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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
body, mental activity would be carried on in different parts simultaneously, or at least there would be as many ideas of a single object of perception as there are consciousnesses in the body or the brain. But, since actual experience belies this supposition, it follows that the soul is an indivisible unit of consciousness.
The above arguments fully suffice to prove the simplicity of the substance of consciousness.
We now come to the quality of incorruptibility which is also an attribute of the soul. With regard to this, it must be evident that that which is a simple, i.e., a noncompound substance, can never le conceived as coming to an end, for the annihilation of that which exists can only mean the breaking up of a compound into its component parts. Hence, annihilation is not possible where a given substance is not a compound that might break up into simpler elements.
As a result of the foregoing considerations we are entitled to say that being a substance, that is, as a something which subsists by its own nature, the soul cannot possibly be annihilated out of existence, and is an entity quite independent of the physical body which it inhabits during its earthly life. As such, it is fully capable of maintaining an existence independently of its garment of flesh.
Now arises the question, whether the soul would, in any sense, retain its power of perception on shuffling off this mortal coil, the body of matter. The answer to this depends on the nature of the perceptive faculty, hence, if perception be a function of sense-organs, the eye, the ear, and the like, naturally it cannot survive the physical death. But if, on the contrary, perception is not
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