Introduction 27 
One word more and I have done. I should like to say 
that I do not return to the connection between memory 
and heredity under the impression that I shall do myself 
much good by doing so. My own share in the matter was 
very small. The theory that heredity is only a mode of 
memory is not mine, but Professor Hering’s. He wrote in 
1870, and I not till 1877. I should be only too glad if he 
would take his theory and follow it up himself; assuredly 
he could do so much better than I can; but with the 
exception of his one not lengthy address published some 
fifteen or sixteen years ago he has said nothing upon the 
subject, so far at least as I have been able to ascertain ; I 
tried hard to draw him in 1880, but could get nothing out 
of him. If, again, any of our more influential writers, not 
a few of whom evidently think on this matter much as 
I do, would eschew ambiguities and tell us what they mean 
in plain language, I would let the matter rest in their abler 
hands, but of this there does not seem much chance at 
present. 
I wish there was, for in spite of the interest I have felt 
in working the theory out and the information I have been 
able to collect while doing so, I must confess that I have 
found it somewhat of a white elephant. It has got me 
into the hottest of hot water, made a literary Ishmael of 
me, lost me friends whom I have been sorry to lose, cost me 
a good deal of money, done everything to me, in fact, 
which a good theory ought not to do. Still, as it seems to 
have taken up with me, and no one else is inclined to treat 
it fairly, I shall continue to report its developments from 
time to time as long as life and health are spared me. 
Moreover, Ishmaels are not without their uses, and they 
are not a drug in the market just now. 
I may now go on to Mr. Spencer. 
