However, from the time of Francis Joseph Gall, the great
animist and physician and the founder of the Science of Phrenology, emphasis is no longer
[90] laid on the probable location of the soul. The mind has emerged into the limelight;
character, ethics and what has been called the Science of Ethology has come into being.
The relation of psychical qualities to the brain has become the subject of consideration,
and today we have included the glands in our speculation and so carried the idea forward.
The modern mechanistic teachings of psychology have temporarily taken the place of the
older vitalistic, animistic, and mystical ideas. The materialistic approach, however, has
been of profound value. It has brought about two things among many others: It has
preserved the balance, first of all, and produced a structure of knowledge, based on
natural facts, which has offset the errors and deductions of the visionary mystic and the
superstitions of the religious theologians. Secondly, by means of the conclusions arrived
at through the work of the modern psychologists, through the study of the mind, and of its
power, and through the influence of such organizations as Christian Science and New
Thought, a bridge has been constructed between the East and the West. It is now possible
for the Oriental teaching as to the triplicity of soul, mind and brain, to be appreciated
and understood. After eliminating certain undesirable features (and there are several) and
in collaboration with Western science, light again may stream forth from the East and
point the way for humanity into a new state of being, into a fuller realization of power,
and into a truer appreciation [91] of the nature of the human soul. Then perhaps we shall
appreciate the truth of Browning's conception of this integrated human being:
"Three
souls which make up one soul; first, to wit,
A soul of each and all the bodily parts,
Seated therein, which works, and is what Does,
And has the use of earth, and ends the man
Downward: but, tending upward for advice,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the next soul, which, seated in the brain,
Useth the first with its collected use,
And feeleth, thinketh, willeth, - is what Knows:
Which, duly tending upward in its turn,
Grows into, and again is grown into
By the last soul, that uses both the first,
Subsisting whether they assist or no,
And, constituting man's self, is what Is -
And leans upon the former, makes it play,
As that played off the first; and, tending up,
Holds, is upheld by, God, and ends the man
Upward in that dread point of intercourse,
Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him.
What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man." [92]
- Browning,
Robert, A Death in the Desert.
|
