On the contrary, we are
assured that molecules in some distant part of the world which had never
entered into such and such a known combination themselves, nor held
concert with other molecules that had been so combined, and which,
therefore, could have had no experience and no memory, would none the
less act upon one another in that one way in which other like
combinations of atoms have acted under like circumstances, as readily as
though they had been combined and separated and recombined again a
hundred or a hundred thousand times. It is this assumption, tacitly made
by every man, beast, and plant in the universe, throughout all time and
in every action of their lives, that has made any improvement in action
possible--for it is this which lies at the root of the power to profit by
experience. I do not exactly know _why_ we make this assumption, and I
cannot find out that any one else knows much better than myself, but I do
not recommend any one to dispute it.
As we admit of no doubt concerning the main result, so we do not suppose
an alternative to lie before any atom of any molecule at any moment
during the process of combination. This process is, in all probability,
an exceedingly complicated one, involving a multitude of actions and
subordinate processes, which follow one upon the other, and each one of
which has a beginning, a middle, and an end, though they all come to pass
in what appears to be an instant of time.
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