Affective Tendencies 373 



body directed upward, sometimes downward . and some- 

 times to one side, seems to become so accustomed to its 

 position that it tries to assume the same one when re- 

 moved to another spot. For instance, if several actin- 

 ians found in various positions are collected and placed 

 in an aquarium, "they show in attaching themselves a 

 distinct tendency to assume the same position they had 

 formerly adopted." 14 



We might bring forward innumerable other ex- 

 amples but are here chiefly concerned with pointing out 

 their significance. They show that the new physiologi- 

 cal state arising from adaptation to the new environ- 

 ment, when once it has supervened and has existed a 

 certain time within the organism, tends thereafter to 

 preserve or restore itself. This tendency of a past 

 physiological state to remanifest or reproduce itself is 

 nothing but the tendency inherent in every mnemonic 

 accumulation to "evoke" itself again. Hence it is a 

 tendency of a purely mnemonic nature. 



From this then it follows directly that the tendency 

 to physiological invariability from which originate, as 

 we have seen, the most important organic affective ten- 

 dencies of all organisms must be equally mnemonic in 

 nature. For if according to the above mentioned ex- 

 amples an entirely new and recent physiological state 

 is nevertheless able to leave behind a mnemonic accumu- 

 lation producing a distinct tendency to its own restora- 

 tion, it is easy to understand that in proportion as the 

 normal physiological state persists longer it must possess 

 a correspondingly stronger mnemonic tendency toward 

 its restoration whenever it is disturbed. 



This then implies that each of the innumerable 



14 Pieron, op cit., p. 144. 



