The child, still in its mother's arms, has no consciousness of its own
individual life and identity; and it is with its growth that it acquires a
sense of separate and isolated being, independent of all around.
The acquisition of this consciousness may be the use of "blood and
breath," which otherwise would have achieved no worthy end; as we should
have to learn ourselves afresh after the second birth of death, if these
had not assured us of our indisputable personality.