COMMON THINGS MAN. 



sation, though inseparably connected with it during human life. 

 The name of spiritualists has, accordingly, been given by contra- 

 distinction to the latter. 



71. Our nature being thus compound, let us see how far we can 

 trace the connection between its mere physical part and the 

 thinking and intelligent principle which abides in it. 



72. There is a principle called in metaphysics personal identity, 

 which consists in the internal consciousness by which each 

 individual knows his past existence, so as to be able, with the 

 greatest certainty of which the judgment of our mi ads is sus- 

 ceptible, to identify himself existing at any given moment with 

 himself, existing at any former time and place. Nothing in 

 human judgment can exceed the clear certitude which attends 

 this consciousness. The Duke of Wellington, on the eve of his 

 death at Walmer, had an assured certainty that he was himself 

 the same individual intelligent thinking being, who, on the 18th 

 of June, 1815, commanded at Waterloo the allied armies. Now 

 to what, let us ask, did this intense conviction and consciousness 

 of identity apply ? What was there in common between the 

 individuals who died at Walmer and who commanded at Waterloo? 

 The reply to this question will require that we shall recur for a 

 moment to our physical organisation. 



73. The human body consists of bones, flesh and blood, each of 

 which is, however, itself a compound substance, and the whole is 

 impregnated in a large proportion with water. Thus, the quantity 

 of blood in an average body is 20 Ibs., of which 15 Ibs. are water, 

 the other 5 Ibs. consisting of those material constituents which are 

 necessary for the supply of the growth or the repair of the body. 

 The flesh, commonly so called, is pervaded by blood-vessels, and 

 therefore, strictly speaking, is a combination of flesh and blood. 

 In like manner, the bones are pervaded to their very centres by 

 innumerable blood-vessels, so minute as to be microscopic, by 

 which their growth is supplied and their waste repaired. Taking, 

 however, the terms flesh, blood, and bone in their proper meaning, 

 excluding from each the water with which it is impregnated, and 

 excluding from the flesh and bone the blood which pervades them 

 respectively, the material constituents of an average human body 

 may be thus stated : 



Bone . . . 14 Ibs. 

 Flesh and blood .... 24 

 Water 116 



The bone, when submitted to analysis, is shown to consist of 

 certain earthy matter, the chief part of which is lime and a 

 substance called gelatine ; this gelatine itself being a compound, 

 88 



