384 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [Ciur. XIII. 



difference between the single, rational activity, force, or form 

 which acts in each living man his soul from the activity, 

 force, or soul which shows itself in every living beast. The 

 vastness of this difference becomes evident when we reflect 

 on the fact that the human soul, as we experience it, here 

 and now, is, in a sense, out of both time and space ; that it 

 exists now in the past or in the future as well as in the 

 present ; that it can think of both before time was, and 

 after time shall end in eternity ; that it can discuss the 

 question as to the infinity or finitude of space, and consider 

 the world of possibility as well as that of actuality ; that 

 though existing amidst a constant succession of changing 

 conditions, it can think the eternal, unchanging absolute ; 

 that it knows itself as looking before and after, and as that 

 which thinks and yet endures; that its self-conscious exist 

 ence really persists in these conditions for years, i.e., that 

 it is a spiritual substance ; above all, that it can appreciate 

 moral worth and elect to follow the less attractive of two 

 competing motives, and so dominate and control the chain of 

 physical causation by its free-will. All these considerations 

 show that its nature is far more widely removed from the 

 activity of an ape than is that of an ape from the activity of 

 a magnet. And as the soul or activity of an ape differs in 

 kind from the activity of a magnet, so the activity or soul of 

 a man differs yet more in kind from that of an ape. It is by 

 no means inconceivable therefore that the formal or dy 

 namical element in the rational man may persist in another 

 form after the dissolution of the body in a condition which 

 we cannot of course imagine ; indeed, as a spiritual substance, 

 the inference is that it does so persist. Not only feeling, 

 however, but memory, will, and even knowledge must of 

 course cease to exist as we experience them, and herein 

 lies the truth hidden in the assertions of those who deny the 

 immortality of the soul. But because they will cease as we 

 experience them, there is no need to think they do not persist 

 in any form at all, especially if upon other grounds there is 

 reason to think they do persist ; and such reasons we have 



