not secrete memory as some physiologists seem to believe. It is the
self which has the power to recall the past, though for this it needs
the brain. Bergson’s observations on this point deserve careful
consideration. He says:
We understand then why a remembrance cannot be the result of a state
of the brain. The state of the brain continues the remembrance, it
gives it a hold on the present by the materiality which it confers on it
but pure memory is a spiritual manifestation. With memory we are in
very truth in the domain of spirit.(7)
Dr. Galloway, in the course of an interesting discussion of the
problem of immortality, has attempted to answer the question, “Is
memory a function of the brain?” As his view has a direct bearing
on the question we are considering, it is quoted in full:
It may, however, be objected that memory has its basis in neural traces
and so cannot survive dissolution of the body. Certainly we are not
entitled to say that memory is purely an affair of the mind, for many
mental habits appear to be rooted in the structure of the nervous
system. And the failure of memory under pathological conditions, or
when in old age degeneration of tissue reaches the association areas of
the cortex, is positive evidence of some dependence of memory on
cerebral traces or processes. The problem turns on the character and
degree of this dependence. Now, neural traces are not the sole, nor
even the most important, condition of remembering; for if so,
memory would depend directly on repetition. But this is plainly not the
case. The truth is that memory depends far more on the presence of
meaning in the things remembered; and meaning must be referred for
its maintenance in the mind to psychical not to cerebral dispositions. It
is, therefore, possible that the soul, which includes within it the
psychical dispositions formed during this life, may carry with it the
means of preserving a continuity between the present order and a
higher order of existence. If a world of meanings can be maintained
by the soul despite the physiological changes of the body in a lifetime,
it is conceivable it might be maintained through a more radical
transformation. At all events a group of memories might remain,
sufficient to give the sense of personal continuity.(8)
In a footnote he has put the matter in a clearer light:
For instance it is vastly easier to remember a rational sentence after a
single hearing than the same number of nonsense words repeated
several times.
Galloway has also cited McDougall in his support. No one who is
interested in the subject can afford to disregard Professor Erwin
The Self of Man and Its Destiny 74