THE MATERIAL VIEW OF LIFE. 537 



the winds. Now, is this rational ? Is it impossible for the scien- 

 tific mind to conceive of the existence of the soul ? Certainly not. 



When we seek for explanation of intellectual activity we find 

 two views advanced — one, the purely material view that all 

 thought comes uncontrolled from the decomposition of matter, 

 from motion in the molecules ; the other, the spiritual view that 

 mental activity is under the domination of a soul. Under no cir- 

 cumstances can the soul be in a position to produce something 

 out of nothing ; it must rather, in the production of thought, 

 utilize the materials furnished to the brain by the blood. The 

 existence of the soul has never been scientifically proved ; on the 

 other hand, no material thinker can pretend that the purely mate- 

 rial view explains the phenomena of intellectual activity. Let us 

 see, therefore, if we can not employ some reasoning in support of 

 the spiritual view, which declares the existence of the soul. 



Matter is divided into ponderable and imponderable — ponder- 

 able, that which can be weighed ; imponderable, that which can 

 not be weighed. We place a body under the bell jar of an air 

 pump and exhaust the air ; all the ponderable air is thus removed. 

 There still remains the imponderable ether. On this ether light- 

 waves travel, and the object in the vacuum therefore continues 

 visible. Here, then, is a something in the vacuum which is in- 

 visible, imponderable, and yet whose existence is scientifically 

 acknowledged as pervading all space. This ether is set in motion 

 by the vibrating object we have under consideration ; this motion 

 is communicated to the nerve endings on the background of the 

 eye, travels thence along the nerve, and produces in the visual 

 sensorium of the brain the sensation of what we call light. The 

 existence of this ether has never been scientifically proved, but it 

 gives an explanation to something otherwise inexplicable. 



A man dies ; the spirit passes from him ; the flesh is left. The 

 man has not lost in weight ; the spirit is imponderable. Now, as 

 there is a connection between the luminiferous ether and the 

 nerve endings for sight, why can not there be a connection be- 

 tween the spirit and the countless mass of cells and fibers where 

 is what we call the intellect ? And, likewise, may there not be a 

 spiritual ether surrounding us, a medium through which impulses 

 may come to the spirit from on high, and from the spirit be trans- 

 mitted to the intellect ? Such influences come to us strongly at 

 times, as at the communion-table. The existence of the soul, I 

 have said, has not been scientifically proved, but it is the explana- 

 tion of something otherwise inexplicable. 



We gain our experience of the world through our senses. 

 Man is born with intellect, and through the senses that intellect 

 is trained. The newborn baby possesses already some knowledge 

 of touch acquired before birth, and this knowledge he afterward 



