SENTIENT PRINCIPLE. 49 
fo some important facts, discovered in the anato- 
my of the brain, induced many learned men of 
both.continents, to give the subject a serious dis- 
cussion ‘The approbation of Sir Astley Cooper, 
also induced much inquiry. Whatever may be 
its fate, whether it is destined to die with its au- 
thors, or to be received as a science, it seems ne- 
cessary at the present day, to understand the gen- 
eral outlines of its principles. We shall, there- 
fore, give a few pages to the subject; merely suf- 
ficient to acquaint the student with its principles, 
without giving a detailed exposition of the au- 
thors’ arguments or applications. 
The mind is supposed to be a substance totally 
distinct from matter, and to take its residence in 
the brain for a season, in a manner somewhat 
analagous to the residence of the electric fluid 
in the tinfoil which lines a Leyden vial. As the 
electric fluid may lie dormant here. or may be in 
a situation to exert its powers, without destroying 
it or changing its nature, so the mind may reside 
in the brain tn a torpid or in an active state, with- 
eut any essential change. As the electric fluid 
may at one time reside in tinfoil, again in vapor, 
and again in the earth, without any change or 
without partaking of the nature of the tinfoil, of the 
vapor, or of the earth ; so the mind cr soul may at 
one time reside in the brain, at another in the re- 
gions beyond the grave, without any change or 
without partaking of the nature of the brain, &c. 
And as the electric fluid will exert its powers, 
while in connexion with the tinfoil, &c. to better 
er worse advantage, as it is more or less favorably 
situated, though its essential qualities willnot be 
altered, so the mind will exert its powersto bet- 
