And IMMATEitlALIS.AL 



lAodes of being that are within the scope of our comprehension ; but 

 materiahty and immateriality are equally beyond our reach. Of the es- 

 sence of matter we know nothing ; and altogether as little of many of its 

 more active qualities ; insomuch that amidst all the discoveries of th© 

 day, it still remains a controvertible position whether light, heat, magnet- 

 ism, and electricity, are material substances, material properties, or things: 

 superadded to matter and of a higher rank. If they be matter, gravity 

 and ponderabihty are not essential properties of matter, though commonly 

 so regarded. And if they be things superadded to matter, they are ne- 

 cessarily immaterial 5 and we cannot open our eyes without beholding 

 innumerable instances of material and immaterial bodies co-existing and 

 acting in harmonious unison through the entire frame of nature. But if 

 we know nothing of the essence, and but little of the qualities, of matter ; 

 of that common substrate which is diffused around us in every direction, 

 and constitutes the whole of the visible world, what can we know of what 

 is immaterial ? of the full meaning of a term that, in its strictest sense, 

 comprehends all the rest of the immense fabric of actual and possible being, 

 and includes in its vast circumference every essence and mode of essence 

 of every other being, as well below as above the order of matter, and eveR 

 that of the Deity himself?* 



Shall we take the quality of extension as the line of separation between' 

 what is material and what is immaterial ? This, indeed, is the general and 

 favourite distinction brought forward in the present day, but it is a distinc- 

 tion founded on mere conjecture, and which will by no means stand the 

 test of inquiry. Is space extended ? every one admits it to be so. But is 

 space material ? is it body of any kind ? Des Cartes, indeed, contended- 

 that it is body, and a material body, for he denied a vacuum, and asserted 

 space to be a part of matter itself : but it is probable that there is not a 

 single espouser of this opinion in the present day. If then extension be- 

 long equally to matter and to space, it cannot be contemplated as the 

 peculiar and exclusive property of the former : and if we allow it to im- 

 material space, there is no reason why we should not allow it to immaterial 

 spirit. If extension appertain not to the mind, or thinking principle, the 

 latter can liave no place of existence, it can exist wo where, — for where, 

 or PLACE, is an idea that cannot be separated from the idea of extension : 

 and hence the metaphysical immaterialists of modern times freely admit 



^that the mind has no place of existence, that it does exist no where ; 

 while at the same time they are compelled to allow that tho immaterial Crea- 

 tor or universal spirit exists every where, substantially as well as virtuallyo 

 Let me not, however, be misunderstood upon this abstruse and difficult 

 subject. That the mind has a distinct nature, and is a distinct ime^' 

 ALITY from the body ; that it is gifted with immortality, endowed witfr 

 reasoning faculties, and capacified for a state of separate existence after 

 the death of the corporeal frame to which it is attached, are in my opinion 

 propositions most clearly deducible from revelation, and, in one or two' 

 points, adumbrated by a few shadowy ghmpses of nature. And that it^ 

 may be a substance strictly immaterial and essentially different from' 

 matter, is both possible and probable ; and will hereafter, perhaps, when 



. faith is turned into vision, and conjecture into fact, be found to be the true" 

 and genuine doctrine upon the subject ; but till this glorious era arrives, of 

 till, antecedently to it, it be proved, which it does not hitherto- seera to 



=^ Stud, of Msd. Vol. IV. p. 37, 2d 4M, 



46 



