OF MR. ABERNETHY. 7 



is independent of the animal body, in which the vital phe- 

 nomena are observed. 



I say, physiologically speaking ; and beg you to attend 

 particularly to this qualification : because the theological 

 doctrine of the soul, and its separate existence, has nothing 

 to do with this physiological question, but rests on a spe- 

 cies of proof altogether different. These sublime dogmas 

 could never have been brought to light by the labours of 

 the anatomist and physiologist. An immaterial and spi- 

 ritual being could not have been discovered amid the blood 

 and filth of the dissecting-room ; and the very idea of re- 

 sorting to this low and dirty source for a proof of so exalted 

 and refined a truth, is an illustration of what we daily see, 

 tlie powerful bias that professional habits and the exclusive 

 contemplation of a particular subject give even to the 

 strongest minds — an illustration of that esprit de metier, 

 which led the honest currier in the threatened city to re- 

 commend a fortification of leather. 



When we reflect that the immortality of the soul and a 

 future state of rewards and punishments were fully recog- 

 nised in all the religions of the ancient world, except the 

 Jewish — and that they are equally so in all those of more 

 modern time ; — when we consider that this belief prevailed 

 universally in the vast and populous regions of the East, 

 for ages and ages before the period to which our remotest 

 annals extend, and that it is firmly rooted in countries and 

 nations on which the sun of science has never yet shone, 

 the demonstration that the anatomical and physiological re- 

 searches of the last half century have not the most remote 

 connexion with, or imaginable influence on, the proof of 

 these great truths, will be completed beyond the possibility 

 of doubt or denial, in the estimation of every unprejudiced 

 person. I do not enlarge on this point, because it is too 

 obvious, and because divinity and morals, however excellent 

 in their own time and place, do not exactly suit the theatre, 

 audience, or subject of these Lectures. 



The greatest of the ancient philosophers said that the 

 surest way of gaining admission into the temple of wisdom 

 was through the portal of doubts ; and he declared that he 



