and know its many and varied
journeys.

Even memory, so unreliable in our short life, bespeaks the utter
impossibility of such a thing as a soul with a permanent and lasting
existence.

That which we call the "soul" is nothing but a chemical composition,
that can and _does_ lose its permanency while we are still alive.

We are acquainted with a number of chemical compositions that must
remain in a pacific state to maintain their identity, so those chemical
forces that compose our "soul" must perforce maintain their
equilibrium.

If we are stunned, or suffer any of the many conditions that upset
chemical compounds and compositions, we, for the time being, suffer
either "unconsciousness" or some other form of mental disability.

If we are shocked too severely, we become totally and permanently
impaired, and suffer violent fits and fearful rages, insanity or
imbecility.

Different shocks, and even forms of disease, result in certain action
upon our chemical brain, which causes it to lose only part of its
ability. Extreme high fever is only one form of illness which causes the
brain to lose its stability and run rampant and unbridled.

If I were fully cognizant of all forms and degrees of disease, I could
recite exactly how they act and in what degree they harm the delicate
organism of our brain. In many instances shocks or diseases too powerful
for our brain to withstand, cause that portion of our brain that may
control our speech, our sight, our hearing, our limbs or other organs to
lose its power, with the consequence that we must suffer and be
handicapped with what is properly called "a great affliction."

Science to-day has discovered that great truth, and has not only
catalogued the different portions of the brain in their individual
departments or capacities, but, by a master stroke of surgery, can
correct and remedy those impaired parts, and give back to the human
being the use of those valuable organs that the invisible agents of
Nature had taken away.

So, instead of the brain's possessing a "soul," we find it, only in a
more delicate degree, a mechanical formation such as we discovered our
body to be.

But if we possess a soul and it is capable of passing through the many
and varied stages that life suffers, what becomes of its impressions?
What and where are the benefits of its retention?

Where is the soul when we are in a state of unconsciousness? Surely, if
the soul were ever present to guard a