumerable past occasions 

 by organised matter is more deeply impressed upon the 

 recollection of the germ to which it gives rise than action 

 taken once only during a single lifetime.^ 



We must bear in mind that every organised being now 

 in existence represents the last link of an inconceivably 

 long series of organisms, which come down in a direct line 

 of descent, and of which each has inherited a part of the 

 acquired characteristics of its predecessor. Everything, 

 furthermore, points in the direction of our believing that 

 at the beginning of this chain there existed an organism 

 of the very simplest kind, something, in fact, like those 

 which we call organised germs. The chain of living beings 

 thus appears to be the magnificent achievement of the 

 reproductive power of the original organic structure from 

 which they have all descended. As this subdivided itself 

 and transmitted its characteristics ^ to its descendants, 

 these acquired new ones, and in their turn transmitted 

 them — all new germs transmitting the chief part of what 

 had happened to their predecessors, while the remaining 

 part lapsed out of their memory, circumstances not 

 stimulating it to reproduce itself. 



An organised being, therefore, stands before us a product 



1 I interpret this, " We cannot wonder if often-repeated vibra- 

 tions gather strength, and become at once more lasting and requir- 

 ing less accession of vibration from without, in order to become 

 strong enough to generate action." 



2 " Characteristics " must, I imagine, according to Professor 

 Hering, resolve themselves ultimately into " vibrations," for the 

 characteristics depend upon the character of the vibrations. 



