OF THE SOUL. 291 



than it used to do. I shall have occasion to refer to this 

 latter class of psychological writings when treating of the 

 psychology of religious experience. 



Thirdly, as the treatment of separate faculties and 64- 

 separate sensations has been replaced by the study of tion-coa- 



, . tinuum. 



the presentation-continuum of experience and the stream 

 of thought, so the study of the single human individual 

 has expanded to a study of the collective life in human 

 society. Psychology is more and more extending in the 65 . 

 direction of anthropology. Gicgy! 05 



Whilst all these characteristic features of modern 

 psychology emphasise the continuity of mental life, the 



great fact of individuality, personality, of the unity of 



^ 



self, stands out as the highest unexplained phenomenon. 



No scientific theory can explain away the discontinuity 66 . 



of separate individual existences. This seems to consti- tinuity 



Renouvier. 



tute the very characteristic, the quid propnum, of the 

 individual soul or mind, and not only are we apt to lose 

 sight of this discontinuity through the modern scientific 

 methods of studying the inner life ; we have also to face 

 the fact that the whole interest of mental existence lies 

 in qualitative differences, and in sudden and unexpected 

 occurrences, the products of individual energy and the 



^ 



creations of imagination, i.e., in phenomena of discon- 

 tinuity. No one has given clearer expression to this 

 characteristic of mental life than Charles Eenouvier, and 

 Professor Hoffding has drawn special attention to the 

 psychological aspect of the problem of discontinuity. 

 In respect of this he says, " The relation of continuity and 

 discontinuity touches the highest interest of personality 

 as well as of science. In both directions we aim at 



