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Life and its Basis. 
[February, 
its Maker, not for a transient, but for an eternal existence. 
Into this subject, however, I do not propose further to enter 
at present. My next step is to enquire whether there 
appears to exist any material link between body and soul, 
which is essential to the living state, and which is common 
to man and other animals. 
It is the general belief of physiologists, that in the animal 
nervous system there exists a fluid, or influence, of a nature 
closely allied to voltaic electricity, as evidenced by a number 
of well-known experiments. The human brain is therefore 
often spoken of as a living voltaic battery, and the nerves are 
compared to the metallic electrodes. It is certain, more- 
over, that a continuous supply of this nerve influence, is 
essential both to sensation, and to voluntary, indeed to all 
muscular aCtion. The living being holds converse with exter- 
nal objects, and especially with its fellow creatures, by means 
of its five senses, at the special seats of which it must be 
regarded as locally present, to receive and interpret the 
meaning of the impressions conveyed from outward objects. 
Now with respeCt to two of our senses at least, we know that 
the impression is made by vibratory and undulatory motions 
in circumambient media, causing corresponding motions in 
the nerves ; those in the aether being transferred to the 
optic, and those in the air, liquids, and solids, to the auditory 
nerves. It may be asked then with reference to vision, 
whether the motion which was unquestionably in the aether 
suffused through the air in external contact with the cornea 
of the eye, actually penetrates the clear structures of that 
organ ? According to the corpuscular theory of light, it 
would be so ; but the wave theory only admits the propaga- 
tion of motion in czther. Then the aether must also permeate 
the ball of the eye, and the ray of light in the eye consist 
of undulations in that interfused aether. May we not then 
reasonably suppose that this aether meets at the retina with 
a medium of its own nature permeating and aCting upon 
the expanded nerve-tissue, and taking up its vibrations ? 
The nerve-fluid, however, is not the percipient being, it is 
but its servant, however indispensable, even as the nervous 
system and the body as a whole, are. And this seems to 
indicate such a special connection with the mind or soul, 
i.e., the living 4 egof that it may be properly termed the 
link between soul and body. 
The faCt that this sethereal nerve-fluid is also essential to 
muscular contractility, and so to voluntary motion, offers 
additional evidence of the truth of this view of the matter. 
Moreover the necessity for the presence of some degree at 
