424 IMMORTALITY. 



personality has been already mentioned (ch. viil. 

 § iS, ix. § 23). 



§ 24. And perhaps we may discover indications 

 tending towards the same conclusion in the deepest 

 and most momentous distinction of the social life, 

 the distinction of Sex. 



Sex is in itself a mark of imperfect individuality, 

 for neither men nor women are sufficient for them- 

 selves or complete representatives, either physically 

 or spiritually, of humanity. A distinction, there- 

 fore, whereby the unity of the human spirit Is rent 

 in twain by the antithesis of contrary polarities, 

 presents a problem well worthy of the deepest philo- 

 sophic thought, and one which physiological ex- 

 planations do little to elucidate. Historically, Sex 

 is a differentiation of digestion (cp. ch. iv. § 1 2), but 

 even a biologist will sometimes find it hard to regard 

 it historically. Hence It has, at all times and from 

 the most various principles, seemed to men, from 

 Plato down to the late Mr. Laurence Oliphant, that 

 in the fact of Sex they were face to face with the 

 traces of a disruption of the original unity of the 

 human spirit, or, as we might perhaps amend It, of 

 a unity not yet attained. 



But the significance of Sex and the metaphysics 

 of Love form a subject too large and too conten- 

 tious for an essay like ours, and our discussion of It 

 is only intended to elucidate its relations to the 

 doctrines we have propounded, and not to contain a 

 full and scientific account of the matter. It may be 

 that the distinction of sex will pass away In a higher 

 stage in the evolution of spirit than the present, 

 even as it came Into being at a lower, and that in 

 the kingdom of heaven there will be no marrying or 

 giving in marriage. It may be that the feelings 



