2 BEING AND FACULTIES OF MAN. 



tiou entirely beyond the range of scientific or philosophic 

 investigation. It is true that profound and ponderous 

 metaphysical works have been written on departments of 

 this subject ; for the phenomena of mind are not wholly 

 beyond the range of study and contemplation; but it 

 would only vex and annoy the reader of a popular work 

 like the present to pile up before him the heavy specula- 

 tions of that crude department of Philosophy usually 

 called METAPHYSICS comprehensively, and PSYCHOLOGY 

 and ONTOLOGY distinctively, with its special and embarrass- 

 ing nomenclature and definition of terms, and we prefer 

 for every practical purpose here a simpler and a clearer 

 course, and one which the most general reader may follow 

 with immediate ease through language used in its most 

 ordinary acceptation, and the whole signification of which 

 is decided at once by the obvious aim of the context in 

 which it appears. 



Man, then, consists of two natures, divided into four 

 parts : a material Body, an immaterial Life, an immaterial 

 Mind, and immaterial Feeling. Three-fourths of his whole 

 being therefore is metaphysical or immaterial, and only 

 one-fourth, and that the least essential portion of it his 

 body physical or material. To prove that Mind, Life, 

 and Feeling, though co-operating in human existence, are 

 essentially distinct in themselves, it is only necessary to 

 show that they are each capable of distinct and independ- 

 ent existence. Thus, in the vegetable world, we have Life 

 without Mind or Feeling ; among the inferior animals we 

 have Life and Feeling without Mind ; and in man the latter 

 is added to the others. It is of importance, however, to 

 observe, that while Mind may exist without Feeling, neither 

 Mind nor Feeling can exist without Life. On the other 

 hand, Matter may exist without being associated with 

 Life, Mind, or Feeling ; as it is observable that all the 

 chemical or Material elements of the human body may 



