150 Unconscious Memory 



every man, beast, and plant in the universe, throughout 

 all time and in every action of their lives, that has made 

 any action possible, lying, as it does, at the root of all 

 experience. 



As we admit of no doubt concerning the main result, 

 so we do not suppose an alternative to lie before any atom 

 of any molecule at any moment during the process of 

 their combination. This process is, in all probability, an 

 exceedingly complicated one, involving a multitude of 

 actions and subordinate processes, which follow one upon 

 the other, and each one of which has a beginning, a middle, 

 and an end, though they all come to pass in what appears 

 to be an instant of time. Yet at no point do we conceive 

 of any atom as swerving ever such a little to right or left 

 of a determined course, but invest each one of them with 

 so much of the divine attributes as that with it there shall 

 be no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 



We attribute this regularity of action to what we call 

 the necessity of things, as determined by the nature of 

 the atoms and the circumstances in which they are placed. 

 We say that only one proximate result can ever arise 

 from any given combination. If, then, so great uniformity 

 of action as nothing can exceed is manifested by atoms to 

 which no one will impute memory, why this desire for 

 memory, as though it were the only way of accounting 

 for regularity of action in living beings ? Sameness of 

 action may be seen abundantly where there is no room 

 for anything that we can consistently call memory. In 

 these cases we say that it is due to sameness of substance 

 in same circumstances. 



The most cursory reflection upon our actions will show 

 us that it is no more possible for living action to have 

 more than one set of proximate consequents at anj' given 

 time than for oxj^gen and hydrogen when mixed in the 

 proportions proper for the formation of water. Why, 

 then, not recognise this fact, and ascribe repeated simi- 

 larity of living action to the reproduction of the necessary 



