interpermeated by, that something which we call mind or thought.
Giordano Bruno saw this long ago when he made an interlocutor in one
of his dialogues say that a man's hat and cloak are alive when he is
wearing them. "Thy boots and spurs live," he exclaims, "when thy
feet carry them; thy hat lives when thy head is within it; and so
the stable lives when it contains the horse or mule, or even
yourself;" nor is it easy to see how this is to be refuted except at
a cost which no one in his senses will offer.

It may be said that the life of clothes in wear and implements in
use is no true life, inasmuch as it differs from flesh and blood
life in too many and important respects; that we have made up our
minds about not letting life outside the body too decisively to
allow the question to be reopened; that if this be tolerated we
shall have societies for the prevention of cruelty to chairs and
tables, or cutting clothes amiss, or wearing them to tatters, or
whatever other absurdity may occur to idle and unkind people; the
whole discussion, therefore, should be ordered out of court at once.

I admit that this is much the most sensible position to take, but it
can only be taken by those who turn the deafest of deaf ears to the
teachings of science, and tolerate no going even for a moment below
the surface of things. People who take this line must know how to
put their foot down firmly in the matter of closing a discussion.
Some one may perhaps innocently say that some parts of the body are
more living and vital than others, and those who stick to common
sense may allow this, but if they do they must close the discussion
on the spot; if they listen to another syllable they are lost; if
they let the innocent interlocutor say so much as that a piece of
well-nourished healthy brain is more living than the end of a