74 Unconscious Memory 



the central nerve system, by means of which movement 

 is effected, were not able ^ to reproduce whole series of 

 vibrations, which at an earlier date required the constant 

 and continuous participation of consciousness, but which 

 are now set in motion automatically on a mere touch, as it 

 were, from consciousness — if it were not able to reproduce 

 them the more quickly and easily in proportion to the 

 frequency of the repetitions — if, in fact, there was no 

 power of recollecting earlier performances ? Our per- 

 ceptive faculties must have remained always at their 

 lowest stage if we had been compelled to build up con- 

 sciously every process from the details of the sensation- 

 causing materials tendered to us by our senses ; nor could 

 our voluntary movements have got beyond the helplessness 

 of the child, if the necessary impulses could only be im- 

 parted to every movement through effort of the will 

 and conscious reproduction of all the corresponding 

 ideas — if, in a word, the motor nerve system had not also 

 its memory,^ though that memory is unperceived by 

 ourselves. The power of this memory is what is called 

 - " the force of habit." 



It seems, then, that we owe to memory almost all that 

 we either have or are ; that our ideas and conceptions 

 are its work, and that our every perception, thought, and 

 movement is derived from this source. Memory collects 

 the countless phenomena of our existence into a single 

 whole ; and as our bodies would be scattered into the dust 

 of their component atoms if they were not held together 

 by the attraction of matter, so our consciousness would 



1 It should not be " if the central nei've system were not able to 

 reproduce whole series of vibrations," but " if whole series of vibra- 

 tions do not persist though unperceived," if Professor Hering in- 

 tends what I suppose him to intend. 



^ Memory was in full operation for so long a time before any- 

 thing like what we call a nervous system can be detected, that 

 Professor Hering must not be supposed to be intending to confine 

 memory to a motor nerve system. His words do not even imply 

 that he does, but it is as well to be on one's guard. 



