Page:Nature and Life (1934).pdf/77

 cules and gaining molecules. When we consider the question with microscopic accuracy, thete is no definite boundary to determine where the body begins and external Nature ends. Again, the body can lose whole limbs, and yet we claim identity with the same body. Also, the vital functions of the celis in the amputated limb ebb slowly. Indeed, the limb survives in separation from the body for an immense time compared to the internal vibratory periods of its molecules, Also, apart fromsuch catastrophes, the body requires the enviroament in otder to exist. Thus, there is a unity of the bedy with the environment, as well as a unity of body and soul into one person.

But in conceiving our personal identity we are apt to emphasize rather the soul than the body. The one individual is that co-ordinated stream or personal experiences which is my thread of life or your thread of life. It is that succession of self-realization,