DISCUSSION 119 



of beasts, because we have assumed him to 

 be such in his bodily nature. It is a 

 perfectly illogical assumption on the part 

 of monism to regard the body and soul as 

 being merely two aspects of one and the same 

 reality. 



Bolsche s second argument is that we must pene 

 trate deeply into the animal kingdom. If we 

 consider the mind and soul of an animal, we find 

 it impossible to distinguish clearly between the 

 soul of an animal and that of a man. In the former 

 exist the germs of all that makes for good or evil 

 in the latter. They rise from the lower to the 

 higher, often in so unworthy and mean a manner 

 that we men with our intelligence must feel ashamed 

 at being descended from the intelligence of a beast. 

 Even Darwin declared that he would prefer to be 

 descended from a cur that defended its master, 

 than from a man who ill-treated his wife and children 

 and killed his enemies. In his last lecture Father 

 Wasmann spoke of the fragments of bone from 

 Krapina, which point to some prehistoric cannibal 

 feast, and according to him we must be the 

 descendants of such cannibals. I am of opinion 

 that there are many phenomena in the souls of 

 beasts far higher and greater than the meanness 

 that we detect in ourselves. The most miserable 

 thing which we see in the whole world is a degraded 

 and debased human soul, and the soul of a beast 



