io6 MEMORY, HABIT, AND IMITATION 



of a young American clergyman, Mr. Hanna, 

 who suffered complete loss of memory owing to 

 a fall from his dog-cart. When he recovered con- 

 sciousness he was as helpless as a baby. His past 

 was a blank ; he had no perception of distance 

 or solidity ; he could neither eat, speak, nor walk. 

 It took some months' instruction to restore these 

 capacities, but, having recovered them, he remained 

 with an entirely new personality. Gradually old 

 memories surged up, at first in dreams, then dur- 

 ing waking moments ; and, after a strange conflict 

 between his two personalities, his original disposi- 

 tion slowly reasserted itself. 



The ever-flowing current of recollections is for 

 the most part subconscious, and is not apprehended 

 by us in our conscious conditions. But it rises to 

 the surface from time to time, thrown upwards 

 by touching a feeling of pleasure or pain, an 

 emotion, or a resolution of the will. We are 

 suddenly aroused from a " brown study " by the 

 occurrence of a recollection that we have omitted 

 to post a letter. For a time it may be a long 

 time the stream will flow through the realms of 

 consciousness. It may take one of three courses, 

 which may, respectively, be compared to a river 

 which runs straight, to a river which meanders, 

 and to a river which is twisted by sharp deflec- 

 tions. Our recollections will be, in the first case, 

 a continuous reproduction of former impressions ; 

 in the second case, a recombination of impressions 

 linked by trivial coincidences ; in the third case, 

 such a recombination linked by emotional ex- 

 periences. 



A good illustration of the first class of recollec- 

 tions is the repetition of a piece of poetry : word 

 succeeds word as originally learnt, and, the less 

 is the emotion aroused by the recital, the more 

 word-perfect it will be. Some boys will repeat 



