THE BELFAST ADDRESS 175 



what form? Have you ever for a moment realized it? 

 When a leg is amputated the body is divided into two 

 parts; is the true self in both of them or in one? Thomas 

 Aquinas might say in both; but not you, for you appeal 

 to the consciousness associated with one of the two parts, 

 to prove that the other is foreign matter. Is conscious- 

 ness, then, a necessary element of the true self? If so, 

 what do you say to the case of the whole body being de- 

 prived of consciousness? If not, then on what grounds 

 do you deny any portion of the true self to the severed 

 limb? It seems very singular that, from the beginning 

 to the end of your admirable book (and no one admires 

 its sober strength more than I do), you never once men- 

 tion the brain or nervous system. You begin at one end 

 of the body, and show that its parts may be removed 

 without prejudice to the perceiving power. What if you 

 begin at the other end, and remove, instead of the leg, 

 the brain? The body, as before, is divided into two 

 parts; but both are now in the same predicament, and 

 neither can be appealed to to prove that the other is for- 

 eign matter. Or, instead of going so far as to remove 

 the brain itself, let a certain portion of its bony covering 

 be removed, and let a rhythmic series of pressures and 

 relaxations of pressure be applied to the soft substanca. 

 At every pressure "the faculties of perception and of ac- 

 tion" vanish; at every relaxation of pressure they are 

 restored. Where, during the intervals of pressure, is the 

 perceiving power? I once had the discharge of a large 

 Leyden battery passed unexpectedly through me: I felt 

 nothing, but was simply blotted out of conscious existence 

 for a sensible interval. Where was my true self during 

 that interval? Men who have recovered from lightning- 



