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SCIENCE
is not preserved in the shape of ready-made images or photos, for the simple reason that there is no picture gallery or photo album anywhere in the system, not even in the much-lauded brain, but in the form of liquid possibilities of reconstructing perceptions, for memories are but perceptions recalled. Hence, the character of our perceptions must also determine the nature of our recollections. But perception is the sense of awareness resulting from the action of the external stimulus on the perceiving consciousness. Memory, too, is, then, necessarily, the reproduction of the original stimulus from inner excitation. The part, or parts, of the organism concerned in perception are the nervous systern and the sensory centres of the brain, where the greatest sensitivity is enjoyed by the ego. These sensory centres of the brain have a two-fold function to perform with reference to our mental life, namely, (i) in perception they receive the incoming stimulus and pass it on the ego, and (ii) in recollection they supply, in consequence of the inner activity of reflection, i. e., in response to a demand from the ego, sensory garments for the de-materialized phantoms of memory to rehabilitate themselves in. For memory images not being actual photos or pictures of the past cannot materialize themselves except by slipping into the 'body' of an actual excitation, whether external or internal. But this they can do only if there is a body that will fit them in certain respects. Hence when there is no suitable body for them to slip into, they
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