151 
restraining influence which, through the higher centres, we 
can exert upon the other centres through which it may tend to 
diffuse itself” ; and to help the student to do so the Professor 
might add, te The frontal lobes are the substrata of these con- 
trolling influences.” We would say to the student, “ Keep 
the idea in your mind by attending to it.” 
Personal Identity 
is the property of every person. It is witnessed to by 
consciousness, and no other proof is needed than our own 
consciousness. 
The paper is very erroneous on the subject of personal 
identity. It tells us that “ the sum* of all our states of con- 
sciousness constitutes our personality, — our Ego ; that these 
states of consciousness are in the cerebral cortex, which is 
continually undergoing novel combinations ; that the cerebral 
cortex is the physical substratum, and the states of con- 
sciousness are the subjective aspect ; that as the cerebral 
cortex changes, so the states of consciousness change accord- 
ingly, the one being the substratum, the other the aspect of 
it ; and that therefore it is incorrect to say that our personality 
retains its identity.” 
Such is our author’s own conclusion, drawn fairly from his 
own premises, laid down and reasoned out in his paper. But 
the conclusion which denies personal identity must be a false 
conclusion, and therefore the premises from which the con- 
clusion is drawn must be false premises. The argument 
which requires us to give up our personal identity is a false 
argument. But the argument of our paper that our states of 
consciousness are in the cerebral cortex requires us to give up 
our personal identity, and therefore it is a false argument. 
Our author makes personality equivalent to cerebral mani- 
festation when he uses the phrase “personality, or cerebral 
manifestation.” *f Personality, however, does not consist in 
the sameness of the cerebral cortex or other parts of the brain, 
but in the sameness of the Ego ; and consciousness tells us 
that the Ego is one, not many. 
He tells us our consciousness of personality “ is possible 
only through the continuous registration of our conscious 
experience in the cerebral cortex.” f But this registration is 
mere assumption, of which we have no proof ; and even if such 
# Page 124. 
t Ibid. 
t Ibid. 
