126 PERSONALITY 



My main object in these lectures was to 

 map out as clearly as possible the position 

 and aims of physiology, differentiating it on 

 the lower side from the physical sciences, 

 and on the higher side from the branches 

 of knowledge which deal with personality. 

 This plan has been carried out, in so far as 

 time has permitted; but I should like to 

 add some remarks as to the conception of 

 personality and what is involved in it. 



The conclusion that the surrounding world 

 is not a world of self-existent things, but 

 assumes its actual appearance in perception 

 and volition, may appear, at first sight, to 

 involve the inference that the existence of the 

 world of our experience is bound up with our 

 own individual existence with the here and 

 now of a person who was born and will die. 

 It is evident, however, that the personality 

 of any individual is the spiritual inheritance 

 of ages. Apart from that inheritance in 

 which we have grown, we cannot imagine 

 our existence. Just as the individual 

 organism belongs to the species, and can 

 only be understood as participating in its life, 

 so the individual person lives not merely his 



