Additional Notef!^ 415 



•consistent with his other doctrines. Sensations cannot in tlilt 

 manner produce contractions, if we adhere to his theory o( the 

 origin of ideas. What does he mean by saying, ivc suffer the 

 ■stimulating material to accumulate ? The sensorial ix)wcr exist* 

 in contact with the requisite stimulus : is tliere a third prin- 

 ciple, a presiding mind^ in his creed, which regulates their 

 action } 



These are a few of the inconsistencies with which this cele- 

 brated work abounds. In no respect, perhaps, does the author 

 display more loose thinking, and more glaring inconsistency^ 

 than in the manner in which he speaks of Saisoiial Poxj^cr, 

 Though he expressly represents the faculties of the sensorium 

 as different states of the same vital fluid, or spirit, and thougli 

 this doctrine forms the groundwork of his reasoning j yet he 

 sometimes speaks as if these faculties were dItYv.'rent substances. 

 Sensorial power is, with him, at one time solid and impenclra- 

 bie, and at another spiritual and penetrable. And though he 

 expressly ridicules the idea of an immaterial sentient principle 

 in the mind, yet he frequently speaks in a manner which is al- 

 together unintelligible without supposing some such principle, 

 which is different from the external stimulus, the animal fibre, 

 and the sensorial power, and which regulates their reciprocal 

 actions. 



4. This theory is insufficient to account for the phenomena 

 which it is intended to explain j and it is repugnant to facts. 



The author supposes that the spirit of animation exists in 

 four distinct states, to whicli he gives four names, as already 

 mentioned. Now this spirit, as has been repeatedly before 

 stated, is a material substance, and must, of course, be subject 

 to the laws of matter. But is matter, while it retains its na- 

 ture, susceptible of these radical and essential changes ? Its 

 form may be changed; the relation of its particles may vary ; 

 but its essential properties must remain the same. Notwitii- 

 standing this, the sentient principle, according to Dr. Darwin, 

 is continually undergoing changes of the most radical kind. 

 The spirit of animation in xoUtion ditfers from the spirit of ani- 

 mation in sensation, not merely in the position of its particlt5. 



