EXTRACT VI. 



ON SOME OF THE "FINDINGS" OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 AS TO THE DUPLEX, OR COMPOSITE, BEING OF MAN. 



THAT the beliefs entertained by our forefathers regarding 

 this subject were, in many respects, far ahead of those 

 held by their children of the present day there is, we 

 think, not the least doubt that these beliefs were 

 definitely stated in the form of creeds, or in words of 

 logical precision, is another matter, however, so we shall 

 content ourselves here by simply recapitulating a few of 

 the everyday expressions used by some of them in their 

 literary remains, and a few popular expressions of the 

 present day, which are evidently fashioned from these 

 and from altogether spoken sources transmitted to us 

 as folk " sayings," i.e. emanating from early times, and 

 still current in the language of the people as well as in 

 literary non-scientific nomenclature, sacred and secular. 

 Thus, " he is beside himself," " he is out of his mind," 

 " he is possessed," and other forms of expression used 

 to indicate mental alienation, rest on the belief that their 

 subject could exist both inside and outside of his body 

 in virtue of his being possessed of a mind or spirit which 

 could be displaced or dispossessed and replaced, as when 

 a condition of mental soundness or " wholeness " was 

 once more attained, or when he had again " taken posses- 

 sion of himself " and dispossessed the usurping "spirit." 



On the belief, held by the ancients, that man's nature 

 was duplex or composite, there grew up the further 

 belief that his better self, spirit, or Ego could be tem- 

 porarily or permanently dispossessed by another spirit, 





