1882.] Vital and Cosmical nergy. 257 
merely a disordered condition of the organism, so are Divine 
possession, inspiration, prophetic fury, and such phantas- 
mata as Belshazzar’s vision, and the apocalyptic sights and 
sounds of seers and second-sight wizards of every race and 
clime, from Ezekiel to Merlin, from Daniel to Thomas the 
Rhymer.” The whole host of heaven and hell may be en- 
gendered by abnormal condition of the blood-vessels, or 
their contents, which supply the sensory ganglia, and by 
consequent morbid excitation of the cerebral hemispheres. 
A sunstroke or an epileptic paroxysm may be the immediate 
cause of a throng of supernatural sublimities and horrors, 
which will mould the destiny not only of the seer himself 
during his brief span of life, but of half the world for more 
than eighteen centuries. 
FaCts such as these, which cannot be seriously disputed 
by any practical alienist, should prevent men of Science 
from coquetting with animistic fallacies. Yet even so accu- 
rate an observer as Sir William Gull, who, in his recent 
article on Vivisection, f repudiates the exploded theory of 
“ a mysterious vital force,” and declares that “ our corporeal 
life is but the operation of material atoms and material 
forces within the reach of experimental enquiry,” cannot 
refrain from the inconsistent assertion, in a later part of his 
apology, when defending Medicine from the charge of 
Atheism, that “ Science has to do with that which is ex- 
ternal to us,” and that “ what lies beyond or beneath is 
relegated to other tests and to other evidence, of which it 
may be said that they afford more certainty than even 
Science can give us.” Now since our “corporeal life” 
really includes our intellectual life, these “ material forces ” 
cannot be considered as “ external ” to us. If Science has 
to do with these, and with the mental phenomena which 
depend upon their operation, it embraces the whole sphere 
of consciousness, leaving nothing “ beyond or beneath ” to 
which any preter-scientific tests can possibly be applied. 
The practical conclusions drawn by Dr. Lewins must 
command the assent of all who have acknowledged the 
validity of his premises. Since the belief in “ immor- 
tality ” (in the usual sense of the word) is inconsistent with 
materialistic views, it is plain that if Heaven is not for ever 
to remain an idle dream its delights must be realised on 
Earth. PerfeCt health is synonymous with perfect holiness, — 
* Life and Mind, p. 23. 
f See note at the end of “Animal Automatism,” in the April number of 
Journal of Science, 
