THE TRIPARTITE NATURE OF MAN. 



189 



germ in a parent or ancestor. Not all talent is traceable to the 

 mother. Eloquence descended to three generations through the 

 father in the case of the Wilberforce family : first, the Philan- 

 tropist, then the Bishop, lastly the Archdeacon. In the case of 

 the late Dr. Butler, of Cambridge, both father and mother were 

 highly gifted, either in classics or mathematics or both. These 

 faculties were markedly reproduced in the sons. Something 

 similar can be traced in the Wordsworth and Asquith families. 



It is evident that the soul has the closest possible connection 

 with the body : it thinks with the brain, flashes in the eye, 

 points with the hand, and stamps with the foot. Dr. George 

 Moore observes that no monkey or other animal can point with the 

 hand. That gifted Irishman, Archer Butler, remarks that " some 

 afiections are dependent on body — as anger, courage, desire, and 

 all the forms of sense — while such operations as those of intelli- 

 gence seem exclusively mental."* Dr. Moore tells us that " how- 

 ever suitable the body may be for the purpose of enabling the 

 soul to hold intercourse with the objects of this world, we have 

 intimations that the soul possesses powers by which it would be 

 conscious, active, rational, and capable of all that can be predi- 

 cated of human intelligence, even if the body were at once 

 dissolved. The mind, in a mesmeric state, can perceive objects 

 directly or independently of the senses. "f Again, " The will in 

 exercising attention while acquiring knowledge, and in reflection, 

 that is, in using memory, really produces such a change in the 

 size and order of the nervous fibrils of the brain, as to render it 

 better and better adapted for use as long as the laws of its forma- 

 tion allow. For however good the natural formation of a child's 

 brain may be, he must grow up an idiot or a savage if his will 

 be not called into action by moral influences, that is, by sympathy 

 with other spirits. "{ 



The interdependence of the spirit and the soul is equally real, 

 though not so easy to trace. Here we may examine Heb. iv, 12, 

 a passage which helps to confirm my belief that St. Paul was 

 the author of this epistle. " For the Word of God is alive, and 

 powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even 

 to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of 

 the thoughts and intents of the heart." So it is only to the 



* Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, II, p. 375. 

 t Power of the Soul over the Body, pp. 157, 158. 

 % Ibid., p. 210. 



