Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/474

458 think they know what they mean, and that they all mean the same thing, when they use the word "soul." But do they? If we are to attach importance to the doctrine that the soul is not of the same nature as the body, and exists, or can exist, apart from the body, it is surely above all things necessary that we should hold some orthodox creed as to what the soul is in itself, and what the body is in itself—what, in a word, each is that the other is not. It might have been expected that a writer of the scientific habit of mind of Mr. Fiske would have presented some definition of the word "soul" in the work before us; but I fail to find that he has done so. We are left in this matter entirely to our own more or less vague preconceptions. It would have been satisfactory could we have been informed whether the soul, in parting from the body, carries away with it any elements or influences derived from the body, or whether it simply reverts to the condition in which it existed before its union with the body. Some information of this nature is necessary before we can be sure that our knowledge is much advanced by being told that the soul continues to exist after the body has been dissolved. What, exactly, continues to exist? How much of what we now reckon as ourselves? Then, again, though it might not, strictly speaking, form part of the discussion as to the destiny of man, it would seem proper that a scientific expounder of animism should at least hazard some conjecture as to where or what souls are before their union with bodies; whether they exist individually or whether they are but parts of some homogeneous soul-substance, and only become individualized as the result of their union with individual bodies. Especially might we look for this when the subject discussed is "the destiny of man viewed in the light of his origin," If there be the sharp distinction affirmed between man's soul and his body, we should hardly expect the natural history of his body to throw much light on the destiny of his soul. We should certainly be better prepared to form an opinion or a belief as to the course of the soul after it leaves the body, if we could have some grounds for an opinion or belief as to the mode of its existence before it joined the body. If it be held that it had no previous existence, it may not be evident to all why it should survive that body at a certain point in the development of which it would seem to have had its birth.

These are preliminary considerations. Mr. Fiske has not given us all that might have been expected in a treatise bearing the title he has chosen, and pointing to the conclusions he indicates. Still, he has given us something, and it may repay us to examine what the actual content of his work is. To say that the work is written with grace and charm and skill, is only to say over again that it proceeds from the pen of Mr. Fiske. What we want to know now is, what it teaches us apart from lessons in literary style and arrangement.