SIR OLIVER LODGE 263 



sort even in inorganic nature. What constitutes for 

 instance the identity of a river, the Tiber, or the 

 Ganges, or the Nile? We recognise that the river has 

 a sort of identity, but it cannot depend on the par- 

 ticles of water which constitute it. It may be said that 

 the identity of a river is determined by the shape and 

 locality of the channel along which the particles move; 

 but even that is liable to change from time to time; 

 yet we recognise it as the same river. The river there- 

 fore has a certain individuality, displayed by the 

 stream of particles; and occasionally it has been per- 

 sonified as Father Tiber, Mother Ganges, and the 

 like. But this is obviously a poetic personification. 

 There is no real soul or personality, or anything which 

 calls for persistence beyond its terrestrial and tempo- 

 rary manifestation. 



An identity of this general kind seems to belong to 

 all vegetables and to the lower animals. There is no 

 need to postulate permanent personal existence in their 

 case. The question only arises when the life of an 

 organism has reached a stage at which the elements 

 of mind and consciousness appear, when the action 

 becomes more than mechanical, when it shows signs, 

 not only of accumulated memory, but of incipient rea- 

 soning power, leading to purposive action, based on 

 accumulated or inherited experience; based not so 

 much upon the laws of heredity alone, but upon expe- 

 rience acquired by the individual, so that In some sense 

 it knows what it is doing, and spontaneously and indi- 

 vidually tries for some end, or acts with some appre- 

 hension of the future; when it is guided, not merely by 

 the present, but by anticipation and hope. 



