THE PRINCIPAL ACTS 393 



Let us now enquire what the mechanism of this wonderful faculty 

 may be ; I shall endeavour to show that the operation of the nervous 

 fluid, which gives rise to an act of memory, consists in the acquisition 

 of a special movement by that fluid as it passes over the impressions 

 of some acquired idea, and in the transference of that movement to 

 the individual's inner feeling. 



Since ideas are the material of all intellectual acts, memory pre- 

 supposes ideas already acquired ; and it is obvious that an individual 

 who had never had an idea could not possess any memory. Hence 

 the faculty called memory only begins to exist in an individual who 

 possesses ideas. 



Memory throws Ught on the nature of ideas, and even suggests the 

 answer to the question as to what they really are. 



Now I have pointed out that the ideas which we have formed through 

 the medium of sensations, and those that we have acquired later by 

 means of thought, consist of specific images or outlines graven or 

 impressed more or less deeply on some part of our organ of intelligence. 

 These ideas are recalled by memory, whenever our nervous fluid, 

 aroused by our inner feeUng, comes in contact with their images or 

 outhnes. The nervous fluid then transmits the effects to our inner 

 feehng and we immediately become conscious of these ideas : that 

 is how acts of memory take place. 



The irmer feeling, which controls the movement of the nervous fluid, 

 may direct it over one only of the previously traced ideas or over 

 several of them ; hence memory may recall one idea alone, or several 

 ideas in succession, according to the individual's desire. 



It follows from the above that if our ideas, both simple and complex, 

 were not impressed more or less deeply on our organ of intelligence, 

 we should be unable to recall them and memory could not therefore 

 exist. 



Suppose that some object strikes our attention, a fine building, 

 for instance, which has caught fire and is being burnt up before our 

 eyes. Now for some time after, we can recall that object perfectly 

 without seeing it ; for this purpose an act of thought is quite suflScient. 



This process must be due to the fact that our inner feeling sets our 

 nervous fluid in motion, and drives it into our organ of intelligence 

 over the outlines impressed by the sensation of the conflagration ; 

 and that the modification, acquired by our nervous fluid in its 

 movements as it passes over these particular outlines, is promptly 

 transmitted to our inner feeling and thereupon restores to clear 

 consciousness the idea that we are seeking to recall ; although the 

 idea is less vivid than when the conflagration was actually taking 

 place before our eyes. 



