3 54 OF VITAL MOTION. 



drinking with them, satisfying the incredulity of 

 the most sceptical, and yet this body, which was 

 composed of true blood, and flesh, and bones, and 

 these the very same which were possessed before the 

 crucifixion, was, nevertheless, capable of becoming 

 transfigured so as to pass away from human senses. 

 We trace, indeed, a body which we are taught to 

 believe was perfect man, "of a reasonable soul and 

 human flesh subsisting," as well as perfect God, 

 through the successive phases of development to per- 

 fection ; and from the similarity which may be detected 

 in our own metamorphosis, we may ask if there is 

 not reason to expect the completion of what remains 

 to be effected. Is the body so imperfect and inglorious 

 that we need doubt on his account? Is the soul so 

 devoid of impulses and aspirations that we need fear 

 on hers? 



And further: A philosophical investigation of 

 nature, if it be properly carried out, will alike pre- 

 vent us from assigning too much or too littk im- 

 portance to the body. It will deter us from holding 

 those notions which are too prevalent in the present 

 day that the body, or a part of the body, is the 

 source and fountain of the mind. If, for example, 

 we examine the nervous system, we find it to be com- 

 posed of a common archetype with the other systems 

 of the body, as the osseous, the vascular, the mus- 



