142 CONSCIOUSNESS 



by the assurance of their friends. Dreams may 

 be so impressive as to leave some conviction of 

 reality : in early days they were, indeed, re- 

 garded as intimations of realities, and their inter- 

 pretation has influenced the course of history. In 

 savage communities they are still accepted as 

 communications of fact. A sensory impression 

 is shown by touch to be based upon reality. Can 

 a real foundation be denied to an insistent vision 

 which only critical thought could assign to 

 memory ? We see an object when our eyes are 

 open : we also see it when our eyes are closed. 

 If the first image was caused by the object itself, 

 the second must be caused by the object's 

 " double." By such an inference men easily 

 persuaded themselves of the duality of things, 

 and came to believe that the possession of both 

 body and soul as of substance and shadow was 

 the normal condition of the objects around them, 

 whether living or lifeless. This conclusion became 

 of poignant interest when applied to man, and 

 the deeper we go into ancient history or into 

 the practices of existing barbarism the stronger 

 conviction we find of the existence and persistence 

 of a human soul. A hill-people of Assam, when 

 burying a kinsman, fence the grave with a hedge 

 of thorns, in fear of which his tender spirit will 

 be content to remain in confinement under- 

 ground. The most elaborate and practical concep- 

 tions of the needs of the soul are perhaps to be 

 found in the religions of ancient Egypt and of 

 modern China. In Egypt the " double " or ka 

 of the deceased was provided with all the equip- 

 ment which would enable it to continue in shadow- 

 land the life of its earthly counterpart ; but since 

 the ka was a " double," the articles provided for 

 it might be " doubles " also, and could be supplied 

 in the form of effigies or symbols. Such meticulous 



