206 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



all) than in most of the animals. Yet this difference 

 is far from being so great as is popularly supposed ; 

 and it is much slighter in every respect than the cor- 

 responding difference between the higher and the 

 lower animal souls, or even the difference between 

 the highest and the lowest stages of the human soul 

 itself. If we ascribe " personal immortality " to man, 

 we are bound to grant it also to the higher animals. 



It is, therefore, quite natural that we should find 

 this belief in the immortality of the animal soul 

 among many ancient and modern peoples ; we even 

 meet it sometimes to-day in many thoughtful men 

 who postulate an " immortal life " for themselves, 

 and have, at the same time, a thorough empirical 

 knowledge of the psychic life of the animals. I once 

 knew an old head-forester, who, being left a widower 

 and without children at an early age, had lived alone 

 for more than thirty years in a noble forest of East 

 Prussia. His only companions were one or two 

 servants, with whom he exchanged merely a few 

 necessary words, and a great pack of different kinds 

 of dogs, with which he lived in perfect psychic 

 communion. Through many years of training this 

 keen observer and friend of nature had penetrated 

 deep into the individual souls of his dogs, and he was 

 as convinced of their personal immortality as he was 

 of his own. Some of his most intelligent dogs were, 

 in his impartial and objective estimation, at a higher 

 stage of psychic development than his old, stupid 

 maid and the rough, wrinkled manservant. Any 

 unprejudiced observer, who will study the conscious 

 and intelligent psychic activity of a fine dog for a 

 year, and follow attentively the physiological pro- 

 cesses of its thought, judgment, and reason, will have 



