250 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



lodged somewhere in the brain,^ which carries the personaUty, 

 and which is destined to develop into the "spiritual body" of 

 the next world. 



The adoption of this view added greatly to the complexity 

 of Bonnet's system of germs; but the change was merely an 

 extension of his original basis, and did not necessitate the 

 sacrifice of a single principle of "evolution." It simply 

 doubled the number of germs to be evolved in order to escape 

 the objection to re-evolving decapitated or otherwise mutilated 

 germs. 



Bonnet's speculations were all inspired by his faith in the 

 doctrine of a future life. How to invent a scheme that should 

 make the resurrection look credible — that was the chief con- 

 cern. Although a devout believer in miracles, Bonnet pro- 

 ceeded on the principle that " God would not multiply miracles 

 unnecessarily " {Essai Analyt., p. 353). " If nature has placed 

 the germ of the butterfly in the caterpillar, and in the seed the 

 germ of the plant that is to arise from it, why would she not 

 be able to place in the human body the germ of the body which 

 is to succeed it } 



" It is then possible that the seat of the soul actually in- 

 closes the germ of that glorious and incorruptible body of 

 which Revelation speaks. It is even probable that it incloses 

 it; for it is at least probable that God only makes exceptions 

 to the laws of nature when secondary causes do not suffice by 

 themselves to fulfil the ends of his wisdom. 



" Revelation itself appears to suggest the idea which I have 

 proposed on the seat of the soul, by the beautiful and philo- 

 sophical comparison of tJie seed sown in the earth. It seems 

 to remind us thereby of general laws and to suggest that the 

 resurrection will only be the effect of those laws. Man is the 

 seed sown in the earth ; the envelope of the seed perishes, 

 and from its interior comes forth a plant, very different from 

 this envelope, which will bear fruit in eternity. 



..." I have to show here how we are to conceive the de- 

 velopment of this small germ concealed in the seat of the soul, or, 

 what comes to the same thing, how the resurrection takes place. 



1 Contemplation, Part IV, Chap. XIII, and Essai Analytique, Chap. XXIV. 



