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THE LITERARY REMAINS OF HENRY JAMES.


Edited, with an Introduction, by William Jambs.
Portrait.
Crown 8vo, $2.00.

With

HUMAN IMMORTALITY.
tions to the Doctrine.

Two Supposed Objeci6mo, $1.00. %

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &


Boston and

CO.

New York.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 2 vols.


8vo.
New York Henry Holt & Co. 1890.
PSYCHOLOGY. Briefer Course. i2mo. New York:
:

Henry Holt &

Co.

1892.

LIFE WORTH LIVING? i8mo. Philadelphia:


S. B. Weston, 1305 Arch St.
1896.
THE WILL TO BELIEVE, AND OTHER ESSAYS
IS

POPULAR

PHILOSOPHY.
Green
& Co. 1897.
Longmans,
IN

New

York:

HUMAN IMMORTALITY
TWO SUPPOSED OBJECTIONS
TO THE DOCTRINE
BY

WILLIAM JAMES
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
INGERSOLL LECTURER FOR 1898

AND

BOSTON AND NEW YORK


HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
($U

Rtotttibz preys', CamfcriDge

1898

BY WILLIAM JAMBS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

COPYRIGHT,

1898,

THE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP


Extract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll,
who died in Keene, County of Cheshire, New
Hampshire, Jan. 26, i8gj.

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
this subject, "the Immortality of Man," said lecture not to form a part
of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by
first

day of December, on

any Professor or Tutor as part of his usual routine


of instruction, though any such Professor or Tutor
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."

HUMAN IMMORTALITY
T

matter unfortunately too


often seen in history to call for
is

much

remark, that

when

a living

mankind has got itself officially


protected and organized in an institution,
want

of

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

of justice;

we

see

it

in

see this in laws and

we

see

it

courts

in ecclesiasticisms

academies of the fine

arts, in

the medical and other professions, and

even see

Too

it

we

in the universities themselves.

often do the place-holders of such

institutions frustrate the spiritual purpose

which they were appointed to minister,


by the technical light which soon becomes

to

Human

Immortality

the only light in which they seem able to


see the purpose, and the narrow way which
is

the only way in which they can work in

its service.

confess that I thought of this for a

moment when

the Corporation of our Uni-

me

versity invited

spring to give this

last

Immortality is one of
The
the great spiritual needs of man.
churches have constituted themselves the
Ingersoll

official

lecture.

guardians of the need, with the

sult that

some

of

them

accord or to withhold

re-

actually pretend to

it

from the

individ-

by their conventional sacraments,

ual

withhold

which

now

it

at least in the only

shape in

can be an object of desire.


comes the Ingersoll lectureship.
it

And
Its

high-minded founder evidently thought that


our University might serve the cause he
had at heart more liberally than the
churches do, because a university
so

by

much

less

trammeled by

impossibilities

persons.

And

in

is

a body

traditions

and

regard to choice of

yet one of the

first

things

Human

which the university does

man

like

Immortality

to appoint a

is

him who stands before you,

tainly not because

thusiastic

he

is

known

cer-

as an en-

messenger of the future

life,

burning to publish the good tidings to his


fellow-men, but apparently because he is
a university

Thinking

official.

in this way, I felt at first as

if

ought to decline the appointment. The


whole subject of immortal life has its prime
I have to conroots in personal feeling.
I

my own

fess that

personal feeling about

immortality has never been of the keenest


order, and that, 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

hereafter

is

for

whom

life

a pungent craving, and the

thought of it an obsession and in whom


keenness of interest has bred an insight
;

into the relations of the subject that


less penetrated with the
attain.

Some

mystery of

of these people are

no one
it

can

known

Human

4
to me.

They

Immortality

are not official personages

they do not speak as the scribes, but as

And

having direct authority.

anywhere a prophet clad


not a uniformed

official,

surely,

in goatskins,

if

and

should be called to

give inspiration, assurance, and instruction,


it

would seem

Office, at

to

any

be here, on such a theme.

rate,

ought not to displace

spiritual calling.

And
which

yet, in spite of
I

could not avoid making,

here to-night,
I

am.

these reflections,

am

all

uninspired and

am

official

as

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 to give the Ingersoll


lecture hereafter.

Meanwhile,

and deadening as the remarks

all

negative

mere

of a

professional psychologist like myself

may

be in comparison with the

they

will give,
tion, that

am

those

sure,

vital lessons

upon mature

who have the

reflec-

responsibility

of administering the Ingersoll foundation

Human

Immortality

bound

to let the

are in duty

kinds of

official

as well.

The

mous
'

most various

personages take their turn


subject is really an enor-

At the back

subject.

of Mr. Alger's

Critical History of the Doctrine of a

ture Life,' there

than
it is

five

thousand

more

a bibliography of

is

titles of

Fu-

books in which

Our Corporation cannot think


the single lecture it must think

treated.

only of

whole series of lectures in futuro.


Single lectures, however emotionally inspired and inspiring they may be, will not

of the

be enough.

The

must remedy

lectures

each other, so that out of the series there


shall

emerge a

collective literature

of the importance of

worthy
This
the theme.

unquestionably was what the founder had


in mind.
He wished the subject to be

turned over in

all

possible

that at last results might ponderate

moniously in the true direction.


this long perspective, the

dation

calls for

labor.

har-

Seen

in

Ingersoll foun-

nothing so

minute division of

so

aspects,

much

as for

Orators must

Human

Immortality

take their turn, and prophets

but narrow

specialists as well.

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 of truth, seen from
point of view, that will

his

accrete with truths brought

remain and

by the

others,

have been a good appointment.


In the hour that lies before us, then,

his will

shall seek to justify

offering

what

my
seem to me

appointment by
two such grains

two points well fitted, if I am not


mistaken, to combine with anything that

of truth,

other lecturers

may

bring.

These points are both

of

them

nature of replies to objections, to


ties

its

difficul-

which our modern culture finds

old notion of a
that

in the

old

am

hereafter,

difficulties

sure rob the notion of

power

tifically

life

to

draw

cultivated

audience belong.

belief,

circles

to

in the

much

of

in the scien-

which

this

Human
The

Immortality

of these difficulties

first

to the absolute

dependence

we know

relative

is

of our spiritual

upon the

brain.

life,

as

One

hears not only physiologists, but num-

bers of laymen

it

here,

who

read the popular

ence books and magazines, saying

How

us,

we

can

believe in

when Science has once

for

all

sci-

about

hereafter

life

attained to

all

proving, beyond possibility of escape, that

our inner

mous
ter

'

life

a function

is

the

material,

of

that

'gray mat-

so-called

of our cerebral convolutions

How

can the function possibly persist after


organ has undergone decay ?

Thus
is

fa-

physiological psychology

is

its

what

supposed to bar the way to the old

faith.

And

it

now

is

psychologist that

me

question with

as a

physiological

ask you to look at the


little

more

closely.

indeed true that physiological science has come to the conclusion cited ;
It is

and we must confess that


has only carried out a

common

belief

of

in so
little

mankind.

doing she

farther the

Every one

Human

knows

Immortality

that arrests of brain development

occasion

imbecility,

that

on

blows

the

head abolish memory or consciousness, and


that brain-stimulants and poisons change

The

the quality of our ideas.

and pathologists have only

physiologists,

shown

generally admitted fact of a

this

dependence to be

What

anatomists,

detailed

and minute.

the laboratories and hospitals have

been teaching us is not only that


thought in general is one of the brain's
lately

but

functions,

that

the

various

special

forms of thinking are functions of special


portions of the brain.

ing of things seen,


lutions

heard,

that are
it

it is

are think-

our occipital convo-

active

when

of

things

a certain portion of our tem-

is

poral lobes

it is

When we

when

of things to be spoken,

one of our frontal convolutions.

Pro-

fessor Flechsig of Leipzig (who perhaps

more than any one may claim

made the
in

to

have

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.

could easily show you these

had here a picture

of

the

regions

if

brain. 1

Moreover, the diminished or exag-

gerated associations of what this author


calls

the Korperfiihlsphare with the other

according to him, for


the complexion of our emotional life, and

regions, accounts,

eventually decides whether one shall be a


callous brute or criminal,

an unbalanced

sentimentalist, or a character accessible to

and yet well poised. Such special


opinions may have to be corrected yet so

feeling,

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


lieve them.

The assurance

tion will go on to establish

and more minutely

is

contemporary research.
of our

to

be-

that observa-

them ever more

the inspirer of

And

all

almost any

young psychologists will tell you


that only a few belated scholastics, or pos-

Human

io
sibly

Immortality

some crack-brained theosophist or

psychical

researcher, can

ing back, and

still

phenomena might

be found hold-

talking as
as

exist

if

mental

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.

During

this

hour

wish you also to accept it as a postulate,


whether you think it incontrovertibly esI

tablished or not

me

with

so I

beg you to agree

to-day in subscribing to the great

psycho-physiological formula

Thought

is

a function of the brain.

The

question

logically
tality

is,

then,

compel us

Ought

it

Does

this doctrine

to disbelieve in

immor-

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 scientific truth

Most persons imbued with what one may


call

the puritanism of science would feel

Human

Immortality

themselves bound to answer this question


with a yes.
logically

wise,

it

any medically or psycho-

If

bred young scientists feel otheris

probably in consequence of that

incoherency of mind of which the majority


of mankind happily enjoy the privilege.

At one hour

another they are


men, with the will to

scientists, at

Christians or

common

burning hot in their breasts and, holding thus the two ends of the chain, they

live

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
is

This, then,
ity;
is

the objection to immortal-

and the next thing

to try to

lieve that

it

rent power.

consequence

make

plain to

has in strict
I

in order for

you why I belogic no deter-

must show you that the


not coercive, as

is

monly imagined and


;

soul's life (as here

that,

below

me

is

fatal

com-

even though our


it is

revealed to

Human

12
us)

may be

Immortality

in literal strictness the function

of a brain that perishes, yet

it is

not at

all

impossible, but on the contrary quite possible, that

the brain

the

may

life

itself is

The supposed

still

continue

when

dead.

impossibility of

its

contin-

uing comes from too superficial a look at


the admitted fact of functional dependence.

The moment we

more

inquire

closely into

the notion of functional dependence, and

ask ourselves, for example,

how many

kinds

dependence there may be, we


immediately perceive that there is one kind

of functional

at least that does not exclude a life here-

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 imaginable kind. 3

When

the physiologist

his science cuts off all

pronounces the

who

thinks that

hope of immortality

phrase,

"

Thought

is

function of the brain," he thinks of the

matter just as he thinks when he says,

Human
"Steam
"

Light

cuit,"

"

is
is

13

Immortality

a function of the tea-kettle,"

a function of the electric

Power

is

a function of the

cir-

moving

In these latter cases the sev-

waterfall."

eral material objects

have the function of

inwardly creating or engendering their


effects, and their function must be called
productive function.

must be with the


sciousness in

Just

brain.

its interior,

so,

he thinks,

it

Engendering con-

much

as

it

engenders cholesterin and creatin and carbonic


acid, its relation to

our soul's

life

must

also

be called productive function. Of course,


if such production be the function, then

when

the organ perishes, since the produc-

no longer continue, the soul must


Such a conclusion as this is
surely die.
indeed inevitable from that particular con-

tion can

4
ception of the facts.

But

world of physical nature productive function of this sort is not the


in the

only kind of function with which

We

we

are

have also releasing or permissive function and we have transmis-

familiar.

sive function.

Human

14

The

Immortality

trigger of a crossbow has a releas-

ing function

it

removes the obstacle that

holds the string, and lets the


to

its

falls

bow

fly

back

So when the hammer

natural shape.

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, we have transmissive
function.
ter

how

The energy
produced,

and limited

is

in color,

of

light,

no mat-

by the glass sifted


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

open successively the various pipes and let


the wind in the air-chest escape in various
ways.

The

voices of the various pipes are

constituted by the columns of air trembling


as they emerge.

But the

air is

not engen-

dered in the organ.

The organ

distinguished from

its air-chest, is

proper, as

only an

Human

Immortality

15

apparatus for letting portions of

upon the world

it

loose

in these peculiarly limited

shapes.

My

thesis

now

is

this

that,

think of the law that thought


of the brain,

we

is

when we
a function

are not required to think

of productive function only

we

are entitled

also to consider permissive or transmissive

And

function.

this the ordinary psycho-

physiologist leaves out of his account.

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

the furniture of

earth and choir of heaven

should turn

out to be a mere surface-veil of pheno-

mena, hiding and keeping back the world


of

realities.

genuine

foreign neither to

philosophy.
realities

tiously

common

Common

behind the

and

Such a supposition

sense nor to

sense believes in

veil

idealistic

is

even too supersti-

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 dome,

opaque enough

at all times to the full su-

per-solar blaze, could at certain times

places

grow

less so,

and

let certain

and

beams

pierce through into this sublunary world.

These beams would be so many finite rays,


so to speak, of consciousness, and they would
vary in quantity and quality as the opacity

Only at particular times


and places would it seem that, as a matter
of fact, the veil of nature can grow thin and
varied in degree.

rupturable enough for such effects to occur.

But

in those places gleams,

however

finite

and unsatisfying, of the absolute life of the


universe, are from time to time vouchsafed.

Glows

of feeling, glimpses of insight,

streams of knowledge and perception


into our finite world.

Admit now

and
float

that our brains are such thin

Human
and

half

What

Immortality

transparent

ly

the

in

places

veil.

happen ? Why, as the white


radiance comes through the dome, with all
will

and distortion imprinted


on it by the glass, or as the air now comes
through my glottis determined and limited
sorts of staining

in its force

and quality of

by the peculiarities
which form its gate
into

of egress

the

reality,

vibrations

of those vocal chords

my personal voice,

matter of

its

and shape

it

even so the genuine


life

of souls as

it

is

break through our several brains into this world in all sorts of
in its fullness, will

restricted forms,
tions

and with

and queernesses that characterize our

finite individualities

here below.

According to the state


brain finds
tiveness
fall.

full

the imperfec-

all

itself,

may

the barrier of

also

which the
its

be supposed to

It sinks so low,

activity,

in

obstrucrise

when the brain

is

or
in

that a comparative flood of

energy pours over. At other times,


only such occasional waves of thought as

spiritual

heavy sleep permits get by.

And when

Human

Immortality

finally a brain stops acting altogether,

or

decays, that special stream of conscious-

ness which

from

it

subserved

will

this natural world.

vanish entirely

But the sphere

of being that supplied the consciousness

would

be intact

still

and

more

in that

world with which, even whilst here,


the consciousness

continuous,

ways unknown

You

see that, on

our soul's

none the

life,

as

all

was

might, in

still.

these suppositions,

we here know

it,

less in literal strictness

the brain.

function of

be

to us, continue

it

real

The

be the

brain would

the independent variable,

would vary dependently on

would

it.

the

mind

But such

dependence on the brain for this natural


life would in no wise make immortal life
might be quite compatible
with supernatural life behind the veil hereit

impossible,

after.

As

I said,

then, the fatal consequence

not coercive, the

is

conclusion which mate-

rialism draws being due solely to its one-

sided

way

of taking the

word

'function.'

Human

19

Immortality

And, whether we care or not for immortality in itself, we ought, as mere critics doing
police

duty

among

the vagaries of man-

kind, to insist on the illogicality of a denial

based on the
alternative.

flat

ignoring of a palpable

How much

more ought we

insist, as lovers of truth,


is

when

that of such a vital hope of

to

the denial

mankind

In strict logic, then, the fangs of cerebralistic materialism are

My words

drawn.

ought consequently already to exert a reYou may


leasing function on your hopes.
believe henceforward,

whether you care to

profit

by the permission or

this

is

a very abstract argument,

will

help

its

But, as

not.

effect to say a

think

it

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

Human

20
is it,

you may

Immortality

ask, but a foolish

metaphor ?
how can such a function be ima-

And
gined

the

Is n't

common

notion vastly simpler

not conscious-

Is

materialistic

ness really more comparable to a sort of


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

Is

it

own

its

not more rigorously

scientific to treat the brain's function as

function of production

The immediate

reply

that,

is,

if

we

are

talking of science positively understood,

function can

mean nothing more than bare

When

concomitant variation.

the brain-

one way, consciousness changes in another when the cur-

activities

change

in

rents

pour through the

consciousness sees things

the

lower

frontal

etc.

region,

says things to itself;

goes to sleep,

occipital

when through
consciousness

when they
In

lobes,

stop, she

strict science,

we

can only write down the bare fact of concomitance and all talk about either pro;

duction or transmission, as the

mode

of

Human
taking place,

is

21

Immortality

pure superadded hypothe-

and metaphysical hypothesis at that,


for we can frame no more notion of the
sis,

details

on the one

the other.

Ask

for

alternative

than on

any indication
of

of the

transmission

or

exact process

either

of production,

and Science confesses her

imagination to be bankrupt.

She

has, so

not the least glimmer of a conjecture


not even a bad verbal
or suggestion,

far,

Ignoramus,
metaphor or pun to offer.
ignorabimtts, is what most physiologists, in
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 physiosomelogy, is the absolute world-enigma,


thing so paradoxical and abnormal as to be
a stumbling block to Nature, and almost a
self-contradiction.

duction of steam in
conjectural

insight,

mode of proa tea-kettle we have

Into the

for

the

terms

that

change are physically homogeneous one


with another, and we can easily imagine

Human

22

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 altogether; and as far as our understanding
goes, it is as great a miracle as if we said,

Thought
'

is

'

spontaneously generated,' or

created out of nothing.'

The theory

of

production

is

therefore

not a jot more simple or credible in

itself

than any other conceivable theory.

It is

only a

need

little

more

do, therefore,

popular.
if

All that one

the ordinary materi-

should challenge one to explain how


the brain can be an organ for limiting and
alist

determining to a certain form a consciousness elsewhere produced,


a tu quo que,

how

is

to retort with

asking him in turn to ex-

can be an organ for producing


consciousness out of whole cloth.
For

plain

it

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

from

23

Immortality

positive superiorities, quite

apart

connection with the immortality

its

question.

how

Just

may be
ble

the process

carried

of

transmission

on, is indeed

unimagina-

but the outer relations, so to speak,

Con-

of the process, encourage our belief.

process does not have

sciousness in this

be generated de novo in a vast number


It exists already, behind the
of places.

to

scenes, coeval with the world.

The

trans-

mission-theory not only avoids in this

multiplying miracles, but

it

puts

way

itself in

touch with general idealistic philosophy


better than the production-theory does.
should always be reckoned a good thing
when science and philosophy thus meet. 5
It

It

puts

itself also in

ception of a

touch with the con-

'threshold,'

a word with

which, since Fechner wrote his book called


'

Psychophysik,' the so-called


'

logy

has rung.

new Psycho-

Fechner imagines

as the

condition of consciousness a certain kind


of psycho-physical

movement, as he terms

Human

24

Immortality

Before consciousness can come, a cer-

it.

activity in the

tain degree of

must be reached.
is

'

called the

This requisite degree

threshold

of the threshold varies

cumstances
falls,

as

it

in

may

states

grow conscious

when

of

'

it

rises, as in

ness sinks

in

but the height

under different

rise or

things
at

cir-

When

fall.

of great

be unconscious

should

movement

it

we
which we

lucidity,
of

other times

drowsiness, conscious-

This rising and

amount.

lowering of a psycho physical threshold


exactly conforms to our notion of a per-

manent obstruction
of consciousness,
in our brains,
less.

which obstruction may,

grow

alternately greater or

The
in

the transmission

to

transmission-theory also puts

touch with a whole

class

of

itself

experi-

ences that are with difficulty explained by


the production-theory.
I refer to those obscure and exceptional phenomena reported
at

all

times throughout

which the

'

psychical

human

history,

researchers,'

with

Human

Immortality

25

Mr. Frederic Myers at their head, are do7


such pheing so much to rehabilitate
;

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

of mediumistic capacities, to say nothing

of

still

more exceptional and incomprehen-

sible things.

If all

our

human thought be

a function of the brain, then of course,

any of these things are

own mind some of them

and to

facts,

are facts,

if

my

we may

not suppose that they can occur without


preliminary brain-action. But the ordinary
production-theory of consciousness

up with a peculiar notion


action can occur,
all

of

how

is

knit

brain-

that notion being that

brain-action, without exception, is

due to

a prior action, immediate or remote, of the


bodily sense-organs on the brain.
action

Such

makes the brain produce sensations

and mental images, and out of the sensations


and images the higher forms of thought and

26

Human

knowledge

in their turn are framed.

transmissionists,

Immortality

we

be the condition of
Sense-action

must admit

this to

our usual thought.

all

what lowers the brain-bar-

is

voice and aspect, for instance,

My

rier.

also

As

upon your ears and eyes your brain


thereupon becomes more pervious, and
strike

an awareness on your part of what I say


and who I am slips into this world from the
world behind the
terious

But, in the mys-

veil.

phenomena

to

which

I allude, it is

often hard to see where the sense-organs

can come

A medium, for example, will

in.

show knowledge
fairs

which

it

of his sitter's private af-

seems impossible he should

have acquired through sight or hearing, or


inference therefrom.
Or you will have an
apparition of

some one who

is

now dying

hundreds of miles away. On the production - theory one does not see from what
sensations such odd bits of knowledge are

produced.

On

the transmission

they don't have to be


exist

ready-

made

in

theory,

'

produced,'

they

the transcendental

Hitman Immortality
world, and

that

all

mal lowering

is

needed

27

is

an abnor-

of the brain-threshold to let

them through.

In cases of conversion, in

providential leadings, sudden mental heal-

seems to the subjects them-

ings, etc.,

it

selves

the experience as

of

a power

if

from without, quite different from the

ordi-

nary action of the senses or of the senseled mind,

came

into their

life,

as

if

the

suddenly opened into that greater


in which it has its source.
The word

latter
life

'influx,'

used in Swedenborgian

describes this impression of


or

new

a tide.

willingness,

circles, well

new

insight,

sweeping over us

like

All such experiences, quite para-

and meaningless on the productiontheory, fall very naturally into place on


the other theory. We need only suppose
doxical

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 mystery on any terms.

Human

28

Add, then,

this

mission-theory,
well aware that

Immortality

advantage to the transan advantage which I am

some

of

you

will not rate

and also add the advantage of


very high,
not conflicting with a life hereafter, and I
hope you

many

will

agree with

me

that

it

points of superiority to the


It is a

familiar theory.

has

more

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
to the soul's life in this world of sense

after death,

it is

said,

and becomes a purely

the soul

but

is

set free,

intellectual

and non-

Kant expresses this idea


come singularly close to those

appetitive being.
in terms that

of our transmission-theory.

the body, he says,

may

The

death of

indeed be the end

of the sensational use of our mind, but only


the
of the intellectual use. " The

beginning
body," he continues, "would thus be, not
the cause of our thinking, but merely a

Human

2g

Immortality

condition restrictive thereof, and, although


essential to our sensuous

sciousness,

it

and animal con-

may be regarded

peder of our pure spiritual

life.

as an im8

And

in

a recent book of great suggestiveness and

power, less well-known as yet than


I

serves,

by Mr.

mean

F. C. S.

'

But

is

Schiller of

Oxford, late

the transmission-

defended at some length. 9

still,

way does

de-

Riddles of the Sphinx,'

of Cornell University,

theory

it

you

will ask, in

what positive

this theory help us to realize our

immortality in imagination

wish to keep

is

What we

all

just these individual restric-

and pecuthat define us to ourselves and oth-

tions, these selfsame tendencies


liarities

ers,

and constitute our

identity, so called.

Our finitenesses and

limitations

our personal essence

seem

to

be

and when the

finiting

organ drops away, and our several

spirits

revert to their original source and resume


their unrestricted condition, will they then

be anything like those sweet streams of


feeling which we know, and which even now

Human

jo

Immortality

our brains are sifting out from the great


reservoir for our enjoyment here below

Such questions are truly living questions,


and surely they must be seriously discussed
by future

lecturers

foundation.

upon

hope, for

than one such lecturer

my

this

Ingersoll

part, that

more

will penetratingly

the conditions of our immortal-

discuss

how much we may lose,


and how much we may possibly gain, if
and

ity,

tell

us

should be changed

finiting outlines

its

determination

If all

it

losophers say,
loss of

some

is

negation, as the phi-

might well prove that the

of the particular determina-

which the brain imposes would not


appear a matter for such absolute regret.
tions

But

into these

higher and more tran-

scendental matters
this occasion

and

I
I

refuse to enter upon

proceed, during the

remainder of the hour, to treat of

ond
is,

my

sec-

Fragmentary and negative it


first one has been.
Yet, between

point.

as

my

them, they do give to our belief in immortality a freer wing.

Human

Immortality

31

second point is relative to the incredible and intolerable number of beings


which, with our modern imagination, we

My

must believe
be

ity

true.

this, too, is

my

to
I

be immortal,

immortal-

if

cannot but suspect that

a stumbling-block to

present audience.

bling-block which

And

it

is

many

of

a stum-

should thoroughly like

to clear away.
It

I fancy,

is,

a stumbling-block of alto-

gether modern origin, due to the strain

upon the quantitative imagination which


recent scientific theories, and the moral
feelings

consequent

them,

upon

have

brought in their train.


For our ancestors the world was a small,

and
of

it

compared with our modern sense


a comparatively snug

affair.

thousand years at most it had lasted.


its history a few particular human
roes, kings, ecclesiarchs,

and

Six

In
he-

saints stood

very prominent, overshadowing the


imagination with their claims and merits,
forth

so that not only they,

but

all

who were

Human

32

Immortality

associated familiarly with them, shone with

which even the Almighty, it


was supposed, must recognize and respect.
a glamour

These prominent personages and their associates were the nucleus of the immortal
group the minor heroes and saints of
minor sects came next, and people with;

out distinction formed a sort of background

and

The whole scene of eterleast, as Heaven and not

filling in.

nity (so far, at

the

nether place was

concerned

in

it)

never struck to the believer's fancy as an

overwhelmingly

crowded

large

or

inconveniently

One might

stage.

call this

view of immortality

aristocratic

an

the im-

speak of Heaven exclusively,


for an immortality of torment need not
mortals

now concern

were always an
select and manageable number.
us

But, with our

new

own

quantitative

now

generation, an entirely

imagination

over our western world.


evolution

elite,

has swept

The theory

of

requires us to suppose a far

vaster scale of times, spaces, and

numbers

Human

33

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. Bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh are these half -brutish pre-

Girdled about with the

historic brothers.

immense darkness

we

of this mysterious uni-

they were born and


Given over
died, suffered and struggled.
verse even as

to fearful crime

are,

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-imminent destruction the torch of life, which,

34

Human

Immortality

thanks to

them,

now

How

for us.

ual

the world

lights

small indeed seem individ-

when we

distinctions

back on

look

these overwhelming numbers of

human

beings panting and straining under the


that

of

pressure

inessential

in

vital

want

the eyes of

And how

God must be

the small surplus of the individual's merit,


in the vast ocean of the

swamped

as

common

merit of mankind,

it is

dumbly and

undauntedly doing the fundamental duty


and living the heroic life
We grow hum!

ble

and reverent as we contemplate the

prodigious spectacle.

and

distinctions,

common

we

Not our
feel

differences

no, but our

animal essence of patience under

suffering and enduring effort

must be what

redeems us in the Deity's sight.


mense compassion and kinship
heart.

An

An

im-

fill

the

immortality from which these

inconceivable

billions

of

fellow

strivers

should be excluded becomes an irrational


idea for us.
sonal

That our superiority

refinement

or

in

religious

in per-

creed

Human

Immortality

35

should constitute a difference between ourselves and our


fit

messmates

at life's banquet,

to entail such a consequential difference

of destiny as eternal life

them torment

and for

hereafter, or death with the

beasts that perish,

a notion too absurd

is

to be considered serious.

Nay, more, the


the wild ones

very beasts themselves


at

for us,

are leading the heroic

any rate

And

at all times.

life

modern mind,

ex-

panded as some minds are by cosmic emo-

by the great

tion,

evolutionist vision

of

universal continuity, hesitates to draw the


line

even at man.

forever,

why

tient brutes
ity, if

we

not

any creature

If
all

why

So that a

are to indulge

nowadays a scale

lives

not the pa-

faith in immortalit,

demands

of us

of representation so stu-

pendous that our imagination faints before


it, and our personal feelings refuse to rise

up and face the

task.

are swept along to

is

The

supposition

we

too vast, and, rather

than face the conclusion, we abandon the

premise from which

it

starts.

We

give up

Human

36
our
that

own immortality sooner than

believe

the hosts of Hottentots and Aus-

all

tralians that

should share
Life

Immortality

have been, and


it

shall ever be,

with us in sectda seculorum.

a good thing on a reasonably copi-

is

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

Having myself,
scientific culture,

it.

as a recipient of

gone through a subjec-

tive experience like this, I


it

must

also have

many, perhaps
to

my

that

words.

it

modern

sure that

been the experience of

of most, of

But

feel

you who

listen

have also come to see

harbors a tremendous fallacy

and,

since the noting of the fallacy has set

own mind

my

free again, I have felt that one

might render to my listeners tonight would be to point out where it lies.


It is the most obvious fallacy in the
service

world, and the only

wonder

is

world should not see through

all

the

It is

the

that

it.

Human

37

Immortality

result of nothing but an invincible blind-

ness from which

we

an insensibility

suffer,

to the inner significance of alien lives,

a conceit that would project our

own

and

inca-

pacity into the vast cosmos, and measure

the wants of the Absolute by our

Our

puny needs.

own

christian ancestors dealt

with the problem more easily than we do.


We, indeed, lack sympathy but they had
;

a positive antipathy for these alien

and they naively supposed the


have the antipathy, too. Being,

creatures,

Deity to
as

they were,

felt

our forefathers

heathen,'

a certain sort of joy in thinking that

their Creator
fuel

human

for

the

made them
fires

much mere
Our culture

as so

of hell.

has humanized us beyond that point, but

we cannot

yet conceive

them

as our

com-

We have,

as

the phrase goes, no use for them, and

it

rades in the fields of heaven.

oppresses us to think of their survival.

Take, for

Which

of

instance,

all

you here,

my

the

Chinamen.

friends, sees

any

fitness in their eternal perpetuation unre-

Human

38

duced in 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

but as for the

surpassing numbers,
in

only imagine

what comes

rest,

humanin

such

and what you can


abstract

this

summary

manner, must be something of


which the units, you are sure, can have no
collective

God

individual preciousness.
think, can have

you

himself,

no use for them.

An

im-

mortality of every separate specimen must

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

it

to you.

is

So,

engulfing the whole subject in a sort of

mental giddiness and


along, first

you drift
doubting that the mass can be

immortal, then losing

nausea,

all

assurance in the

immortality of your

own

precious as you

the while feel and

ize the latter

all

to be.

the attitude of mind of

particular person,

This, I

some

am

of

real-

sure, is

you before

me.

But

is

not such an attitude due to the

Human
veriest lack

tion

You

kinsmen

39

Immortality

and dearth

of

your imagina-

take these swarms of alien

as they are

for you : an external

picture painted on your retina, represent-

ing a crowd oppressive by

As

confusion.

its

vastness and

they are for you, so you

think they positively and absolutely


feel

no

there
while,

them, you say therefore


no call for them. But all the

call for

is

are.

beyond

externality which

this

is

your way of 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
these grotesque or even repulsive aliens is
animated by an inner joy of living as hot
or hotter than that which you feel beating
The sun rises and
in your private breast.
beauty beams to light his path. To miss
the inner joy of him, as Stevenson says, is
to miss the

whole

of him. 10

Not a being

Human

40

Immortality

of the countless throng is there

tinued

life is

not called

for,

whose con-

and

called for

by the consciousness that animates the being's form. That you neither
intensely,

realize

nor understand nor

you have no use for

it,

circumstance.

irrelevant

call for

it,

that

an absolutely
That you have

is

a saturation-point of interest tells us no-

thing of the interests that absolutely are.

The

Universe,

with every

which her resources

same time a

call

nowhere

the entity

entity

create, creates at the

for that entity,

appetite for its continuance,


if

living

and an

creates

it,

else, at least

within the heart of

It is

absurd to suppose,

itself.

simply because our private power of sympathetic vibration with other lives gives
out so soon, that in the heart of infinite

being

itself

plethora,
is

not as

there can be such a thing as

or glut, or supersaturation.
if

It

there were a bounded room

where the minds

in

possession

had to

move up or make place and crowd together


to accommodate new occupants. Each new

Human
mind brings

its

Immortality

own

of space along with

habit

41

edition of the universe


it,

its

own room

to in-

and these spaces never crowd each

the space of

other,

example, in no

way

The

of

amount

my

imagination, for

interferes with yours.

consciousness

possible

seems to be governed by no law analogous


to that of the so-called conservation of en-

When one
ergy in the material world.
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

his

Professor

System

Wundt,

of Philosophy,'

in

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. 11

There seems no formal

limit

to the positive increase of being in spiritual

respects

whenever

it

and since

spiritual being,

comes, affirms

and craves continuance, we may


literally say, regardless of

expands
justly and

itself,

the defects of

Human

42
our

own

Immortality

private sympathy, that the supply

of individual life in the universe can never


possibly,

however

become,

exceed the

mand

immeasurable

beings

itself

supplied

may

The dethe moment

demand.

for that supply

the supply

it

is

there

comes into being,

demand

their

for the

own

con-

tinuance.
I

of

speak, you see, from the point of view

the other individual beings,

all

izing

real-

and enjoying inwardly their own exIf

istence.

we

We

stop there.

are pantheists,

we can

need, then, only say that

through them, as through so many diversified channels of expression, the eternal


Spirit of the Universe affirms
its

own

we can go
result.

But

infinite life.

and

we

if

realizes

are theists,

without altering the

farther

God, we can then

say,

has so

in-

exhaustible a capacity for love that his call

and need

is

for a

mulation of created
faint or

literally
lives.

grow weary,

the increasing supply.

as

we

endless accu-

He

can never

should, under

His scale

is infinite

Human

His sympathy can never

in all things.

know

43

Immortality

satiety or glut.

hope now that you agree with me


that the tiresomeness of an over -peopled
I

a purely subjective and illusory


notion, a sign of human incapacity, a rem-

Heaven

is

nant of the old narrow-hearted aristocratic


"

creed.

Revere the Maker,

lift

thine eye

up to his style and manners of the sky,"


and you will believe that this is indeed a
democratic universe, in which your paltry

Was

exclusions play no regulative part.

your taste consulted in the peopling of this


globe ? How, then, should it be consulted

God ?

as to the peopling of the vast City of

Let us put our hand over our mouth, like


Job, and be thankful that in our personal
littleness

The Deity

we

ourselves

are here

that suffers us,

at

we may be

all.

sure,

can suffer many another queer and wondrous and only half-delightful thing.

For
goes, I

grew

my own

part, then, so far as logic

am willing

that every leaf that ever

in this world's forests

and rustled

in

Human

44

Immortality

the breeze should become immortal.


purely a question of fact

It is

are the leaves

Abstract quantity, and the abstract needlessness in our eyes of so much


not

so, or

reduplication of things so

much

no connection with the subject.


ness and number and generic
are only

ing;

manners

of our finite

and, considered

alike,

For

big-

similarity

way of

in itself

have

think-

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

verse the liberty to be at

Non-entity that

grant to a uni-

all,

in place of the

might conceivably have

reigned.

The

heart of being can have no exclu-

sions akin to those

hearts set up.

which our poor

The

other lives exceeds

all

little

inner significance of

our powers of sym-

pathy and insight. If we feel a significance in our own life which would lead us
spontaneously to claim its perpetuity, let
us be at least tolerant of like claims made

Human
by other

lives,

unideal they

Immortality

45

however numerous, however

may seem

to us to be.

Let

us at any rate not decide adversely on our

own

claim,

whose grounds we

feel directly,

because we cannot decide favorably on the


alien claims, whose grounds we cannot feel
at

lay

all.

That would be

down the law

letting

to sight.

blindness

NOTES
Note
The gaps between

i,

page

9.

the centres

motor and sensory

recognized as

first

gaps which form

in

man two
are thus

thirds of the surface of the hemispheres

positively interpreted

by Flechsig

centres strictly so called.

und

Seele, 2te

ture;

and the

month

fibres

Gehirn

They

p. 23.]

have,

type of microscopic struc-

connected with them are a

later in gaining their

are the fibres

When

common

his

[Compare

Ausgabe, 1896,

he considers, a

as intellectual

medullary sheath than

connected with the other centres.

disordered, they are the starting-point of the

insanities, properly so called.

Already Wernicke

had defined insanity as disease of the organ of


ciation, without so definitely pretending to

scribe the latter


chiatrie, 1894, p. 7.

compare

his

asso-

circum-

Grundriss der Psy-

Flechsig goes so far as to say

that he finds a difference of

symptoms

in general par-

alytics according as their frontal or their


rior association-centres are diseased.

more poste-

Where

it

is

Notes

48

the frontal centres, the patient's consciousness of self

more deranged than

is

Where

objective relations.
tive regions suffer,

his perception of purely

is

the posterior associa-

rather the patient's system

it is

of objective ideas that undergoes disintegration


(Joe.

there

cit.

is

In rodents Flechsig thinks

pp. 89-91).

a complete absence of association-centres,

In car-

the sensory centres touch each other.

nivora and the lower monkeys the latter centres


still

Only

exceed the

association -centres

in the katarhinal apes

in volume.

do we begin to

find

anything like the human type (p. 84).


In his little pamphlet, Die Grenzen geistiger

Gesundheit tind Krankheit, Leipzig, 1896, Flechsig ascribes the moral insensibility which is found
certain criminals

in

a diminution of internal

to

pain-feeling due to degeneration

extensive

fuhlsphare,' that

so

named by Munk,

all

the emotions

[Gehirn u?id

in

of the

anterior

'

Korper-

region

which he lays the seat of

and of the consciousness of

Seele, pp.
I

pp. 31-39, 48].

first

62-68

self

die Grenzen, etc.,

give these references to Flechsig

for concreteness' sake, not because his views are


irreversibly

made

out.

Note
So widespread
circles,

is

2,

page

11.

this conclusion in positivistic

so abundantly

is it

expressed in conversa-

Notes
tion,

and so frequently implied

written, that

when

confess that

came

4g

in things that are

my

surprise

was great

books for a passage


immortality on physiological

to look into

denying
grounds, which I might quote to make my text
more concrete.
I was unable to find
anything
blunt and distinct enough to serve.
I looked
explicitly

through

all

the books that would naturally suggest

themselves, with no effect

and

vainly asked vari-

ous psychological colleagues. And yet I should almost have been ready to take oath that I had read
several such passages of the most categoric sort

within the last decade.


impression, and

may be with this opinion as with


The atmosphere is full of them;
it

many others.
many a writer's pages
involve them

likely this is a false

Very

yet, if

logically

you wish

presuppose and

to refer a student

and radical statement that he may

to an express

employ as a text

to

comment

nothing that will do.

on,

you

find almost

In the present case there

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

mind
tion,

is

but hardly one in which the author thereupon

explicitly

The

said to be conterminous with brain-func-

denies

best one

the

possibility

have found

is

of

immortality.

perhaps this

"
:

Not

only consciousness, but every stirring of life, depends on functions that go out like a flame when

nourishment

is

cut

off.

The phenomena

of

Notes

jo

consciousness correspond, element for element, to


the operations of special parts of the brain.

The

destruction of any piece of the apparatus in-

some one or other

volves the loss of

of the vital

and the consequence is that, as far as


extends, we have before us only an organic

operations
life

function, not a Ding-an-sich, or

that imaginary entity the Soul.

proposition

carries with

it

an expression of
This fundamental
the denial of the

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


its

mortality or immortality cannot be raised as

a question.

The

function

fills

its

flame illuminates and therein gives out

That

being.

is all

Sensation has

and

the

time,
its

whole

verily that is enough.

its definite

organic conditions, and,

as these decay with the natural decay of

life, it is

impossible for a mind accustomed to deal

quite

with realities to suppose any capacity of sensation


as surviving

when

the machinery of our natural

existence has stopped."

\_E.

Duhring: der Werth

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

Note
The
that

3,

page

12.

philosophically instructed reader will notice

have

all

along been placing myself at the

ordinary dualistic point of view of natural science

and

of

common

mental facts like

From this point of view


feelings are made of one kind of

sense.

Notes

5/

stuff or substance, physical facts of

An

another.

absolute phenomenism, not believing such a dual-

ism

to

some

be ultimate,

possibly end

may

by solving

of the problems that are insoluble

pounded

when

pro-

Meanwhile, since the

in dualistic terms.

physiological objection to immortality has arisen

on the ordinary
since absolute
articulate

dualistic plane of

phenomenism has

as yet said nothing

enough to count about the matter,

proper that

my

it

is

reply to the objection should be

expressed in dualistic terms

wish, to transcend

me

leaving

course, on any later occasion to


if I

thought, and

make an

them and use

free, of

attempt,

different cate-

gories.

Now, on

the dualistic assumption, one cannot see

more than two


of our
(1)

really different sorts of

mind on our brain

The

dependence

Either

brain brings into being the very stuff

of consciousness of

which our mind consists

or

else
(2)

Consciousness preexists as an entity, and the

various brains give to


If supposition 2

mind

it its

various special forms.

be the true one, and the

preexists, there are, again, only

two ways of

conceiving that our brain confers upon


cifically
(a)

human

form.

It

may

In disseminated particles

stuff of

it

the spe-

exist
;

and then our brains

are organs of concentration, organs for combining

Notes

52

and massing these into resultant minds of personal

Or

form.

may

it

exist

In vaster unities (absolute 'world-

(b)

something

less);

for separating

it

soul,' or

and then our brains are organs


into parts and giving them finite

form.

There are thus three possible theories of the


brain's function, and no more.
We may name
them, severally,

The theory of production;


2a. The theory of combination
i.

2b.

The

theory of separation.

In the text of the lecture, theory number 2b (specified

more

particularly as the transmission-theory)

defended against theory number i. Theory 2a,


otherwise known as the mind-dust or mind-stuff

is

theory, is left entirely unnoticed for lack of time.


I

also leave

it

uncriticised in these notes, having

already considered
lished

forms of

it

it,

as fully as the so-far pub-

may seem

to call

for,

in

my

work, The Principles of Psychology, New York,


I
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

T ait's

book,

The Unseen Universe, thus expresses his conviction

Notes
"

53

The laws connecting consciousness with changes

and precise, and their


necessary consequences are not to be evaded.
Consciousness is a complex thing made up of elein the brain are very definite

The action of the


made up of elements,

ments, a stream of feelings.


brain

also a

is

complex thing

a stream of nerve-messages. For every feeling in


consciousness there is at the same time a nervein the brain.

message

Consciousness

simple thing, but a complex


of feelings into a stream.

it is

is

not a

the combination

It exists at

the

same

time with the combination of nerve-messages into

a stream.

If individual feeling

individual nerve-message,

if

always goes with

combination or stream

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

it

not follow that,

the stream of

broken up, the stream of feelings


be broken up also, will no longer form a con-

nerve-messages
will

when

sciousness

is

Does

it

not follow that,

when

the mes-

sages themselves are broken up, the individual feelings will be resolved into still simpler elements?

The

force of this evidence

by any number of

is

spiritual

not to be weakened
bodies.

Inexorable

facts connect our consciousness with this

we know
parts of

it

body that

and that not merely as a whole, but the


are connected severally with parts of our

brain-action.

If

there

with a spiritual body,

it

is

any similar connection

only follows that the

spirit-

Notes

54
body must

ual

ral one."

Compare

die at the

same time with the natu-

and

[Lectures

Essays,

vol.

i.

p. 247-49.

also passages of similar purport in vol.

ii.

pp. 65-70.]

Note
The

4,

page

13.

theory of production, or materialistic the-

seldom ventures to formulate

ory,

tinctly.

banis
"

is

To

itself

very dis-

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

acquire a just idea of the operations from

which thought

results,

we must

consider the brain

as a particular organ specially destined to produce


it

just as the

stomach and intestines are destined

to operate digestion, the liver to

and maxillary glands

rotid

juices.

force

it

The

impressions,

filter bile,

the pa-

to prepare the salivary

arriving in the

to enter into activity

brain,

just as the alimen-

tary materials, falling into the stomach, excite

a more abundant secretion of gastric


the

movements which

The

own

result in their

function proper to the

first

juice,

organ

is

it

to

and to

solution.

that of re-

ceiving [percevoir] each particular impression, of

attaching signs to

it,

of combining the different im-

comparing them with each other, of


drawing from them judgments and resolves just
pressions, of

as the function of the other organ

the nutritive substances

is

to act

whose presence

upon

excites

it,

Notes
to dissolve them,

and

to

55

assimilate their juices to

our nature.
11

Do

you say that the organic movements by

which the brain exercises these functions are un-

known

reply that the

by which the

action

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

manner

which they confer so active a solvent power upon


the gastric juice, are equally hidden from our scru-

in

tiny.

We

see the food-materials

fall into this vis-

own proper qualities we see them


emerge with new qualities, and we infer that the
cus with their

stomach

is

really

the author of this alteration.

Similarly we see the impressions reaching the brain

by the intermediation of the nerves they then are


isolated and without coherence.
The viscus en;

ters into action

emits [renvoie]

it

acts

upon them, and soon

them metamorphosed

into

it

ideas,

which the language of physiognomy or gesture,


or the signs of speech and writing, give an outward
to

We

expression.

conclude, then, with an equal

certitude, that the brain digests, as

pressions

that

it

tion of thought."

Moral, 8th

it

were, the im-

performs organically the secre-

[Rapports du Physique

et

du

edition, 1844, p. 137.]


'

ambiguity of the word impression


that such an account owes whatever plausibility it
It is to the

may seem

to have.

More

recent forms of the pro-

56

Notes

duction-theory have

shown a tendency

'

thought to a force
'

state

'

which

into

'

which the brain

it

to liken

exerts, or to a

Herbert Spencer, for

passes.

instance, writes
" The law of
metamorphosis,
:

the physical forces,

which holds among


holds equally between them

and the mental forces.

heat, or light can

sciousness

how

which

it

rise
is

How

this

to

metamor-

force existing as

mo-

of con-

possible for aerial vibrations

it is

we

call

sound, or for the

by chemical changes

forces liberated

give

become a mode

to generate the sensation

to

how a

phosis takes place;


tion,

emotion,

these

impossible to fathom.

in the brain

are

mysteries

But they are

not profounder mysteries than the transformations


of the physical forces into
Principles,

2nd Edition,

So Biichner says

each other."

\First

p. 217.]

"

Thinking must be regarded


as a special mode of general natural motion, which
is

as characteristic of the substance of the central

nervous elements as the motion of contraction

is

of the nerve-substance, or the motion of light

of

the universal-ether.

be a mode of motion
logic,

is

That thinking

is

is

and must

not merely a postulate of

but a proposition which has of late been

Various ingendemonstrated experimentally.


ious experiments have proved that the swiftest
.

thought that

we

are able to evolve occupies at least

Notes

57
[Force a?id

the eighth or tenth part of a second."

Matter,

New

Heat and

York,

phorescence

and

891, p. 241.]

being modes of motion,

light,
'

incandescence

'

'

are

'

phos-

phenomena

which consciousness has been likened by the


production-theory: "As one sees a metallic rod,
to

placed in a glowing furnace, gradually heat itself,


as the undulations of the caloric grow more
and

and more frequent

pass successively from the

shades of bright red to dark red

(sic), to

and develope, as

rises,

light,

its

temperature

so the living sensitive

cells, in

white,

heat and

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 [degagent) pain as a

physiological expression of this

superheated to a red-white."

same

sensibility

Luys

[J.

Cer~

le

veau, p. 91.]

In a similar vein Mr. Percival Lowell writes


"

When we

have, as

we

say,

an

idea,

what happens

inside of us is probably something like this

the

neural current of molecular change passes up the


nerves,

and through the ganglia reaches

the cortical

cells.

tical cells, it finds

When

it

at

last

reaches the cor-

a set of molecules which are not

The

cur-

overcoming

this

so accustomed to this special change.


rent encounters resistance,

and

in

Notes

5<5

resistance

it

causes the cells to glow.

heating of the cells


sciousness, in short,

we
is

This white-

Con-

call consciousness.

probably nerve-glow."

[Oc-

cult Jafia?i, Boston, 1895, p. 311.]

Note
The

transmission

page

23.

theory connects

with that whole

naturally

known

5,

itself

tendency of

very

thought

as transcendentalism.

Emerson, for exam" We lie


in the lap of immense intelliple, writes
gence, which makes us receivers of its truth and
:

organs of

when we

its

activity.

discern truth,

but allow a passage to


p. 56.]

But

it is

When we

discern justice,

we do nothing
beams."

its

of ourselves,

[Self-Reliance,

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

The

in that direction.

of transcendental Idealism

is

absolute

Mind

one integral Unit, one

For the purposes of my lechowever, there might be many minds behind

single World-mind.
ture,

the scenes as well as one.

All that the transmis-

sion-theory absolutely requires

transcend otir minds,

is

which

that they should

thus

come from

something mental that pre-exists, and


than themselves.

is

larger

Notes

Note
Fechner's

subjoin

it,

cally

'

own words, abridged

psychically one

accordingly

connected with a physi-

is

the physically

many

contract psychi-

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

cally into

Otherwise expressed

ple.

to English readers.

in his

many

'

known

The

24.

of

conception

is little

"

page

6,

psycho physical
as connected with his
wave-scheme

'

threshold

59

the psychically unified

and simple are resultants of physical multiplicity

the physically manifold gives unified or simple results.

"

The

which are grouped together under


these expressions, and which give them their meanfacts

ing, are as follows

we think singly with


retinas we see singly.
;

With our two hemispheres

the identical parts of our two

of light or sound in us

is

The

simplest sensation

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 sim.

ple psychic resultants


city.

depend on physical

But, on the other hand,

it

is

multipli-

equally certain

that the multiplicities of the physical world do not

always combine into a simple psychical resultant,

60

Notes

when

no, not even

single bodily system.

ertheless

they are compounded in a

Whether they may not

combine into a unified

matter for opinion, since one

nev-

resultant is

always free to ask

is

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 co7itinuity and discontinuity from each


Continuity, let us say, takes place so far as

other.

a physical manifold gives a unified or simple psychic resultant discontinuity, so far as it gives a
;

distinguishable multiplicity of such resultants.

asmuch, however,

as,

within the unity of a more

general consciousness or
ness, there

maybe

still

In-

phenomenon

of conscious-

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.
" Whence comes it that different

organisms have
separate consciousnesses, although their bodies
are just as

much connected by

general Nature

as the parts of a single organism are with each


other,

and these

latter give

a single conscious

re-

61

Notes
sultant

tion

Of course we can say that the connecmore intimate between the parts of an

is

organism than between the organisms of Nature.


But what do we mean by a more intimate connection

Can an absolute

difference of result

depend
And does not Nature as

on anything so relative ?
a whole show as strict a connection as any organism
And the
does,
yea, one even more indissoluble ?

same questions come up within each organism.


How comes it that, with different nerve-fibres of
touch and sight,

we

distinguish

but with one fibre

points,

different space-

distinguish nothing,

although the different fibres are connected in the


brain just as

much

We may

fibre?

as the parts are in the single


call

again

the latter connection

the more intimate, but then the same sort of question will arise again.

"

Unquestionably the problem which here lies


before Psycho - physics cannot be sharply answered but we may establish a general point of
;

view for
laid

its

down

in

treatment, consistently with

what we

a former chapter on the relations of

more general with more

particular

phenomena

of

consciousness."
earlier

[The
essential

passage

is

principle is this

here inserted
:

"
:]

The

That human psycho-

physical activity must exceed a certain intensity


for any

waking consciousness

at all to occur,

and

Notes

62
that during the

waking

state

any particular specify

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.
" This state of
things (in itself a mere fact

ing no picture)

may be made

clearer

need-

by an image

or scheme, and also more concisely spoken

of.

Imagine the whole psycho-physical activity of man


to be a wave, and the degree of this activity to be
symbolized by the height of the wave above a hori-

which every psychophysical^ active point contributes an ordinate.


The whole form and evolution of the consciouszontal basal line or surface, to

ness will then depend on the rising and falling of

wave; the intensity of the consciousness at


any time on the wave's height at that time; and
the height must always somewhere exceed a certain
this

limit,

which we

sciousness

is

will call a threshold, if

to exist at

" Let us call this

waking con-

all.

wave the

total

threshold in question the principal

wave, and the

threshold.''''

[Since our various states of consciousness recur,

some

in

long,

some

in short periods],

"we may

represent such a long period as that of the slowly


fluctuating condition of our general wakefulness

the general direction of our attention as a

and

wave

Notes

63

that slowly changes the place of


call this the

its

summit.

utider-wave, then the

shorter period, on which the

If

we

movements of

more special con-

scious states depend, can be symbolized

by wavesuperposed upon the under-wave, and we can

lets

over-waves.

call these

They

will

cause

sorts of

all

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


total

wave

be the resultant of both sets of

will

waves.

"The

greater,

now, the strength of the move-

ments of short period, the amplitude of the

oscil-

lations of the psycho-physical activity, the higher


will the crests of the wavelets that represent

and the lower

rise above,

them

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 state


which is correlated with them can appear in consciousness
"

So

far

"
[pp. 454-456].

now

as

we symbolize any system

of psy-

cho-physical activity, to which a generally unified or


principal consciousness corresponds,

of a total

wave

'threshold,'

single

rising with its crest

we have a means

diagram the physical

psycho-physical systems

gether with their pyscho

above a certain

of schematizing in a
solidarity of all these

throughout
-

by the image

physical

Nature,

to-

discontinuity.

Notes

64

For we need only draw

all

the waves so that they

run into each other below the threshold, whilst

above

it

they appear distinct, as in the figure be-

be

low.

" In this
figure

a, b, c

stand for three organisms,

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

threshold.

AB

represents the

In each wave the part that rises above

the threshold

is

an integrated thing, and

nected with a single consciousness.

is

Whatever

conlies

below the threshold, being unconscious, separates


the conscious crests, although

it

is still

the

means

of physical connection.
" In
general terms wherever a psycho-physical
:

total

wave

is

continuous with

threshold, there

we

itself

above

the

find the unity or identity of a

consciousness, inasmuch as the connection of the

phenomena which correspond to the parts


the wave also appears in consciousness. When-

psychical
of

on the contrary, total waves are disconnected,


or connected only underneath the threshold, the
ever,

corresponding consciousness
nection between
briefly

its

is

broken, and no con-

several parts appears.

consciousness

is

More

continuous or discontinu-

Notes

65

ous, unified or discrete, according as the psycho-

physical total waves that subserve


selves

continuous

threshold.

"
If,

or

are them-

it

above

discontinuous

the

in the diagram,

we should

raise the entire

waves so that not only the crests but the


valleys appeared above the threshold, then these
latter would appear only as depressions in one
line of

great continuous

wave above the

threshold, and the

discontinuity of the consciousness would be con-

verted into continuity.

We of course

cannot bring

We

might also squeeze the wave together so that the valleys should be pressed up,
and the crests above the threshold flow into a line
this about.

then the discretely-feeling organisms would have

become a

singly

feeling organism.

This, again,

Man

cannot voluntarily bring about, but it is


brought about in Man's nature. His two halves,
the right one and the left one, are thus united
the

number

show

of segments of radiates

and

and

articulates

more than two parts can be thus psychoOne need only cut them
physical^ conjoined.
that

asunder,

i.

e.

interpolate another part of nature

between them under the threshold, and they break


into two separately conscious beings."
\_Ele.

mente der Psychofihysik,

i860,

vol.

ii.

pp. 526-

530.]

One

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

66

Notes

a world-soul

may be

being continuous

sical activity
old,'

uous

'

below the thresh-

the consciousness might also


if

the threshold sank low

The

the waves.

all

All psycho-phy-

expressed.

in general

is,

become

enough

contin-

uncover

to

threshold throughout nature

however, very high, so the conscious-

ness that gets over

it is

Note
See the long

of the discontinuous form.

7,

page

series of articles

25.

by Mr. Myers

in the

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,


beginning in the third volume with automatic writing,

and ending

the latest volumes with the

in

higher manifestations of knowledge by mediums.

Mr. Myers's theory of the whole range of phenomena is, that our normal consciousness is in continuous connection with a greater consciousness
of which

we do

he gives, in

its

not

know

the extent, and to which

relation to the particular person,

the not very felicitous

has been proposed

name

though no better one


'

of his or her 'subliminal self.

Note

8,

page

29.

See Kritik der reinen Vernunft, second

edition,

p. 809.

Note
I

9,

page

29.

subjoin a few extracts from

work; "Matter

is

Mr.

Schiller's

an admirably calculated machin-

Notes
ery for regulating,

and restraining the

limiting,

consciousness which
rial

67
...

encases.

it

If the mate-

encasement be coarse and simple, as in the

lower organisms,

it

permits only a

to permeate through

leaves

it

plex,

it

if it

little

intelligence

delicate

is

more pores and

exits,

and com-

as

for the manifestations of consciousness.


this analogy, then,

mals are

we may say

it
.

were,
.

On

that the lower ani-

entranced in the lower stage of brute


lethargy, while we have passed into the higher
still

phase of somnambulism, which already permits us


strange glimpses of a lucidity that divines the realities of a transcendent world.
And this gives the
final

answer to Materialism

in detail

it

that Materialism

consists in showing

a hysteron prote-

is

ron, a putting of the cart before the horse,

may be

which

by just inverting the connection


between Matter and Consciousness. Matter is not
rectified

that which produces Consciousness, but that which


limits
limits

and confines

it,
:

its

intensity within certain

material organization does not construct

consciousness out of arrangements of atoms, but


contracts

its

manifestation within the sphere which

admits the conThis explanation


nection of Matter and Consciousness, but contends

it

permits.

that the course of interpretation must proceed in

the contrary direction.


1

Thus

it

will

fit

the facts

alleged in favor of Materialism equally well, be-

Notes

68

sides enabling us to understand facts which Materialism rejected as

It explains the

'

supernatural.'

lower by the higher, Matter by

Spirit, instead of

an explanation
which is ultimately tenable, instead of one which
And it is an explanation the
is ultimately absurd.
vice versa,

and thereby

attains to

which no evidence in favor of Mate-

possibility of

rialism can possibly affect.

For

if,

e.

g, a man

loses consciousness as soon as his brain is injured,

good an explanation to say the


injury to the brain destroyed the mechanism by
which the manifestation of the consciousness was
it

is clearly

as

destroyed the
the other hand, there

rendered possible, as to say that

On

seat of consciousness.

it

are facts which the former theory suits far better.


If,

e.g.,

time,

as sometimes happens, the man, after a

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 parts,


the easiest explanation certainly is that, after a
time, consciousness constitutes the remaining parts
into a

mechanism capable of acting

for the lost parts.

chanism

And

again,

if

as a substitute

the

body

is

a me-

for inhibiting consciousness, for prevent-

powers of the Ego from being premaalso


turely actualized, it will be necessary to invert

ing the

full

Notes

6g

our ordinary ideas on the subject of memory, and


to account for forgetfulness instead of for

be during

It will

ory.

cup of Lethe,

it

life

that

we drink

mem-

the bitter

be with our brain that we are

will

enabled to forget. And this will serve to explain


not only the extraordinary memories of the drowning and the dying generally, but also the curious
hints which experimental psychology occasionally
affords us that nothing

and beyond
don,

[Riddles of the Sphinx, Lon-

recall."

Swan Sonnenschein,

Mr.

ever forgotten wholly

is

1891, p. 293

Schiller's conception

plex in

its

transmission
justice to

it

much more com-

than the simple

relations
'

is

ff.]

postulated in

my

lecture,

'

theory of

and

to

do

the reader should consult the original

work.

Note
I

little

page

39.

to peruse R.

L. Stevenson's

essay entitled

'The Lantern

beg the reader

magnificent

10,

Bearers,' reprinted in the collection entitled Across

The
that we

the Plains.

the fact

truth is that

after, to

are doomed,

and special ideals to


be absolutely blind and insensible

to the inner feelings,

to,

and

to the

whole inner

nificance of lives that are different

Our opinion

by

practical beings with very

are

limited tasks to attend

look

we

sig-

from our own.

of the worth of such lives

is

abso-

Notes

yo
lutely

wide of the mark, and

unfit to

be counted

at

all.

Note

W. Wundt:

ii,

System

Engelmann, 1889,

page

cCer

41.

Philosophie,

p. 315.

THE END,

Leipzig,

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS U. S. A.
ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY
H. O.

HOUGHTON AND

CO.

BO OKSELL ERS.
^ARTFORDCON N ;?

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