CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. SSfl 



well authenticated revelation — instead of a virtue, is a weakness of 

 the mind. The question in dispute between the iiiaterialist and the 

 vitalist is simply this : Is the construction of organized matter, out 

 of simple elementary bodies, and its conservation in opposition to the 

 continued influence of external agents, explicable by the laws to which 

 matter in general, is subjected? To this, the sceptical materialist 

 — commencing with a confession of ignorance — conjectures, thaC 

 were we perfectly familiar with all the physical agents, and able to 

 appreciate their influence, such might be the result. Whereas, the 

 dogmatic vitalist, ashamed of the immense extent of this ignorance, 

 and too lazy to await the revelations of nature, turns away from 

 the true worship, and pours forth his confession> of faith in vitalism 

 — the golden calf of his own imagination — the heathenish imper- 

 sonation of the cause of his difliculties. To what consequences has 

 this dogmatism led ? To it we are indebted for the " Gods" of the 

 ancients, the '' anima mundi," ^' Nemesis," &c., — the idle excuses 

 for ignorance. How necessary, then, even yet, the advice of the 

 poet — 



" Nee DeuS intersit, nisi dighus vindice nodus mciderit.' * 



On what we have said on this subject, we protest against the con- 

 struction being put that we are materialists, in the ordinary sense 

 in which that word is used. We only conjecture that ordinary phy- 

 sical cau':;es may explain operations which exist in bodies, as plants 

 and the lower orders of animals, in which no one imagines the ex- 

 istence of a soul ; and which, also, existing in the higher order, as 

 man, are evidently carried on without being subjected to the influ- 

 ence of the soul. Our convictions on the immateriality of the soul, 

 and its immortality, are based on a higher order of evidence, which 

 is strongly confirmed by these two conditions not being inconsistent 

 with reason, and by the belief in them being of vital importance to 

 the moral development of man. 



Medical creeds are of no use in the practical applications of a sci- 

 ence founded on the observation of facts ; and they have a tendency 

 to limit those bold ranges into the undiscovered territory of nature, 

 to which we are indebted for the most valuable portion of her se- 

 crets. It is but justice to Dr. Thorburn to admit that, in this part 

 of his work, we have everywhere evidence of extensive reading and 

 ingenious reasoning ; and, also, that we have derived considerable 

 information on the opinions of authors, whose books, otherwise than 

 so summarily digested, we have no great inclination to enter into. 

 We can even offer some apology for the diffuseness with which he 

 has thought proper to treat the subject, considering the importance 

 which the different schools attach to an early establishment of the 

 student's faith in their own creeds, and the avidity with which pupils 

 apply to the study of subjects upon which fancy may revel without! 

 the obtrusive check of well-established and distinctly-limited induc- 

 tions. A second perusal induces us to believe that the author would 

 lead the student, though in a roinid-about way, to the same con- 



Januaryy 1836. — vol. hi., no. xiv. y 



