14 



EEV. A. R. WHATELY, D.D., ON IMMORTALITY. 



James' theory may be sound enough as a mere matter of 

 introspective observation, though in that case it is hardly a 

 theory. But it only raises questions as to the position, value^ 

 and even possibility, of a purely phenomenal psychology. At 

 any rate, what concerns us here is the abstractness of the whole 

 point of view, with all its appeal to experience. James seems 

 to think that we are bringing self-consciousness up to its 

 highest point when we try to fix before our minds the " pure 

 Ego," and that because w^e fail to do so we may discard it as 

 a scholastic fiction. But consider what this psychological 

 introspection is, how narrow its significance, how limited its 

 scope. When I set my own mind before me as a specimen 

 of Mind as such, I have abstracted already from my individual 

 personality. For personality is always specific ; my essential 

 nature does not consist simply in being a member of the class 

 " person," but in being the particular person which I am. ''1" 

 is not really a particular, but a singular term ; and as singular 

 I am correlated with other persons, not merely by general links 

 which science can classify, but by specific relationships, which 

 are, in a measure, unique, as truly as the persons which they 

 unite are unique. The differences, not merely the general fact 

 of differences, are essential. 



Not, of course, all equally so. We do not ordinarily think of 

 our circumstances and surroundings as if they were such that 

 they could not be changed without the loss or w^eakening of 

 our identity. But that is because we generally think of them 

 in sections, not as a whole. It remains true that — apart from 

 what we become through our own free will — we are what we are 

 by virtue of heredity and environment, and that both of these 

 imply that we are units in a world of persons — the one from the 

 point of view of time, the other of space. And to say " I am I," 

 is meaningless as an abstract formula. To mean anything, it 

 must mean I am that specific person, with specific differences 

 from others, and with such and such a record of social life and 

 action that is indicated by the use of my name. 



Now, when we rise to the religious standpoint, which is 

 assumed in this paper (and by no means repudiated by James 

 himself), then this conclusion is further strengthened. It is in 

 relation to ideals that the greatness of personality appears. And 

 our individual differences stand out all the more strongly, 

 when we think of all awakened humanity as travelling by 

 different paths to the same ultimate goal, living, according 

 to their widely different capacities and opinions, for those great 

 ideals which are the same for us all, and are all summed up 



