"The soul stands related to the body as the bell of a clock to the works"
— Huxley, Thomas H. (1825-1895)
Date
1874
Metaphor
"The soul stands related to the body as the bell of a clock to the works"
Metaphor in Context
The hypothesis that brutes are conscious automata is perfectly consistent with any view that may be held respecting the often discussed and curious question whether they have souls or not; and, if they have souls, whether those souls are immortal or not. It is obviously harmonious with the most literal adherence to the text of Scripture concerning "the beast that perisheth"; but it is not inconsistent with the amiable conviction ascribed by Pope to his "untutored savage," that when he passes to the happy hunting-grounds in the sky, "his faithful dog shall bear him company." If the brutes have consciousness and no souls, then it is clear that, in them, consciousness is a direct function of material changes; while, if they possess immaterial subjects of consciousness, or souls, then, as consciousness is brought into existence only as the consequence of molecular motion of the brain, it follows that it is an indirect product of material changes. The soul stands related to the body as the bell of a clock to the works, and consciousness answers to the sound which the bell gives out when it is struck.
Categories
Provenance
Reading Flanagan, Owen. Consciousness Reconsidered. A Bradford Book. Cambridge, MA;
London: The MIT Press, 1992. p. 7.
Citation
Originally published in Nature 10 (1874): 362-66. The essay also appears in Huxley's Collected Essays: pp. 199-250. Text available from "The Huxley File" <http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/CE1/AnAuto.html>.
Date of Entry
12/03/2003
Date of Review
05/17/2007
