59 



" sundry circumstances," or to evil influences, 

 witchcraft, or the influence of fairies, can 

 surely be of very little consequence. By such 

 explanations, especially if conveyed very em- 

 phatically, and with authority, the unlearned 

 may be astonished, and pleased, and confused, 

 and imposed upon, but those who put forward 

 such explanations do not convey information, 

 and instead of promoting the advance of natural 

 knowledge they retard real progress. 



Dr. Gull, with many more, at present shrinks 

 from regarding mind as correlated force, and 

 therefore does not at this time look upon man 

 as a mere mechanism. But unless it shall be 

 shown exactly where the lower forms of life 

 are marked off from the higher, this is a posi- 

 tion obviously untenable. The man-germ has 

 no more mind than the dog-germ or the cab- 

 bage-germ. At what period of development, 

 then, according to the view above referred to, 

 does the man-germ become distinct from .all 

 other beings, and acquire those properties which 

 make man " a being apart ? " At what period 

 of his being is that " immeasurable and im- 

 passable gulf" excavated, which is supposed to 

 separate him so decidedly from the rest of 



