SENTIENT PRINCIPLE. 19 



to some important facts, discovered in the anato- 

 my of the brain, induced many learned men of 

 both continents, to give the subject a serious dis- 

 cussion The approbation of Sir Astley Cooper, 

 also induced much inquiry. Whatever may be 

 its fate, whether it is destined to die with its au- 

 thors, or to be received as a science, it seems ne- 

 cessary at the present day, to understand the gen- 

 eral outlines of its principles. We shall, there- 

 fore, give a few pages to the subject ; merely suf- 

 ficient to acquaint the student with its principles, 

 without giving a detailed exposition of the au- 

 thors' arguments or applications. 



The mind is supposed to be a substance totally 

 distinct from matter, and to take its residence in 

 the brain for a season, in a manner somewhat 

 analagous to the residence of the electric fluid 

 in the tinfoil which lines a Leyden vial. As the 

 electric fluid may lie dormant here, or may be in 

 a situation to exert its powers, without destroying 

 it or changing its nature, so the mind may reside 

 in the brain in a torpid or in an active state, with- 

 out any essential change. As the electric fluid 

 may at one time reside in tinfoil, again in vapor, 

 and again in the earth, without any change or 

 without partaking of the nature of the tinfoil, of the 

 vapor, or of the earth ; so the mind or soul may at 

 one time reside in the brain, at another in the re- 

 gions beyond the grave, without any change or 

 without partaking of the nature of the brain, &c. 

 And as the electric fluid will exert its powers, 

 while in connexion with the tinfoil, &c. to better 

 or worse advantage, as it is more or less favorably 

 situated, though its essential qualities willnot be 

 altered., so the mind will exert its powersto bet- 



