Phenomena of Memory. \ 7 1 



Aristotle believes, to destroy life by killing a living 

 body. And this setting free of life by death extends 

 not only to time but also to place, for the simple reason 

 that the t'Sea of life must be as free of time and place 

 as its Divine Original. In a word, the difference between 

 Plato and Aristotle is substantially that which exists, 

 and will ever exist, between the so-called spiritualists 

 and the so-called materialists a difference which Cole- 

 ridge and Von Schlegel had in view when they said 

 " every man is born a Platonist or an Aristotelian," 

 and which every one who ventures to speculate upon 

 the dark phenomena of mind, will do well to keep in 

 view also. 



The view of memory which is in favour at the pre- 

 sent time is undoubtedly Aristotelian in its character. 

 It takes in little or nothing beyond that which is 

 subject to the senses. Memory is looked upon as con- 

 tingent on the life of certain brain-cells as a function of 

 these cells. Let these cells die, and utter oblivion is 

 the instant result. That is all/or nearly all, that phy- 

 siologists now-a-days venture to say on the subject. It 

 is impossible, however, to let the holders of this view 

 pass unchallenged, or to allow that reason is on their 

 side when they answer to the challenge. Nor is there 

 any real difficulty in making good this statement. 



There are several facts which make it difficult to 

 believe that memory has no surer foundation than that 

 which is supplied by perishable brain-pulp, and, so far as 

 I can see, this difficulty is insuperable. 



A case supplying one of these facts is related by 

 Coleridge in his Biographia Literaria. " It occurred in a 

 Catholic town in Germany a year or two before my arrival 

 in Gottingen, and had not then ceased to be a frequent 



