THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL 223 



are conscious of that which could not make an impression 

 nor leave a record upon material receptors like neurons. To 

 employ a material organ for the purpose of perceiving ab- 

 stract essences and qualities would be as futile and pointless 

 as an attempt to stop a nondimensional, unextended, intan- 

 gible baseball with a catcher's glove. Hence the services of 

 material centers and receptors may be dispensed with, so far 

 as rational thought is concerned. Rational thought cannot 

 utilize the intrinsic coagency of the organism, and it is 

 therefore a superorganic or spiritual function. 



That conceptual thought is in no wise communicated to 

 the organism, but subjected in the spiritual soul alone, is 

 likewise apparent from the data furnished by introspection. 

 The conceiving mind apprehends even material objects ac- 

 cording to an abstract or spiritualized mode of representation. 

 In other words, in conceiving material objects we expurgate 

 them of their materiality and material conditions, endowing 

 them with a dematerialized mode of mental existence which 

 they could never have, if subjected in their own physical 

 matter, or in the organized matter of the cerebral cortex. 

 Thus, in forming our concept of a material object like a boat, 

 we spiritualize the boat by separating (representatively, of 

 course, and not physically) its nature or essence from the 

 determinate matter {e.g., wood, or steel) of which it is made, 

 and by divesting it of the material and concrete conditions 

 which define not only its physical existence outside of us, but 

 also its imaginal existence within us as a concrete image in 

 our imagination. In other words, we isolate the type or 

 form of a given object from its material substrate and lib- 

 erate it from the limiting material and concrete individua- 

 tion, which confine it to a single material subject and localize 

 it definitely in space and time. Now, it is axiomatic that 

 whatever is received is received according to the nature of 

 the receiver. Water, for example, assumes the form of the 

 receptacle into which it is poured, and a picture painted upon 

 canvas is necessarily extended according to the extension of 



