274 



Geology adds, as a probable opinion, that these creatures have made their 

 several entrances in the order of their dignity. Stranger yet, it seems that 

 each individual member of the higher orders passes, in the embryonic stages of 

 its growth, through a succession of phases corresponding very closely to the 

 great ascending steps of universal Nature. " Because, in the little frame 

 of Man's body there is a representation of the universal and (by allusion) 

 a kind of participation of all the parts there, therefore was Man called 

 Microcosmos, or the little world." So writes Sir Walter Raleigh, and the 

 idea which he describes has been treated as a dreaming fancy ; but our latest 

 Science tends to establish it as not far off a literal truth. 



And now, at last, I turn to make enquiry, how should these facts affect 

 our views of Man as a responsible being, and as a living soul. If it has 

 hitherto been held that man possesses, by Divine ordination, a faculty of 

 determining his own actions within certain limits — free will in short — do the 

 revelations of Physiology consist with this belief 1 Again, if we have believed 

 that the Mind of Man is an immaterial substance, not of necessity bound to 

 the body which is its present Organ of expression, nor ceasiug to exist upon 

 the dissolution of that body, are we required by Physical Science to surrender, 

 or to modify that faith ] 



It has been proved to demonstration, the Materialist will promptly answer, 

 that Thought, Fancy, Feeling, are merely operations of that aggregation of 

 material particles, which constitutes the Brain of Man. Could we, with 

 adequate knowledge and instruments investigate the working of that organ, 

 can it be doubted that we might trace in every detail those molecular changes 

 which we call the action of the mind'? The Past, Present, and Future of 

 every one of us lie packed, they will aver, in that small receptacle, the Human 

 Cranium. Even existing Science is justified in stating, that in the tissues of 

 the Human Brain, all that a Man has been, is faithfully recorded, all that he 

 is, unmistakably expressed, all that he will be, infallibly pre-determined and 

 announced. We await only fuller knowledge to decipher on these fleshly 

 tablets, inscriptions, of an inexorable fate. 



In replying to such assertions, feeling is apt to get the start of reason. 

 It is the Heart first, which in wrath, arises and exclaims, "Let Science prove 

 all this " 



" and then, 

 What matters Science unto Men 1 

 At least to me : I would not stay." 



Now my confidence is fixed, that feeling here does not mislead us ; that 

 emotion so uniform, so powerful, so pure, as this which springs up to rebuke 

 the cold pedantry of the Positive school has a deep, perennial source in the 

 Reason of Mankind, and the Reality of Things. To express this reason, and 

 give the argument a shape, is by no means easy. That, however, is what I 

 shall try to do ; but let no one take my failure for the failure of the grounds 

 I go on. 



First then, I say, there is a plain absurdity in the assiimption that cere- 

 bral phenomena and mental, being concurrent, are therefore identical. If there 

 be such a thing as mind ; — and the materialist must not set out by assuming 

 the contrary ; — it may be that by the will of God, certain mental events, call 

 them if you please, phenomena, are ordained to run in parallel series with 

 certain physical events ; just as if, to give a very simple illustration, two files 

 of soldiers shmdd be moving simultaneously along opposite sides of a street ; 

 halting together ; again advancing together ; manoeuvre throughout answering 

 to manoeuvre ; the companies so appearing inseparably connected in their move- 

 ments ; and in point of fact inseparably connected ; not, however, by a physical 



