lain life and consciousness without appeal to agencies which are
inexplicable on naturalistic terms. But it is obvious that such a
basis is overhung by an ever-threatening danger. If the mind-body
problem were solved in a concrete, empirical way, what then?

It has been customary to examine the question of immortality from three
angles which may be called, respectively, the empirical, the ethical
and the philosophical. The more recent drift of philosophy toward
realism has tended to bring the first and the third methods of approach
closer together. It has increasingly been felt that philosophy
cooperates with the special sciences and is inseparable from them. The
ethical argument in favor of immortality is oftener found in poetry
than in serious books on ethics. It cannot be said to have sufficient
force to swing the balance established by science and a realistic
philosophy in touch with science.

The empirical status of immortality can best be brought out by a glance
at the facts of abnormal psychology. In olden days, as we have seen,
insanity was explained as the disturbing effect of a demon. To-day,
experiment and careful observation have proven that it is due to a
functional disorder of the brain. That, whenever there is a disorder
of the mind, there {147} is some corresponding anatomical or
physiological flaw in the brain has become a commonplace of modern
medicine and psychology. In fact, insanity is defined as a "symptom of
disease of the brain inducing disordered mental symptoms." A multitude
of experiences point to the very intimate connection between the brain
and consciousness. Careful observation of clinical cases has, for
example, shown that a lesion in the visual center of the brain, that
is, the part of the brain to which the fibers of the optic nerve run,
induces the disappearance of both sight and visual imagery. Psychology
and physiology have been busily engaged in discovering these
correlations. So extended are they that the suggestion that
consciousness is inseparable from the brain forces itself home ever
more obstinately. Mental capacity runs parallel with the finer
development of the brain. Is not, therefore, the very meaning of
mental capacity connected with the needs and activities of the
organism? But the case is still stronger when we note what happens to
an individual when something goes wrong with the brain. Can this poor
lunatic, who has dropped from the high level of edu