Human Physiology. 237* 



his proper body. The water which at all times constitutes four- 

 fifths of our weight, is not our body. The lime embedded in 

 our bones is not our body. What is our body? It may be 

 something quite apart from this changing matter scarcely 

 occupying space or having weight something so identified 

 with the life and soul of man as to be indestructible, but which 

 shall have the power to again take on matter and form, and 

 become "a glorious body." We know too little of matter or 

 of what constitutes the individual identity of man, to say that 

 the dogma of the Resurrection, as explained by St. Paul, is impos- 

 sible. It may be as natural as the metamorphoses of insects ; and 

 the matter of which our outer bodies is composed at any period 

 of life, or at the time of death, may have nothing to do with 

 it. The testimony to the fact that the spirits of the departed 

 sometimes take visible and palpable forms clothe themselves, 

 so to speak, with matter, or with force which impresses our 

 senses as matter, is overwhelming; and if we admit the immor- 

 tality of the soul, we cannot reasonably deny the possibility and 

 even the probability that it may resume, not the gross and cor- 

 ruptible body, changing from day to day; but its real, substan- 

 tial, and identical body, of the true nature of which we may be 

 able to form little conception. 



Of the future life we know only what has been revealed to 

 us. We are probably quite unable to comprehend the modes 

 and conditions of our future existence. What we most feel is, 

 that we cannot lose our identity. In this life, though the 

 matter of the body is constantly changing, we feel it to be the 

 same body, and it is not improbable, and seems to be necessary 

 to us, that this conscious identity should continue, and that we 

 should for ever retain all that really makes a portion of our 

 being. 



The sensations of the bodily life of man, and probably of all 

 animals, various as they may be, may be referred to two classes, 

 those which give pleasure and those which give pain. The 



