82 LIFE AND HABIT. 



Assuming, then, that every one knows what is 

 meant by the word " person " (and such superstitious 

 bases as this are the foundations upon which all action, 

 whether of man, beast, or plant, is constructed and 

 rendered possible ; for even the corn in the fields 

 grows upon a superstitious basis as to its own existence, 

 and only turns the earth and moisture into wheat 

 through the conceit of its own ability to do so, with- 

 out which faith it were powerless; and the lichen 

 only grows upon the granite rock by first saying to 

 itself, " I think I can do it ; " so that it would not be 

 able to grow unless it thought it could grow, and 

 would not think it could grow unless it found itself 

 able to grow, and thus spends its life arguing in a most 

 vicious circle, basing its action upon a hypothesis, which 

 hypothesis is in turn based upon its action) — assuming 

 that we know what is meant by the word " person," we 

 say that we are one and the same from the moment of 

 our birth to the moment of our death, so that whatever 

 is done by or happens to any one between birth and 

 death, is said to happen to or be done by one individual. 

 This in practice is found to be sufficient for the law 

 courts and the purposes of daily life, which, being full 

 of hurry and the pressure of business, can only tolerate 

 compromise, or conventional rendering of intricate 

 phenomena. When facts of extreme complexity have 

 to be daily and hourly dealt with by people whose 

 time is money, they must be simplified, and treated 

 much as a painter treats them, drawing them in 

 squarely, seizing the more important features, and 

 neglecting all that does not assert itself as too essential 



