Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-02
RooK REVIEWS.

ogy, ard M. Ribot, in preparing this little
volume upon the pathological aspects OF the
subject, has made valuable contribution
to its literature. Upon the right solution OF
the problems involved in the mnemonic
phenomena very much depends. The great
question which forms the object Of conten-
ton between Spiritualists and Msterislists
is here approached most closely. When we
desire to ascertain, if that be possible,
whether the human intellect represents an
entity possessing an Independent existence,
and capable of surviving the death OF the
body, careful study of the Memory in
health and disease will provide US with many
suggestive, if not conclusive, deductions.
Upon Memory depends the very core and
essence of self-consciousness and identity
Let the Memory be paralyzsd or destroyed,
and identity disappears. Now NJ. Ribot
has here made it very clear that the Memory
is liable to this paralysis ard destruction.
and that the disintegration of tissue which
produces these results indicates the depend
ence of the function upon organic and
automatic processes. Memory, taking it in
its broadest sense. is really the msjor
part of Intelligence. For it In
cludes, of necessity, the capacity to
acquire, as well as the capacity to retain,
and the capacity to reproduce; and if these
three capacities are taken away from the
Intellect, it is plsin that very little remains
Consciousness and Identity are not the same,
though analogous. Consciousness, strictly
speaking, is mainly what psychologists call
cenGStheSiS. or the sense of well.beiI 6 which
appertains TO the healthy organism. lien
tity implies an uninterrupted train of recol-
lections and agreements by and through
which the ssmeness of the existence of the
ego is realized. Remove this train of recollec-
tions break it, ana that which we call TIE
ego. and that which we try to persuade our
selves is immortal. at once ceases to be; for
non-existence and non. cognition of existence
are inseparable in thought Yet the diseases
to which the memory is subject play start
ling tricks with self-consciousness Thus NJ.
Ribot cites cases in which persons have lived a
double life; for several days, weeks, or even
months, proceeding on one line of thought
and action; then falling into state of stu
por, and awsking without the slightest recol-
lection of the past, but still capable of refsc.
ton and action. Persons have passed many
years in alterations between these two con-
ditions. In effect such persons had two
memories; that is to say, they lived dual
lives. But evidently both lives were incom.
| plete, and at the end of such confused ex-
istence there could be no distinct realization
of identity. Again, persons have been so
injured by accidents as to destroy
of education have become like little
children, having to begin again at the
| beginning. Then, after some interval, per-
| haps the memory would partially return
indicating the reproduction of the brain mat
| ter acting as the register of impressions,
and which had been destroyed by the lesion
of the parts. In general paralysis loss of
memory is one of the earliest symptoms, and
absolute extinction of identity follows in due
course. The sufferer becomes incapable of
remembering anything from minute to minute.
Thus one patient had to be introduced every
day to mis- physician, during period of four.
teen months. He never recognized him.
| Such patients commonly cease to remember
their own names; and though they may re.
| tain recoilections of their early life, they
seem to themselves to remember these things
as having relation to somebody else They dc
not know that the memories are of their own
experience. Here again there is evidently a
| total extinction Of identity. In short, the
study of mnemonic pathology leads inevitably
to the conclusion that the Spiritual theory
rests on no sufficient foundation, but that
mind aud memory appear both to Re neither
more nor less than manifestations of matter
and dependent for their manifestation upor
the normal and harmonious operation of that
matter.
| National RELIGIONS AND UNIVERSAL RELIGIONS
| By A. kuenen, LII. D., d. D. New York: Charlie.
Scribner's sons San Francisco A L. Bancroft 8
| Co.
Nowhere is the growth OF advanced thought
in religious discussion more Observable thar
in the HILBERT Lectures, of which this form,
the volume for the current year. 1t is but 8
few years ago since it was thought necessary
to speak of all other religions than Christian
ity as false; since it was the proper thing tC
denounce Mohammed as an "impostor;
and since Buddhism was referred to 10y those
who knew nothing about i'll as s
form of debassd idolstry. But the
world moves, and to-day we find en-
inent theologians philosophically com
pairing the great world-religions, treating
them all with respect and candor, recognizing
in all the bene6cent tendencies, seriously
tracing out their snslogies, and speculative
as to the possibility of their indebtedness tc
one another. In the present volume DR.
| Kuenen treats of Islam, Judaism ant
Buddhism, with the connection betweer
the two first and Christianity. We are in
clined to think that he has not sufficiently
recognized the closeness by the resemblance
between Buddhism and Christianity in many
more points than he mentions, and we must
demur to his opinion that the condolences re.
ferred to are altogether accidental. The
lectures, however, are very able and inter.
esting, and the examination of the Jud sic
religious development is particularly so. DIR.
Kueuen has evolved new theory, to the
effect that the Jews, as far down as the
eighth century before Christ, possessed a
polysheistic religion, and that Jahyehism
did not exist prior to that time. Monotheism
does not show itself ia the writings of the
prophets before the eighth century b. c., and
is not fully developed until the seventh CEN
tury. when it appears explicitly in Deuter-
onomy and Jeremiah, 1t will be seen from
this that knowledge of the modern chro-
nology of the old testament canon is neces.
sary to comprehension Of DR.. Kuenen's
theory. for to such as suppose the Pentateuch
to have been written by Moses these con.
illusions of ripe modern scholarship must be
simply confusing and bewilderinp While he