318 The Mnemonic Phenomenon 



and Cope. Only it may be noted once again that the 

 absence of any analysis, however conjectural, of the 

 nature of the phenomena of memory makes the explana- 

 tion of development which Hering tried to give in this 

 way, not only quite indefinite and nebulous, but also 

 gives it the appearance of a quite artificial comparison 

 between processes much too unlike. 



The same is true in a yet greater degree of the general 

 theory of Hering of which development is a particular 

 case, and which considers memory a general function 

 of all living organized matter. Ribot accepts this theory 

 and modifies it in that he expresses the view that "mem- 

 ory is essentially a biological phenomenon and only 

 accidentally a psychological one." 232 



This extension of the mnemonic faculty over every 

 vital phenomenon without exception, though it contains 

 much truth, cannot by itself constitute any explanation 

 of either one phenomenon or the other, but rather helps 

 to plunge both into greater obscurity; for while by this 

 comparison the obscure fundamental peculiarities com- 

 mon to both become in no wise clearer, one loses sight 

 of those most familiar and characteristic properties which 

 are different in the two phenomena, and which are the 

 ones which have served to give, up to the present day, 

 the most correct idea possible of both. 



The mnemonic phenomenon can serve then neither 

 as an explanation of the phenomena of development nor 

 of vital phenomena in general, because it is as we said 

 a phenomenon even more special and more complex than 

 those which it has been summoned to explain. Never- 

 theless there may yet be the possibility that the resem- 



282 Ribot : Les maladies de la memoire. Paris, Alcan, 1901. P. i. 



