17. Self depends on consciousness, not on substance.
Self is that conscious thinking thing,--whatever substance
made up of, (whether spiritual or material, simple or compounded, it matters not)--which is sensible or conscious
of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness
extends. Thus every one finds that, whilst comprehended under that consciousness, the little finger is as much a
part of himself as what is most so. Upon separation of this little finger, should this consciousness go along with
the little finger, and leave the rest of the body, it is evident the little finger would be the person, the same person;
and self then would have nothing to do with the rest of the body. As in this case it is the consciousness that goes
along with the substance, when one part is separate from another, which makes the same person, and constitutes
this inseparable self: so it is in reference to substances remote in time. That with which the consciousness of this
present thinking thing can join itself, makes the same person, and is one self with it, and with nothing else; and so
attributes to itself, and owns all the actions of that thing, as its own, as far as that consciousness reaches, and no
further; as every one who reflects will perceive.
