SELF 211 



the Ego to be the whole individual human organism. 



It is a psychophysical organism. The psychical and 

 the physical are inseparable, and part of the universal 

 interaction of matter and motion. They are undoubt- 

 edly only differentiations of the same basic unit of 

 cosmic energy. The Ego, as thus defined, has in nearly 

 all the past been considered only as an entity, whose 

 psychical and physical motions are not dependent on 

 any connections they might have, with the rest of the 

 universe. But, to the penetrating eye of science, it is 

 a heterogeneous organism, whose specialized organs 

 are co-ordinated parts of the general mass of matter, 

 and whose functions are determined by their connec- 

 tion with the persistence of force. It is similar to a 

 wheel, in complex machinery, whose revolving motion 

 depends on the connection of its cogs with those of 

 other wheels. What we call human life then, seems to 

 be a correspondence between an Ego, or human body, 

 and an environment with which, in order to maintain 

 its continuance, it is necessary to remain in touch. 

 Death is a discontinuance of this correspondence. 



Thinking is a passing condition, depending upon its 

 physical connection with the body. No one has per- 

 ceived it except in that connection. This theory is 

 diametrically opposite to that of Descartes'. When 

 Descartes turned his attention to the introspection of 

 himself, in order to determine the nature of the thinking 

 process, he was a mature man. The function of his 

 brain had acquired, by the experience of all the years, 

 in which he had lived, a certain development by educa- 

 tion and long use. The meditations, of which he gives 

 an account, were the result of the maturity of his 

 psychic function, and at that time, he was thinking 

 upon the results, or effects, of years of training. This 



