ner.
About half-past twelve he begins to feel hungry; at one he takes down his
hat and leaves the office. He does not yet know the neighbourhood, and
on getting down into the street asks a policeman at the corner which is
the best eating-house within easy distance. The policeman tells him of
three houses, one of which is a little farther off than the other two,
but is cheaper. Money being a greater object to him than time, the clerk
decides on going to the cheaper house. He goes, is satisfied, and
returns.

Next day he wants his dinner at the same hour, and--it will be
said--remembering his satisfaction of yesterday, will go to the same
place as before. But what has his memory to do with it? Suppose him to
have forgotten all the circumstances of the preceding day from the moment
of his beginning to feel hungry onward, though in other respects sound in
mind and body, and unchanged generally. At half-past twelve he would
begin to be hungry; but his beginning to be hungry cannot be connected
with his remembering having begun to be hungry yesterday. He would begin
to be hungry just as much whether he remembered or no. At one o'clock he
again takes down his hat and leaves the office, not because he remembers
having done so yesterday, but because he wants his hat to go out with.
Being again in the street, and again ignorant of the neighbourhood (for
he remembers nothing of yesterday), he sees the same policeman at the
corner of the street, and asks him the same question as before; the
policeman gives him the same answer, and money being still an object to
him, the cheapest eating-house is again selected; he goes there, finds
the same _menu_, makes the same choice for the same reasons, eats, is
satisfied, and returns.

What similarity of action can be greater than this, and at the same time
more incontrovertible? But it has nothing to do with memory; on the
contrary, it is just because the clerk has no memory that his action of
the second day so exactly resembles that of the first. As long as he has
no power of recollecting, he will day after day repeat the same actions
in exactly the same way, until some external circumstances, such as his
being sent away, modify the situation. Till this or some other
modification occurs, he will day after day go down into the street
without knowing where to go; day after day he will see the same policeman
at the corner of the same street, and (for we may as well suppose that
th