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The Soul : What is it ? 
[May, 
II. THE SOUL: WHAT IS IT? 
ONCERNING the constitution of man there are three 
distinct theories. The first regards him as composed 
simply of a body, actuated for a time either by the 
ordinary forms of energy or by some modification thereof 
not yet recognised, and as losing at death his personal indi- 
viduality. The second and more popular view acknowledges 
in him a double nature, comprising, in addition to the pal- 
pable, ponderable, and visible part or body, an invisible and 
immaterial principle, known promiscuously as “ soul ” or 
“ spirit.” But there is yet a third theory, which considers 
man as a threefold being, made up of body, soul, and spirit. 
It is no part of our present purpose to define the exadt sense 
in which these last two terms are used. It may suffice to 
say that by the ordinary advocates of the triplicity of human 
nature the “ soul ” is supposed to be the purely immaterial 
element, whilst the “ spirit ” forms a connedting-link be- 
tween the two, and, if not purely incorporeal, possesses 
none of the ordinarily recognised properties of matter. 
An author* whose speculations we are about to examine 
exactly reverses these two terms, and looks upon spirit as a 
something absolutely immaterial and transcendent, whilst 
the soul, the seat of the will, the passions, and emotions, is 
perceptible by one, at least, of our senses, and is even 
capable of being experimentally isolated and obtained in 
solution. 
We well know that the orthodox method of treating such 
an announcement is either by contemptuous laughter or by 
the “conspiracy of silence.” We, however, hold that 
Science has nothing to lose, and may have much to gain, by 
a dispassionate examination even of the wildest theories. 
By so doing she will probably fare as well as did the fabled 
brothers who, in searching for a supposed buried treasure in 
their estate, marvellously enhanced its fertility. 
We find ourselves confronted by a number of fadts, 
hitherto without explanation and without connection. Among 
these must rank the phenomena of sympathy and antipathy 
as between different individuals, human or brute. On first 
meeting with some person of whom we have no previous 
* Professor Jager. 
