The Professor commended John for his intuition, or whatever it may be called, in enabling them to gain this information. In his mute way he made a place for himself in the hearts of all. His wonderful ability with the gun, his caution and prudence, and the remarkable calmness and ease that characterized all his actions in the most trying periods, were such commendable traits that the boys could not help but show him their admiration in every way, and he knew and seemed to appreciate this.
Every day some new phase of his character would present itself, and the Professor, ever alert to note any symptoms, quietly told the boys that there was every evidence that he was now in the making of a dual self.
"What do you mean by that?"
"It is a term applied to one who has lost memory of his past, and in that condition has begun life anew and gone on for years in the new or dual existence, and perhaps ended his life in the dual personality. In many cases, however, returning consciousness, which came just as suddenly as they were deprived of it, caused them to forget all that had taken place during the first period."
"Under those conditions which is the real man or individual, the memory he first started out with or the memory he got afterwards?"
"You have asked a strong, leading question, George, and it may never be answered satisfactorily. Supposing a man should live a period of thirty years, and then have memory entirely obliterated, and should exist the residue of thirty years more as another person, there would be as much reason in calling one as normal as the other; but on the other hand, if, during the latter period, memory should return, and he would be rehabilitated into his former self, I am of the opinion that the first period would be the normal one."
"You seem to think that is what makes the person?"
"What else is there to man but memory? Is it the flesh, or blood and bones? Animals have those also. Memory is the greatest faculty in man, and it has been argued that what is called the divine spirit is merely the ability to recollect."
"But animals recollect, and would you call them divine for that reason?"
"No; for the reason that the lower orders of living creatures, as we term them, do not remember all things, but only certain features of events, and do not, except within a very limited range, reason from one phase to another. Man is called divine by his own kind because he has done things so far above what the brute has accomplished that it is regarded as a divine attribute. But he has done these things because he was endowed with a memory which enabled him to retain a consciousness of things, and to follow up the stored knowledge, or the accumulated essences of events which materialized in his remarkable works. Would it make any difference if the being which does these wonderful things should be in the form of a dog or a horse? If Red Angel could remember all that is told him, and could thereby do the next day what he had learned the day before, he would compare favorably with many human beings who possess our forms, and are called human beings."