forms of the same substratum, and are reciprocally and quantitively convertible into each other. The last four are not, as has heretofore been supposed, independent agents, "imponderable substances,” but merely properties of matter, or different forms of the one property, motion. When either one of these five is made to disappear, it forth with re-appears in some other one of the five, and in just the proportion of amount. Hence there is forever the same amount of this motion or force in existence. And this is that famous "doctrine," the discovery and demonstration of which are pronounced, for what reason we do not clearly see, the greatest scientific achievement of the present century, rivaling the first discovery of gravitation.

But Professor Barker here assumes to prove, what Youmans and others have maintained before him, that, besides these five, a sixth is to be included, namely, life--life, including all the phenomena of thought, which have heretofore been attributed to an independent agent, or "imponderable substance," called mind, soul, or spirit. He endeavors to show, from various experiments, that heat is convertible into thought, and thought into heat; so that thought is but the motion of the brain. This brings us back to the old Democratic doctrine that there is nothing in the universe but matter and motion.

In his closing paragraph the Professor asks, "Is there no immortal portion separable from this brain tissue?" and he replies, "Here science vails her face, and bows before the Almighty," and makes his appeal to "revelation" and "faith." He avoids showing how his demonstrations do not exclude "faith." Nor does he take pains to show us how the negation of all finite spirit does not destroy "the Almighty." Perhaps the universe is a great cerebrum in eternal motion, thinking with infinite wisdom, and acting with infinite power; and so-God!

The first number of the "series" is Huxley's "Protoplasm;" the third, Sterling's reply to Huxley.

On this general topic we jot the following suggestions:

1. One of the most fundamental of all the maxims of both philosophy and theology is Plato's: Mind is prior to matter. Mind is superior and all comprehending; matter is good for nothing, and might just as well be so much vacant space but for its subserviency to mind. One monad of mind, if solely existing, would be worth a whole universe of matter alone. Hence, when the Materialist makes mind an appendage to matter, an accident, or property, he commits a hysteron-proteron, a cart before the horse, a præ-posterous proposition.

It

2. Mind, as before all things, is the producer of all things. is first cause, the source of causation. All power, all force, resides. primally in mind; and all exertion of power, all eventuality, and all motion, come from mind. Mind is the source of motion.

3. When the theologian, ages ago, declared that God is omnipotent, he asserted, previous to any philosophy, the indestructibility of force. He declared that the amount of force existing is always the same, namely, infinite. And there is no objection to saying that the amount of force measured out by the Almighty to our mundane creation is always the same, unless varied by miracle. The infinite mind, with infinite power, controls the universe.

4. When the Materialist affirms that thought is a property of matter, we will assent if he will change a term and say, thought is a property or motion of substance. For God is a personal substance; and so is spirit or mind. And so we agree that thought is the motion or action of conscious mind or spirit.

5. Has any physiologist, any embryologist, any morphologist, explained the minute molecular causations why the foetus in the human womb does not assume the shape of a lizard or tadpole ? Do any of the laws of chemistry or natural philosophy constitute, singly or collectively, a plastic power by which we can see how the specific human form is molded? We know that soul (of the parent) is a previous condition; and on the principle that the fœtus, patterned to a plan, is truly "mind-molded," we may assume that the soul of the fœtus really and truly shapes the body. Mind is prior to matter, and body is soul-shaped and soulpervaded.

6. If mind or spirit is prior to matter and source of causation, mind is capable of impact and impulse upon matter. This we see demonstrated in the action of the will-power upon body and upon external objects. And mind is consciously susceptible to impact from matter, as is demonstrated from the phenomenon of sensation. Isaac Taylor calls corporeity "an amalgam of mind and matter;" and by that amalgam man is the contact point, the mediation, between the world of matter and the world of spirit. By this means thought appreciates a blow upon the body. So that conscious soul stands in correlation with both antecedent and subsequent material conditions.

7. But the great point with our physicists is, that thought is now demonstrated to be one of the six convertibles of force or motion. Thought is a mode of motion. How, then, can there be an immortal soul? We reply: Thought is the motion of con

scious spirit; of spirit capable of receiving impulse from, and communicating impulse to, matter in correlation with it. But the soul is, perhaps, immortal only in the conditions of immortality; and eternally capable of spiritual motion or thought only in the conditions of thought. We have no proof that, separate from body, spirit may not be eternally placed by God in the conditions of life and thought-motion. We have abundant proof that it is so placed.

Miscellaneous.

THE SOUTHERN GENERAL CONFERENCE.

"That notorious Commission," as it was courteously styled by the "St. Louis Advocate," presented itself before the Southern General Conference in the persons of Bishop Janes and Dr. Harris. They were received with unsurpassable hyperboles of cordiality and courtesy in both word and action. They were waited upon by a most honorable committee selected by the Conference, were invited to unfold their message audibly before that venerable body, were listened to with the profoundest respect and attention, were honored personally with a complimentary resolution, were greeted in private with the heartiest and most winning Southern frankness, and invited to fill pulpits belonging to the Church South. There is nothing more fascinating than the blandishments of our chivalrous Southern brethren. We have known some of the noblest specimens of human nature belonging to that kin. And when underlaid with a stamina of genuine moral character, no spiritual magnetism is more attracting. Yet, alas! in this case, as often, underneath the rosy wreath was the doubleedged sword. Cut and dried for the crisis of the presence and speech of our two victims, Dr. Keener, the most bitter of the Southern editors, (leaving the rabid and ribald "Tom-Bond" out of the count,) drew from his pocket a series of resolutions denying that the delegates had any official business there, declaring that separate organizations must be firmly maintained, and re-affirming the response of the Southern Bishops at St. Louis. The entire triad of resolutions, after review by a Committee, were, with silent, prompt, automatic precision, all passed in lump by a unanimous rising vote.

The most significant point of the three is the indorsement of the Episcopal manifesto. And the most significant point in that Episcopal manifesto was the declaration, that the absolute condition to

the South's hearing any proposals of fraternization is our recognition of the so-called "Plan of Separation." And the significant point in said "Plan" is, that both Churches must retreat to the boundary line that divided the free and slave States; that is, the Methodist Episcopal Church must abandon her three hundred thousand members in the Southern States, with all her churches and other institutions, confess the sin of her intrusion, limit herself north of Mason and Dixon's line, and then the Church South will graciously listen to and consider her petition for an exchange of ecclesiastical courtesies. It was thus that the Southern Bishops, with the profoundest professions of Christian love and burning desire for Christian union, did, with the most graceful and decisive explicitness, lay down conditions for fraternization which they very well knew included self-stultification, self-crimination, and self-degradation on the part of our General Conference. Confess yourselves fools and knaves, and then we will hear your proposals; and then we will trample on your proposals, because, by your own profession, you are fools and knaves. And let no one for a moment imagine that both the Bishops and the General Conference South do not understand and deliberately intend the full force of this "Plan." In 1848 Dr. Pierce said, in his parting words to our General Conference, the condition of our receiving any offer from you is the "Plan of Separation." The Bishops at St. Louis quote his language, and in 1869 say, "His words are our words." Their unanimous General Conference in 1870, by the most plainly concerted action, unanimously adopt the "words" of these same Bishops. So that through twenty-two eventful years this pseudo "Plan of Separation" has been the sole condition for reconciliation. The conclusion, therefore, is as irresistible as fate, that the representative bodies of the Church South mean to make ecclesiastical recognition an impossibility, by prescribing terms which no man's self-respect would permit him to consider. But perhaps another quadrennium may work a revolution.

Meantime a new South is coming into existence, upon which we must concentrate our attention and our forces. Already our Southern Methodist Episcopal Church numbers nearly half as many as the Church South. Immigration from Europe and the North will constitute a new population, with no warlike recollections, no regret for dead slavery, no sympathy for an obsolete Church, demanding the ministrations from a Methodism of a free and loyal history. Ready to co-operate with every Christian body, yet accepting no restraining limitations, let us enter with

renewed energy the inviting field, and another generation will see a free, unsectional, untrammeled Methodism covering our entire country.

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. With Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical, designed for both Pastors and People. By Rev. HENRY COWLES, D.D. 12mo., pp. 363. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1870. One of a series of volumes on the Old Testament, which have heretofore received favorable notice in our pages, by the learned Oberlin professor. We may safely recommend it to scholars and Christian readers.

The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. Translated from the original Hebrew, with a Commentary, Critical, Philological, and Exegetical. By E. HENDERSON, D.D., Author of Commentaries on the Books of the Minor Prophets, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Isaiah, etc. 8vo., pp. 228. Andover: Warren F. Draper. New York: Felt & Dillingham. 1870.

Dr. Henderson's Commentaries have sustained a high rank in England, and will no doubt be welcomely-received by the American clergy.

Homiletics and Pastoral Theology. By WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, D.D., Baldwin Professor in Union Theological Seminary, New York City. Eighth edition. 8vo., pp. 439. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.

A History of Christian Doctrine. By WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, Professor of Biblical Literature in Union Theological Seminary, New York. In two volumes 8vo., pp. 408, 508. Vol. I. Third edition. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.

New editions of valuable works which have been favorably reviewed in our Quarterly.

The Elements of the Hebrew Language. By Rev. A. D. JONES, A.M. Svo., pp. 163.
Andover: Warren F. Draper. 1870.
Mr. Jones has been successful in furnishing for the beginner in
Hebrew a horn-book marked by singular clearness and simplicity.

The Word; or, Universal Redemption and Salvation: "Pre-ordained before all Worlds." A more Evangelical, Philanthropic, and Christian Interpretation of the Almighty God's Sacred Promises of Infinite Mercy, Forgiveness, and Grace. Reverently submitted to Christendom. By GEORGE MARIN DE LA VOYE, a Septuagenarian Optimist. Svo., pp. 320. London: Whittaker & Co., Trübner & Co.

Memoir of the Rev. John Scudder, M.D., Thirty-six Years Missionary in India. By Rev. J. B. WATERBURY, D.D. 12mo., pp. 307. New York: Harper & Bros. 1870.

American Political Economy; including Strictures on the Management of the Currency and the Finances since 1861, with a Chart showing the Fluctuations in the Price of Gold. By FRANCIS BOWEN, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity in Harvard College. 12mo., pp. 495. York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870.

New