1 68 Unconscious Memory 



not, so to speak, spiral, there is no accumulation of im- 

 provement. The effect of any variation is not trans- 

 mitted, and is not thus pregnant of still further change. 



As regards the second of the two classes of actions 

 above referred to — those, namely, which are not recurrent 

 or habitual, and. at no point of which is there a memory of a 

 ■past present like the one which is present now — there will 

 have been no accumulation of strong and well-knit memory 

 as regards the action as a whole, but action, if taken at 

 all, will be taken upon disjointed fragments of individual 

 actions (our own and those of other people) pieced together 

 with a result more or less satisfactory according to circum- 

 stances. 



But it does not follow that the action of two people who 

 have had tolerably similar antecedents and are placed in 

 tolerably similar circumstances should be more unlike 

 each other in this second case than in the first. On the 

 contrary, nothing is more common than to observe the 

 same kind of people making the same kind of mistake 

 when placed for the first time in the same kind of -new 

 circumstances. I did not say that there would be no same- 

 ness of action without memory of a like present. There 

 may be sameness of action proceeding from a memory, 

 conscious or unconscious, of like antecedents, and a 

 presence only of like presents without recollection of the 

 same. 



The sameness of action of like persons placed under like 

 circumstances for the first time, resembles the sameness of 

 action of inorganic matter under the same combinations. 

 Let us for the moment suppose what we call non-living 

 substances to be capable of remembering their antecedents, 

 and that the changes they undergo are the expressions of 

 their recollections. Then I admit, of course, that there is 

 not memory in any cream, we will say, that is abo'ut to be 

 churned of the cream of the preceding week, but the 

 common absence of such memory from each week's cream 

 is an element of sameness between the two. And though 



