CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE WILL 83 



The choice as between red and blue is apparently 

 simple, but in reality complex. It is based on three 

 distinct factors: first, the cerebral organization at 

 the time of birth, especially with respect to color 

 perception and association; secondly, on the color 

 experiences of the entire lifetime and their various 

 associations; and, finally, on immediate cerebral 

 experiences linked with the act of choice. As regards 

 the state of cerebral organization, it is important to 

 realize that at birth the cerebral material itself is 

 not in a wholly blank and inexperienced state, but 

 is stamped with certain hereditary memories of the 

 species. By virtue of hereditary memories, the 

 brain of a newborn infant may be not wholly in sen- 

 sible to the difference between the colors red and 

 blue, and may, indeed, have already been impressed 

 with traces which are the basis of a preferential 

 reaction toward one or the other. As regards the 

 color experiences of the entire lifetime, these may 

 be regarded as having been laid down in strata in 

 the receptive parts of the brain, and between these 

 strata are interposed the stratified traces of other 

 experiences, probably much more numerous and 

 quite unconnected with color sensation. The vivid- 

 ness of the power of recollection and the nature of 

 the association must be determined by the organiza- 

 tion of the brain and the hereditary memories 

 inhering in it. 



These three factors cannot be dissociated, for the 

 first determines the effectiveness and character of the 



