Introductory, , ^ 



strictly upon one type. So fixed is this rule that 

 if some vertebrate, such as had never before been 

 seen, were to be now discovered, we should feel 

 sure that its organs of locomotion, whether for run- 

 ning, flying or swimming, would be found to be 

 fashioned on the type of the human foot and hand. 

 But as regards the supersensual part in man com- 

 pared with that in the lower animals, we find among 

 the ablest students the most diverse opinions- 

 some affirming that there is nothing in man not 

 found in the lower animals,-that a dog even, has 

 more moral nature than some men : and others of 

 our able philosophers denying to man even the 

 faintest manifestation of those instinctive principles 

 of action that appear in the brutes. By some the 

 brain is regarded simply as the organ of the mitid, 

 which as an incorporeal existence makes the brain 

 Its servant, as the engineer controls the engine 

 which may be broken, defective and even destroyed,' 

 while the engineer remains with all his capacities 

 perfect. According to others, mind and thought 

 if any distinction is made between them, are both 

 the offspring of the brain— the result of the forma- 

 tion and decomposition of brain cells, the manifes- 

 tation of forces evolved by a sort of higher chemi- 

 cal action, as heat is evolved by the union of coal 

 and oxygen or the electrical current is set in motion 

 by a certain interaction of metals and acids. 



While among those who have studied man most 

 carefully there is an essential agreement as to the 

 tacts of consciousness, in the metaphysical conclu. 

 sions as to the nature of being, of mind and the 



