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state of the mind demonstrates the same fact. A cheerful and tranquil state of mind is felt by the body, and is universally known to be promotive of its well being. Fear, terror, remorse, despair, and all other strong mental emotions, produce corresponding and often highly injurious effects on the corporeal tenement. Death, an entire separation of the soul from the body, consigns the latter to immediate corruption. All these facts strongly indicate the more general one, that the soul and body are intimately connected during the present life. Hereditary predispositions of mind, are indications of the same fact. They do not occur on account of any relationship between the souls of kindred directly, but through the medium of the body, and the influence of it in determining our mental exercises.

2. It is easily dissolved. Death is but another name for the separation of the soul from the body. It passes upon all mankind, and is produced by a great variety of means. Most generally, it is the result of causes acting directly on the body. Sometimes it is produced by causes acting directly on the mind, and through that affecting the body. Of the former class are those deaths which result from violence or disease; of the latter, those which are produced by fear, terror, or despair, or even by joy, as has sometimes been the case.

3. It is general. The soul is connected with the body considered as a whole, not with any particular part of it. This is evident from the fact, that sensation occurs in the most remote parts of the corporeal system, as truly as in the centre, or as it does any where. This could not be the case if the soul were not present in every part of the body. The soul's connection with the body has relation to it as a system of material organs, not merely as an accumulation of matter. It is not a connection therefore with matter in its elements, but with the organs into which these elements are formed.

4. It is involuntary. It does not depend upon volition merely. Our wishing it to continue, does not secure its continuance; our wishing it to cease, does not dissolve it. It is not the direct result of choice or of voluntary effort, but exists irrespective of either. It does not come within the sphere of our consciousness. Still less does it come under the cognizance of sense.

5. It is spiritual. It does not depend on any affinity of the body for the soul, but on affinity of the soul for the body. The body does not confine the soul, but the soul inheres in the body. This may be inferred from the fact, that the soul is infinitely the noblest of the two which are brought together in this union. It is unnatural to suppose, that the nobler should be bound by the comparatively mean. The affinity by which the soul retains possession of the body is obvious from the fact, that such possession is maintained. 6. It is divine. God is the immediate author of it. God has determined the conditions of its commencement and continuance as

it pleased him. What those conditions are, we learn to some extent from observation and experience; but the manner in which they secure the object attained by them we cannot tell.

7. It is subsidiary to the exercise and development of the mental powers. The union of the soul with the body does not invest it with new powers. It only affords an opportunity for the exercise of powers possessed independently of any connection with matter whatever. The powers of the soul belong to it as spirit. The body is merely its instrument. The soul of man when united to the body is still a spirit, possessed of spiritual susceptibilities and powers, and furnished for the time being, with a complex material organization for the due exercise of these powers. While connected with the body the soul must use it, or not act at all. This limitation of its exercise however, does not arise from any necessity of its nature, but merely from divine appointment. Such an arrangement is expedient in order to secure the modes of mental action to which the body is adapted. The body is for the present the dwelling of the soul, and its medium of perception by the senses. Of its impressions the mind takes direct and immediate cognizance. It does not take direct cognizance of the state of other objects, but perceives them only through impressions which they make on the body.

The relation of the soul to space. Matter has a definite and known relation to space. It occupies a portion of it to the exclusion of all other material bodies from the same. If the soul possessed the properties of solidity and extension, its relation to space would be similar to that of matter. It is difficult to conceive of a positive existence, which does not possess these properties, and yet it is impossible to detect them in the soul. The only known relation of the soul to space, is secondary to its relation to the body. Whatever may be the size of the body, the soul is present in every part of it. Within its dimensions, whatever they are, the soul is comprehended. If those dimensions are small as is the case in infancy, they comprehend the whole soul; if they grow to be large, they are still only co-extensive with this mysterious agent. Should we conceive of a human body growing to the size of a mountain or of a world, we have reason to believe, even then, that it would be fully pervaded and occupied by the spirit which now pervades it. According to this view, the relation of the soul to space, is not fixed or determined by any thing in its own nature, but by its higher relation to a medium of perception, etc. That medium in this world is the body. In putting the soul in possession of a body, and in diposing of it, during its state of separation from the body, God acts according to his own sovereign pleasure. In the disposal which he makes of our souls, we have no voluntary agency. Our souls are entirely in his hands, like the clay in the bands of the potter.

The relation of the soul to human life. Life denotes the peculiar condition of living beings. The objects of the material world are divided into two great classes, denominated living and without life. All material objects are subject to physical laws, both of affinity and motion. Living bodies are subject also to other laws in addition to those that are merely physical, which are denominated the laws of life. Under the influence of these, they exhibit a variety of interesting phenomena peculiar to themselves. The laws of life induce a mode of union in the elementary particles of matter, entirely different from that which results from the laws of chemical affinity acting alone. All the animal fluids and solids are formed under the influence of the laws of life, acting contemporaneously with those of chemical affinity. They cannot be formed under any other circumstances or by any other means. The moment life ceases in any body, the formation of animal fluids and of other animal substances ceases, and chemical processes of entirely a different character immediately commence, solely according to the laws of chemical affinity. Hunan life is continued by the human soul. The connection of the soul with the body constitutes life, the separation of the same from the body, death. All the influences therefore, peculiar to a living body, are influences of the soul; and the laws according to which they are exerted, are laws of spiritual action on the body and within it. The phenomena of life, therefore, are to be attributed to the joint action of soul and body; just as the phenomena of lifeless matter are to be attributed merely to the laws of chemical affinity. The agency of the soul in sustaining life is involuntary and unconscious. But it is not on that account the less real or obvious. The activity belonging to a living body, is not the result of material influence or organization. It cannot be accounted for intelligently without referring it to the soul. The material particles composing the human body have their chemical and mechanical properties as any other portions of matter have. But they have nothing more. Chemical and mechanical laws can produce only corresponding results. They can do nothing more. Those results therefore produced in the living body, not by the mere force of chemical affinity, and not in accordance merely with the laws of motion, must be the results of the spirit's influence. Such are all the phenomena connected with life. The notion of a principle of life separate from the soul is a mere hypothesis. It has no solid foundation either in scripture or reason. Man is described in the scriptures under the title of body and soul. Consciousness and observation indicate nothing more. To suppose, that there is a principle of life separate from the soul, is equivalent to the supposition of man's possessing two souls, one rational and the other irrational and instinctive; a supposition that is unnecessary and embarrassing. The phenomena of growth, preservation from decay,

and the other subsidiary functions of life, some of which, are constantly going on in every living body, admit of as easy and natural a solution by being referred to the soul, as on any other conceivable hypothesis.

The physical properties of the soul. The soul is a substance possessing peculiar properties. In this respect it is analogous to a material object. Some of the properties of the soul are obvious to the most superficial inquirer; many of them may elude the grasp of the mightiest human intellect, and remain concealed from the eye of the most inquisitive and accurate human observer. That which may be known on this subject however, is important, and if duly considered, cannot fail to be useful. It comprehends the following specifications:

1. Locality. The soul of man is located within the body. The limits set to it by the body it does not transcend, however narrow they may be. These limits may be contracted by amputation, or extended by growth, but they in all cases include that portion of space which is pervaded by the soul, and determine its locality. The locality of the body is identical with that of the spirit which pervades it.

2. Affinity for the living body. The adherence of the soul to the body during life, is the manifestation of an affinity for it. It is not an affinity for matter as such, but for that peculiar organization of matter, denominated the body, into which it is introduced by God. The strength of this affinity is determined by the force requisite to destroy it; an effect uniformly produced at death.

3. A capacity of being affected by the state of the body. All sensation is an effect on the soul produced by the state of the body. This is the case with sight, hearing, feeling, etc. The same is true of every kind and degree of pain, and also of mental derangement arising from disease. In all these, and similar cases, the soul exhibits a capacity of being affected by the peculiar state of the body. Its susceptibility of being affected in this way, is wonderfully acute and delicate. The number and variety of its bodily affections is inconceivably great.

4. Involuntary power over the body. The involuntary power of the soul over the body is exercised in all the functions of life. It is a constant cheek on the laws of chemical affinity, and prevents their taking the effect which they would have, if uncontrolled, in the entire destruction of the body. It is under the influence of the soul, that the organization of the body is preserved from the immediate and fatal encroachment of chemical affinities. Let this spiritual influence be suspended, and disorganization would instantly commence.

5. Voluntary power over the body. The voluntary power of the soul over the body is exercised in all voluntary muscular ac

tion. The raising of a hand or foot is an exercise of mental power over those limbs. So of all voluntary muscular action. It takes place by the force of mind operating mysteriously on the body. Every voluntary corporeal act is the result of mental power. The limitation of this power does not arise from any thing in the nature of the mind, but simply from the weakness and imperfection of the organ on which it terminates, or by which it operates.

6. The power of operating directly on itself. Voluntary corporeal action has been shown to be, in all cases, the result of mental power terminating on the body. The same is true of all voluntary mental action. It is the result of mental power terminating on the mind itself. A large proportion of all the mental action we perform is voluntary, and is of course performed under the direction of the mind acting on itself and controlling its own exercises. This department of mental power is of the highest importance. It is the foundation of free agency and accountability.

7. The natural susceptibilities of thought and feeling. All our susceptibilities of thought and feeling have their foundation in the nature of the soul. It is a part of our nature to possess them, just as it is a part of the nature of matter to possess the properties of extension, solidity, etc. The exercise of these susceptibilities depends upon contingencies, but the possession of them is held by the high tenure by which we hold our existence as spiritual beings. These susceptibilities are of unlimited extent. In this world they are developed but in part. But they are destined, as we believe, to a more full and perfect development in a future state, and one which will continue to increase through eternity. The present modes of developing the mental faculties are such as God has been pleased in infinite wisdom to appoint. The faculties developed are faculties of the soul. They belong to it as a part of itself. The particular modes in which they are brought into exercise may cease to be available, but the faculties or capacities of the soul can never cease. During this life, mental activity is in a great measure dependent on the state of the body, and of particular bodily organs. After death it may depend on something else, or take place in a different manner. But were the soul to possess no means of developing its capacities, it would still possess those capacities, unemployed for the time, but ready whenever an opportunity should occur, to resume its career of conscious activity.

The relation of one soul to another. Animal bodies have a natural relation to each other. One is instrumental in the formation of another, and determines in a great measure its character. This relation, however, is only that of the instrument to the work it is used to accomplish. It is not creative. In the formation of the soul, there is no room for instrumentality, because this part of our nature is uncompounded,--a simple indivisible existence,

VOL. VIII.

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