Ideas and Memory

“Ideas” are any impressions received by the spirits emanating from pineal gland H.

• If they depend on the presence of an object then they are attributedto common sense.
• If they arise from other causes then they are attributed to imagination.

The traces of these ideas pass through the arteries into the heart. From there, they spread their rays throughout the whole blood.

They can sometimes be so determined by the mother’s actions that they impress themselves on the limbs of the infant being formed in the mother’s womb.

How Memory is Formed

The seat of memory is in the internal parts of the brain, marked B. How are ideas impressed there?

The spirits receive the impression of an idea at the pineal gland H. They then exit it and go through points 2, 4, 6, and similar ones, then into the pores between the filaments at BB.

These spirits have the power to:

• expand the spaces to some extent
• fold and arrange the filaments which they pass through

They do this according to:

• how they move
• the various openings of the tubes which they pass through
  • As they pass, they also imprint shapes* similar to the shapes of objects there.

However, they are not impressed there with such ease or perfection as they had in gland H.

These shapes remain there [on those nerve fibers] and are not so easily erased if the spirits are:

• stronger
• longer-lasting
• more frequently repeated

This allows the ideas that were once impressed on the pineal gland to be formed there again long after, even in the absence of the actual objects that the ideas represented.

For example, seeing object ABC will open tubes 3, 4, 6, 7

• This will cause the spirits to enter them in greater abundance than if the object was not there.

The spirits will then go to N to form channels.

• These remain open even if the object were removed

If the channels were closed, then at least those channels get an impression that will let them be reopened more easily with that specific shape.

This is similar to passing a needle through a fabric such as in point A.

• After the needles are removed, the small holes made in it would remain open, as around B.

Or if they were closed again, certain signs would remain in that texture, such as around O, which could be easily reopened.

Moreover, opening closed holes, such as A and B, would also open C and D especially if they had been opened together more often in the past.

This is how the recollection of one thing can be aroused by the memory of another that was impressed on memory at the same time.

This is similar to us immediately imagining the forehead, mouth, and other parts of the face when we see just the nose and eyes of a person because we often see all those parts together.

Similarly, when I look at fire, I remember its heat simultaneously.