Conclusion 175 



means that must be taken in order to effect this. Memory, 

 therefore, is supposed to guide the chicken not only in 

 respect of the main design, but in respect also of every 

 atomic action, so to speak, which goes to make up the 

 execution of this design. It is not only the suggestion of 

 a plan which is due to memory, but, as Professor Hering 

 has so well said, it is the binding power of memory which 

 alone renders any consolidation or coherence of action 

 possible, inasmuch as without this no action could have 

 parts subordinate one to another, yet bearing upon a 

 common end ; no part of an action, great or small, could 

 have reference to any other part, much less to a combina- 

 tion of all the parts ; nothing, in fact, but ultimate atoms 

 of actions could ever happen — these bearing the same 

 relation to such an action, we will say, as a railway journey 

 from London to Edinburgh as a single molecule of hydro- 

 gen to a gallon of water. If asked how it is that the 

 chicken shows no sign of consciousness concerning this 

 design, nor j^et of the steps it is taking to carry it out, we 

 reply that such unconsciousness is usual in all cases where 

 an action, and the design which prompts it, have been re- 

 peated exceedingly often. If, again, we are asked how we 

 account for the regularity with which each step is taken 

 in its due order, we answer that this too is characteristic 

 of actions that are done habitually — they being ver}' rarely 

 misplaced in respect of any part. 



When I wrote " Life and Habit," I had arrived at the 

 conclusion that memory was the most essential character- 

 istic of life, and went so far as to say, " Life is that pro- 

 perty of matter whereby it can remember — matter which 

 can remember is living." I should perhaps have written, 

 " Life is the being possessed of a memory — the life of a 

 thing at any moment is the memories ^^'hich at that 

 moment it retains " ; and I would modify the words that 

 immediately follow, namely, " Matter which cannot re- 

 member is dead " ; for they imply that there is such a 

 thing as matter which cannot remember anything at all, 



