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.” *4 
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 
14Piéron, op cit., p. 144. 
