216 HENRY KIRKE WHITE'S REilAIKS. 



the real doctrines of the Church of England, or what is 

 the same thing, of the Bible. The subject is most im- 

 portant, inasmuch as it affects that part of man which is 

 incorruptible, and which must exist for ever — his soul. 

 When God made the brute creation, he merely embodied 

 the dust of the earth, and gave it the power of locomotion, 

 or of moving about, and of existing in a certain sphere. 

 In order to afford mute animals a rule of action, by which 

 they might be kept alive, he implanted in them certain 

 instincts, from which they can never depart. Such is 

 that of self-preservation, and the selection of proper food. 

 But he not only endued man with these powers, but he 

 gave him mind, or spirit — a faculty which enables him 

 to ruminate on the objects which he does not see — to com- 

 pare impressions — to invent — and to feel pleasure and 

 pain, when their causes are either gone or past, or lie in 

 the future. This is what constitutes the human soul. 

 It is an immaterial essence — no one knows what it con- 

 sists of, or where it resides ; the brain and the heart are 

 the organs which it most seems to affect ; but it would 

 be absurd to infer therefrom, that the material organs of 

 the heart and the brain constitute the soul, seeing that 

 the impressions of the mind sometimes affect one organ 

 and sometimes the other. Thus, when any of the passions 

 — love, hope, fear, pleasure, or pain, are excited, we feel 

 them at our heart. When we discuss a topic of cool 

 reasoning, the process is carried on in the brain ; yet 

 both parts are in a greater or less degree acted upon on 

 all occasions, and we may therefore conclude, that the 

 soul resides in neither individually, but is an iminaterial 

 spirit, which occasionally impresses the one, and occasion- 

 ally the other. That the soul is immaterial, hasbeen proved 

 to a mathematical demonstration. When we strike, we 

 lift up our arm — Avhen we walk, we protrude our legs 

 alternately — but when we think, we move no organ : 

 the reason depends on no action of matter, but seems as 

 it were to hover over us, to regulate the machine of our 

 bodies, and to meditate and speculate on things abstract 

 as well as simple, extraneous as well as connected with 

 our indi^dual welfare, without having any bond which 



