To those who begin with matter, the search for Soul is very necessary; because to all such Soul is unknown and unveriflable, and so the necessary search is very hopeless. They may well say, with one of this ilk: "It is a hard conundrum, this of the soul, and perhaps we shall be obliged ultimately to give it up."
If we allow the existence of matter as something other than spirit, of an intrinsic and peculiar nature and substance of its own, the extent of whose capabilities are unknown to us, then it may, for aught we know, be capable of thinking and feeling, and be the subject and source of all the conscious processes and states known to us. In that case, we never can discover Soul as aught but a mode of matter. Matter being supposed to be known, all that is discerned in connection with it must, in all reason, be considered as one of its innumerable possible modes and forms.
This assumption of matter being once allowed, by no possible process could we prove that there is any Soul, or what Soul is, or is not. It is argued that "if the soul is material, that elimination of the soul called ' death ' should at once cause a material difference in the body." That is true: and in fact, death, as a sensible phenomenon, always constitutes a difference in the body; and it is nothing else; and all material tests and appliances could have only material results, as, both in processes or means, and end, there would be only sensible phenomena, which are called material.
It is blind and meaningless to say, on this basis, that "if no identity were thus established with either matter or natural forces, it would at least be proven that both psyche and anima are of a nature totally distinct from anything of which we now have scientific knowledge." No possible material test can furnish the slightest reason for questioning this identity. The utmost that we can thus discover is, that the body retains, undiminished in quantity, all the essential properties of matter, even after the signs of consciousness have perished; but it still remains quite possible, that the cessation of consciousness is due solely to certain organic and molecular changes. This is the simplest explanation of the phenomena, and the only one open to us, on the assumption of the existence of matter.
We can escape from materialistic monism, only by escaping from matter altogether.
In order to attain Soul, and know Soul, we must begin with Soul.
How can we go from the less to the greater in logic; and from matter, in the premises, to Spirit, which is not in the premises? It is impossible.
We must discern Soul by intuition, in the very act of thinking; or we never can obtain the knowledge. All right thought, all real consciousness, and therefore all known reality, are Soul and the action of Soul.
We are thus shut up to a spiritual monism. If we would be consistent and logical, we must be monists, either spiritual or material. We must discard the dualism of matter and Spirit. There is but one substance, either matter or Spirit.
We say that that one substance is Spirit or Soul, because all we know is thought, with its implied subject and Cause, divine Mind. This is the simple and sublime conception and mental process and product of what has been called Idealism, but which is better denominated Philosophical Realism. This is the profound and rational basis of Christian Science, which shows Christianity as the most profound, as well as the most spiritual system of thought and life the world has known.
