204 THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVEESE. 



chap, xii.), I shall do no more at present than briefly 

 point out that they render the notion of an " etheric- 

 soul " absolutely untenable. Such an etheric soul — 

 that is, a psychic substance — which is similar to 

 physical ether, and which, like ether, passes between 

 the ponderable elements of the living protoplasm or 

 the molecules of the brain, cannot possibly account 

 for the individual life of the soul. Neither the mystic 

 notions of that kind which were warmly discussed 

 about the middle of the century, nor the attempts of 

 modern " Neovitalists " to put their mystical "vital 

 force " on a line with physical ether, call for refutation 

 any longer. 



Much more widespread, and still much respected, is 

 the view which ascribes a gaseous nature to the sub- 

 stance of the soul. The comparison of human breath 

 with the wind is a very old one ; they were originally 

 considered to be identical, and were both given the 

 same name. The anemos and psyche of the Greeks, 

 and the anima and spiritus of the Komans, were 

 originally all names for " a breath of wind "; they 

 were transferred from this to the breath of man. 

 After a time this " living breath " was identified with 

 the "vital force," and finally it came to be regarded 

 as the soul itself, or, in a narrower sense, as its 

 highest manifestation, the "spirit." From that the 

 imagination went on to derive the mystic notion of 

 individual " spirits "; these, also, are still usually 

 conceived as "aeriform beings" — though they are 

 credited with the physiological functions of an 

 organism, and they have been photographed in certain 

 well-known spiritist circles. 



Experimental physics has succeeded, during the 

 last decade of the century, in reducing all gaseous 



