24-2 ANIMAL AUTOMATISM v 



that may be held respecting the often discussed 

 and curious question whether they have souls or 

 not ; and, if they have souls, whether those souls 

 are immortal or not. It is obviously harmonious 

 with the most literal adherence to the text of 

 Scripture concerning " the beast that perisheth " ; 

 but it is not inconsistent with the amiable con- 

 viction ascribed by Pope to his "untutored 

 savage," that when he passes to the happy 

 hunting-grounds in the sky, "his faithful dog 

 shall bear him company." If the brutes have con- 

 sciousness and no souls, then it is clear that, in 

 them, consciousness is a direct function of 

 material changes; while, if they possess im- 

 material subjects of consciousness, or souls, then, 

 as consciousness is brought into existence only as 

 the consequence of molecular motion of the brain, 

 it follows that it is an indirect product of material 

 changes. The soul stands related to the body as 

 the bell of a clock to the works, and consciousness 

 answers to the sound which the bell gives out 

 when it is struck. 



Thus far I have strictly confined myself to the 

 problem with which I proposed to deal at starting 

 the automatism of brutes. The question is, I 

 believe, a perfectly open one, and I feel happy in 

 running no risk of either Papal or Presbyterian con- 

 demnation for the views which I have ventured to 

 put forward. And there are so very few interest- 

 ing questions which one is, at present, allowed to 



