She took it in her hands, without the faintest show of repugnance, and studied it intently.
“It is like a fairy-tale. It is marvellous,” she said at last.
“Science abounds in marvels no less stupendous,” said I. “It was my observation of that man's case, and of the beneficent results of it, that suggested to me the possibility of bringing such things to pass of a set, purpose.”
“For years I have made the brain and the skull a study, with that possibility in view. I am able to say now that I can perform the operation with perfect certainty of success.”
“But,” she went on, after a pause, “it is scarcely inspiring to think that the character, the morality, of a human being, can be influenced, can be radically altered, by a mere physical condition like that—to think that the character of the soul can be changed by a change in the structure of the body. It is enough to establish materialism pure and simple; the only logical consequences of which are cynicism and pessimism.”
“It is certainly one of the many psychological facts which go to prove that while it is the tenant of the body the soul must adapt itself to its habitation.”
“It would seem to prove that the soul is not simply the tenant of the body, but its slave, its victim, its creature. As the materialists express it, that mind, thought, emotion, are but functions of the brain.”
“It would perhaps lend colour to that hypothesis; but it does not prove it. Nothing can be proved relative to the human soul. Like all elemental things, it is in its very essence an insoluble mystery. All elemental things? Nay, it is the elemental thing, the ultimate thing, the only thing we know at first hand. All other things we know only as they are mirrored in it; we know them only by the impressions they produce upon our souls. Ten thousand hypotheses concerning it—concerning its origin, its nature, its meaning, its destiny—are equally plausible, equally inadequate. It cannot by seeking be found out.”
She was silent now for a long while. At last, “Will you describe your operation to me?” she inquired.
“You would need a medical education to follow such a description.”