It may be asked however, why, if memory be a "faculty" (a potentiality)
or disposition,[234] we do not immediately remember what we have
learned, and why we need some time to recall it? It is because we need
to master our own faculty, and to apply it to its object. Not otherwise
is it with our other faculties, which we have to fit to fulfil their
functions, and though some of them may react promptly, others also may
need time to gather their forces together. The same man does not always
simultaneously exercise memory and judgment, because it is not the
same faculty that is active in both cases. Thus there is a difference
between the wrestler and the runner. Different dispositions react
in each. Besides, nothing that we have said would militate against
distinguishing between the man of strong and tenacious soul who would
be inclined to read over what is recalled by his memory, while he who
lets many things escape him would by his very weakness be disposed to
experience and preserve passive affections. Again, memory must be a
potentiality of the soul, inasmuch as the soul has no extension (and
therefore could not be a storage-place for images which imply three
dimensions).
SOUL EVENTS OCCUR VERY DIFFERENTLY FROM WHAT IS SUPPOSED BY THE
UNOBSERVANT OR UNREFLECTIVE.
In general all the processes of the soul occur in a manner very
different from that conceived by unobservant men. Psychic phenomena
occur very differently from sense-phenomena, the analogy of which may
lead to very serious errors. Hence the above unobservant men imagine
that sensations and memories resemble characters inscribed on tablets
or sheets of paper.[235] Whether they consider the soul material (as do
the Stoics), or as immaterial (as do the Peripatetics), they certainly
do not realize the absurd consequences which would result from the
above hypothesis.