Statement of an Objection 147 



together latent and without effect, it is because the un- 

 dulations of the molecular substance of the body which 

 are its supposed explanation are during these periods too 

 feeble to generate action, until they are augmented in 

 force through an accession of suitable undulations issuing 

 from exterior objects ; or, in other words, until recollec- 

 tion is stimulated by a return of the associated ideas. On 

 this the eternal agitation becomes so much enhanced, that 

 equilibrium is visibly disturbed, and the action ensues 

 which is proper to the vibration of the particular sub- 

 stance under the particular conditions. This, at least, is 

 what I suppose Professor Hering to intend. 



Leaving the explanation of memory on one side, and 

 confining ourselves to the fact of memory only, a cater- 

 pillar on being just hatched is supposed, according to this 

 theory, to lose its memory of the time it was in the egg, 

 and to be stimulated by an intense but unconscious recol- 

 lection of the action taken by its ancestors when they were 

 first hatched. It is guided in the course it takes by the 

 experience it can thus command. Each step it takes re- 

 calls a new recollection, and thus it goes through its 

 development as a performer performs a piece of music, 

 each bar leading his recollection to the bar that should 

 next follow. 



In " Life and Habit " will be found examples of the 

 manner in which this view solves a number of difficulties 

 for the explanation of which the leading men of science 

 express themselves at a loss. The following from Pro- 

 fessor Huxley's recent work upon the crayfish may serve 

 for an example. Professor Huxley writes : — 



"It is a widely received notion that the energies of 

 living matter have a tendency to decline and finally dis- 

 appear, and that the death of the body as a whole is a neces- 

 sary correlate of its life. That all living beings sooner or 

 later perish needs no demonstration, but it would be difficult 

 to find satisfactory grounds for the belief that they needs 

 must do so. The analogy of a machine, that soonei or later 



