292 PSYCHOLOOT. 



thing, but iu much the same way for all. Understanding 

 the Self in this widest sense, we may begin by dividing the 

 history of it into three parts, relating respectively to — 



1. Its constituents ; 



2. The feelings and emotions they arouse, — Self -feelings; 



3. The actions to which they prompt, — Self-seeking and 

 Self-preservation. 



1. The constituents of the Self may be divided into two 

 classes, those which make up respectively — 

 (o) The material Self; 



(b) The social Self; 



(c) The spiritual Self ; and >■ 



(d) The pure Ego. 



(a) The body is the innermost part of the material Sdf 

 in each of us ; and certain parts of the body seem more 

 intimately ours than the rest. The clothes come next. 

 The old saying that the human person is composed of 

 three parts — soul, body and clothes — is more than a joke. 

 We so appropriate our clothes and identify ourselves with 

 them that there are few of us who, if asked to choose 

 between having a beautiful body clad in raiment perpetu- 

 ally shabby and unclean, and having an ugly and blemished 

 form always spotlessly attired, would not hesitate a moment 

 before making a decisive repl}.* Next, our immediate 

 family is a part of ourselves. Our father and mother, our 

 wife and babes, are bone of our bone and flesh of our 

 flesh. When they die, a part of our very selves is gone. 

 If they do anything wrong, it is our shame. If they are 

 ill sal ted, our anger flashes forth as readily as if we stood in 

 their place. Our home comes next. Its scenes are part 

 of our life ; its aspects awaken the tenderest feelings of 

 afi'ection ; and we do not easily forgive the stranger who, 

 in visiting it, finds' fault with its arrangements or treats it 

 with contempt. All these different things are the objects 

 of instinctive preferences coupled with the most impor- 

 tant practical interests of life. AVe all have a blind im- 

 pulse to watch over our bod}', to deck it with clothing of 



* riee, foi- a charming passage on the Philosophy of Dress, H. Lotze's 

 Microcosmus, Eug. tr. vol. i. p. 592 11. 



