24 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



animals. It is true that the modes of explaining it 

 were various. Sometimes it was regarded as the 

 mere harmony of the bodily functions, and some 

 times as a distinct entity of higher ethereal nature, 

 but no essential distinction was made between the 

 soul of man and the soul of the lower animals until 

 a comparatively recent date. 



The mental differences between the lower animals 

 and man suggested to ancient philosophers that 

 there should be a line drawn somewhere. To meet 

 this distinction the Stoics, the disciples of Socrates, 

 maintained that man possessed a rational soul above 

 that of the animal soul which belonged in common 

 to man and animals, but nowhere denied the fact 

 of animals having souls. This gracious privilege 

 of denying the right of animals to keep the soul 

 their Creator gave them comes from our modern 

 theology, and is ingrafted in the creeds of some 

 of our churches. But whatever distinction has 

 been made between the soul of man and the 

 soul of animals has been made by man and not 

 God. 



In considering this metaphysical and psycholog- 

 ical subject I shall attempt to deal with it as a 

 single phenomenon of nature which is to be inter- 



