164 FKAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



Is consciousness, then, a necessary element of the true 

 self? If so, what do you say to the case of the whole 

 body being deprived 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 mention 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 per- 

 ceiving 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 foreign matter. Or, in- 

 stead 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 substance. At every 

 pressure " the faculties of perception and of action " 

 vanish; at every relaxation of pressure they are re- 

 stored. Where, during the intervals of pressure, is 

 the perceiving power? I once had the discharge of a 

 large Ley den 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-stroke have been much longer in the 

 same state; and indeed in cases of ordinary concussion 

 of the brain, days may elapse during which no experi- 

 ence is registered in consciousness. Where is the man 

 himself during the period of insensibility? You may 

 say that I beg the question when I assume the man to 

 have been unconscious, that he was really conscious all 

 the time, and has simply forgotten what had occurred 



