414 PHYSIOLOGY 



ology is in reality nothing more than the ancient problem of the 

 relation between body and soul. 



Since the beginning of human thought, man has striven to solve 

 this problem, but one attempt after another has been shattered. At 

 times it was thought that the solution had really been found, but the 

 old problem was always found smiling scornfully from the other side. 

 The alchemy of the Middle Ages busied itself with this question, as it 

 attempted to prepare gold from baser metals. Time and again the 

 yellow metal shone forth from the crucible, but finally it was always 

 found to be nothing but golden pigment. Perhaps our efforts are 

 like those of the alchemists, and all our straining is useless, because 

 the problem cannot be solved; perhaps the problem is like those of 

 ancient times, such as the squaring of the circle, or the discovery of 

 perpetual motion, which are in reality not true problems. Perhaps 

 what Mephistopheles says is true, 



" glaube mir, der manche tausend Jahre 

 An dieser harten Speise kaut, 

 Dass von der Wiege bis zur Bahre, 

 Kein Mensch den alten Sauerteig verdaut." 



Whence arises this conception of a dualistic relation of soul and 

 body? We are accustomed to hearing Descartes mentioned as its 

 source. I believe this is wrong. It is true that Descartes has most 

 sharply defined dualism when he contrasted the body, as that 

 which has dimensions, with the soul, as that which has not dimen- 

 sions. But the concept is much older. We find it already in the 

 philosophy of the ancients. It is not true that the dualism of body 

 and soul is foreign to the thought of primitive man. On the con- 

 trary, the thought of a contrast between body and soul is very 

 generally distributed among the primitive peoples of the earth, 

 from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego; from the negroes of the tropics 

 to the inhabitants of the South Sea. This shows that we have here 

 to do with one of the most ancient thoughts of mankind. 



The imaginative life of primitive peoples shows us plainly the 

 origin of this dualistic conception. It is the sharp contrast be- 

 tween life and death, between waking and sleep, which led to the 

 thought of a soul present in the body, a soul which may leave the 

 body and again return to it, a soul which after death leads a shadowy 

 existence as a spirit. This group of ideas, around which the entire 

 spiritual life of primitive peoples revolves, has even developed 

 into the conception of two distinct souls, in many of the Indian 

 and Eskimo races. One of these, the perceptive spirit, which may 

 occasionally during lifetime leave the body and enter other bodies, 

 for instance in sleep and in dreams; the other spirit, which retains 

 life, which passes away with the last breath, and, floating in the 

 atmosphere, influences the fortunes of mankind, as a spirit. 



