Professional _esprit de corps_, and even professional bias, the sentiment of nationality, the most narrow-minded local patriotism may also have a high value, for certain _purposes_. But such conceptions will not characterise the far-sighted investigator, at least not in the moment of research. All these egoistic conceptions are adequate for practical purposes only. Of course, even the investigator can succumb to custom. Trifling scholastic fiddle-faddle, the cunning appropriation of others' labor and perfidious silence with regard to it, the numerous objections and complaints when unavoidably compelled to give recognition, and the scanty illumination of others' performances on such occasions, abundantly show that the scientist and scholar have also to fight the battle of existence, that the ways of science yet lead to the mouth, and that the _pure_ quest of knowledge amid our present social relations is still an ideal. * * * * * The primary fact is not the _I_, the ego, but the elements (sensations). The elements _constitute_ the _I_. _I_ perceive the sensation green, means, that the element green occurs in a given complex of other elements (sensations, memories). When _I_ cease to perceive the sensation green, when _I_ die, then the elements no longer occur in their customary, common way of association. That is all. Only an ideal mental-economical unity, not a real unity, has ceased to exist. * * * * * The ego is not an unchangeable, definite, sharply-defined unity. The important factor is not _unchangeability_, not determinate _distinguishability_ from other things, and not accurate _limitation_, for all these factors even vary within the sphere of individual life itself, and their alteration is even _sought_ by the individual. _Continuity_ alone is important. This view admirably accords with that to which Weismann recently attained by biological investigations ("Regarding the Immortality of Unicellular Beings," _Biolog. Centralbl._, Vol. IV, Nos. 21, 22; compare especially pp. 654 and 655, where the division of the individual into two _equal_ halves is spoken of). But this continuity is only a _means_ to dispose and to assure the content of the ego. This _content_ and not the _ego_ is the principal thing. But this content is not confined to the individual. With the exception of insignificant, valueless, personal memories or reminiscences, it remains preserved in _others_ even after the death of the individual. The _ego_ is unsavable. It is partly the discernment of this fact, partly the fear of the same, that leads to the most extravagant pessimistic and optimistic, religious and philosophical absurdities. We shall not be able in the long run to close our eyes to this simple truth, the immediate result of psychological analysis. We shall then no longer place so high a value upon the ego which even during individual life greatly changes, and which, indeed, in sleep