THE IMMORTAL SOUL OF MY DOG. 



BY H. C. POWERS. 



The Immortal Soul Of My Dog! A queer expres- 

 sion, isn't it? I am afraid some of my orthodox friends 

 might use a stronger adjective than I have and call it 

 a blasphemous expression. But it is only an expression 

 and not an assertion. I don't say the dog has an im- 

 mortal soul, but I can express my own belief so far as 

 this. I fully believe the dog's chances for such a posses- 

 sion are at least as good as mine. But there is little use 

 of crediting the dog or myself with the possession of a 

 soul until we know what a soul is. If I were to ask of 

 twenty persons whom I might meet this question, what 

 do you understand the word soul to mean? what do you 

 suppose the answers would be? I cannot tell you the 

 exact words of these answers, but I can say this much 

 concerning them. Those who had thought least on the 

 subject, who had accepted the opinions of others instead 

 of forming an opinion of their own, these would answer 

 my questions most readily. They would be ready to de- 

 scribe in detail a true anthropomorphic conception of a 

 soul, together with its home in an anthropomorphic 

 heaven. Their idea of an immortal soul would be what 

 Huxley called a gaseous vertebrate. And this class 

 would be composed almost entirely of good Orthodox 

 Christian people who would have no doubts as to church 

 doctrines or creeds. Then there would be another class 

 who would have some opinions of their own on the ques- 

 tion I had asked them. These would be persons who had 

 in their youth been taught the doctrines of the church, 

 but who in their more mature years had read the writings 

 of others, and who had thought much on the subject and 

 had begun to doubt the entire truth of their earlier ac- 

 quired beliefs. These would hesitate more in their an- 

 swers to me, and their statements would be much less 

 positive than those of their more Orthodox friends. Then 



