Additional Notes. 461 



Dr. Darwin tells us (vol. ii. Additional Notes), that the 

 doctrine of immaterial ideas is a "fanciful hypothesis, like the 

 stories of ghosts and apparitions, which have so long amused the 

 credulous, without any foundation in nature;" yet the Senso- 

 rial Power is sometimes disrobed of its materiality. Is this 

 consistent with the other doctrines concerning the Spirit of 

 Animation which this writer teaches? When the Sensorial 

 Power is led to assume spirituality, it is incapable of being 

 acted on by matter, as he expressly declares ; consequently it 

 ceases to exist, for it is no longer capable of acting or of being 

 acted upon ; and, of course, in all such cases, life is sus- 

 pended or destroyed. Wc have not, however, yet exposed, 

 in its full extent, the inconsistency of Dr. Darwin on 

 this subject. He observes that, although the Sensorial Power 

 may sometimes disrobe itself of solidity; yet, whenever it 

 communicates motion to the fibres, or is itself excited by their 

 motion, it must necessarily be solid or impenetrable; because, 

 as the muscular fibres approach each other in the contraction 

 of a muscle, and as nothing can act where it does not 

 exist, the approach of the particles can be explained only on 

 the supposition of an intermediate agent. But if sensorial 

 power, during its exertion, be solid and impenetrable, like 

 the fibres on which it acts, the supposition of its existence 

 will not render at all more explicable the phenomena of mus- 

 cular contraction. For the Sensorial Power between the par- 

 ticles of a fibre is in contact with those particles, or it is not. 

 If it be, then the particles of the fibre cannot approximate, 

 because there is no vacant space, and the Sensorial Power is 

 not penetrable. The whole fibre, with its Sensorial Power, 

 forms one connected substance, and is thence incapable of 

 motion. But if the Sensorial Power be not in contact with 

 the particles of the fibre on which it acts, it will be neces- 

 sary to suppose the existence of another intermediate agent 

 (a subtle fluid no doubt), as we are repeatedly assured that 

 nothing can act where it does not exist. 



The doctrine of association is an important part of Dr. 

 Darwin's theory; but upon the principles of this theory as- 

 sociation is impossible. Association is a particular quality or 

 state of Sensorial Power; but this power, or, which is the 

 same thing, the spirit of animation, is in a perpetual state of 

 flux. It is constantly secreted and expended, being too subtle 

 to remain any length of time in the system. The particles 

 of this spirit, then, cannot form any habitual connections 

 or associations with each other, because, in the very act of 



