DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1233#0049
Chapter YII.
THE ANIMAL GEOUP-SOUL.
us idea of the group-soul seems to many
students novel and difficult; perhaps an
Oriental simile may help us to understand it
more readily. They tell us that the group-soul
is like the water in a bucket, while if we suppose
a tumblerful of water withdrawn from that
bucket, we shall have a representation of the
soul of the single animal. The water in the
glass is for the time quite separate from that
in the bucket, and it takes the form of the glass
which contains it. Suppose that we put into
that glass a certain amount of colouring matter,
so that the water in it acquires a distinctive hue
of its own; that colouring matter will represent
the qualities developed in the temporarily
separated soul by the various experiences
through which it passes.
The death of the animal will be typified by
pouring back the water from the glass into the
bucket, when the colouring matter will at once
THE ANIMAL GEOUP-SOUL.
us idea of the group-soul seems to many
students novel and difficult; perhaps an
Oriental simile may help us to understand it
more readily. They tell us that the group-soul
is like the water in a bucket, while if we suppose
a tumblerful of water withdrawn from that
bucket, we shall have a representation of the
soul of the single animal. The water in the
glass is for the time quite separate from that
in the bucket, and it takes the form of the glass
which contains it. Suppose that we put into
that glass a certain amount of colouring matter,
so that the water in it acquires a distinctive hue
of its own; that colouring matter will represent
the qualities developed in the temporarily
separated soul by the various experiences
through which it passes.
The death of the animal will be typified by
pouring back the water from the glass into the
bucket, when the colouring matter will at once