He will feel
that the actions, and the relation of one action to another which he
observes in embryos is such as is never seen except in association with
and as a consequence of will and memory. He will therefore say that it
is due to will and memory. To say that these are the necessary outcome
of certain antecedents is not to destroy them: granted that they are--a
man does not cease to be a man when we reflect that he has had a father
and mother, neither do will and memory cease to be will and memory on the
ground that they cannot come causeless. They are manifest minute by
minute to the perception of all people who can keep out of lunatic
asylums, and this tribunal, though not infallible, is nevertheless our
ultimate court of appeal--the final arbitrator in all disputed cases.
We must remember that there is no action, however original or peculiar,
which is not in respect of far the greater number of its details founded
upon memory. If a desperate man blows his brains out--an action which he
can do once in a lifetime only, and which none of his ancestors can have
done before leaving offspring--still nine hundred and ninety-nine
thousandths of the movements necessary to achieve his end consist of
habitual movements--movements, that is to say, which were once difficult,
but which have been practised and practised by the help of memory until
they are now performed automatically.
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