96 FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. 



If tlie intellectual phenomena of man require an immate- 

 rial principle superadded to the brain, we must equally con- 

 cede it to those more rational animals which exhibit mani- 

 festations differing from some of the human only in degree. 

 If we grant it to these, we cannot refuse it to the next in 

 order, and so on in succession to the whole series — to the 

 oyster, the sea-anemone, the polype, the microscopic ani- 

 malcules. Is any one prepared to admit the existence of 

 immaterial principles in all these cases ? If not, he must 

 equally reject it in man. 



It is admitted, that an ideot with a malformed brain has 

 no mind; that the sagacious dog and half-reasonable ele- 

 phant do not require any thing superadded to their brains : 

 it is allowed tliat a dog or elephant excels inferior animals, 

 in consequence of possessing a more perfect cerebral struc- 

 ture : it is strongly suspected that a Newton or a Shak- 

 SPEARE excels other mortals only by a more ample dcve- 

 lopement of the anterior cerebral lobes, by having an extra 

 inch of brain in the right place : yet the immaterialists will 

 not concede the obvious corollary of all these admissions, 

 viz. that the mind of man is merely that more perfect exhi- 

 bition of mental phenomena which the more complete 

 developement of the brain would lead us to expect ; and still 

 perplex us with the gratuitous difficulty of their immaterial 

 hypothesis. Thought, it is positively and dogmatically 

 asserted, cannot be an act of matter. Yet no feelings, no 

 thought, no intellectual operation has ever been seen except 

 in conjunction with a brain; and living matter is acknow- 

 ledged by most persons to be capable of what makes the 

 nearest possible approach to thinking. The strongest ad- 

 vocate for immaterialism seeks no further than the body for 

 his explanation of all the vital processes, of muscular con- 

 traction, nutrition, secretion, &c. — operations quite as dif- 

 ferent from any affection of inorganic substance, as reason- 

 ing or thought ; he will even allow the brain to be capable 

 of sensation. 



Who knows the capabilities of matter so perfectly, as to 

 be able to say that it can sec, hear, smell, taste, and feel. 



