THE DUPLEX BEING OF MAN 27 



or other spirits, and that he could be made the receptacle 

 for the use of such spirit or spirits, and for the carrying 

 out of their behests whether they might be good or evil ; 

 but to follow out this enquiry would lead us too far 

 afield, we must, therefore, return to the finding of modern 

 science on the title of our present thesis. In doing so 

 we need not repeat what we have already written on the 

 subject of the duality of the human nervous system, further 

 than that we have found that system to be composed 

 of a sympathetic and a systemic, half each of which can 

 act alone or individually, or in conjunction, and that 

 each of these two halves, although able to work con- 

 jointly, has allotted to it an entirely separate and different 

 field of work, and that both are essential to the integrity 

 and maintenance of the duplex organism which they 

 jointly innervate. 



As a physical basis on which to erect an estimate of 

 modern scientific opinion on the subject, we think it will 

 be of service in combining the data accumulated by 

 modern research and speculation if we take advantage 

 of the manner of evolution of these two systems of 

 innervation and place the details of its accomplishment 

 in that order of sequence which will enable us, as securely 

 as enquiry into such transcendental subjects can do, to 

 come to rational and sound conclusions. 



In relationship to the phenomena of life, we must 

 take it that inorganic matter and vital energy are the 

 raw materials, so to speak, out of which by an initial or 

 creative act, the great first cause originally started the 

 great sequence of living forms which have peopled the 

 planet from then till now, and that still continue the raw 

 materials on which life is dependent for its continuance, 

 and, further, that the principle of life, or vital energy, 

 transmitted from parent to offspring, has continued, and is 

 likely to continue, until either or both become exhausted, 

 to maintain the continuance of living forms which com- 

 menced in the lowest order and has continued to 



highest. 



Living or organised and differentiated protoplasm, 

 with its containing cell wall and contained nucleus, was the 

 first form of animated being, and had its vitality mam- 



