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TUB POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



the Creator, the indestructible personality of man 

 shall rise, to assimilate to itself a glorified body. 

 The doctrine of the resurrection of the body 

 boldly laces the perplexity as to the connection 

 of a body with personality, which so greatly 

 troubled ancient speculation on the immortality 

 of the soul. In respect of the intermediate 

 " state," it only extends (I grant immeasurably) 

 the experience of those suspensions of the will 

 and the full consciousness of personality which 

 we have in life, in sleep, swoon, stupor, depend- 

 ent on normal and abnormal conditions of the 

 bodily organization ; and in respect of the resur- 

 rection, it similarly extends the action of that 

 mysterious creative will which moulds the human 

 body of the present life slowly and gradually out 

 of the mere germ, and forms, with marvelous ra- 

 pidity and exuberance of prolific power, lower 

 organisms of high perfection and beauty. 



But while modern science teaches us to recog- 

 nize the influence of the bodily organization on 

 mental energy, it has, with at least equal clear- 

 ness, brought out in compensation the distinct 

 power of that mental energy, acting by a process 

 wholly different from the chain of physical causa- 

 tion, to alter functionally, and even organically, 

 the bodily frame itself. The Platonic Socrates 

 (it will be remembered) dwells on the power of 

 the spirit to control bodily appetite and even 

 passion (rb dv/xoeiSes), as also on its having the 

 power to assume qualities, as a proof that it is 

 not a mere apfxouia. Surely modern science has 

 greatly strengthened the former part of his argu- 

 ment, by these discoveries of the power of mind 

 over even the material of the body. This is 

 strikingly illustrated (for example) to the physi- 

 cian, both by the morbid phenomena of what is 

 called generally "hysteria," in which the belief 

 in the existence of physical disease actually pro- 

 duces the most remarkable physical effects on the 

 body ; and also by the more natural action of the 

 mind on the body, when in sickness a resolution 

 to get well masters the force of disease, or a de- 

 sire to die slowly fulfills itself. Perhaps even 

 more extraordinary is the fact (I believe suffi- 

 ciently ascertained) that during pregnancy the 

 presentation of ideas to the mind of the mother 

 actually affects the physical organization of the 

 offspring. Hence I cannot but think that, at 

 least as distinctly as ever, our fuller experience 

 discloses to us two different processes of causa- 

 tion acting upon our complex humanity — the one 

 wholly physical, acting sometimes by the coarser 

 mechanical agencies, sometimes by the subtiler 

 physiological agencies, and in both cases connect- 



ing man through the body with the great laws 

 ruling the physical universe — the other wholly 

 metaphysical, acting by the simple presentation 

 of ideas to the mind (which may, indeed, be 

 so purely subjective that they correspond to no 

 objective reality whatever), and, through them, 

 secondarily acting upon the body, producing, no 

 doubt, the molecular changes in the brain and 

 the affections of the nervous tissue which ac- 

 company and exhibit mental emotion. In the 

 normal condition of the earthly life, these two 

 powers act and react upon each other, neither 

 being absolutely independent of the other. In 

 the perfect state of the hereafter we believe that 

 it shall be so still. But we do know of cases in 

 which the metaphysical power is apparently dor- 

 mant or destroyed, in which accordingly all emo- 

 tions can be produced automatically by physical 

 processes only, as happens occasionally in dreams 

 (whether of the day or night), and in morbid 

 conditions, as of idiocy, which may themselves be 

 produced either by physical injury or by mental 

 shock. I cannot. myself see any difficulty in con- 

 ceiving that the metaphysical power might act, 

 though no doubt in a way of which we have no 

 present experience, and (according to the Chris- 

 tian doctrine) in a condition of some imperfection, 

 when the bodily organization is either suspended 

 or removed. For to me it seems clear that there 

 is something existent, which is neither material 

 nor even dependent on material organization. 

 Whether it be stigmatized as a " heterogeneous 

 entity," or graciously designated by the " good 

 old word soul," is a matter of great indifference. 

 There it is ; and, if it is, I cannot see why it is 

 inconceivable that it should survive all material 

 change. For here, as in other cases, there seems 

 to be a frequent confusion between conceiving 

 that a thing may be, and conceiving how it may 

 be. Of course, we cannot figure to ourselves the 

 method of the action of a spiritual energy apart 

 from a bodily organization ; in the attempt to do 

 so the mind glides into quasi-corporeal conceptions 

 and expressions, which are a fair mark for satire. 

 But that there may be such action is to me far 

 less inconceivable than that the mere fact of the 

 dissolution of what is purely physical should draw 

 with it the destruction of a soul that can think, 

 love, and pray. 



I do not think it necessary to dwell at any 

 length on the second of Mr. Harrison's proposi- 

 tions, denouncing the desire of personal and 

 individual existence as " selfishness," with a 

 vigor quite worthy of his royal Prussian model. 

 But history, after all, has recognized that the 



