LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS 127 



forgetfulness as much as one of remembrance, 

 and that in pure consciousness nothing of the past 

 is lost, the whole life of a conscious personality 

 being an indivisible continuity, are we not led to 

 suppose that the effort continues beyond, and that 

 in this passage of consciousness through matter 

 (the passage which at the tunnel's exit gives dis- 

 tinct personalities) consciousness is tempered like 

 steel, and tests itself by clearly constituting per- 

 sonalities and preparing them, by the very effort 

 which each of them is called upon to make, for a 

 higher form of existence? If we admit that with 

 man consciousness has finally left the tunnel, that 

 everywhere else consciousness has remained im- 

 prisoned, that every other species corresponds to 

 the arrest of something which in man succeeded 

 in overcoming resistance and in expanding almost 

 freely, thus displaying itself in true personalities 

 capable of remembering all and willing all and 

 controlling their past and their future, we shall 

 have no repugnance in admitting that in many, 

 though perhaps in man alone, consciousness pur- 

 sues its path beyond this earthly life. 



This is as much as to say that, in my opinion, 

 the aspirations of our moral nature are not in the 

 least contradicted by positive science. On this, 

 as on many other points, I quite agree with the 

 opinion expressed by Sir Oliver Lodge in many 

 of his works, and especially in his admirable book 

 on Life and Matter. How could there be dis- 

 harmony between our intuitions and our science, 



