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THE METAPHYSICAL
MAGAZINE

FOR THE

LIBRARY.

Volume I. comprises the contents from January to June, 1895,
Volume II. comprises the contents from July to December, 1895,
Volume III. comprises the contents from January to June, 1896,
Volume IV. comprises the contents from July to December, 1896,
Volume V. comprises the contents from January to May, 1897,
Volumes VI. and VII., bound together, comprise the contents
from June, 1897, to March, 1898,

Volume VIII. comprises the contents from April, 1898, to
December, 1898,

The 7 books at one order, $14.00 net.

BOUND IN PALE-GREEN CLOTH AND GOLD.

$2.25.

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THESE seven books contain 3,845 pages, and include the entire series of

THE METAPHYSICAL MAGAZINE to December, 1898. The volumes are of inestimable value as a compendium of the live issues of the advanced thought of this liberal age, comprising a record of the world's progress along metaphysical lines not obtainable from any other source. They form a Library of Occult Literature such as would take a lifetime to obtain through other means. The supply is limited and orders should be sent in early.

Back numbers, if in good condition, excepting Vols. VI. and VII., will be accepted in exchange for the bound volumes upon payment of one dollar for binding each volume. If to be sent by mail, twenty-five cents must be added for postage. We cannot bind or receive copies in exchange if the edges have been trimmed by machine. The same cloth covers, with gold lettering and Index, ready to be attached by any binder, will be mailed to subscribers at a distance for one dollar each.

Don't fail to add these valuable books to your Library at once.

THE METAPHYSICAL

PUBLISHING COMPANY,

465 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.

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THE CEREBELLUM OR SUBJECTIVE BRAIN.

If we can treat of a topic profoundly, and yet in simple verbiage, it will be fortunate. There is a language of priests, Professor Lesley declares. It consists of enigmatic terms and relations which the unlettered commonality may not understand. This may be well in the matter of esoteric truth, but in the field of common facts it is little more than pedantic affectation. "I would rather speak five words with my understanding," says the Apostle, "than ten thousand in an unknown tongue." We likewise prefer to use plain terms and be en rapport with those who think and love knowledge rather than to employ an affected terminology above their comprehension, as though we occupied some higher sphere of thought and condition.

It is not so easy, in the case of the matter in hand, to keep to this rule. The difficulty, however, is not of our creating. Only scientific terms exist at our convenience, and we must do with them as best we can, happy, if with careful use, we can make our meaning intelligible. Besides, many will know the matter as well and better than we are able to tell it. We may have to apologize to them like the young woman, a student in one of our medical colleges, who somewhat bored the lecturers with unnecessary questions. "I am not doing this on my own account," said she, "but I wish those young men in the back row to understand the discourse."

Science, as the term is now very generally used, does not so much denote profound knowledge as knowledge that is classified, differentiated and assigned to a department. It seems often, therefore, to

signify a knowing of parts rather than of wholes.

Accordingly, there may be much genuine and profound knowledge that the term is not suffered to include. Many are learned who are not recognized as scientific.

That the brain is the physical representative of the man may be regarded as generally known and conceded. When we examine it we observe that it is parted in two great masses, known as the cerebrum. and cerebellum, besides the two portions at the base, denominated the annular protuberance and medulla oblongata. The cerebral structure, being largest and most conspicuous, has received most attention, and in this discussion it will answer to regard its functions as understood without necessity of explaining. It is essentially the organ of consciousness, by which we communicate with the world about us; and in our methods of teaching there is often too much attention given to its culture and development to the neglect of the associate organism and faculties.

The operations of the brain, we all know, are suspended by sleep: impression, sense and understanding are taken away, and likewise motion, impulse and will. Even when we are awake these powers are often more or less interrupted. There must be some further energy, sleepless and continual, or else to go to sleep would be to die. The cerebellum, with its functions, is ever present to make existence and its conditions permanent.

The structure of the cerebellum is familiar to the student of anatomy. The organ is composed of gray and white neurine more or less furrowed and convoluted, and it consists of two hemispheres with a central lobe. It differs somewhat in the various races. The central lobe is possessed by fishes and reptiles, but the hemispheres are characteristic of the higher orders. In its first development, during embryonic life, the cerebellum grows like a branch from the spinal cord. Indeed, it seems to be an extension of fibres from the restiform bodies and from the anterior pillars of the medulla.

It is hardly philosophic, however, to regard the cerebellum as virtually a subordinate outgrowth of the spinal cord, any more than we regard the branches of a tree as inferior to the trunk. The boughs have the leaves and produce the fruit, and to this function

the rest of the organism of the tree is ministerial and subservient. The tree is for the sake of the fruit, and not the fruit for the sake of the tree. It is likewise so with the nerve-structures of the body. The cerebrum, or brain proper, is the capital-that for which everything else exists. The mind is enthroned above it and around it, as well as being immanent in it. Every cell and molecule, as well as convolution and "region," does duty in one way or another as agent and minister to the understanding and will. When any of these fail and become permanently impaired, the mind is deprived of a necessary means of communication with the physical world, and to that extent subsists apart. Thus, to the superficial observer, it seems to have to that degree, perished outright. But to comprehend this matter clearly one must exercise faculties superior to a negative understanding.

The nervous system exists in the muscular organism after a manner analogous to the yolk in the albumen of the egg. It is not continuous with the other structures, but present among them, imparting to them the governing impulsions which inspire and regulate this action. Its function is intermediary. It communicates between the mind and the body. The mind is the man in very selfhood, the superior organism, and not a will-o'-the-wisp moving about the human cerebral swamp and depending upon its vapors for luminosity and existence. The spinal cord is the vehicle of involuntary motions; the sensorium furnishes the medium for emotion and organic instinct; and the "gray matter," the cortical surfaces of the hair; the ganglia are intermediary for reason and will. So each performs its duty; we grow and subsist after a manner like vegetables; we go from place to place and perform voluntary movement, like animals; we think, reason, perceive moral principles and exercise will like gods.

Writers and teachers have variously set forth the part of the cerebellum in these matters. Gall and his school have declared it to be the seat of the sexual instinct. Yet the unsexed animal experiences no impairment of the cerebellar structure nor diminution of its size.

Experimenters by vivisection of animals and birds have affirmed. its office to be the coordinating of muscular motion. They illustrate.

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