V.

We have hitherto regarded the mind as either passively taking cognizance of external objects through their influence upon the senses, or, as excited to certain actions by the suggestions of sensation, either directly, or through their remembrances or vestiges which are left as ideas. In each instance the mind may be said to obey an external impulse-to be acted upon—and in so far we see the absolute necessity of material organism and function for the accomplishment of such end.

But under other circumstances, the mind itself acts, and apparently without any obedience to the laws and operations of matter. No direct relation can here be traced between the organic or animal function, and the intellectual one. This action, apart from materiality, is specially accompanied by Internal Consciousness. It comprehends IPSEITY, a belief or knowledge of one's own existence the peculiar attribute of intelligent humanity—JUDGMENT, Imagination, ReflecTION, and RATIOCINATION. These active powers are all subject to VOLITION, an internal operation of which we are conscious, and by which, according as the mental energies are actuated singly, or in conjunction with the physical, we are directed to enterprises of mind or body.

As before observed, it frequently happens in the exercise of these intellectual functions, that the Immaterial Mind is only of itself concerned, totally apart from any direct interference or influence of matter. Sometimes the action is of a compound nature, involving equally, the mind in its abstract, and in its relations to the suggestions of the sensory apparatus. In such cases, some organic operation of the brain is required. As when, in the exercise of judgment, a comparison of facts is called for, volition determines the action of

memory through the association of previously acquired ideas. But only in the latter sense can the faculty of judgment be considered as related to any material function. In this, and in all similar instances, the organic action is consequent upon, not antecedent to, the effort of the mind.

Another action, and most important, of the immaterial mind, is comprehended in its moral estimate of right and wrong. The emotions with which religious states and exercises are necessarily connected, as joy, grief, hope, and fear, and the other inward feelings which determine either the happiness or the misery of this life, all involve certain organic actions. Under these circumstances the mind is passively influenced, and the emotions may be considered to arise without any spontaneous exertion. But the reflection upon our accountability, and upon the various other conditions of SELF, which the PRESENT and the HEREAFTER embrace, are all the peculiar province of man's separate intellectuality.*

OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRITUALISTS.

VI.

WHILST the Materialists on the one hand have denied the separate existence of mind, so the Spiritualists on the other hand have occasionally been led to deny the separate existence of

*It is probable that, on this side the grave, the MIND is never exercised without the co-operation, more or less, of organic function. Though the latter is only an accompaniment of the former-not essential to it. It is thus that we account for narcotics, stimulants, local injuries, &c. either disturbing or destroying the intellectual processes.

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matter. The former maintain that all intelligence, whether lowly or lofty, depends upon sensation variously concentrated; the latter avow that, what appears to be materiality around us, is nothing more than a figment of our reason. Berkeley discarded all sensible qualities from external objects, and transferred them to the ideas or sensations of the mind alone; Boscovich substituted for this theory, a "system of dynamic excitants of sensation;" while Kant, with greater daring, regarded even space, and time, and causation, as mere suggestions of the understanding.

In good truth then, these philosophers argued until they found that there was no material world at all-nothing but mind and ideas-that personalities, events, and scenes, as they figured around them, had no more reality than the panorama of a dream.

Hume carried the theory still further-until at last the soul itself was swept away, and nothing left but impressions and ideas-sensations without a sentient being-and neither proof, nor recognition, of personal identity. Beyond this, it will be admitted, no philosophy can reach.

VII.

THE term Vital Principle, as employed by physiologists, is understood to imply a distinct entity, material or immaterial, pervading every part of the living body, and especially the blood, planning and perfecting organization, exciting organic action, and defending the animal fabric from the ravages of external chemical agency. It is believed to exist in the germ, which it simply vivifies; it subsequently promotes the

developement of organs in their order of succession; it inhabits the matured body, presiding over every function and directing every energy; and finally, itself being weakened or wasted, or the particles it has controlled, no longer obeying its impulse, it leaves the corporeal structure, which immediately becomes a prey to the chemical affinities of its own constituents, and to the action of surrounding elements.

According to this hypothesis, then, there are two entities. in the living body, apart from its common materiality,—one, which we denominate Soul, or Spirit-our immaterial, immortal being, the source of our intelligence and the seat of our responsibility; the other, which is termed Vital Principle, or Principle of Life, whose function is limited to endowing our organism with the powers and properties which it manifests. The truth of the former position will be readily acknowledged by every rational and reflecting mind; the fallacy of the latter opinion it will shortly be our object to prove.

On a careful survey of the human body-of its statics (organism), and dynamics (functions), we especially mark the simplicity of its composition, the diversity of its structure, and the variety of its action. Of a few elements, viz. oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, and some metals, is built, the active, vigorous, commanding, fabric of man! The bony tissue which gives stability and substance to the whole-the muscles which move it-the nerves that endow it with sensibility-the vessels to supply it with blood-the sensory organs, the motives and ministers of intelligence-the brain, the repository of the mysterious soul,--all spring from the combination of a few elemental particles.

Occasionally we observe great simplicity of structure, as in parallel muscles, nerves, absorbents, and blood-vessels. Yet by these, in their different arrangements, are answered all the purposes of motion, sensation, and nutrition. Again, we

discover more complication of tissue, as when muscles, nerves, and vessels, are variously convoluted in the formation of glandular apparatus. Still, the most delicate and compound organ of the body, even as the most rudimentary and simple, when unravelled by dissection, shows nothing but cords, canals, globules, and intervening network.

Connected with this animal organism, is all the diversity of function which denotes its vitality. Respiration to purify the blood, and to maintain a uniform temperature-circulation to preserve the life, and to repair the waste, of organs-digestion and assimilation to sustain the integrity and quantity of the circulating fluid—and secretion to remove from the blood any noxious material, or to serve a more active purpose in the economy of nutrition.

As we shall hereafter learn, these processes, so wonderful, and seemingly so complex, are nothing more than refined illustrations of Combustion, Mechanical Force, Chemical Solution, and Filtration. It has been attempted, however, to explain them by a reference to the presiding agency of the vital principle, which is said to aid and direct every organ in the performance of its specific functions. But the Vitalists have been asked, and the question may be conveniently repeated, how can this unknown something, this separate, single, entity, govern so many and diverse operations? Every secretion differs from every other in composition and property, not less than the glands themselves vary in appearance and in size; and as all these dissimilar fluids are obtained directly from the blood, if a vital principle be the agent, how does it happen that the same cause can produce such a variety of effect? According to this doctrine, it either must be admitted that there is a different vital principle for every organ-one for the lachrymal glands, another for the liver, a third for the pancreas, and so on—or, if we grant a power so varied and selective to a single entity, we distinctly give to it