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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES 67 the great Indian savant, Prof Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose have recently demonstrated with the utmost sciens tific precision. The following emphatic statement from Haeckels' Riddle of the Universe is expressive of the materialistic view on the subject:“As every body knows, the new born infant has no conscious
ness. Preyer has shown that it is only developed after the child has begun to speak; for a long time it speaks of itself in the third person. In the important moment wheu it first pronounces the word 'l', when the feeling of self becomes clear, we have the beginning of self
consciousness, and of the antithesis to the non-ego." I have italicised the crucial points in this passage, The statement is simply astounding, especially as it comes from a person accustomed to very exact and sober thinking. If the new born infant has no consciousness who feels the pain that finds its expression in the cry that accompanies child-birti? If consciousness is only develuped after the child has begun to speak, how account for the likes and dislikes of the infant before it has acquired the power of speech? The position becomes perfectly. ludicrous when it is sought to strengthen the conclusion by the fact that for a long time the infant speaks of itself in the third person. Does it mean that the child feels its affections also in the third person, as if a pure spectator to some one else's conditions ?
Let us not deceive ourselves by such seeming truths and half-truths. Intellectualism, ratiocination, intelligent speech all come from the same source as the
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