y in general, next we will
give a rapid sketch of what constitutes memory in atoms and molecules,
in the varied forms of the many kingdoms of nature and in human forms;
finally, we will speak of cosmic Memory, that veritable _Judgment
Book_ which takes account of all the vibrations of the Universe.

Amongst beings capable of memory, a distinction must be made between
those which have not reached the stage of self-consciousness, and
those which have done so, for memory, properly so-called, takes for
granted an "I." That which has not an "I" can only have a memory of
which it is not conscious[233]; the atom, for instance, of whose
memory we shall speak later on; that which has only a rudimentary "I"
possesses only a rudimentary memory from the point of view of its
bearing on the individual--such is that possessed by the souls of the
lower kingdoms, that which constitutes instinct; to the perfect "I"
alone belongs an individual memory--the human memory, and that of
beings who have attained to the superhuman stage. This memory may be
defined as the faculty possessed by an individualised "centre of
consciousness" voluntarily to reproduce the vibrations it has received
or generated.

A "centre of consciousness" is a form that serves, for the time being,
as the instrument of an individualised ray of that indefinable
principle called the soul. But for the presence of this individual
soul in a form, this latter would remain inactive as a centre of
consciousness--although active in its constituent parts[234]--and
could it not then, consciously, either generate or receive vibrations
on the plane from which the soul is momentarily absent--it could only
transmit them; for instance, when a man is in a brown study, he is not
conscious in his brain, of what is taking place on the physical
plane.[235]

The vehicles of consciousness are often numerous in a being, and the
more numerous in proportion to the degree this latter has attained in
the scale of evolution. The present day man possesses four bodies: the
visible, the astral, the mental, and the causal. They are not all
equally developed, and therefore not equally conscious, for the
clearness and intensity of consciousness depend on the decree of
perfection of its vehicles, just as the beauty of electric light
depends on the perfection of the apparatus producing it.

The Ego--the man--is the consciousness that is called forth by the
soul in the causal body. This consciousness va