76 



to imprison or confine this spiritual force though 

 there is no casket in which we can suppose it to he 

 locked up securely as a piece of muslin, yet for years 

 in succession the mind remains the same. That this 

 should he the case, as it really is, would have heen 

 inexplicable to us, had we not known it to be a fact, 

 as if some had proposed to shut up a sunbeam in an 

 apothecary's vial, or to carry about a quantity of 

 electricity in a carpet bag. The most marvellous 

 circumstance in connection with this view of the 

 mind, is, that the subtle fluid and inanimate thing 

 which we call spirit, is at the same time more dis- 

 tinctive, more personal, more durable, than if it were- 

 carved out of marble, or cast in metal. Look at the 

 faculty of memory ! It is this faculty which con- 

 nects us with the past, by stretching out our own 

 consciousness over a long series of years. It is this 

 faculty which binds the separate events of our exist- 

 ence, together, and assures the grave old gentleman 

 of fourscore that he is identical with the rampant 

 boy who used to play at leap-frog. In spite of the 

 lapse of years, the whole spectacle may now pro- 

 bably be reproduced in the mind of the individual. 

 The very process of remembering, implies that the 

 Agent which does so, is identical with that which, 



i, f v_-iJ.t/ J yVjCtJ.l-5 ILFV,'-H_>.H^, \Jl* 



rnembered. True, many circumstances in the life of 

 man appear to grow dim many may seem to sink 

 into positive oblivion ; but we cannot avoid the con- 

 clusion, that if the chain of our consciousness 

 stretching across an expanse of years, distinctly 



