The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1916-06-26
What Is a Soul?
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane)


Referring to what you said some time
ago about the SOUL" writes a correspoN.
dent, 81 would respectfully ask you to
rise and explain. What is the soul?
Where is it located? How do you know
you have a soul? To say that the soul
is the immortal part is lodging the ques-
ton. Is there any real proof that there
is anything except material substance,
or body, to human being?
To the inquiry, What is the soul?"
we must honestly and frankly say, with
out clouds or evasion, II don't know"
1t should be added, however, that be-
cause we do not know what a thing is
constitutes no reason why we should not
talk about it and use it.
AS a matter of fact, the most disable.
practical things in the world are things
whose essence and real nature we UNDER
stand least.
Take electricity, for instance, one of
the most serviceable forces extant; it
pulls our trolley cars and railway trains,
gives us light and heat, communicates
thought signs, heals diseases and does
all manner Of every day work for US; we
| know how to generate it, how to turn it
on and off, what substances will conduct
| it; we can measure its power; we can do
almost as much with it as we can with
wood or iron; and yet nobody in all the
world knows what it is
Nobody knows what gravitation is,
though it grips all creation; nor chem
ical affinity, though it pertains to every
molecule of matter; nor love, though it
! is the biggest factor in life.
When we use the word soul it is really
by way of expressing our conception of
what a human being is. If he is merely
a lump of highly organized and sensi-
tiled matter, if his motives and acts can
be determined by the same sort of reac-
tions that take place in the chemists re-
torts and test tubes. then he is only a
body. But if he is a mysterious, mex
picable phenomenon, wholly different
from all other creatures on earth, be-
cause he thinks and has notions of right
and wrong, then he is more than another
kind Of animal he is more than a per-
fected anthropoid ape, he is--wc do not
know what, and we call him soul to
express that added something"
To use the term soul therefore implies
that we conceive of man as creature
who functions in ways that cannot pos
sibly be explained by chemistry, or by
any laws that operate in stones, trees,
or animals.
We do not know that man is immortal;
we believe it, but it is essentially un-
movable. Immortality, therefore, can
not be proved in the way that such
movable things as mathematics can be
proved, but it can be believed.
And the best, the most valuable, the
most indispensable things in life are not
the things we believe as that your wife
loves you, your friends are loyal to you,
or that doing right is better than doing
wrong.
It is this belief of the dignity, worth,
and Importance of human life that re-
deems the world from baseness and gross
animalism.
Metaphysicians have quareled for CEN
turtles over what reality is and what
truth" is. One of the cleverest tests
Of truth is that given by those called
"nraomatists." of whom the late Will
liam James was the leading exponent.
They say that the best test of truth is
l"Will il work." And Judged by this
test surely no idea could be more truth
ful than the soul idea for none exercises
q more practically useful influence upon
Individual and communal life.
A "TERRIBLE" MISTAKE