i 9 4 PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



special kind of external cause are revived, and this is 

 supposed to account for memory. 



If this is true, if the external causes do not alter 

 or mark the nerves which are specialized to their 

 service according to this conjecture, then why could 

 not these nerves cause the experiences which dis- 

 tinguish the external causes to which they are de- 

 voted, before they have been acted on by them? 

 By the hypothesis they are the same before as after. 

 What need, then, for experience, education, study? 

 Let a current of force flow at birth through the in- 

 fant's nerve-cells and it will at once possess all the 

 wisdom and general ability that a lifetime could 

 possibly give. What strange, absurd hypotheses 

 may pass current while they remain unchallenged I 



