Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

M:EMORY. 257
period of time to which it is to be referred; a supposition which
is by no means a gratuitous one, invented to answer a particular
purpose; but which, as far as I am able to judge, is agreeable
to fact; for if we have the power, as will not be disputed, of
conceiving a past event without any reference to time, it follows,
that there is nothing in the ideas or notions which Memory presents to us, which is necessarily accompanied with a belief of
past existence, in a way analogous to that in which our perceptions are accompanied with a belief of the present existence
of their objects; and, therefore, that the reference of the event
to the particular period at which it happened, is a judgment
founded on concomitant circumstances. So long as we are
occupied with the conception of any particular object connected
with the event, we believe. the present existence of the object;
but this belief, which, in most cases, is only momentary, is
instantly corrected by habits of judging acquired by experience;
and as soon as the mind is disengaged from such a belief, it is
left at liberty to refer the event to the period at which it actually
happened. Nor will the apparent instantaneousness of such
judgments be considered as an unsurmountable objection to
the doctrine now advanced, by those who have reflected on
the perception of distance obtained by sight, which, although
it seems to be as immediate as any perception of touch, has
been shown by philosophers to be the result of a judgment
founded on experience and observation. The reference we
make of past events to the particular points of time at which
they took place, will, I am inclined to think, the more we consider the subject, be found the more strikingly analogous to the
estimates of distance we learn to form by the eye.
Although, however, I am, myself, satisfied with the conclusion
to which the foregoing reasonings lead, I am far from expecting
that the case will be the same with all my readers. Some of
their objections, which I can easily anticipate, might, I believe,
be obviated by a little further discussion; but as the question is
merely a matter of curiosity, and has no necessary connection
with the observations I am to make in this chapter, I shall not
prosecute the subject at present. The opinion, indeed, we form
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