PERSONAL IDENTITY. 81 



which may kill him of cold. If this be denied, and a 

 man's clothes be considered as no part of his self, never- 

 theless they, with his money, and it may perhaps be 

 added his religious opinions, stamp a man's indivi- 

 duality as strongly as any natural feature could stamp 

 it. Change in style of dress, gain or loss of money, 

 make a man feel and appear more changed than having 

 his chin shaved or his nails cut. In fact, as soon as 

 we leave common parlance on one side, and try for a 

 scientific definition of personality, we find that there 

 is none possible, any more than there can be a demon- 

 stration of the fact that we exist at all — a demonstration 

 for which, as for that of a personal God, many have 

 hunted but none have found. The only solid foundation 

 is, as in the case of the earth's crust, pretty near the 

 surface of things ; the deeper we try to go, the damper 

 and darker and altogether more uncongenial we find it. 

 There is no knowing into what quagmire of superstition 

 we may not find ourselves drawn, if we once cut our- 

 selves adrift from those superficial aspects of things, in 

 which alone our nature permits us to be comforted. 



Common parlance, however, settles the difficulty 

 readily enough (as indeed it settles most others if they 

 show signs of awkwardness) by the simple process of 

 ignoring it : we decline, and very properly, to go into 

 the question of where personality begins and ends, but 

 assume it to be known by every one, and throw the 

 onus of not knowing it upon the over-curious, who had 

 better think as their neighbours do, right or wrong, or 

 there is no knowing into what villainy they may not 

 presently fall. 



