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PERSONAL IDENTITY constitutes a problem to the thinhing: to the unreflecting it is arrant tritisin. Circumstances forni thedolachod leaves of Our history: this stamps the narratiVe Consistent and unique. Some Dei, hoWevor, that tho talo is brohen
Cortain identities belong to constituted nature. Genera and species retain their arrangement. Processes are multiplied
with an uniformity Which gives them improperly the naine of
obey sonae great assimilating rule. The pendulum, thoughagitated, describes but a given aro l
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and tho caterpillar. Yet that tree has never been another, a certain oneness has froin the sirst stage of iis liso bolongod toit, it has been itfel f throughout iis growth. V et the wingedand tho beautiful infeci, though unlike the original reptile, has, throughout iis metamorphosis, maintained a continuousheing,-the chrysalis constituting a part of it as necessarilyas the creeping and the fluitering fortia. The thesis ovidently confines itself to the identity of man, his identity through ali variety of scene and coUrse. I cannot desine What is meant by se . I can say What it is not. Eachman i8, What no other man can be. We involuntarily conceive the distinction. No man can ask a question iapon it for the salis of information.
substance, Unity implies the inalienabie, the inseparabie; Without any thought of paris, or possibi e division os elements. We, theresere, cali man an individual; Whateuer is composed of paris may be divided, but man is individuat: absolute unityis thorosoro his. We intend it in the strictest sense. Not as
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When We SV in certain computations that such or such inali stand for unity: me belleve that nothing so rigidi y receives orconveys the idea os unity as human being. The personat pronouns of every langvage demonstrato that there is a somethingWhicli I cannot communicate to Thee, Whicli Thou catast notexchange With Me, Whicli Me cannot pari With to Him, nor Heto Oither of m. The son os Philip might most Sasely exclaim, Woro I not Alexander, I Would bo Diogenes. Each man is a Unit, an integer, indivisibi e and incommunicabie. And lotthese uniis be hoWever conformabie, contiguous, and multiplied, like a thousand or ton thougand parallel linos drawn with tholeast possibi e variety and least possibie intervat, they cari neversinii into one another. The possessive pronouns connect What is proper With each,-and the meum and tuum are not only goodlaw, but soland philosophy. Even the suum is not sis boliind. Individuality is not our exclusive attribute: there is noatom but to whicli it must ultimately and hypotheticatly attach. Compotands suppose simples. The infinite divisibility of mat-ter, though aXiomatic, is inconceivabie. But me contend that no unity is strictly analogous to the propriety of the mirid.
Infinitesimal fractions are but Words. These disintegrations aremere Sigiis or soland8. Chemicat eXperiments may be pusheduntii there is oraly a nominal and an inappreci te residuum. Alathematical figures, or rather ideas, may be equalty resnedaWay, - SolidS may be converted into Sursaces, sursaces intolines, lines into politis, and potnis, some Will say, have positionwithout magnitude, and others, that they are nothing. There is more than this supposititious original in man. Anii in speaking
om an infurialed Cyclops; it is quite Ulyssean; but it is
scarcely a Worthy experiment to be practised in familiar society, or Gery-day lise. There is an on dit V for every tale. Ηaving explained that real unity, Which any notion of NE SELF necessitates, it is proper to examine the signiscation
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os person in this en i uiry. It is, in common language, used of tho human appearance and figure. We Speak of a good person, Os imprOVement in person, of personat requisites ordisadvantages. Yet this is biit metonymy,-the body, the Volumen of the self, being substituted for the self. That appearance and figure do not receive personal ascriptions properly is evident, froni their universat refusal to animal s. We could notcali an animal a person. ρε ΝοW that,' says Paley, Whichcan contrive, Whicli can deSigii, must be a person. Thesecapacities constitute personality; for they imply consciolisnessand thought. They require that Whicli can perceiVe an end, OrpurPOSe, as Weli as the poWer of providing means, and of directing them to their end. They require a centre in Whicli Perceptions unite, and Dona whicli volitions flow, whicli is mind. The acts of a mirid provo the existenco os a minit ; and in Whatever a mi d resides, is a person.'' The Word persona Seems to have a dramatio ullusion. It was the subject os dobate betWeen Salmasius and Milton. Though not strictlyrendered by our terna, person,-it might admit such a translation. Johiason cites Juvenal sor this purpose. The merit of tho controversy, perhaps, is this: Per8Ona, in our Sense, is admissibio, but not elegant, Latin. With iis original accoptation itis stili used, When we speak of Dramatis Personae. Whatever are the essentials of humanity, theresere, Constitute the persori. The part os a perSon cannot be conceived. Personali ty cannot be predicated of any nature inferior to ouroWn. We muSt not Suppose that our body occasions our personat diversities. There is as great a variety of Dature, and distinction os fortia, in ieed, as of the real persons :-
These varieties, hoWever, are mere accidenis, und the disserenco
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the human form Were cast in one mould. I cannot explain
hoW personasse became to notij illustrious, in contradistinctionto inserior, individuals; but Ι am perfectly odissed when Iremember that no man can be called a parson without a fullrecognition of his personality, and of his personality as elevated ove ordinary personS l Ηe is, ex officio-a person lΙdentity requires but litile simpli0ing. Personat unitydomands the identity of iis essetice, and identity is but anothermode of putting the case. This enters into WhateVer notion Wecun entertain os To εν. The Latin Word, Idem, seeuis formed of the roois: Is, Demiam: m only. And when We speak of man as identical, we mean not with his species, but with himself. His is the evolution os one continuous bellig. Is thederivation be froni the Greek,-ιδιος, proper Or Own, and εις One,-the amotant of the term Will be the samo. But this is mors sanciful than just. Our corporeat identity we abandon as Untenable. Wemust abandon it With the greater reluctance, Since We are, in this instauce, compelled to disser froin the pro und Hudibras:
in disproo the fixe iness of seatures, the scars of Wound8 ; butthough there bo a constant change of paris, nature, in herrenoVationS, bears respect to ali the peculiarities of individual Structure, and even os structural injury. Others Would plead that bodies were the fame, Dom their groWth, maturity, and decay ; but this only attests the greator strengin or Weaknessos the corporeat functions. A third party Would reason Domitio flowness of the change; but is there bo a change, it is asreal at the end of ten years as of ten seconds. A sourth classwill asseri that there must be some rallying principie, Some
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seminal core, Some Unchanging nucleUS, Whicli, notWithstandirigtheso varied transformations, Will justify the idea of corporealuntly and identity. But is it conceivable that there is sonae part of our hodies indopondent of the laws Whicli affect ali other paris of ourbodies Θ Can we Suppose the atom, or, is you pleaSe, the corpus le, Whicli is ouilawed froin the great vascular and nervolas systems 8 Is organised, it must have iis oWn System, f not, it must bo inseri and dead sesh, and then, by What conservative principio is it held bach froni corruption 8 Comparative anatomy has ShoWn that the bony structure of our Danie is subject to the fame law of mutation with the more subtile andattenuated paris. The Epicurean dance of atoms is performeli, with the greatest precision of movement and rapidity of fgure, in this ρε too solid flest V Ad who have made physiology their study, and ali thini ing persons Who have not, Will at orice perceive that their hodies cannot retain a particio Whicli theyformerly possesSed. As Weli might a man, Who has obtained a neW nose hom Taliacotius or Carpue, sWear that he Was bornwith it, and that his nurse pinched it. And I may here observe, though I by no means am noW going into the controVerSy,
that is there bo any truth in personat unity and identity, it is
Μental is, theresere, the proper exclusive identity for whicli Icontend, satisfied that corporeat individuality is absolute absurdity. Grave men have indeed avoWed, and attempten to vindicate, it. Who can forget the Communications of the Society of Free-thinkers to that great philosopher Μartinus Scribi erus Θ The paris say they Who oppose US) of an animal are perpetuatly changed, and the fluids, Which seem to bo the subjectos consciouSness, are in a perpetuat circulation; so that the samo individual particles do not remain in the brain; Dom Whence it Will folio , that tho idea of individual consciolisness must beconstantly translated hom one particle os matter to another,
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Is aucti may be added to so profound an illustration, the classical scholar may recati the 8hip of Theseus, Which was socontinuatly repatred in his honour, that at last it containod nota plece of iis original timber. For identity, theresere, of mind alone, We contend, sorpersonal and intellectuat identity ; as Me should say of Proteus in the grasp of Hercules, that the Shapes are endlessty diversissed, but it is Proteus stili. I might be contented to put identity on a parallel with tho vitai principio. The secret of both mocks detection. Idontityis not more incomprehensibie than being. But this bolongs to
ing convictions. Simple animal being most probably possessos
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these convictions, or rather impre8Sions similar in intonsity and influenco. What else can render life so dear to ali Θ to the most
desolate, Who have been placed far beyond the power os reflection and the liope of onjoymont 8 The instinctive love of lisoand Dar of death provo that seach one festis the vitai principie tobo his: not disserent at successive moments but identical through Successive years. This impulse is poWerfully described by Joanna Baillie. DraWing the picture of a siege, and the deeptorpor of iis victim S, Who recklessty aWaited death, She SVS :-
It may here be asked, Can we conceive of identity itself, of iis principie and subsisten e 8 It is conceived by esl, though itcan be explained by none. All know What is lisse, though noverdid language contain that knowledge : and ali know what is thosameness of our intellectuat nature, though desinition is impossibie. It must, hoWever, be remembered here, that We plead fortho identity of the very mind, not of iis qualities or dispositioiis; for this identity as a truth in dependent of any perception os it; sor this identity as inherent in the very substance of mind. Thephrase, intellectual substance, is just as correct as materiat, bothbeing the merely assumed subject of certain properties, their
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It must be consessed that we are ali governed by principies of intuitivo bolios. The doubt whicli Des Cartes Would haveus entertain, ab initio, in ali investigations, is impractic le. Mind, as Weli as common being, admits of proo Ι do this,
their truth and satisfiod of their justness by this one circum- Stanee, the impossibility and the absurdity of supposing the
and I must be an Idealist, but that I am compelled by this
innate Suggestion to presuppose iis eXistence. The primaryqualities of matter, as Weli as iis secondary, cannot be ar9ued as
tiate the records of history, but by every probability they axe
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sar froni solLevident, depend Upon previous demonstrations. But tho most indirect soon reVeris to What is most direct, and
tho child holds those primary trullis Whicli support the hi est deductions. The pyramid is turned upon iis poliat when these
Some,-Such scepticism gives poliat to the wit of a Shastosburyand effect to the paradox of a Hume. Ιf theirs bo superior illumination, it brings iis oWn punishment; as Cassandra Was
on led to eXercise the most accurate perceptions. Yet eVenthis is unliko the conception of identity whicli is enforced by the partiost reason, and certissed by the enlarging experience.