422 Analyses of Books. (July, 
of self-delusion.” It seems to us that such revivals are by no 
means always conducive to accurate remembrance. Among a 
group of men who have been fellow-witnesses of, or co-partici- 
pants in, events, and especially if they have been in the habit of 
dwelling thereon, the process of what may be called mythogenesis 
is very adtive. Instance a regimental mess, the members of a 
hunt, the professors of a college, &c. The joint memories of 
such knots of men, without any intention or consciousness of 
exaggeration or distortion on their part, are often full of 
illusions. 
The memory of an event may often undergo a very rapid de- 
composition in the mind of a single witness, unless he reduces 
them to writing at an early stage. Suppose that we have wit- 
nessed some striking occurrence, not admitting in its description 
of any stridt numerical details. Some time after it strikes us 
that the affair will have a particular interest for some friend. 
We are apt to relate it to him in imagination, and to lay a predo- 
minating weight on those phases of the matter with which he 
will be most struck. What we then remember will not be the 
occurrence itself, but our version of it, and if some time passes 
before we have an opportunity of telling or writing it illusions 
will creep in. 
Mr. Sully considers that what we call recollection is uniformly 
a process of softening the reality. It is remarkable how little 
the vividness of an impression is kept up, even by the most dis- 
tindl recollection of all the attendant circumstances. We may, 
for instance, be able to summon up every minutest detail of the 
death-scene of some friend, but the sorrow is only a far-off echo. 
We should have been glad to notice the remaining portions of 
this book, and some at least of the many interesting side-issues 
that are raised. 
The author very justly remarks : — “ There seems to me no 
reason why an animal endowed with fine olfactory sensibility, 
and capable of an analytical separation of sense-elements, should 
not gain a rough perception of an external order much more 
complete than our auditory perception, which is necessarily so 
fragmentary.” 
“ Spiritualist seances ” are several times referred to in the work 
as hot-beds of illusion. This may be so ; but we fear that the 
“ exposers ” and opponents of spiritualism might in like manner 
serve as an instance of equal and opposite illusions. 
