METAPHYSICS. 



EXTRACT I. 



ON THE HUMAN ORGANISM PHYSICO-META- 

 PHYSICALLY REGARDED. 



THAT man is a composite being has been discovered and 

 acknowledged, with more or less fulness and intelligence, 

 since the beginning of the " thinking world " ; that he is 

 composed of mind and body is a truism, the validity of 

 which is so apparent and reiterated, that from generation 

 to generation it has been passed on from mind to mind in 

 such unbroken continuity that it has become an almost 

 innate psychological possession of the human race, and 

 the starting-point of nearly all intellectual progress and 

 civilisation. Although, therefore, one of the oldest of 

 our foundation mental concepts, and a universally acknow- 

 ledged truth, we think that the last word has not been, 

 and never till the end of time, can be, said upon it, we, 

 therefore, venture to express a few words more on the 

 well-worn subject. 



We have said that man is a composite being, and we 

 would add that he embodies all varieties of organic life 

 known to science, that is to say, he is composed of organic 

 parts and textures known to the botanist, the zoologist, 

 and the psychologist, not to mention the moralist, and 

 that the embodiment of all these varieties of living matter 

 and energy constitutes him the crown and acme of all 

 organised being. The botanist discovers in the founda- 

 tion protoplasmic matrix composing the various textures 

 and organs of which he consists or is composed, an 



III A 



