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^p

ti)c

^amc

Slutijor.

THE LITERARY REMAINS OF HENRY JAMES.

With
Edited, wiih an Introduction, by William James. Crown 8vo, $2.00. Portrait.

HUMAN IMMORTALITY.
tions to the Doctrine.

Two Supposed Objeci6mo, $1.00.

.

HOUGHTON, MIFFl-IN &

Boston and

CO.

New

York.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 2 vols. New York; Henry Holt & Co. i8go. 8vo. PSYCHOLOGY. Briefer Course. i2mo. New York:
Henry Holt &
IS

Co.

1892.

LIFE WORTH LIVING? i8mo. Philadelphia: 1896. S. B. Weston, 1305 Arch St.

THE WILL TO BELIEVE, AND OTHER ESSAYS IN POPULAR PHILOSOPHY. New York:
Longmans, Green

&

Co.

1897.

HUMAN IMMORTALITY
TWO SUPPOSED OBJECTIONS
TO THE DOCTRINE
BY

WILLIAM JAMES
FROFBSSOK OF PHILOSOPHY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY, AND INGERSOLL LECTURER FOR 1897-1898

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

(9ti)C

mtcxfiitit pre??,

CambciDge

OOFVBIGHT,

1898, BY WILLIAM JAMBS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

SIXTH IMPRESSION

~3T

THE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP

SLxtract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll^ who died in Keene, Cou7tty of Cheshire, New Hampshire, Jati. z6, i8qj.

In carrying out the wishes of my late First. beloved father, George Goldthwait Ingersoll, as
declared by him in his last will and testament, I give and bequeath to Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where my late father was graduated, and which he always held in love and honor, the sum of Five thousand dollars ($5,000) as a fund for the establishment of a Lectureship on a plan somewhat similar to that of the Dudleian lecture, that is one lecture to be delivered each year, on any convenient day between the last day of May and the

day of December, on this subject, "the Immortality of Man," said lecture not to form a part of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by any Professor or Tutor as part of his usual routine of instruction, though any such Professor or Tutof may be appointed to such service. The choice of said lecturer is not to be limited to any one religious denomination, nor to any one profession, but may be that of either clergyman or layman, the appointment to take place at least six months before the delivery of said lecture. The above sum to be safely invested and three fourths of the annual interest thereof to be paid to the lecturer for his services and the remaining fourth to be expended in the publishment and gratuitous distribution of the lecture, a copy of which is always to be furnished by the lecturer for such purpose. The same lecture to be named and known as '* the Ingersoll lecture on the Immortality of Man."
first

849080

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

O many
^

critics

have made one and

the same objection to the door-

way

to immortality

which

my

lec-

ture claims to be left open by

the " trans-

mission-theory " of cerebral action, that I

feel

tempted, as the book

is

again going

to press, to add a
If

word

of explanation.

our

finite personality

here below, the

objectors say, be due to the transmission

through the brain of portions of a preexisting

larger

consciousness,

all

that

can

remain after the brain expires

Consciousness
itself

is

the larger

as

such, with

which

we
i*

should thenceforth be perforce recon-

founded, the only means of our existence

finite

personal form having ceased.

But

this,

the

critics

continue,

is

the

vi

Preface to Second Edition

pantheistic idea of immortality, survival,

namely, in the soul of the world

not the

Christian idea of immortality, which

survival in strictly personal form.

means

In showing the possibility of a mental

life

after the brain's death, they conclude,

the lecture has thus at the same time

shown the

impossibility of its identity with

life,

the personal
tion.

which

is

the brain's func-

Now

am
sake

myself anything but a pan;

theist of the monistic pattern

plicity's
I

yet for sim-

did in the lecture speak of

the " mother-sea " in terms that must have

sounded pantheistic, and suggested that

thought of
30,
I
it

myself as a unit.
future

On

page

even added that

loss of

lecturers

might prove the

some

of our per-

sonal limitations after death not to be matter for absolute regret.

The

interpretation
;

of

my
I

critics

was therefore not unnatural

and

ought to have been more careful to

its

guard against
In note
5

being made.
I partially

on page 58

guarded

Preface to Second Edition

vii

against

it

by saying that the "motherfinite

sea "

from which the

mind

is

sup-

posed to be strained by the brain, need

not be conceived of in pantheistic terms
exclusively.

There might

be, I said,

many
the

minds behind the scenes as well as one.

The

plain truth

is

that one

may conceive
itt

mental world behind the veil

ualistic

as individ-

a form as one
to the

pleases, without

any

detriment

general scheme by which

the brain is represented as a transmissive

organ.
If the

extreme individualistic view were

taken, one's finite

mundane consciousness

would be an extract from one's larger,

truer personality, the latter having even

now some
scenes.
to

sort

of

reality

behind
it

the

And

in transmitting

to

keep

our extremely mechanical

metaphor,

which confessedly throws no

actual

light on the

modus operandi

one's brain would

a thing
is

also leave effects

upon the part remaining

for

behind the

veil

when

torn,

both fragments feel the operation.

viii

Preface to Second Edition

just as (to use a very coarse figure)

And
a check

the stubs remain in a check-book whenever

is

used, to register the transaction,

so these impressions on the transcendent

self

might constitute so many vouchers

finite -experiences of
;

of

the

which the brain

had been the mediator

and ultimately

they might form that collection within the

larger self of
sage,

memories
is
all

of our earthly pas-

which

that, since

Locke's day,

the continuance of our personal identity

beyond the grave has by psychology been

recognized to mean.
It
is

true that

all

this

would seem to
preexistence

have

affinities

rather with

and

with

possible

re-incarnations

than

with the Christian notion of immortality.

But

my

concern in the lecture was not to

immortality in general.
it

discuss

It

was

confined to showing
ble

to

be not incompati-

with the brain-function theory of our

present
that
it

mundane
is

consciousness.

hold

so compatible, and compatible

in fully individualized form.

moreover

The

Preface to Second Edition

ix

reader would be in accord with everything

that the text of

my lecture intended
is

to say,

were he to assert that every memory and

affection of his present life
to

be pre-

served, and that he shall never in scecula

scEcidorimi cease to
self
:

be able to say to him-

"

am

the

same personal being who

in

old

times upon the earth had those

experiences."

HUMAN IMMORTALITY
T
is

matter unfortunately too

often seen in history to call for

much remark,
want
of

that

when

a living

mankind has got

itself officially

protected and organized in an institution,

one of the things which the institution

most surely tends

to

do

is

to stand in the

way of the
itself.

natural gratification of the want

We
;

see

this

in

laws and courts

of justice

we

see

it

in ecclesiasticisms

we

see

it

in academies of the fine arts, in

the medical and other professions, and

we

even see

it

in the universities themselves.

Too
to

often do the place-holders of such

institutions frustrate the spiritual purpose

which they were appointed to minister,

light

by the technical

which soon becomes

Human

Immortality

the only light in which they seem able to

see the purpose, and the narrow
is

way which

the only way in which they can work in

its service.

confess that I thought of this for a

moment when
versity invited

the Corporation of our Uni-

me

last

spring to give this

is

IngersoU lecture.

Immortality

one of

the great spiritual needs of man.

The
re-

churches have constituted themselves the

ofificial

guardians of the need, with the

sult that

some

of

them

actually pretend to

accord or to withhold
ual

it

from the

individ-

by their conventional sacraments,

it

withhold

at least in the only

shape in

which

it

can be an object of desire.

the IngersoU lectureship.

And
Its

now comes

high-minded founder evidently thought that

our University might serve the cause he

had

at

heart

more

liberally

than
is

the

churches do, because a university

so

a body

much

less

trammeled by
in

traditions

and

by

impossibilities

regard to choice of
first

persons.

And

yet one of the

things

Human
man

Immortality
is

which the university does

like

to appoint a
cer-

him who stands before you,

he
is

tainly not because

known

as an enlife,

thusiastic

messenger

of

the future

burning to publish the good tidings to

fellow-men, but apparently because he

his
is

a university

official.

Thinking
I

in this way, I felt at first as

if

ought to decline the appointment.

life

The
prime

whole subject of immortal

roots in personal feeling.
fess that

has

its

have to con-

my own
that,

personal feeling about

immortality has never been of the keenest

order,

and

among

the problems that

give

my mind

solicitude, this

one does not

take the very foremost place.

Yet there

are individuals with a real passion for the

matter,

men and women

is
it

for

whom
and
in

life

hereafter

a pungent

craving, and the

;

thought of

an obsession

whom
no one
it

keenness of interest has bred an insight

into the relations of the subject that
less penetrated with the
attain.

mystery of

can

Some

of these people are

known

4
to me.

Human
They

Immortality
;

are not official personages

they do not speak as the scribes, but as

having direct authority.

And

surely,

if

anywhere a prophet clad

not a uniformed
official,

in goatskins,

and

should be called to

give inspiration, assurance, and instruction,

it

would seem

to

be here, on such a theme.

ought not to displace

Office, at

any

rate,

spiritual calling.

And
which

yet,
I

in spite of these

reflections,
I

could not avoid making,

all

am

here to-night,
I

uninspired and

official as

am.

am

sure that prophets

clad in

goatskins, or, to speak less figuratively, lay-

men

inspired with emotional messages on

the subject, will often enough be invited

by our Corporation
lecture hereafter.

to give the Ingersoll

all

Meanwhile,

negative

and deadening as the remarks of a mere

professional psychologist like myself

may
they

be in comparison with the

will give,
tion, that
I

vital lessons

am

sure,

upon mature

reflec-

those

who have the

responsibility

of administering the Ingersoll foundation

Human
are in duty

Immortality
to let the

bound

most various

kinds of
as well.

official

personages take their turn

subject
is

The

really

an enor-

mous

subject.

At
is

the back of Mr. Alger's

'Critical History of the Doctrine of a

Fu-

ture Life,' there

a bibliography of
titles of

more
which

than
it is

five

thousand

books

in

treated.

Our Corporation cannot think

:

only of the single lecture

of the

it

must think
ift

whole

series of lectures

futuro.
in-

Single lectures,

however emotionally

spired and inspiring they

may

be, will not

be enough.

The

lectures

must remedy
worthy
This

each other, so that out of the series there

shall

emerge a

collective literature

of the

importance of the theme.

unquestionably was what the founder had

in

mind.

He

wished the subject to be

all

turned over

in

possible

aspects,

so

that at last results might ponderate har-

moniously in the true direction.

this

Seen

in

long perspective, the Ingersoll founcalls for

dation

nothing so

much

as for

minute division of labor.

Orators must

Human

Immortality
;

take their turn, and prophets

specialists as well.

but narrow

Theologians of every

creed, metaphysicians, anthropologists,

and

psychologists must alternate with biologists

and physicists and psychical researchers,

even with mathematicians.
If

any one

of

them presents a grain

his

of truth, seen

from

point of view, that will

remain and

accrete with truths brought by the others,

his will

have been a good appointment.

lies

In the hour that

shall seek to justify

before us, then, I

offering
of truth,

what seem

my to me

appointment by

two such grains

two points well

fitted, if I

am

not

mistaken, to combine with anything that

other lecturers

may

bring.
of

These points are both

them

in the
difficul-

nature of replies to objections, to

ties

which our modern culture finds

life

in the

old notion of a
that I
its

hereafter,

difficulties

am

sure rob the notion of

to

much

of

old

power

draw

belief,

in the scien-

tifically

cultivated

circles

to

which

this

audience belong.

Human
The
life,

Immortality

y
is relative

first

of these difficulties

to the absolute

dependence
it

of our spiritual brain.

as

we know

here,

upon the

One

hears not only physiologists, but num-

bers of laymen

who

read the popular

all

sci-

ence books and magazines, saying

us.

about

How

can

we

believe in
for

life
all

hereafter

when Science has once

proving, beyond

attained to

possibility of escape, that

is

our inner

life

a function of that
so-called

fa-

mous
ter
'

material,

the

'gray mat?

of our cerebral convolutions

How
its

can the function possibly persist after

organ has undergone decay

Thus
is

physiological psychology

is

what

supposed to bar the way to the old

faith.

And

it

is

now
I

as a

physiological

psychologist that

ask you to look at the

little

question with
It is

me

more

closely.
sci-

indeed true that physiological

ence has come to the conclusion cited

and we must confess that

has only carried out a

in so
little

doing she

farther the

common

belief

of

mankind.

Every one

Human

Immortality

knows

that arrests of brain development

imbecility,

occasion

that

blows

on

tht

head abolish memory or consciousness, and

that brain-stimulants and poisons change

the quality of our ideas.

physiologists,

The

anatomists,

and pathologists have only

shown

this

generally admitted fact of a

detailed

dependence to be

and minute.

What
lately

the laboratories and hospitals have

been teaching us
is

is

not only that

thought in general
functions,

one of the brain's

the various
special

but

that

forms of thinking are functions of special

portions of the brain.

When we
;

are think-

ing of things seen,

lutions

it is

our occipital convo-

that are
it

active

when

of

things

heard,

is
;

a certain portion of our tem-

poral lobes
it is

when

of things to be spoken,

one of our frontal convolutions.

Pro-

fessor Flechsig of Leipzig (who perhaps

more than any one may claim

to

have

made the
in

subject his own) considers that

other special

convolutions those pro-

cesses of association go on, which permit

Human

Immortality

the more abstract processes of thought, to

take place.
regions
brain. ^
if

could easily show you these

had here a picture

of

the

Moreover, the diminished or exag-

gerated associations of what this author

calls

the Kdrperfuhhphdre with the other

regions, accounts,

according to him, for

life,

the complexion of our emotional

and

eventually decides whether one shall be a

callous brute or criminal,

an unbalanced

sentimentalist, or a character accessible to

feeling,

and yet well poised.

Such
;

special

opinions

may have

to be corrected

yet so

firmly established

do the main positions

worked out by the anatomists, physiologists,

and pathologists of the brain appear,

that the youth of our medical schools are

everywhere taught unhesitatingly to believe

them.

The assurance
is

that observa-

tion will go on to establish them ever more

and more minutely

the inspirer of

all

contemporary research.
of our

And

almost any
tell

young psychologists

will

you

that only a few belated scholastics, or pos-

lo
sibly

Human

Immortality
or

some crack-brained theosophist

talking as
exist

psychical

researcher, can be found holdstill

if

ing back, and

mental

phenomena

might

as

independent

variables in the world.

For the purposes

I
if

of

my

argument, now,

wish to adopt this general doctrine as

it

were established absolutely, with no

possibility of restriction.
I

During
it

this

hour

wish you also to accept

it

as a postulate,

whether you think

tablished or not
;

incontrovertibly es-

so I

beg you to agree

with
,

me

to-day in subscribing to the great

:

psycho-physiological formula

Thought

is

3 a function of the brain.

The

question

is,

then.

Does

this doctrine

j logically compel us to disbelieve in immor\ tality ? Ought it to force every truly con)

sistent thinker to sacrifice his hopes of

an

hereafter to what he takes to be his duty

of accepting
all
?

the consequences of a

sci-

entific truth

Most persons imbued with what one may

call

the Puritanism of science would feel

Human

Immortality

ir

themselves bound to answer this question

with a yes.
logically
If

any medically or psycho-

bred young scientists feel otheris

wise,

it

probably in consequence of that

incoherency of mind of which the majority

of

mankind happily enjoy the

scientists, at

privilege.

At one hour
Christians or
live

another they are

the will to
and, hold-

common men, with

;

burning hot in their breasts

ing thus the two ends of the chain, they

are careless of the intermediate connection.

But the more radical and uncompromising

disciple of science

makes the

sacrifice, and,

sorrowfully or not, according to his tem-

perament, submits to giving up his hopes

of heaven.2

This, then,
ity;
is

is

the objection to immortalin order for

and the next thing

me
be-

to try to
it

make
I

plain to

you why

lieve that

has in strict logic no deter-

rent power.

must show you that the

is
;

fatal

consequence

not coercive, as

is

com-

monly imagined and that, even though our

soul's life (as

here below

it is

revealed to

12
us)

Human
may be

Immortality

in literal strictness the function

it is

of a brain that perishes, yet

not at

all

impossible, but on the contrary quite possible, that

the

life

may

still

continue

when

the brain

itself is

dead.

The supposed

impossibility of its continsuperficial a look at

uing comes from too

the admitted fact of functional dependence.

The moment we

inquire

more

closely into

the notion of functional dependence, and

ask ourselves, for example,

of functional

how many
is

kinds

dependence there may

be,

we

immediately perceive that there

one kind

at least that does not exclude a life here-

/O
\
\
t

after at

all.

The

fatal conclusion of

the

physiologist flows from his assuming off-

hand another kind of functional dependence, and treating

it

as the only imagina-

\
/"
V.

ble kind.^

When

the physiologist

who
"

thinks that

his science cuts off all

)

hope of immortality

pronounces the

phrase,

Thought

is

function of the brain," he thinks of the

I /

matter just as he thinks

when he

says,

Human
"

Immortality

Steam

is

a function of the tea-kettle,"

" Light is a function of the electric circuit," "

Power

is

a function of the

moving

waterfall."

In these latter cases the sev-

eral material objects

have the function of

inwardly creating
effects,

or

engendering

their

and their function must be called

Just
so,

productive function.

he thinks,

it

must be with the

sciousness in

brain.

Engendering con-

its interior,

much

as

it

engen-

ders cholesterin and creatin and carbonic

acid, its relation to

our soul's

life

must

also

be called productive function.

if

Of

course,

such production be the function, then

perishes, since the produc-

when the organ

tion can

no longer continue, the soul must

surely die.

Such a conclusion

as this is

indeed inevitable from that particular conception of the facts.*

But

in the

world of physical nature prois

ductive function of this sort

not the

only kind of function with which

familiar.

we

are

We

have also releasing or per;

missive function
sive function.

and we have transmis-

14

Human

Immortality

The

trigger of a crossbow has a releas:

ing function

it

removes the obstacle that

holds the string, and lets the

to its natural shape.
falls

bow

fly

back

So when the hammer

upon a detonating compound.

By

knocking out the inner molecular obstructions,

it

lets

the constituent gases resume

their normal bulk,

and so permits the

ex-

plosion to take place.

In the case of a colored glass, a prism,

or a refracting lens,
function.
ter

we have transmissive The energy of light, no matis

how

produced,

by the

glass

sifted

and

limited in color,

and by the lens or

prism determined to a certain path and

shape.
Similarly, the

keys of an organ

have only a transmissive function.

They
let

open successively the various pipes and

the wind in the air-chest escape in various

ways.

The

voices of the various pipes are

constituted

by the columns
But the

of air trembling

as they emerge.

air is

not engenproper, as

dered in the organ.

distinguished from

The organ

its air-chest, is

only an

Human
upon the world
shapes.

Immortality
it

75
loose

apparatus for letting portions of

in these peculiarly limited

My

thesis

now we

is

this

that,
is

when we
a function

"n

think of the law that thought

of the brain,

/
/

are not required to think

;

of productive function only

we

are entitled

^
j

also to consider permissive or transmissive

function.

And

this the ordinary

psycho-

\
y
^

physiologist leaves out of his account.

Suppose, for example, that the whole universe of material things

earth and choir of heaven

the furniture of should turn

is

out to be a

mere

surface-veil of pheno-

mena, hiding and keeping back the world

of genuine realities.

Such a supposition

foreign neither to

common
veil

sense nor to

philosophy.
realities

Common
idealistic

sense believes in

behind the

even too supersti-

tiously

and

philosophy declares

the whole world of natural experience, as

we

get

it,

to

be but a time-mask, shatter-

ing or refracting the one infinite Thought

which

is

the sole reality into those millions

Human

Immortality

of finite streams of consciousness

known

to

us as our private selves.

" Life, like a

dome

of many-colored glass,

Stains the white radiance of eternity."

Suppose, now, that this were really

so,

and suppose, moreover, that the

opaque enough
at all

dome,
full su-

times to the

per-solar blaze, could at certain times

and

places grow

less so,

and

let certain

beams

pierce through into this sublunary world.

These beams would be so many

so to speak, of consciousness,

finite rays,

and they would

vary in quantity and quality as the opacity

varied in degree.

Only
it

at particular times that, as a

and places would

seem

matter

of fact, the veil of nature can

grow

thin

and

rupturable enough for such effects to occur.

But

in those places gleams,

however
life

finite

and unsatisfying, of the absolute

of the

universe, are from time to time vouchsafed.

Glows

of feeling, glimpses of insight,

and
float

streams of knowledge and perception

into our finite world.
\^

Admit now

that our brains are such thin

Human
What
happen

Immortality
in

ly the
veil.

and half - transparent places

will
?

Why,

as the

white
all

radiance comes through the dome, with

sorts of staining

and distortion imprinted

on

it

by the

glass, or as the air

glottis

now comes
vibrations

through
in its

my

determined and limited

its

force and quality of

by the peculiarities of those vocal chords which form

into
its

gate of egress and shape

it

my personal

voice, even so the genuine

matter of

reality,

the

life of souls as

it

is

in its fullness, will

break through our sevall

eral brains

into this world in

sorts of

restricted forms,
tions

and with

all

the imperfec-

and queernesses that characterize our

here below.
in

finite individualities

According to the state

brain finds
itself,

which the
its

the barrier of

obstrucrise
is

tiveness
fall.

may

also

be supposed to

or
in

It sinks so low,

when the brain

full

activity,

that a comparative flood of

spiritual

energy pours over. At other times,

only such occasional waves of thought as

heavy sleep permits get by.

And when

Human

Immortality

finally

a brain stops acting altogether, or

decays, that special stream of conscious-

ness which

it

subserved will vanish entirely

from

this natural world.

But the sphere

of being that supplied the consciousness

would

still

be intact

and

in that

more
it

real

world with which, even whilst here,

continuous,

was

the consciousness
to us, continue
all

might, in

ways unknown

still.

You

see that, on
life,

these suppositions,
it,

our soul's

as

we here know

would
be the

none the

less in literal strictness

function of

the brain.

The

brain would

be

the independent variable, the

it.

mind

would vary dependently on

dependence on the brain
life

But such

for this natural

life

would

in

no wise make immortal

it

impossible,

might be quite compatible

life

with supernatural
after.

behind the

veil here-

As

I said,

then, the fatal consequence

is

not coercive, the conclusion which materialism draws being

due solely

to its one-

sided

way

of taking the

word

'function.'

Human
we

Immortality

19

And, whether we care or not

ity in itself,

for immortal-

ought, as mere critics doing

police duty

among
on the
flat

the vagaries of manillogicality of a denial

kind, to insist

based on the
alternative.

ignoring of a palpable

How muc h, more

ough t we to

insist^^as^ jovers of truth,

is

wjien.Lhg,dgn ial

that of such a vital hope of mankind!

In

strict logic, then, the

fangs of cere-

bralistic materialism are

drawn.

My words
re-

ought consequently already to exert a

leasing function on your hopes.
believe henceforward,
profit

You may
But, as
I

whether you care to

not.

by the permission or

this
will

is

a very abstract argument,

its

think

it

help

effect to say a

word or two

about the more concrete conditions of the

case.

All abstract hypotheses

sound unreal;

and the abstract notion that our brains are

colored lenses in the wall of nature, admitting light from the super-solar source, but
at the
it,

same time tingeing and

restricting

has a thoroughly fantastic sound.

What

20
is it,

Human
you may

Immortality

ask, but a foolish

metaphor

And how
gined
?

can such a function be imathe

Is n't

common
?

materialistic

notion vastly simpler

Is

not conscious-

ness really more comparable to a sort of

steam, or perfume, or electricity, or nerveglow, generated on the spot in
peculiar vessel
scientific
?

its

own

Is

it

not more rigorously

to treat the brain's function as

? is,

function of production

The immediate
talking of

reply

that,

if

we

are

science positively understood,

function can

mean nothing more than bare

concomitant variation.
activities

When

the brain-

change

in

one way, conscious-

ness changes in
rents

another; when the curthe

;

pour through

occipital

lobes,

consciousness sees things

the

when through
consciousness
stop, she

lower

frontal

region,
;

says things to itself

when they
In

goes to sleep,

etc.

strict science,

we

can only write down the bare fact of con-

comitance

and

all

talk about either pro-

duction or transmission, as the

mode

of

Human
taking place,
sis,

Immortality

21

is

pure superadded hypotheat

and metaphysical hypothesis

that,

for

we can frame no more

on the one

notion of the

details

alternative

than on

the other.
exact

Ask

for

any indication of the

of

process

either

transmission

or

of production,

and Science confesses her

imagination to be bankrupt.
far,

She

has, so

not the least glimmer of a conjecture

or suggestion,

not
to

even a bad verbal

offer.

metaphor or pun
ignorabimns,
is

Ignoramus,
in

what most physiologists,

the words of one of their number, will say

here.

The production

of such a thing as

consciousness in the brain, they will reply

with the late Berlin professor of physiology,

is

the absolute world-enigma,

some-

thing so paradoxical and abnormal as to be

a stumbling block to Nature, and almost a
self-contradiction.

Into the

duction of steam in a tea-kettle

conjectural
insight,

mode of prowe have

terms
that

for

the

change are physically homogeneous one

with another, and

we can

easily

imagine

22

Human

Immortality

the case to consist of nothing but alterations

of

molecular motion.

But

in

the

production of consciousness by the brain,

the terms are heterogeneous natures alto-

gether; and as far as our understanding

goes,
it is

as great a miracle as
is

if

we

said,

Thought
*

'spontaneously generated,' or

created out of nothing.'

The theory

of

production

is

therefore
itself

not a jot more simple or credible in

than any other conceivable theory.

only a
little

It is

more

popular.
if

All that one

need
alist

do, therefore,

the ordinary materi-

should challenge one to explain

ca7t

how

the brain

be an organ for limiting and

determining to a certain form a consciousness elsewhere produced,

is

to retort with

tti

quoque,

asking him in turn to ex-

plain

how

it

can be an organ for producing

out
of

consciousness

whole

cloth.

For

polemic purposes, the two theories are thus

exactly on a par.

But

if

we

consider the theory of trans-

mission in a wider way,

we

see that

it

has

Human
certain

Immortality

23
apart

positive superiorities, quite

from

its

connection with the immortality

question.

Just

how

the process of transmission

on, is indeed

may be
ble
;

carried

unimagina-

but the outer relations, so to speak,

of the process, encourage our belief.

Con-

sciousness in this

process does not have

to be generated de novo in a vast number

of places.
It

exists

already, behind the

scenes, coeval with the world.

The
puts

trans-

mission-theory not only avoids in this

way

multiplying miracles, but

it

itself in

touch with general idealistic philosophy

better
It

than

the

production-theory does.

should always be reckoned a good thing

science and philosophy thus meet.^
itself also in

when
It

puts

touch with the con-

ception of a

'threshold,'

word with

which, since Fechner wrote his book called

'Psychophysik,' the so-called

'new Psycho-

logy

'

has rung.

Fechner imagines as the

movement, as he terms

condition of consciousness a certain kind

of psycho-physical

24
it.

Human

Immortality

Before consciousness can come, a ceractivity in the

tain degree of

movement

must be reached.
is

This requisite degree

;
'

called the

'

threshold

but the height

cirit

of the threshold varies

under different
fall.

cumstances
falls,

it

may

rise or

When

as

in

states

of

great

lucidity,
of

grow conscious of things

should

we which we

be
it

unconscious

at

other times

when

rises, as in

drowsiness, conscious-

ness sinks

in

amount.

This rising and

lowering of a psycho - physical threshold

exactly conforms to our notion of a per-

manent obstruction
of consciousness,
in

to

the transmission

which obstruction may,

alternately greater or

our brains,

grow

less.^

The
in

transmission-theory also puts

class

itself

touch with a whole

of

experi-

ences that are with difficulty explained by

the production-theory.
I refer to

those ob-

scure and exceptional

at
all

phenomena reported

times throughout
*

human

history,

which the

psychical

researchers,'

with

Human
much

Immortality

25

Mr. Frederic Myers at their head, are doing so

to rehabihtate
"*

such phe-

nomena, namely, as religious conversions,

providential leadings in answer to prayer,

instantaneous healings, premonitions,

ap-

paritions at time of death, clairvoyant visions or impressions,

and the whole range

say nothing

of mediumistic capacities, to of
still

more exceptional and incomprehenIf all

sible things.

our

human thought be
if

a function of the brain, then of course,

any of these things are

facts,

own mind some of them

are facts,

and my we may
to
is

not suppose that they can occur without

preliminary brain-action.

But the ordinary

knit

production-theory of consciousness

up with a peculiar notion of how brainaction can occur,

all

that

notion being that

brain-action, without exception, is

due to

a prior action, immediate or remote, of the

bodily
action

sense-organs on the brain.

Such

makes the brain produce sensations

of the sensations
of

and mental images, and out

and images the higher forms

thought and

26
knowledge

Human
we

Immortality

in their turn are framed.

As

transmissionists,

also
all

must admit

this to

be the condition of
Sense-action
rier.
is

our usual thought.

what lowers the brain-bar-

My

voice and aspect, for instance,

;
.

strike

upon your ears and eyes

your brain

thereupon becomes

more pervious,
I

and
say

an awareness on your part of what

and who

am

slips into this

veil.

world from the

world behind the

terious

But, in the mys-

phenomena

to

which

I allude, it is

often hard to see where the sense-organs

can come

in.

medium,

for example, will

show knowledge
fairs

of his sitter's private af-

which

it

seems impossible he should

have acquired through sight or hearing, or

inference therefrom.
apparition of

Or you will have an some one who is now dying

hundreds of miles away.

tion
-

On

the produc-

theory one does not see from what

sensations such odd bits of knowledge are

produced.

On

the transmission

theory,

they don't have to be 'produced,'

exist

they

ready -

made

in

the transcendental

Human
world, and
all

Immortality
is

27

that

needed

is

an abnor-

mal lowering

of the brain-threshold to let

them through.

In cases of conversion, in

providential leadings, sudden mental healings, etc.,

it

seems to the subjects themif

selves

of

the experience as

a power
ordi-

from without, quite different from the

nary action of the senses or of the senseled mind,

latter
life

came

into their

life,

as

if

the

suddenly opened into that greater

in

which

it

has

its

source.

The word
circles, well

'influx,'

used in Swedenborgian

describes this impression of

new

insight,
like

or new willingness, sweeping over us

a tide.
doxical

All such experiences, quite para-

and meaningless on the productionvery naturally into place on

theory, fall

the other theory.

We

need only suppose

the continuity of our consciousness with a

mother

sea, to

allow for exceptional waves

occasionally pouring over the dam.

Of

course the causes of these odd lowerings

of the brain's threshold
still

remain a mys-

tery

on any terms.

28

Human
this

Immortality

Add, then,

advantage to the transI

mission-theory, an advantage which

well aware that

am

some

of

you

will not rate

very high,

and also add the advantage of

life

not conflicting with a

hereafter,

and
it

hope yon

will

agree with

me

that

has

many

points of superiority to the

It
is

more

familiar theory.

a theory which, in

the history of opinion on such matters,

has never been wholly
left

out of account,

though never developed at any great length.

In the great orthodox philosophic tradition,
the body
is

treated as an essential condition

life in this
it

to the soul's
after death,

world of sense
is

but

is said,

the soul

set free,

and becomes a purely

appetitive being.
in terms that

intellectual

and nonthis idea

Kant expresses

come

singularly close to those

of our transmission-theory.

The death

of

the body, he says,

may

indeed be the end

of the sensational use of our mind, but only

the beginning of the intellectual use.

"

The

body," he continues, "would thus be, not

the cause of our thinking, but merely a

Human

Immortality

2g

condition restrictive thereof, and, although

essential to our sensuous

and animal con-

sciousness,

it

may be

regarded as an imlife.^

peder of our pure spiritual

a recent

And
it

in

book

of great suggestiveness

and
de-

power, less
serves,

well-known as yet than

is

mean
C. S.

Riddles of the Sphinx,'

Oxford, late

by Mr. F.

Schiller of

of Cornell University,

the transmissionwhat positive

our
all

theory

defended at some length.^

But

still,

you

will ask, in

way does

this theory help us to realize

?

immortality in imagination

What we

wish to keep
tions,

is

just these individual restric-

these selfsame tendencies and pecudefine us to ourselves and othidentity, so called.

liarities that

ers,

and constitute our

Our finitenesses and

our personal essence

limitations
;

seem

to

be

and when the

finiting
spirits

organ drops away, and our several

revert to their original source

and resume

their unrestricted condition, will they then

be anything
feeling

like those

sweet streams of

which we know, and which even now

^o

Human

Immortality

our brains are sifting out from the great

reservoir for our enjoyment here below
?

Such questions are by future

foundation.
lecturers
I

truly living questions,

and surely they must be seriously discussed

upon

this

Ingersoll

hope, for

my
of

part, that

more

than one such lecturer

discuss
ity,

will penetratingly

the
tell

conditions

our immortal'
lose,
if
?

and

us

how much we may

and how much we may possibly

its finiting

gain,

outlines

should be changed
is

If all

determination
it

negation, as the phi-

losophers say,
loss of

might well prove that the

some

of the particular determina-

tions

which the brain imposes would not

appear a matter for such absolute regret.

But

into these

higher and more tranI I

scendental matters
this occasion
;

refuse to enter upon

and

proceed, during the

remainder of the hour, to treat of

my

secit

ond
is,

point.

Fragmentary and negative

one has been.

as

my

first

Yet, between

them, they do give to our belief in immortality

a freer wing.

Human

Immortality
is

^j
to the in-

My

second point

relative

credible

and intolerable number of beings

which, with our

modern imagination, we
be immortal,
if

must believe
ity

to
I

immortal-

be

true.

cannot but suspect that

this,

too, is a

stumbling-block to

many

of

my

present audience.
I

And

it

is

a stum-

bling-block which
to clear away.
It
is,

should thoroughly like

fancy, a stumbling-block of alto-

gether modern origin, due to the strain

upon the quantitative imagination which

recent
feelings
scientific theories,

and the moral

them,

consequent
train.

upon

have

brought in their

For our ancestors the world was a

and
of

small,

it

compared with our modern a comparatively snug

it

sense
Six

affair.

thousand years at most

its

had

lasted.

In
he-

history

a few particular

human

roes, kings, ecclesiarchs,

and saints stood

forth

very prominent, overshadowing the

imagination with their claims and merits,

so that not only they,

but

all

who were

52

Human

Immortality

associated familiarlywith them, shone with

a glamour which even

the Almighty,

it

was supposed, must recognize and respect.

These prominent personages and

sociates

their as-

were the nucleus

the

of the immortal
of

group

minor heroes and saints

minor sects came next, and people without distinction formed a sort of background

and

filling in.

nity (so far, at

The whole scene of eterleast, as Heaven and not

concerned
in
it)

the

nether place was

never struck to the believer's fancy as an

overwhelmingly

large

or

inconveniently
call this
;

crowded

stage.

One might

an

aristocratic

view of immortality
I

the im-

mortals
for

speak of Heaven exclusively,

an immortality of torment need not

us

now concern
select

were
own

always an

61ite,

and manageable number.

generation, an entirely

But, with our

new

quantitative

imagination

has swept
of

over our western world.

evolution

The theory

now

requires us to suppose a far

vaster scale of times, spaces, and

numbers

Human

Immortality

^^

than our forefathers ever dreamed the cos-

mic process to involve.

Human

history

grows continuously out of animal history,

and goes back possibly even to the tertiary
epoch.

From

this there has

emerged

in-

sensibly a democratic view, instead of the

old aristocratic view, of immortality.

For

our minds, though in one sense they

may

have grown a

little

cynical, in another they

have been made sympathetic by the evolutionary perspective.

flesh of

Bone

of our

bone and

our flesh are these half-brutish preGirdled about with the

of this mysterious uni-

historic brothers.

immense darkness
verse even as
died, suffered
to fearful

we

are,

they were born and

and struggled.

Given over

crime and passion, plunged in the

blackest ignorance, preyed upon by hide-

ous and grotesque delusions, yet steadfastly

serving the profoundest of ideals in their
fixed faith

that existence in

any form

is

better than non-existence, they ever res-

cued trimphantly from the jaws of ever-im-

minent destruction the torch of

life,

which,

^4
thanks
for us. to

Human
them,

Immortality

now

lights

the world

How

small indeed seem individ-

ual

distinctions

when we

look

back on

these overwhelming numbers of

human

beings panting and straining under the

pressure of that vital want
inessential
in

the

eyes of

And how God must be

!

the small surplus of the individual's merit,

swamped

as

it is

in the vast ocean of the

common
and
ble

merit of mankind,

dumbly and
grow hum-

undauntedly doing the fundamental duty

living the heroic life
!

We

and reverent as we contemplate the

prodigious spectacle.

Not our differences

feel

and

distinctions,

we

no,

but our

common
suffering

animal essence of patience under

and enduring

effort

must be what

redeems us

in the Deity's sight.

An
fill

im-

mense compassion and kinship

heart.

the

An

immortality from which these

billions

inconceivable

of

fellow

strivers

should be excluded becomes an irrational

idea for us.

That our superiority

or
in

in per-

sonal

refinement

religious

creed

Human

Immortality

^5

should constitute a difference between ourselves

fit

and our messmates

at life's banquet,

to entail such a consequential difference

of destiny as eternal life

for us, and for

them torment

hereafter, or death with the

is

beasts that perish,

to

a notion too absurd

be considered serious.

Nay, more, the

very beasts themselves

at

the

wild ones
life

any rate

are

leading the heroic

at all

times.

And

a modern mind, ex-

panded as some minds are by cosmic emotion,

by the great
even at man.

evolutionist

vision

of

universal continuity, hesitates to

line If
all
1

draw the
lives

any creature

forever,

why
?

not

why
it,

not the pa-

tient brutes
ity, if

So

that a faith in immortal-

we

are to indulge

demands

of us stu-

nowadays a scale of representation so

pendous that our imagination faints before

it,

and our personal feelings refuse to

task.
is

rise

up and face the

The

supposition

we
the

are swept along to

too vast, and, rather

than face the conclusion,

we abandon

premise from which

it

starts.

We

give up

5(5

Human
own
all

Immortality

our
that

immortality sooner than believe

the hosts of Hottentots and Aus-

tralians that

have been, and shall ever be,

it

should share
Life
is

with us

itt

secula seculorum.

a good thing on a reasonably copi;

ous scale

but the very heavens themselves,

and the cosmic times and spaces, would

stand aghast,

we

think, at the notion of

preserving eternally such an ever-swelling

plethora and glut of
it.

Having myself, as a
scientific culture,

recipient of

modern

gone through a subjec-

tive experience like this, I feel sure that

it

must

also have

been the experience of

many, perhaps
to

of most, of

you who

listen

my
it

words.

But

have also come to see

;

that

harbors a tremendous fallacy

and,

since the noting of the fallacy has set

my

own mind
service
I

free again, I have felt that one

might render to

my

listeners toit lies.

night would be to point out where

It is

the most obvious fallacy in the

world, and the only

wonder

is

that

all

the the

world should not see through

it.

It is

Human
we

Immortality

57

result of nothing but

an invincible blindan insensibility

ness from which

suffer,

to the inner significance of alien lives,

and

a conceit that

would project our own

inca-

pacity into the vast cosmos, and measure

the wants of the Absolute by our

own
do.

puny needs.

Our

christian ancestors dealt

with the problem more easily than

we

We,

indeed, lack

sympathy

but they had

a positive antipathy for these alien creatures,

human
Being,

and they naively supposed the

too.

Deity to have the antipathy,

as
felt

they were, 'heathen,'

our forefathers

a certain sort of joy in thinking that

their Creator
fuel

made them
fires

as so

much mere
culture

for

the

of hell.

Our

has humanized us beyond that point, but

we cannot

yet conceive

them

as our com-

rades in the fields of heaven.

the phrase goes, no use

We have,

as
it

for them, and

the

oppresses us

to

think of their survival.

all

Take, for

instance,

Chinamen,

Which

of

you here,

my

friends, sees

any

fitness in their eternal perpetuation unre-

^8
duced
in

Human
numbers
?

Immortality

Surely not one of you.

At

most, you might

deem

it

well to keep a

few chosen specimens alive to represent an

interesting and peculiar variety of
ity
;

humanin

but as for the

rest,

what comes

such

surpassing numbers,
only imagine
collective
in this

and what you can

abstract

summary

manner, must be something of

units,

which the

you are

sure,

can have no
himself,

individual preciousness.
think, can

God

you
im-

have no use for them.

An

mortality of every separate specimen must

be to him and to the universe as indigestible a load to carry as

it

is

to you.

So,

engulfing the whole subject in a sort of

mental giddiness and

nausea,

you__drift

along, first doubting that _th., mass can b e_

immi^ltal. then losing all assuran ce in the

immortality of

j^r own
all

p articu lfir petgo rij,

ajid

precious as you

the while feel

rea

ize~nie latter to be7

the~attitu3e of

ThisTlam
some
of

sure, is

mind

of

you before

me.

But

is

not such an attitude due to the

Human
veriest lack

Immortality

59

and dearth of your imaginatake these swarms of alien

tion

You

kinsmen

as they are

for you : an external

vastness and

picture painted on your retina, represent-

ing a crowd oppressive by

confusion.

its

As

they are for you, so you

think they positively and absolutely are.

feel

/
the
is

no
is

call for

them, you say

for

therefore
all

there
while,

no

call

them.

But

beyond
of

this

externality

which

your way

realizing them, they realize

themselves with the acutest internality,

with the most violent
thrills of life.

'Tis

you who are dead, stone-dead and blind

and senseless,
in

your way of looking

on.

You open your eyes upon a scene of which

you miss the whole significance.

Each

of
is

these grotesque or even repulsive aliens

animated by an inner joy of living as hot

or hotter than that which you feel beating
in

your private breast.

The sun

rises

and
miss
is

beauty beams to light his path.

To

the inner joy of him, as Stevenson says,

to miss the

whole

of him.^^

Not a being

40

Human

Immortality
is

of the countless thron g

there whos econ-

tinuei lifejsnoiLcalledfQr^jiid called for

intensely,

by the ^con scious ness that

ani-

mates the being's form.

That you neither

call for
is
it,

realize nor understand nor

that

you have no use for

irrelevant

it,

an absolutely

circumstance.

That you have

a saturation-point of interest tells us no-

thing of the interests that absolutely are.

The

Universe,

with every

living

entity
at the

which her resources create, creates

same time a
nowhere

call for

that entity, and an

appetite for its continuance,

if

creates

it,

else, at least
itself.

within the heart of

the entity

It is

absurd to suppose,

simply because our private power of sympathetic vibration

with other lives gives

out so soon, that in the heart of infinite

being

itself

there can be such a thing as

It

plethora,
is

or glut, or supersaturation.
if

not as

there were a bounded room

where the

minds

in

possession

had to

move up
to

or

make

place and crowd together

accommodate new occupants.

Each new

Human
mind brings
its

Immortality

41

own

edition of the universe

it,

of space along with

its

own room

to in-

habit
other,

and these spaces never crowd each

the space
way
of

of

my

imagination, for

example, in no

interferes with yours.

The

amount

possible

consciousness

seems to.be governed by no law analogous

to that of the so-called conservation of en-

ergy in the material world.

When

one

man wakes

up, or

one

is

born, another does

not have to go to sleep, or die, in order to

keep the consciousness of the universe a

constant quantity.
fact, in

Professor Wundt,
of Philosophy,'

in

his

'

System

has

formulated a law of the universe which he

calls

the law of increase of spiritual en-

ergy,

and which he expressly opposes to

the law of conservation of energy in physical things.^i

There seems no formal

and since

limit

to the positive increase of being in spiritual

respects
it

spiritual being,
itself,

whenever

comes, affirms

expands

and craves continuance, we

literally say,

may

justly

and

regardless of the defects of

42
our

Human
own

Immortality

private sympathy, that the supply

of individual life in the universe

can never
it

possibly,

however

immeasurable

may.

become,

exceed the

demand.
is

mand
beings

for that supply

itself

there

The dethe moment

own
con-

the supply

comes

into being, for the

their

supplied

demand

tinuance.
I

speak, you see, from the point of view

all

of

the other individual beings,

real-

izing

and enjoying inwardly their own exIf

istence.

we

are

pantheists,

we can
diver-

stop there.

We

need, then, only say that

through them, as through so

sified

many

channels of expression, the eternal

Spirit of the

Universe affirms and realizes

its own infinite life. But if we are theists, we can go farther without altering the result. God, we can then say, has so in-

exhaustible a capacity for love that his call

and need

is

for a

literally
lives.

endless accu-

mulation of created
faint or

He

can never

grow weary,

as

we

should, under
is infinite

the increasing supply.

His scale

Human
in
all

Immortality

4^

things.

His sympathy can never

know
I

satiety or glut.

hope now that you agree with

me

that the tiresomeness of an over -peopled

Heaven

is

a purely subjective and illusory

notion, a sign of

human

incapacity, a rem-

nant of the old narrow-hearted aristocratic

creed.

"

Revere the Maker,

lift

thine eye

up to

his style
will

and manners

of the sky,"
is

and you

believe that this

indeed a

democratic universe, in which your paltry

exclusions play no regulative part.

Was

your taste consulted in the peopling of this

globe
.''

How,

then, should

it

be consulted

as to the peopling of the vast City of

God }
like

Let us put our hand over our mouth,

Job,

and be thankful that

in our personal at
all.

littleness

we

ourselves

are here

The Deity
can suffer

that suffers us,

we may be

sure,

many another queer and wonpart, then, so far as logic

drous and only half-delightful thing.

For
goes, I

my own

am willing

that every leaf that ever

grew

in this world's forests

and rustled

in

44

Human

Immortality
It is

the breeze should become immortal.

purely a question of fact
so, or
:

are the leaves

not

Abstract quantity, and the ab-

stract Heedlessness in

our eyes of so much

reduplication of things so

much

alike,

have
big-

no connection with the subject.

ness and
are

For

number and generic similarity only manners of our finite way of think;

ing

and, considered

in itself

and apart

from our imagination, one scale of dimensions and of

numbers

for the Universe

is

no more miraculous or inconceivable than

another, the

moment you

grant to a uniin place of the

verse the liberty to be at

all,

Non-entity that
reigned.

might conceivably have

The

heart of being can have no exclu-

sions akin to those

which our poor

little

hearts set up.

The
all

inner significance of

other lives exceeds

our powers of sym-

pathy and insight.

cance in our

If

we
its

feel

signifi-

own

life

which would lead us

perpetuity, let

spontaneously to claim

us be at least tolerant of like claims

made

Human
by other
lives,

Immortality

4^

however numerous, however

to us to be.

unideal they

may seem

Let

us at any rate not decide adversely on our

own

claim,

whose grounds we

feel directly,

because

we cannot decide
That would be

favorably on the
feel

alien claims,
at
all.

whose grounds we cannot

letting

blindness

lay

down the law

to sight.

NOTES
Note
The gaps between
motor and sensory
page

i,

9.
first

the centres

recognized as
in

gaps which form

by Flechsig as
[Compare

man two

thirds of the surface of the hemispheres

are thus
intellectual

positively interpreted

centres strictly so called.

his

Gehirn
have,

uJid Seele, 2te Ausgabe, 1896, p. 23.]

They

he considers, a
ture
;

common
fibres

type of microscopic struc-

and the

connected with them are a

medullary sheath than

month

later in gaining their

are the fibres

connected with the other centres.

When

disordered, they are the starting-point of the

insanities, properly so called.

Already Wernicke

had defined insanity as disease of the organ of association, without so definitely

pretending to circum-

scribe the latter

compare his Grundriss der PsyFlechsig goes so far as to say

chiatric, 1894, p. 7.

that he finds a difference of

alytics

symptoms in general par-

according as their frontal or their more poste-

rior association-centres are diseased.

Where

it

is

48

Notes

the frontal centres, the patient's consciousness of self

is

more deranged than

is

his perception of purely

objective relations.
tive regions suffer,

Where
it is

the posterior associa-

rather the patient's system

of objective ideas that undergoes disintegration

(loc. cit.

pp. 89-91).

In rodents Flechsig thinks

there

is

a complete absence of association-centres,

In
car-

the
still

sensory centres touch each other.

nivora and the low^er monkeys the latter centres

exceed the

association -centres

in volume, to find

Only

in the katarhinal apes

do we begin

anything like the

In his
little

human

type (p. 84).

pamphlet, Die

Grenzen gets tiger

Gesundheit

und Krankheit,
to

Leipzig, 1896, Flechis

sig ascribes the

in

moral insensibility which

found

certain criminals

a diminution of internal
'

pain-feeling

due to degeneration of the

extensive
in

Korperfirst

fiihlsphare,' that

anterior

region

so
all

named by Munk,
the emotions

which he lays the seat of

and

of the consciousness of self

\Gehirn U7id

Seele, pp.
I

62-68

die Grenzen, etc.,

pp. 31-39, 48].

give these references to Flechsig

for concreteness' sake, not because his views are

irreversibly

made

out.

Note
So widespread
circles,

2,

page

11.

is this is

conclusion in positivistic
it

so abundantly

expressed in conversa-

Notes
tion,

4g
in things that are

and so frequently implied

I

written, that

confess that
to

my

surprise

was great

when

came

look into books for a passage

immortality

explicitly

denying
I I

on

physiological

grounds, which

might quote to make

my
I

text

more concrete.

was unable
to

to

find anything

blunt and distinct enough

serve.

looked

through

all

the books that

;

would naturally suggest

and
I

themselves, with no effect

vainly asked vari-

ous psychological colleagues.

And

yet

should
I

al-

most have been ready

to take oath that

had read
sort

several such passages of the

most categoric

within the last decade.

impression, and
it

Very

likely this is a false

this opinion as
is

may be with

with

many many
to

others.

The atmosphere
yet,

full

of

them
and

a writer's pages logically presuppose

involve

them

if

you wish

to refer a student

an express and radical statement that he may

employ as a text to comment on, you find almost

nothing that will do.

In the present case there

are plenty of passages in which, in a general way,

mind
tion,

is

said to be conterminous with brain-func-

but hardly one in which the author thereupon

denies
I

explicitly

the

possibility
is

of immortality.
:

The

best one

have found

perhaps this

"

Not
de-

only consciousness, but every stirring of

life,

pends on functions that go out

nourishment
is

like a flame

when
of

cut

off.

The phenomena

50

Notes

consciousness correspond, element for element, to

the operations of special parts of the brain.
.
.
.

The

destruction of any piece of the apparatus

in-

volves the loss of

operations
life
;

some one

or other of the vital

is

and the consequence

that, as far as

extends,

we have before

us only an organic

function, not a Ding-an-sich, or an expression of

that imaginary entity the Soul.

This fundamental
the denial of the

proposition

carries with

it

immortality of the soul, since, where no soul exists,

its

mortality or immortality cannot be

.
.

raised as

a question.

The

function

fills

its

time,
its

the
whole
.
.
.

flame illuminates and therein gives out

being.

That

is all

and

verily that is enough.

Sensation has

its definite

organic conditions, and,

life, it is

as these decay with the natural decay of

quite impossible for a

mind accustomed

to deal

with realities to suppose any capacity of sensation

as surviving

when

the machinery of our natural

[".

existence has stopped."

Duhring : der Werth

des LebenSf 3d edition, pp. 48, 168.]

Note
The
that I have all along

3,

page

12.

philosophically instructed reader will notice

been placing myself

at the

ordinary dualistic point of view of natural science

and of

common

sense.

From

this point of

view

mental facts

like feelings are

made

of one kind of

Notes
stuff or substance, physical facts of another.

57

An

absolute phenomenism, not believing such a dual-

ism to be ultimate,

may

possibly end

by solving

some

of the problems that are insoluble

in dualistic terms.

when

pro-

pounded

Meanwhile, since the

physiological objection to immortality has arisen

on the ordinary
since

dualistic plane of

thought, and

absolute phenomenism has

as yet said nothing

it is

articulate

enough to count about the matter,

proper that

my

reply to the objection should be

expressed in dualistic terms

course,
if I

leaving

me

free, of

on any

later occasion to

make an

attempt;

wish, to transcend

them and use

different cate-

gories.

Now, on
of our
(i)

the dualistic assumption, one cannot set

more than two really different sorts of dependence

mind on our brain

Either
stxiff
;

The

brain brings into being the very

of consciousness of
else
(2)

which our mind consists

or

Consciousness preexists as an entity, and the

it its

various brains give to

If supposition 2

various special forms.

stuff of

be the true one, and the

mind

preexists, there are, again, only

two ways of
it

conceiving that our brain confers upon

cifically
{a)

the spe-

human

form.

It

may

exist
;

In disseminated particles

and then our brains

are organs of concentration, organs for combining

52

Notes

and massing these into resultant minds of personal

form.
{b)

Or

it

may

exist

In vaster unities (absolute 'world- soul,' or

less)
;

something

and then our brains are organs

into parts

for separating

it

and giving them

finite

form.

There

ar"^

thus three possible theories of the

brain's function,

and no more.

We

may name

them, severally,
I.

2a.
zb.

The theory of production The theory of combination The

theory of separation.

In the text of the lecture, theory

cified
is

number 2b

(spe-

more

particularly as the transmission-theory)

i.

defended against theory number

Theory

2a,

otherwise
theory,
I

known

as

the mind-dust or mind-stuff

is left
it

entirely unnoticed for lack of time.

also leave

uncriticised in these notes, having

it,

already considered
lished

as fully as the so-far pubto call

for,

forms of

it

may seem

in

my

work, 'The Principles of Psychology,

New

York,

Holt

&

Co., 1892, chapter VI.

may

say here,

however, that Professor

ablest

W.

K. Clifford, one of the

champions of the combination-theory, and

'

originator of the useful term

mind-stuff,' considers

that theory incompatible with individual immortality,

and

in his review of Stewart's

and Tait's book.

The Unseen Universe, thus expresses his conviction

:

Notes
"

5^
and precise, and

The laws connecting consciousness with changes

their
.

in the brain are very definite

necessary consequences are not to be evaded.

Consciousness

is

a complex thing

ments, a stream of feelings.

brain
is

made up The action

of eleof the

also a

complex thing made up of elements,

a stream of nerve-messages.

For every feeling

in

consciousness there

is
.

at the
.

same time a nerveis

message

in the brain.

Consciousness
;

not a

simple thing, but a complex

of feelings into a stream.

it is

the combination the

It exists at

same

time with the combination of nerve-messages into a stream.

If individual feeling
if

always goes with

individual nerve-message,

combination or stream

of feelings always goes with stream of nerve-messages, does

it

not follow that,

is

when

the stream of

nerve-messages
will

broken up, the stream of feelings

also, will
it

be broken up
?

no longer form a con-

sciousness

Does

not follow that,

when

the mesfeel-

sages themselves are broken up, the individual

ings will be resolved into
still

simpler elements?

The

force of this evidence

is

not to be weakened

by any number of spiritual bodies.

Inexorable

facts connect our consciousness with this

body that

we know
parts of

and that not merely as a whole, but the

are connected severally with parts of our
If

it

brain-action.

there
it

is

any similar connection

spirit-

with a spiritual body,

only follows that the

^4
ual

Notes
body must die
at the

same time with the

vol.
i.

natu-

ral one."

\Lectjtres

and Essays,

p. 247-49.
ii.

Compare

also passages of similar purport in vol.

pp. 65-70.]

Note
The
ory,
tinctly.

4,

page

13.

theory of production, or materialistic theitself

seldom ventures to formulate

very dis-

Perhaps the following passage from Caas explicit as anything one can find
:

banis
"

is

To

acquire a just idea of the operations from

results,

which thought

we must consider

the brain

as a particular organ specially destined to produce

it
;

just as the

stomach and intestines are destined

filter bile,

to operate digestion, the liver to

rotid

the pa-

and maxillary glands

to prepare the salivary

juices.

The

impressions, arriving in the brain,

;

force

it

to enter into activity

just as the alimenit

tary materials, falling into the stomach, excite

to

a more abundant secretion of gastric juice, and to

the

movements which

result in their
first

own
is

solution.

The

function proper to the

organ

that of re-

ceiving \_percevoir\ each particular impression, of

attaching signs to
pressions, of

it,

of combining the different im-

comparing them with each other, of

;

drawing from them judgments and resolves

as the function of the other organ
is

just

to act

upon
it,

the nutritive substances whose presence excites

Notes
to dissolve them,

^^

and

to assimilate their juices to

our nature.
"

Do
?

you say that the organic movements by

which the brain exercises these functions are un-

known

reply that

the action by which the

nerves of the stomach determine the different operations which constitute digestion, and the
in

manner

which they confer so active a solvent power upon

the gastric juice, are equally hidden from our scrutiny.

We

see the food-materials

fall into this vis;

cus with their

emerge with
stomach
is

own proper qualities we see them new qualities, and we infer that the
the

really

author of this alteration.

Similarly we see the impressions reaching the brain

by the intermediation of the nerves

isolated

they then are

viscus enit

and without coherence.

;

The

ters into action

it

acts

upon them, and soon

emits [renvoie'] them metamorphosed into ideas,

to

which the language of physiognomy or gesture,

or the signs of speech and writing, give an outward

expression.

We
that
it

conclude, then, with an equal

it

certitude, that the brain digests, as

were, the

im-^

pressions

performs organically the secre-

tion of thought."

{Rapports dn Physique

et di^

Moral, 8th

edition, 1844, p. 137.]

It is to the

ambiguity of the word

'

impression

that such an account

owes whatever

plausibility it

may seem

to have.

More

recent forms of the pro-

^6
duction-theory have

Notes

shown a tendency
which the brain
passes.

to liken

thought to a force
'

'

exerts, or to a

'

state

'

into

which
:

it

Herbert Spencer, for

instance, writes
"

equally between them

.

The law of metamorphosis, which holds among

forces.

the physical forces, holds

and the mental

How

this

metamor-

phosis takes place;

tion,

how

a force existing as mo-

heat, or light
;

can become a mode of conpossible for aerial vibrations

sciousness

how

it is

to generate the sensation

we

call

sound, or for the

in the brain

forces liberated
to give
rise
is

by chemical changes
emotion,

to

these

are

mysteries

which

it

impossible to fathom.

But they are

not profounder mysteries than the transformations

of the physical forces into each other."
Principles,
IF't'rsf

2nd Edition,
:

p. 217.]

So Biichner says
as a special
is

" Thinking must be regarded

mode

of general natural motion,

which

as characteristic of the substance of the central

is

nervous elements as the motion of contraction

of the nerve-substance, or the motion of light
is

of

the universal-ether.

That thinking

is

and must

be a

mode

of motion

is

not merely a postulate of

logic,

but a psoposition which has of late been

.
. .

demonstrated experimentally.

Various ingen-

ious experiments have proved that the swiftest

thought that

we

are able to evolve occupies at least

Notes
the eighth or tenth part of a second."

^y
{Force

and

Matter,

New
'

York, 1891,
light,

p. 241.]

Heat and
phorescence
to

being modes of motion, 'phos'

and

incandescence

'

are

phenomena

which consciousness has been likened by the

production-theory:

"As one

sees a metallic rod,

itself,

placed in a glowing furnace, gradually heat

and

as the

undulations of the caloric grow more

and more frequent

pass

successively from the

shades of bright red to dark red (V), to white,

and develope, as
light,

its

temperature

rises,

heat and

so the living

sensitive cells, in presence of

the incitations that solicit them, exalt themselves

progressively as to their

most

interior sensibility,

enter into a phase of erethism, and at a certain

number

of vibrations, set free {digagenf) pain as a

physiological expression of this

same

sensibility
:

superheated to a red-white."
veau, p. 91.]

[J.

Luys

le

Cer-

In a similar vein Mr. Percival Lowell writes

"

When we

have, as
is

we

say,

an idea, what happens

like this
:

itiside

of us

probably something

the

neural current of molecular change passes up the

nerves,

and through the ganglia reaches

cells.
. .

at

last

the cortical

When

it

reaches the cor-

tical cells, it finds

a set of molecules which are not

so accustomed to this special change.

rent encounters resistance,

The

curthis

and

in

overcoming

^8
resistance
it

Notes
causes the cells to glow.

This white-

heating of the cells

sciousness, in short,
cult

we
is

call consciousness.

Con[^Oc-

probably nerve-glow."
p. 311.]

Japan, Boston, 1895,

Note
The
known
transmission
-

5,

page

23.
itself

theory connects

very

naturally

with that whole

tendency of

thought

as transcendentalism.
:

Emerson, for exam-

ple, writes

"

We

lie in

the lap of

immense
its

intelli-

gence, which

makes us
activity.

receivers of

truth

ana

organs of

its

When we
its

discern justice.
of ourselveS;

when we

discern truth,

we do nothing
beams."

but allow a passage to

p. 56.]

\_Self-Relianct^

But

it is

not necessary to identify the con-

sciousness postulated in the lecture, as preexisting

behind the scenes, with the Absolute Mind of

tran-

scendental Idealism, although, indeed, the notion of

it

might lead

in that direction.
is

The

absolute

Mind
lec-

of transcendental Idealism
single World-mind.
ture,

one integral Unit, one

For the purposes of my

however, there might be

many minds behind

is

the scenes as well as one.

All that the transmisthat they should

sion-theory absolutely requires

transcend oiir minds,

which

thus

come from
is

something mental that pre-exists, and

than themselves.

larger

Notes

^g
24.
*

Note
Fechner's
threshold
is little
'

6,

page
of

conception

psycho - physical
'

as connected with his

to English readers.

wave-scheme
I
:

'

known
it,

accordingly

subjoin
"

in his

own words, abridged

cally

The psychically one is connected with a physimany the physically many contract psychi:

cally into
ple.

a one, a simple, or at least a more sim:

Otherwise expressed

the psychically unified

multiplicity

and simple are resultants of physical

the physically manifold gives unified or simple results.

. .

"

The

facts

which are grouped together under

these expressions, and which give them their meaning, are as follows
: .

With our two hemispheres

two

we think
retinae

singly; with the identical parts of our

we

see singly.

The

simplest sensation

of light or sound in us

is

connected with processes

which, since they are started and kept up by outer

oscillations,

must themselves be somehow of an

oscillatory nature, although

we

are wholly unaware

.

of the separate phases

and

oscillations.

" It

is certain,

then, that

some

unified or simmultipli-

ple psychic resultants

city.

depend on physical
it

But, on the other hand,

is

equally certain

that the multiplicities of the physical world

do not

always combine into a simple psychical resultant,

6o

Notes
even when they are compounded in a

no, not
ertheless

single bodily system.

Whether they may not

a unified resultant
is

nevis

combine

into

matter for opinion, since one

always free to ask

whether the entire world, as such, may not have

some
"

unified psychic resultant.

But of any such

.

resultant

we

at least

have no consciousness.

For

brevity's

sake, let us distinguish psycho-

physical continuity and discontinuity from each

other.

Continuity, let us say, takes place so far as

a physical manifold gives a unified or simple psychic resultant

;

discontinuity, so far as

it

gives a
In-

distinguishable multiplicity of such resultants.

asmuch, however,

as,

within the unity of a more

general consciousness or
ness, there
still

phenomenon

of conscious-

maybe

a multiplicity distinguished,

the continuity of a

more general consciousness

does not exclude the discontinuity of particular

phenomena.

"One

of the

most important problems and tasks

of Psycho-physics

now

is

this

to determine the

conditions (Gesichtspunkte) under which the cases

of continuity "

and of discontinuity occur.

it

Whence comes

that different organisms have

separate consciousnesses,
are just as

although

their

bodies

much connected by
latter give

general

Nature

as the parts of a single organism are with each

other,

and these

a single conscious

re-

Notes
sultant
?

6
that the connec-

Of course we can say

tion

is

more intimate between the parts of an

organism than between the organisms of Nature.

But what do we mean by a more intimate connection

?

Can an

absolute difference of result depend

relative
strict
?

on anything so

And

does not Nature as

a whole show as
does,

a connection as any organism

?

yea, one even more indissoluble

comes
it

And

the

same questions come up within each organism.

How

that,

with different nerve-fibres of

touch and sight, we distinguish different spacepoints,

but with one fibre

distinguish nothing,

although the different fibres are connected in the

brain just as
fibre?

We

much as the parts may again call the

are in the single

latter

connection

the more intimate, but then the same

tion will arise again.
"

sort of ques-

Unquestionably the problem which here

lies

before

Psycho
;

physics

cannot

be sharply an-

swered

but
its

we may

establish a general point of

view for
laid

treatment, consistently with what

we
of

down

in a

former chapter on the relations of

particular

more general with more

consciousness."

phenomena
"

[The

earlier

passage

is

here inserted

:]

The

O
'jN

essential principle is this:

That human psychooccur, and

physical activity must exceed a certain intensity

for any waking consciousness at
all to

62
that during the

Notes
waking
state

any particular

specift

cation of the said activity (whether spontaneous or

due

to stimulation),

which

is

capable of occasion-

ing a particular specification of consciousness, must

exceed in

its

turn a certain further degree of inten.

.

sity for the

consciousness actually to arise.

itself

" This state of things (in

a mere fact need-

ing no picture)

may be made

clearer

by an image
of.

or scheme, and also more concisely spoken

Imagine the whole psycho-physical

to be a wave,

activity of

man
be

and the degree of

this

activity to

symbolized by the height of the wave above a horizontal basal line or surface, to which every psycho-

physically active point contributes an ordinate.

The whole form and

this

evolution of the conscious-

ness will then depend on the rising and faUing of

wave; the intensity of the consciousness

at that time;

at

any time on the wave's height

and

the height must always somewhere exceed a certain

limit,

which we

will call a threshold, if

waking con-

sciousness

is to exist at all.

" Let us call this

wave the
t\\t

total wave,

and the

threshold in question

principal threshold."

[Since our various states of consciousness recur,

some

in

long,

some

in short periods],

"we may
and

represent such a long period as that of the slowly

fluctuating condition of our general wakefulness

the general direction of our attention as a

wave

Notes
that slowly changes the place of
call this the
its

6^
summit.
If

we
of

ufider-wave, then the

movements

shorter period, on which the

more

special con-

scious states depend, can be symbolized by wavelets

superposed upon the under-wave, and we can

over-waves.

call these

They

will

cause

all

sorts of

modifications of the under-wave's surface, and the

total

wave

will

be the resultant of both sets of

waves.

"The

greater,

now, the strength of the moveof the oscil-

ments of short period, the amplitude

lations of the psycho-physical activity, the higher

will the crests of the wavelets that represent rise above,

them

and the lower

will their valleys sink be-

low the surface of the under-wave that bears them.

And

these heights and depressions must exceed a

certain limit of quantity

which we may

call

the

upper threshold, before the special mental

which
is

state

correlated with

them can appear

in con-

sciousness " [pp. 454-456].

"

So

far

now

as

we symbolize any system

of psy-

cho-physical activity, to which a generally unified or

principal consciousness corresponds,

by the image

of a total wave rising with

*

its crest

above a certain

threshold,'

we have a means

of schematizing in a
solidarity of
all

single

diagram the physical

these
to-

psycho-physical systems

throughout

Nature,

gether with their pyscho - physical discontinuity.

64

Notes
all

For we need only draw

the waves so that they

run into each other below the threshold, whilst

above
low.

it

they appear distinct, as in the figure be-

be
AB

" In this figure

a, b, c

stand for three organisms,

or rather for the total waves of psycho-physical activity of three

organisms, whilst

represents the

threshold.

In each wave the part that rises above

is

the threshold

an integrated thing, and

is

conlies

nected with a single consciousness.

Whatever

below the threshold, being unconscious, separates

the conscious crests, although of physical connection.
" In general terms
total
:

it

is

still

the

means

wherever a psycho-physical
itself

wave

is

continuous with

above

the

threshold, there

we

find the unity or identity of a

consciousness, inasmuch z& the connection of the

psychical
of the
ever,

phenomena which correspond

to the parts

wave

also appears in consciousness.

total

When-

on the contrary,

waves are disconnected,

threshold, the

or connected only underneath the

corresponding consciousness
nection between
briefly
:

is

broken, and no con-

its

several parts appears.

is

More

consciousness

continuous or discontinu-

Notes

6^

ous, unified or discrete, according as the psycho-

physical total waves that subserve

selves

it

are them-

continuous
.
. .

or

discontinuous

above

the

threshold.

" If, in the diagram,

line of

we should

raise the entire

crests but the

waves so that not only the

valleys appeared above the threshold, then these

latter

would appear only as depressions

in

one

great continuous

wave above the

threshold, and the

discontinuity of the consciousness would be con-

verted into continuity.

this about.

We

of course cannot bring

to-

We

might also squeeze the wave

gether so that the valleys should be pressed up,

and the crests above the threshold flow

into a line

then the discretely-feeling organisms would have

become a

singly

feeling

organism.

This, again,

Man

cannot

voluntarily bring
in

about,

but

it

is

brought about

Man's nature.

His two halves,

;

the right one and the left one, are thus united
the

and

number
that

of segments of radiates

and

articulates

show

more than two parts can be thus psycho-

physically conjoined.

One need

only cut them

asunder,

i.

e.

interpolate another part of nature

between them under the threshold, and they breai:

into

two separately conscious beings."

i860,
vol.
ii.

\_Ele-

mente der Psyfhophysik,

530.]

pp. 526-

One

sees easily how, on Fechner's wave-scheme,

66
a world-soul
sical activity
old,'

Notes

may be

expressed.

All psycho-phy-

being continuous 'below the thresh-

the consciousness might also

if

become
to

contin-

uous
all

the threshold sank low

enough

uncover

the waves.
is,

The

threshold throughout nature

in general

however, very high, so the consciousit is

ness that gets over

of the discontinuous form.

Note

7,

page

25.

See the long series of articles by Mr. Myers in the

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,

beginning in the third volume with automatic writing,

and ending

in

the

latest

volumes with the

higher manifestations of knowledge by mediums.

Mr. Myers's theory of the whole range of pheno-

mena

is,

that our normal consciousness

is

in con-

tinuous connection with a greater consciousness

of which

we do
its

not

know

the extent, and to which

he gives, in

relation to the particular person,

the not very felicitous

name

though no better one

*

has been proposed

of his or her
8,

subliminal self
'

Note

page

29.

See Kritik der reinen Vernunft, second

p. 809.

edition,

Note
I

9,

page

29.

subjoin
:

a few extracts from

Mr.

Schiller's

work

" Matter is an admirably calculated machin-

Notes
ery for regulating,
limiting,
it

6y
and restraining the

consciousness which
rial

encases.

...

If the

matein the

encasement be coarse and simple, as

it

lower organisms,
to

permits only a
it
;

little

intelligence

permeate through
it

if

it

is

delicate
exits,

and comit

plex,

leaves

more pores and

as

were,

for the manifestations of consciousness.

this analogy, then,

... On

we may say

that the lower ani-

mals are

still

entranced in the lower stage of brute

lethargy, while

we have passed

into the higher

phase of somnambulism, which already permits us

strange glimpses of a lucidity that divines the realities of

a transcendent world.
to Materialism
.
:

And
is

this gives the

final

answer
.

it

consists in

showing

in detail

that Materialism

a hysteron prote-

ron, a putting of the cart before the horse,

which

may be

rectified

by

just inverting the connection

between Matter and Consciousness.

Matter

is

not

that which produces Consciousness, but that which

limits
limits
:

it,

and confines

its

intensity within certain

material organization does not construct

consciousness out of arrangements of atoms, but

contracts
it

its

manifestation within the sphere which

permits.

This explanation

admits the con-

nection of Matter

and Consciousness, but contends

must proceed
will
fit

that the course of interpretation

in

the contrary direction.

Thus

it

the facts

alleged in favor of Materialism equally well, be-

68

Notes

sides enabling us to understand facts which Materialism rejected as

'

supernatural.'

It explains the

lower by the
vice versa,

higher, Matter

by

Spirit, instead of

and thereby

attains to an explanation

which
is

is

ultimately tenable, instead of one which

ultimately absurd.

And

it is

an explanation the

possibility of

which no evidence in favor of Mate-

rialism can possibly affect.

For

if,

e. g.,

man

loses consciousness as soon as his brain is injured,

it

is

clearly

as

good an explanation

to

say the

injury to the brain destroyed the

mechanism by

which the manifestation of the consciousness was

rendered possible, as to say that
seat of consciousness.
are facts
If,
it

destroyed the

On

the other hand, there

suits far better.

which the former theory

e.g., as sometimes happens, the man, after a

time,

more or

less,

recovers the faculties of which

the injury to his brain

had deprived him, and that

not in consequence of a renewal of the injured part,

but in consequence of the inhibited functions being

performed by the vicarious action of other

the
easiest explanation

parts,

certainly is

that, after

time, consciousness constitutes the remaining parts

into a

mechanism capable

of acting as a substitute
if

for the lost parts.

And

again,

the

body

is

a me-

chanism for inhibiting consciousness, for preventing the

full

powers of the Ego from being premait

turely actualized,

will

be necessary to invert also

Notes

6g

our ordinary ideas on the subject of memory, and

to account for forgetfulness instead
ory.
It will

of for

mem-

be during
it

life

that

we

drink the bitter

cup of Lethe,

will

be with our brain that we are

enabled to forget.

And

this will serve to explain

not only the extraordinary memories of the drown-

ing and the dying generally, but also the curious

hints which experimental psychology occasionally
affords us that nothing is ever forgotten wholly

and beyond
don,

recall."

[^Riddles

of the Sphinx, Lonff.]

Swan Sonnenschein,
its

1891, p. 293
is

Mr.

Schiller's conception

much more com'

plex in

relations
'

than the simple

theory of

transmission
justice to
it

postulated in

my

lecture,

and to do

the reader should consult the original

work.

Note
I

10,

page

39.

beg the reader

little

to peruse R.

L. Stevenson's
'

magnificent

essay entitled

The Lantern
by

Bearers,' reprinted in the collection entitled Across

the Plains.

The

truth
are

is

that

we

are doomed,

the fact that

we

practical beings with very

to,

limited tasks to attend

and special ideals

to

look

after, to

be absolutely blind and insensible

to the inner feelings,

and

to the

whole inner

sig-

nificance of lives that are different from our own.

Our opinion

of

the worth of such lives

is

abso-

JO
lutely
all.

Notes
wide of the mark, and
unfit to

be counted

at

Note
W. Wundt
:

ii,

page

41.

System der Philosophie, Leipzig,

p. 315.

Engelmann, 1889,

THE END.

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS U. S. ; ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY

H. O.

HOUGHTON AND

CO.

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