THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 205 



bodies to a liquid — most of them, also, to a solid — 

 condition. Nothing more is needed than special 

 apparatus, which exerts a violent pressure on the 

 gases at a very low temperature. By this process not 

 only the atmospheric elements, ox} r gen, hydrogen, and 

 nitrogen, but even compound gases (such as carbonic 

 acid gas) and gaseous aggregates (like the atmosphere), 

 have been changed from gaseous to liquid form. In 

 this way the "invisible" substances have become 

 " visible " to all, and in a certain sense " tangible." 

 With this transformation the mystic nimbus which 

 formerly veiled the character of the gas in popular 

 estimation — as an invisible body that wrought visible 

 effects — has entirely disappeared. If, then, the sub- 

 stance of the soul were really gaseous, it should be 

 possible to liquefy it by the application of a high 

 pressure at a low temperature. We could then catch 

 the soul as it is "breathed out" at the moment of 

 death, condense it, and exhibit it in a bottle as 

 " immortal fluid " (Fluid um aninue immortalc). By a 

 further lowering of temperature and increase of 

 pressure it might be possible to solidify it — to produce 

 " soul- snow." The experiment has not yet succeeded. 

 If athanatism were true, if indeed the human soul 

 were to live for all eternity, we should have to grant 

 the same privilege to the souls of the higher animals, 

 at least to those of the nearest related mammals (apes, 

 dogs, etc.). For man is not distinguished from them 

 by a special kind of soul, or by any peculiar and 

 exclusive psychic function, but only by a higher 

 degree of psychic activity, a superior stage of develop- 

 ment. In particular, consciousness — the function of 

 the association of ideas, thought, and reason — has 

 reached a higher level in many men (by no means in 



