Refutation 169 



no cream can remember having been churned before, yet 

 all cream in all time has had nearly identical antecedents, 

 and has therefore nearly the same memories, and nearly 

 the same proclivities. Thus, in fact, the cream of one 

 week is as truly the same as the cream of another week 

 from the same cow, pasture, &c., as anything is ever the 

 same with anything ; for the having been subjected to 

 like antecedents engenders the closest similarity that 

 we can conceive of, if the substances were like to start 

 with. 



The manifest absence of any connecting memory (or 

 memory of like presents) from certain of the phenomena 

 of heredity, such as, for example, the diseases of old age, 

 is now seen to be no valid reason for saying that such 

 other and far more numerous and important phenomena 

 as those of embryonic development are not phenomena of 

 memory. Growth and the diseases of old age do indeed, 

 at first sight, appear to stand on the same footing, but 

 reflection shows us that the question whether a certain 

 result is due to memory or no must be settled not by 

 showing that combinations into which memory does not 

 certainly enter may yet generate like results, and there- 

 fore considering the memory theory disposed of, but by 

 the evidence we may be able to adduce in support of the 

 fact that the second agent has actually remembered the 

 conduct of the first, inasmuch as he cannot be supposed 

 able to do what it is plain he can do, except under the 

 guidance of memory or experience, and can also be shown 

 to have had every opportunity of remembering. When 

 either of these tests fails, similarity of action on the part 

 of two agents need not be connected with memory of a 

 like present as well as of like antecedents, but must, or at 

 any rate may, be referred to memory of like antecedents 

 only. 



Returning to a parenthesis a few pages back, in which 

 I said that consciousness of memory would be less or 

 greater according to the greater or fewer number of times 



