PHYSIOLOGY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



722z 



will, to feel, to perceive, to think, are so many 

 states of Soul or acts of Mind. 



Mind is, then, the mode of action of the Soul, 

 as Life is the mode of action of the Body. The 

 latter we distinguish as material, and the phe- 

 nomena of life as specially belonging to orga- 

 nized matter; the former we denominate imma- 

 terial, to mark its essential difference from the 

 body, admitting, however, that it exists in a 

 mysterious union with the nervous system of 

 the body in a manner so intimate that in a 

 state of health the smallest change in either 

 readily affects the other. 



Such is the doctrine which seems most con- 

 sonant with reason and experience, and, above 

 all, with revelation. But there are those who 

 maintain that not only are certain states of 

 mind preceded by certain states of body, but 

 that all our ideas, our sensations, our volitions, 

 are the result of, and as it were generated by, 

 certain organic changes. 



This view, which is that of materialism, 

 while it necessarily tends to destroy our hopes 

 of a future life, by denying even the very ex- 

 istence of a Soul, and not its immortality only, 

 is opposed by the consciousness which we 

 possess of a power inherent in the mind to 

 direct and control the actions of the brain, and 

 by the knowledge that the mind will rise supe- 

 rior to the fatigue and exhaustion of the body, 

 and will survive, unimpaired, even its wreck. 



There are, moreover, some excellent persons, 

 who, while they admit the existence of an 

 immortal soul distinct from the mind, never- 

 theless regard the phenomena of the mind 

 as functions of the brain, resulting from the 

 changes which are continually taking place in 

 that organ. The mind, they say, is " the ag- 

 gregate of the functions of the brain," and is 

 entirely dependent on its integrity. But the 

 adoption of these views involves the advocate 

 of them in as great a difficulty as that from 

 which he flatters himself he has escaped. If 

 there be a soul, what is its relation to the 

 mind? What is its office? Is it simply asso- 

 ciated with the body without being affected by 

 it or affecting it in turn ? Surely it must have 

 some office, and if it be admitted to be capable 

 of exercising any influence, either on the mind 

 or on the body, then the whole matter in dis- 

 pute vanishes. If the soul can affect the mind, 

 it must do so according to these views through 

 the body; and, if this be admitted, why make a 

 difficulty about admitting that the will, as a 

 faculty of the soul, can influence some portion 

 of the brain ? 



On the other hand, if it be denied that the 

 soul can affect either mind or body, then must 

 we come to the conclusion that the soul is 

 inert, or else an entity totally distinct from the 

 body, a looker-on as it were, which watches 

 the corporeal functions and the mental pheno- 

 mena, but takes no part in them, and has no 

 true sympathy with them.* 



* I beg the reader to peruse with attention the 

 following passage from Bishop Butler: " Human 

 creatures," says this profound thinker, ' exist at 

 present in two states of life and perception, greatly 



An acute and ingenious writer, Dr. Wigan, 

 who has advocated with great zeal and ability 

 the docrine of the duality of the mind, seems 

 to think that the progress of mental philosophy 

 and of cerebral physiology is much hindered 

 by the views of those who advocate the spiritual 



different from each other ; each of which has its 

 own peculiar laws, and its own peculiar enjoyments 

 and sufferings. When any of our senses are affected 

 or appetites gratified with the objects of them, we 

 may be said to exist or live in a state of sensation. 

 When none of our senses are affected or appetites 

 gratified, and yet we perceive and reason and act, 

 we may be said to exist or live in a state of reflexion. 

 Now, it is by no means certain that any thing 

 which is dissolved by death is any way necessary 

 to the living being in this its state of reflection, after 

 ideas are gained. For though, from our present 

 constitution and condition of being, our external 

 organs of sense are necessary for conveying in ideas 

 to our reflecting powers, as carriages, and levers, and 

 scaffolds are in architecture, yet when these ideas 

 are brought in, we are capable of reflecting in the 

 most intense degree, and of enjoying the greatest 

 pleasure and feeling the greatest pain by means of 

 that reflection without any assistance from our 

 senses ; and without any at all, which we know of, 

 from that body which shall be dissolved by death. 

 It does not appear then, that the relation of this 

 gross body to the reflecting being is, in any degree, 

 necessary to thinking to our intellectual enjoy- 

 ments or sufferings; nor, consequently, that the 

 dissolution or alienation of the former by death 

 will be the destruction of those present powers 

 which render us capable of this state of reflection. 

 Further, there are instances of mortal diseases 

 which do not at all affect our present intellectual 

 powers ; and this affords a presumption that those 

 diseases will not destroy these present powers. 

 Indeed, from the observations made above, it ap- 

 pears that there is no presumption that the dissolu- 

 tion of the body is the destruction of the living 

 agent from their mutually affecting each other. 

 And, by the same reasoning, it must appear too 

 that there is no presumption that the dissolution of 

 the body is the destruction of our present reflecting 

 powers from their mutually affecting each other ; 

 but instances of their not affecting each other afford 

 a presumption of the contrary. Instances of mortal 

 diseases not impairing our present reflecting powers 

 evidently turn our thoughts even from imagining 

 such diseases to be the destruction of them. Seve- 

 ral things, indeed, greatly affect all our living 

 powers, and at length suspend the exercise of them ; 

 as for instance drowsiness increasing till it ends 

 in sound sleep ; and from hence we might have 

 imagined it would destroy them, till we found by 

 experience the weakness of this way of judging. 

 But, in the diseases now mentioned, there is not so 

 much as this shadow of probability to lead us to any 

 such conclusion as to the reflecting powers which 

 we have at present. For, in those diseases, per- 

 sons, the moment before death, appear to be in the 

 highest vigour of life. They discover apprehension, 

 memory, reason, all entire ; with the utmost force 

 of affection ; sense of character, of shame and ho- 

 nour ; and the highest mental enjoyments and suf- 

 ferings, even to the last gasp ; and these surely 

 prove even greater vigour of life than bodily strength 

 does. Now what pretence is there for thinking that 

 a progressive disease when arrived to such a degree, 

 I mean that degree which is mortal, will destroy 

 those powers which were not impaired, which were 

 not affected by it during its whole progress quite up 

 to that degree? And if death by diseases of this 

 kind is not the destruction of our present reflecting 

 powers, 't will scarce be thought that death by any 

 other means is." See the admirable chapter, " Of 

 a future Life," in Butler's Analogy of Religion, 

 natural and revealed. 



