1 1 2 Transactions . — Miscettaneoiis . 



the other, sometimes to the extent of half a second ; while in instrumental 

 reading, one often reads a minute or two different from the other, and in 

 order to overcome the inexactitude or deficiency of sense or feeling in this 

 respect, the mental power of men, — i.e., reason, — has again to be had 

 recourse to ; wherein minute calculations, abstract of feehng, are made to 

 reconcile the observations of different persons, — in other words personal 

 equation has to be ascertained by man's ethereal or mental attributes, and 

 allowed for, in all investigations which approach higher science or rigid 

 truthfulness. 



As synchronism between feelings and events is a radical element of Mr. 

 Frankland's theory of Existence, I will be excused in dilating on it some- 

 what prolixly ; and, in doing so, may bring to notice the very unequal 

 manners and different times in which separate men's feelings are 

 affected by influences and objects. Thus rhetoric makes one laugh, 

 another cry, another sorrowful, and another angry; and, while the feelings 

 of none are affected exactly alike, neither is the time of affection one and 

 the same. Some bemg notoriously slow and obtuse in impression, others 

 easily and rapidly moved. Some are case-hardened to any appeal ; others, 

 the contrary. Hence, as between one man and another, feelings and events 

 are anything but in synchronism. Now as on this doctrine Mr. Frankland 

 founds his ultimate theory, — to wit, that there is only one Existence, 

 therefore, to his showing, non-synchronism indicates two more, or many 

 existences ; this is obvious as between man and man, or as between 

 multitudes of men. 



Again, in each individual we have seen that neither is there synchronism 

 in regard to " motions of matter," or events " among elements of feeling," 

 hence, by the same rule we are bound to conclude, that in each individual 

 there is more than one Existence. 



And when we consider the widely-distinct essentials appertaining to 

 man's position in creation, — that is in the lower attribute, " feeling," 

 always erring or inaccurate, and, as between the several senses, discordant ; 

 in the higher attribute, " reason," capable of accuracy, truth, and con- 

 cordance ; the one feeding on the apparent, the other on the intangible ; 

 the one on the objective, the other on the invisible; the one on the relative, 

 the other on the abstract ; the one on the material, the other on the ethereal ; 

 the one contracted, the other boundless ; we are led up to the doctrine of 

 two Existences, — the one fleshly, revealed through our feelings, the other 

 mental, revealed through our reason : the one Existence of matter finite, 

 the other Existence of spirit Eternal. 



