HUMAN IMMORTALITY 285 



play this open chance in face of those " results of 

 modern science " which are so often declared adverse 

 to it. 



What, then, is the exact " open chance " that Pro- 

 fessor James leaves us, in this urgent question of 

 immortality, by his transmission-theory of the func- 

 tion performed by the brain for consciousness ? 

 Does the transmission-theory, in strict logic, indeed 

 draw the fangs of cerebralistic materialism? — does 

 it take away the real sting of death ? The answer 

 to this question depends on the answer we shall 

 have to give to another — whether the transmis- 

 sion-theory, as managed by Professor James, estab- 

 lishes any chance for the personal immortality of 

 eacJi of us. For the real sting of death is the 

 apprehension in each of us that Jie may perish in 

 dying ; and no hope of the changeless persistence of 

 any eternal "mother sea" of consciousness, Divine 

 or other, can afford us any consolation if this dread 

 of our personal extinction be not set at rest. 



Professor James has himself partly realised this 

 critical issue in the case. " Still you will ask," he 

 says, " in what positive way does this theory help 

 us to realise our immortality in imagination } " ^ He 

 alludes here to his previous statement, that the 

 transmission-theory implies the "mother sea" of 

 eternal consciousness, in accordance with which 



^ Human Immortality, p. 29. 



