34 
C. L. Herrick 
equilibrium and, in so far as these contain conscious participants 
in the stream of consciousness, they form part of the soul. But, 
if I amputate a foot, do I mutilate a soul? Certainly, though it 
may be better to enter into life maimed than to retain a foot and 
go elsewhere. By cutting off a finger a child^s soul may be 
maimed of musical faculty. There are organs, the amputation 
of which affects the entire character for life, and one does not 
willingly dispense with the frontal lobes of the brain even if 
he does not know precisely what purpose they serve. 
On the other hand, it is possible to add to the sphere of the 
vital activities, as when I place spectacles upon my nose or apply 
my hand to the throttle of a locomotive. Where, then, is the 
limit of self? It is not for me to draw it. I will not cut the 
narrow' isthmus of flesh which connects me with my twin — the 
universe. The ancients believed that the eye shot out rays 
to grasp the objects of the visual world. What tentacula has 
not modern science produced extending from all our organs to 
the phenomenal world? 
But if we may not define the outer limits of the individual 
life, do we not destroy individuality? Only seemingly, for we 
need not despair of locating its center because the periphery of 
its sphere of activity is indeterminate. The leaven of life may be 
small; but, given time and appropriate conditions, it will leaven 
the whole lump. 
Our analogy of the vector motions carried out would lead to 
the conclusion that, wherever such a center originated, it would 
tend to assimilate to itself all such activities as are capable of 
offering resistance to it and would, by virtue of the form or mode 
of its activity, cause allied activities to accumulate in harmonious 
adjustment about it, enlarging, and, at the same time, intensify- 
ing the energy in the original equilibrium. 
Disturbances of this equilibrium there will be, but it will be 
one of the hardest things to exterminate we can imagine, for it is 
entrenched in one of the most recondite energic conditions of 
the universe. Seed may be dried for years in the tombs but it 
will still germinate. No persecution ever succeeds in stamping 
out a vital truth. It is not to be wondered at that humanity 
has enduring faith in a life eternal, but this is not the life of the 
soul, if by the soul we mean the stream of consciousness.^^ 
In so far as our life as a whole fits into the complicated sphere of 
