MODERN EVOLUTION. 



235 



those who have faith in him. This doctrine, which 

 is no novel one, is known as " conditional immor- 

 tality." Professor Stokes attaches " no value to the 

 belief in a future life by metaphysical arguments 

 founded on the supposed nature of the soul itself," 

 and he admits that the purely psychic theory which 

 would discard the body altogether in regard to the 

 process of thought is beset by very great difficulties. 

 So he once more has recourse to " sources of in- 

 formation which lie beyond man's natural powers." 

 Following up certain distinctions between " soul " 

 and " spirit " drawn by the Apostle Paul in his tri- 

 partite division of man, Professor Stokes, somewhat 

 in keeping with Dr. Carpenter, assumes an " Ego, 

 which, on the one hand, is not to be identified with 

 thought, which may exist while thought is in abey- 

 ance, and which may, with the future body of which 

 the Christian religion speaks, be the medium of con- 

 tinuity of thought. . . . What the nature of this body 

 might be we do not know; but we are pretty dis- 

 tinctly informed that it would be something very 

 different from that of our present body, very different 

 in its properties and functions, and yet no less our 

 own than our present body." " Words, words, 

 words," as Hamlet says. 



Reference has been made in some fulness to Mr. 

 Wallace's limitations of the theory of natural selec- 

 tion in the case of man's mental faculties. We must 

 now pursue this somewhat in detail, reminding the 

 reader of Mr. Wallace's admission that, " provision- 



