42 2 IMMORTALITY. 



cance and raison d'itre of heredity would lie in its 

 emphasizing in the most impressive way, in a way 

 that none can fail to feel, this solidarity of all living 

 beings, 'this continuity of the world-process, and in 

 forcing us to realize what we saw in chapter viii. is 

 the great law of that process, viz., that the individual 

 must be developed in and by a social medium, and 

 is in every way dependent on it, dependent on it for 

 his very existence in the world. But though we 

 regard the teleological significance of heredity to be 

 its assertion of the solidarity of the spiritual uni- 

 verse, this is no reason why we should deny that 

 there may also be spiritual affinities of a special 

 and personal nature, underlying and inspiring the 

 physical fact of relationship. For it seems probable 

 that the grouping of men in their social environment 

 is as little accidental and devoid of spiritual signifi- 

 cance as the whole process of that environment, and 

 if so, our relationship to our family, nation, race, etc., 

 points to more intimate spiritual connections than 

 those which exist with beings who are excluded 

 from these ties. The ties of kindred and our whole 

 position in the social world, we may be sure, result 

 from the hidden action of spiritual affinities, and are 

 as little the work of lawless chance as the grouping 

 of the stellar spheres in obedience to the attractions 

 of the physical universe. 



§ 23. And this hint of closer and more exclusive 

 spiritual connections may serve to introduce the 

 subject of the last difficulty in the relation of the 

 Ego to the phenomenal self which it will be neces- 

 sary to discuss. We recognized in chapter viii. 

 (§ 14) that the idea of individuality was scarce 

 distinguishable in the lowest grades of being, and 

 that even in man it was far from being completely 



