The Mind: An introductory lecture by DA Morse (1875)

THE MIND:AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,

By D. A. MORSE, M.D.,

Professor of Nervous Disorders and Insanity,
Starling Medical College, Columbus, O.

GAZETTE COMPANY PRINT, N. E. CORNER FOURTH AND VINE STS. 1875 .

Reprint of Lancet and Observer, January, 1876.

Dr. D A. Morse, of London, Ohio, the accomplished author, has made these and kind¬
red subjects his study for many years, and lie gives the result to the Public in a most read¬
able and instructive manner? ( American Medical Weekly, Aug. 7,1875).

THE MIND: INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,
Delivered at Starling- Medical College, Nov. 4, 1875,
By D. A. MORSE, M.D.

Professor of Nervous Disorders and Insanity.

What is the Mind ?—How is it related to matter? Is it a
property of Matter ? How are Mind, the Vital, and Physical
Forces related ? From what standpoint shall we study the
mind—i. e., shall we pursue the Physiological or the Psycho¬
logical Method ?

Gentlemen :—In presenting an introductory to my course,
I shall not apologize to you for having neglected to set forth,
as if it were required, its merits, its claims upon the Profession,
or its practical importance ; to do so would create the presump¬
tion that otherwise it would not receive from you the attention
to which it is entitled.

The frequency of nervous and mental disorders ; the almost
incredible expenditure of money by every nation for the treat¬
ment of this class of patients; the life-long earnest devotion
of hundreds of our profession, exclusively to the study and in¬
vestigation of these obscure and difficult subjects, changes to
you, except you give them most thorough and careful exami¬
nation, the burden of an apology.

The questions I have presented are those which, to-day, as
in all the past of mental science, excite most attention, and
from the fact that science cannot settle them, most controversy.
I am not unmindful, that in selecting questions that have ab¬
sorbed with so little success, the attention of so many thinking
men, that my efforts will prove an elaboration of the subject to
be considered, a multiplication of inquiries, rather than a so-
lution of mysteries, or a satisfactory reply to the questions
presented; nor am I unmindful that however well discussed
these great and interesting problems may be, the startling
truth ever will confront us and declare that, when we pass
from the world of Matter to the world of Mind, our proud in¬
tellects will be humbled with the conscious impotence of
finite mind, and its utter inability to penetrate the darkness
that obscures the work of the Infinite, and discover the secrets
of the Almighty.

The profound mystery of the union of Mind and Matter,of their
intercourse, and of the influence of Mind upon Matter, has in all
ages bewildered the most learned philosopher, and although his
allotted three score years and ten have been passed in a sur¬
vey of it, he has been able, as a result of his labors, to trans¬
mit to succeeding generations but his own inheritance?- The
simple fact, that apart from the phenomena of mind, the man¬
ifestations of mind, operating through its material instrument,
we have no knowledge of mind, and that mind as a separate
existence, when isolated from matter, is wholly a subject of
Faith—dependent upon revelation. Man being adapted to a
material universe, dependent upon a material organization,
must be subject to the laws that govern the instrument upon
which his mind acts to produce its phenomena, and it having
power to reveal itself only through the co-operation of a
physical world, it is not a source of astonishment that man,
when engaged in a study of mind, in relation to matter, should
become embarrassed and lost; and doubting the reality of what
he cannot comprehend, despising the voice of Revelation, de¬
clare that he is a product of matter, a creature of blind neces¬
sity, exhibiting in his phenomena but a display of the laws of
the physical world, thus identifying mind and matter.

With these views or theories I have no sympathy. To me
it seems more credible, that all existing things had their origin
in the operation of an intelligent First Cause than that matter
organized itself into living forms, or that the forces supposed
to be resident in it can be self-acting.

While this is the true line of demarkation which separates
materialism from the Spiritual theories, the real battle ground
of the philosophies, there are multitudes of other theories,
that in past time have governed the productions of the most
powerful intellects of the ages in which they lived. These
views have been as numerous, as diverse, and as well defended
as language would enable their respective advocates to render
them; and in many of them we recognize not only the germ,
but the fully mature views of writers of the present day. In the views we cite, we use, as these writers themselves have done, mind and soul as indicating the intellect, whether correct or not.

Philosophy made its first start in Ionia, then a Grecian
colony. From Ionia it extended to other colonies, and at
last to Greece proper, where, in consequence of trouble with
Italy and Persia, it was centered at Athens, and from this in¬
tellectual center radiated over all Greece. Philosophy found
its origin in an attempt to determine the elementary principle
of the world. The first notions were disseminated by oral
teachings, and handed down by tradition.

Thales, B. C., 600, of Miletus, in Ionia, was the first Grecian
who applied reason to determine the origin of the world. He
made experiments, and concluded that water was the original
element, and spirit (vobc) the impulsive principle. From the
action of the magnet, he inferred that everything had a soul
and was full of divinity.

Pythagoras, B. C., 550, belonging to the same period, taught
that mind and soul are emanations from the great central fire
—the Sun. The Sun (the seat of Jupiter) was the most per¬
fect object in Nature; the principle of heat, and consequently
of life, permeating and vivifying all things. He regarded the
soul as being in constant activity, capable of combining with
any body, and compelled to pass through several successive
stages. It is supposed that Pythagoras borrowed this theory
from the Egyptians. (Herodt. ii—123.) Pythagoras is sup¬
posed also to be the first who attempted, rude as it was, an
analysis of the operations and faculties of the mind. The in¬
tellect or understanding was located in the brain; the will
and appetites in the heart. He made a distinction between
the human and the animal soul.

Heraclitus, B. C., 500, attributed everything to fire—which
he thought to be the elementary principle upon which every
thing depended—the foundation of all things. He believed
that all Force is identical—the principle physical force the
same as that of thought. Here we find the germ of the doc¬
trine, if not the doctrine itself, of the equivalence or correla¬
tion of force, i. e., that heat, light, electricity, chemical affini¬
ty,* vital force, and mind are identical, and are but different
modes of motion.

Moschus, B. C., 500, advocated what is known as the atomic
theory. The elementary principles that figured in this system,
were atoms, motion, and vacuum. The atoms are the ultimate
elements of all that is real. They are invariable, indivisible,
and imperceptible. They occupy space—are infinitely diver-
sified—those that are round, possess motion. By their union
all things have their origin, while their separation is dissolu¬
tion. Their modification and properties are determined by
the position and order of particles, and take place in obedience
to a law of absolute necessity. This is a shadow of Huxley’s
Protoplasm, or Physical Basis of Life. The atomic theory was
to some extent believed in by Sir Isaac Newton, who believed
that between the atoms the imperceptible space was filled
with a subtile ether. Hartly made this the basis of his Phi¬
losophy, A. I). 1749, and taught that vibrations of this subtile
fluid caused the phenomena observed.

Anaxagoras, 500 B. 0., taught the existence of the intellec¬
tual principle.

Democritus, the laughing philosopher, B. C., 494, taught the
atomic theory of Moschus, expanded it, and extended it to the
whole universe—embracing the heavenly bodies. The soul he
believed to be composed of fire, in the form of globular atoms,
which impart motion to the body.

Diogenes, B. C., 472, taught that air was the fundamental
principle of all Nature. He imputed to it intellectual energy.

Archalaus, B. C., 472, believed all things were disengaged
by two discordant principles, from Chaos. These principles
were heat and cold, or fire and water.

Empedocles, B. C., 460, made four elements : earth, air, fire
and water. The soul he located in the blood, and consisted in
a union of these four elements.

Socrates, B. C., 470, regarded the soul as a divine nature;
and on account of the power of reason and its invisible energy,
thought it immortal. He was a powerful antagonist of the
Sophists, who had an apparent , superficial knowledge, and who
desired to distinguish themselves rather by the show of pre¬
tended knowledge, by raising ridiculous, fanciful, intricate, or
useless questions, and tricks of logic, rather than by a desire to
develop truth. This proved, however, the beginning of a more
thorough investigation of the foundation on which philosophy
rests, the Sophists compeling their opponents to adopt syste¬
matic methods of proof. The Sophists, like most of the Phys¬
iological School of the present day, attempted to so confound
truth and error, to so explain away all foundations of truth,
religion, and morality, that even the existence of things was
doubtful. They declared that nothing real exists. Socrates
encountered these men with only appeals to their good sense
and consciousness of moral principles. He taught the duty
of man towards himself and others, to his country, the prac¬
tice of virtue and morality. His chief power to control the

masses lay in the affectation of profound ignorance, and by his
acute reasoning seemingly draw .out the truth by almost im¬
perceptible powerfully convincing advances. His popularity
and success caused so great envy and hatred that he was put
to death, B. C., 400, by Hemlock.

Plato, B. C., 430, was a Rationalist, and founded his system
at the Academy at a time when reason was powerful, and the
union of the Porch and Academy was approaching. His chief
persuasive power, like Socrates, lay in his gradual approach to
the truth, for which, as better suited to his purpose, he em¬
ployed dialogues. He first taught the doctrine of innate ideas
which Locke combats so vigorously in his Metaphysics.
These innate ideas Plato regarded as the eternal type of
things. Plence knowledge is not the result of experience but
only developed by it. The soul he regarded as a self-acting
energy, and as having an existence separate from the body.
Virtue he defined to be imitation of God. perfect harmony re¬
sulting in no other way. We will give his views concerning
the relation of soul and body hereafter.

Aristotle, B. C., 384, regarded the soul as the active princi¬
ple of life. The soul is distinct from the body, but of the same
form and inseparable therefrom. The faculties of the soul he
regarded to be: Production, Nutrition, Sensation, Thought
and Will, or Impulse. He is the first to recognize distinctly
what metaphysicians term Consciousness. He discussed our
means of knowledge, common sense, imagination, memory,
and recollection. He blended all the forces as identical. He
was the first who taught physiology.

Aristoxenus, B. C., 320, regarded the soul as a vital energy,
inherent in the body, a harmony elicited from the body as
those elicited from the chords of an instrument.

Epicurus, B. C., 337, advocated the atomic theory. He re¬
garded the soul as material, its elementary principles are
heat, and some nameless untangible ether spirit, upon which
sensibility depends. This ether he thought to be dispersed
throughout the body. In this we see the germ of Hartley’s
“ vibrations. ” It is also in some respects the theory enter¬
tained by Sir Isaac Newton.

Zeno, B. C., 260, was a physiologist, and in his physiology
taught that sensation and perception are the basis of knowl¬
edge—there are two eternal principles of all things : Matter,
which is passive; and divinity, which is active ; the source of
all activity, another of form and arrangement. By this
theory God is in the world, not without. Hence the world is a
living being. This divine soul not only filled the world, but

all created things, and is the soul of man, is corporal and
perishable. Zeno was a Stoic. This ended Grecian philoso¬
phy, or extended to the period of the new Academy when the
Romans began to figure in it. Among the first of these to at¬
tract attention was Cicero, the orator. He left a number of
works which throw more light upon the history of philosophy
than add new lustre to it. He accepted mainly the views of
Plato—was a Stoic in principle—as a man, was moral in his
private life.

Thus might we continue and multiply views, showing those
entertainecf by the Jews, the Fathers of the church in the mid¬
dle ages, passing on down to the philosophy of modern times.
The writers of this period are numerous ; in fact, so extensive
is the literature of the last two or three centuries that, were
you to attempt to wade through it, you would be discouraged
at the onset by merely examining the list of more important
writers. It is- impossible to name a theory that some one has
not advocated.

Sir John Davies, a writer upon the immortality of the soul,
has in a short poem well expressed the variety and diversity
of views entertained by writers, as well as the difficulty of
presenting new theories :

“ Musicians think our souls are harmonies ;

Physicians hold that they complexions be ;

Epicures make them swarms of atomies ;

Which do by chance into our bodies flee.

“ One thinks the soul is air; another fire;

Another blood diffused about the heart;

Another saith the elements conspire,

And to her essence each doth yield a part.

“ Some think one general soul fills every brain,

As the bright sun sheds light in every star ;

And others think the name of soul is vain,

And that we only well-mixed bodies are.

“ Thus these great clerks their little wisdom show,

While with their doctrines they at hazzard play ;

Tossing their light opinions to and fro,

To mock the lewd, as learned in this as they.

“ For no crazed brain could ever yet propound,

Touching the soul so vain and fond a thought,

But some among these masters have been found,

Which in their schools the self-same thought have taught. ”

Whilst it may be agreeable and interesting to study the
past history of mental science, and as metaphysicians roam
in imagination through the broad universe constructing
theories that will explain its origin and that of mind, or explocling theories of others as to the nature of the mind, we must proceed to consider the more important-matters of the lecture.

As our questions intimate, there are two antagonistic, or
essentially different methods of investigation of mental activi¬
ty, two distinct schools. We say antagonistic, for by their
respective adherents they are made such, but by a true
method they become each the counterpart or interpreter of
the other. These are the physiological and the psychological
‘methods.

The Physiological school bases its theories upon the anatomy
and physiology of the brain ; to them mind is but the result of
cerebral organization. Cabanis taught, and many of this school
after him, that the brain secretes mind as the liver bile,
and that a diseased brain gives rise to a diseased mind in the
same way that a diseased liver or stomach gives rise to derang-
ed secretion.

Bain, a distinguished writer of this school, advances the fol¬
lowing as evidences that the function of the brain is to pro¬
duce mind. He says :

“ The brain is the principal, although not the sole organ of
mind, and its leading functions are mental. The proofs of
this position are these :

1. u The physical pain of excessive mental excitement is
   located in the head. In extreme muscular fatigue, pain is
   felt in the muscles; irritation of the lungs is referred to the
   chest, indigestion to the stomach, and when mental excerise
   brings on acute irritation, the local seat is the head.
2. “ Injury or disease of the brain affects the mental powers ;
   a blow on the head destroys consciousness ; physical alterations
   of the nervous substance, as seen after death, are connected
   with loss of speech, loss of memory, insanity, or some other
   mental deprivation or derangement.
3. “ The products of nervous waste are more abundant after
   mental excitement. These products, eliminated mainly by the
   kidneys, are the alkaline phosphates combined in the triple
   phosphate of ammonia and magnesia. Phosphorus is a charac¬
   teristic ingredient of the nervous substance.

4. “ There is a general connection between the size of the
   brain and mental energy; in the animal series intelligence in¬
   creases with the development of the brain. The human brain
   exceeds the animal brain, and the most advanced races of men
   have, as a general rule, brains of an unusual size. The aver¬
   age weight of the brain is 48 oz ; the brain of Cuvier weighed
   64 oz. Idiots commonly have small brains.

[ 10 ]

1. “ By specific experiments on the brain and nerves, it is
   shown that they are indispensable to the mental function. ”
   Hence the conclusion that mind is the result of cerebral or¬
   ganization. In it we see only what is admitted by the Psycho¬
   logical school as evidence that the brain is the organ or the
   instrument of the mind.

Prof. Leibig, an advocate of the views of this school, de¬
clares that “ in the universal body we recognize as ultimate
cause of all force only one cause, the chemical action which the
elements of the food and the oxygen of the air mutually exer¬
cise on each other. The only known ultimate cause of vital
force, either in animals or in plants, is a chemical ‘process. If
this be prevented the phenomena of life do not manifest them¬
selves.”

Prof. Gr. F. Barker, of Yale, in a lecture on the Correlation
of the Vital and Physical Forces, in 1870, said : “ No doubt can
be entertained that the actual energy of the muscle is simply
the converted potential carbon of the food. A muscle, there¬
fore like a steam engine is a machine for converting the po¬
tential energy of carbon into motion.” He says : “ Chemis¬

try teaches that though force, like muscular force comes from
food, and demonstrates that the force evolved by the brain
like that produced by the muscle comes not from the disinte¬
gration of its own tissue, but is the converted energy of burn¬
ing carbon. Can we longer doubt then, that the brain, too, is
a machine for the conversion of energy ? Can we longer re¬
fuse to believe that our thought is in some mysterious way
correlated to the natural forces ? And this even in the face
of the fact that it has never yet been measured ?”

When I was a student I was taught to believe in the exist¬
ence of vital force, the anima of Stolil, the vis medicatrix
naturae of Cullen, the so-called conservative power of nature of
other writers. This doctrine as taught by the physiological
school does away with this force, substituting chemical action.
Virchow says, “ The old doctrine of a vital power is a pure
superstition, a doctrine of the devil, a search after the philoso¬
pher’s stone.” I must confess that I am in this respect
very superstitious, and recognize in his assertion how difficult
it is for a man to get free from the innate sense of a spiritual
existence, for even in this he attributes it to the devil. Is his
devil also the result of chemical action—another form of
physical energy ? If matter and force alone exist where
does he borrow his devil from ? A singularly unique spiritual
existence !

Carl Vogt, after repeating the views of Cabanis, says : “ The
appeal to a vital force is merely a periphrasis of ignorance.

It constitutes one of those back doors of which there are so
many in science, and which are the constant refuge of indolent
minds who will not take the trouble to investigate what ap¬
pears incomprehensible, but are satisfied with accepting the
miracle.”

Dr. Louis Buchner, on Force and Matter, says : “ The notion
of a vital force is reduced to a walking shadow, and exists
only in the brains of such individuals as have lagged behind
the sciences. All those who have specially studied any branch
of natural science touching the organic w T orld, agree now in
regard to vital force, and the term itself has become so ob¬
noxious that it is rarely used.”

This is necessary before the views of the Physiological
school can be admitted, for to acknowledge a vital force de¬
stroys the whole theory. But to assert there is no such thing
as vital force, and to demonstrate the truth of such assertion,
are two entirely different things. The more you study the
claims of this school the more thoroughly will you be con¬
vinced that the basis of all its teaching rests upon mere as¬
sumption—a begging of the question, a reasoning petitio
principii. They make great claims for it that it rests upon
experiment, observation and experience ; to assert that there is
mind and vital force is in no way disproved by asserting there
is not. Has experience demonstrated in any other manner a
negative result?

I am aware that it is not popular to teach the antiquated
doctrine of a vital force. Yet, notwithstanding this, I cannot
accept, until it has been proved, the assertion as true that the
physical, vital and mental forces are identical.

According to Youman, heat, light, electricity and magnet¬
ism, which were treated of by the old writers as imponderable
agents, are now no longer regarded as independent existences,
—subtile fluids with peculiar properties, but simply as modes
of motion in ordinary matter ; forms of energy which are capa¬
ble of mutual conversion. Heat is a mode of energy mani¬
fested by certain effects. It may be transformed into elec¬
tricity, which is another form of force producing different
effects. Thus electricity will generate heat, and heat when
operating upon a conbination of metallic plates will produce
electrical action. A given amount of one force produces a
definite amount of another. The assertion that mind and
these forces are identical, cannot be demonstrated as true by
this test, for no thought has been transformed into electricity;
nor has heat, light, or electricity ever been exhibited as the
equivalent of a definite amount of mental force. It may be assumed but never can be proved, nor can it be proved that vital force and mind are identical. There is much greater re¬
semblance between nerve force and electricity than between
mind and vital force. Thus the muscle with each contraction
gives off electricity and as exhaustion follows ceases to show
its presence.* This force, whatever it is, is closely allied in its
nature to electricity. Yet that it is not electricity is shown by
the fact that when sufficient time has elapsed after death for
muscular contractility to cease, no current however strong will
elicit a response from the then dead muscles. There was a
force present that electricity could stimulate to activity, yet
when absent renders electrical action without effect. We know
that electricity will call muscle into play, will excite the sen¬
sory organs, causing light, smell, taste and sound to be
perceived, yet we have no evidence that it will produce thought.
It will give rise to physical activity but not mental in the
same manner. Thought follows no known physical law. A
single thought, expressed perhaps months or years before,
looming up in consciousness, is often more powerful than all
else in producing physical activity, yet it is not uniformly
correlated in physical effects. Thus, what will cause one man
to swear, stamp and gesticulate furiously, will not perhaps
have any effect upon another, while a third may suppress, by
an effort of the will, the rising storm. If we interrogate
consciousness it responds that volition, the will power of the
Ego, alone can suppress emotion and calm the tempest of
passion. Passion may be excited, the emotions almost un¬
controllable as it were, yet some self-determining power says
peace, be still; and immediately there is a great calm. Here
is a force that controls other forces. It is self-acting and self
determining. If nerve force be electricity, and will power
identical, why is it that outside of the human brain they never
act in this manner ? If you determine that mind and the
motor power of the nerve centers that administer to volun¬
tary motion are the same, what do you do with involuntary
muscular action, as the contraction of the heart, intestines,
stomach, arteries, gland ducts, etc ? Are you prepared to
admit that vital force, that hidden power which develops all
living organisms, which rears the superstructure of the body
from a simple cell, moulding and fashioning matter to a defi¬
nite form, in conformity to some original type, is but the ad¬
ventitious operation of heat, light or electricity, and differs
from these other forces but in its “ mode of motion ?”

• Radcliff claims that contraction results from the discharge of electricity,
  and not vice-versa.

[13]

Prof. Huxley, in his Physical Basis of Life (1870), sets forth
the view that matter and life are inseperably connected. He
claims that all bodies have some one kind of matter that is
common to all,* and that their endless diversities are bound
together by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity; that the
mould upon the bread crust, the lofty California pine, or Indian
fig tree which covers acres, the tiny animalcule of stagnant
water, and the mighty leviathan of the deep, man, lord of
creation, and the beast that bears him on his journey, are all
moulded from the same matter of life; that there is a unity
of power or faculty, a unity of form, and a unity of substan¬
tial composition. The matter of all bodies is the same in kind
when traced back to its earliest state. This matter he terms
“Protoplasm.” He declares this Protoplasm, or Physical
Basis of Life, to be the clay of the potter, separated by ar¬
tifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick or sun
dried clod.

But here Prof. Huxley loses sight of a very important fact,
when he asserts that all living forms are of the same funda¬
mental character, and may be likened to the clay in the hands
of the potter; for he asserts that all vital action is but the re¬
sult of the molecular forces of the Physical Basis, and further
concludes, that all thought is but the expression of molecular
changes in the matter of life, which is the source of all vital
phenomena. Now, the moulding force and the clay moulded
are not the same—the clay does not resolve itself into the
baked and painted forms, but is moulded by an external force.
Were we to analyze the clay, the paint, or the baked ware of
the potter’s shop, our conclusions would be as sensible concern¬
ing the force that moulded it as are those of Prof. Huxley, in
asserting that the phenomena of life are self-directing, and
belong to the oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and other elementary
compounds which enter into the composition of the body, and
are said to have inherent to them the properties of vital and
mental phenomena. His illustrations are most unfortunate for
his theory, as they nearly always are when an attempt is made
to set aside the Creator and substitute Force. They generally
disprove what they set out to prove. If we make any infer¬
ences whatever from his illustrations, they certainly prove the
contrary of the theory they are intended to sustain.

Prof. Huxley declares that, under whatever disguise the
Physical Basis of Life may take refuge, whether fungus or oak,
worm or man, the living protoplasm not only ultimately dies,

^Expressed by Agassiz in 1848, in a lecture at the Lowell Academy.

[14]

and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but
that these are the same and differ only in the manner the atoms
are aggregated. Cooked meat he calls modified protoplasm
and says of it, that it has only been altered, but not rendered
incompetent to resume its old functions as matter of life.

He says : “ a singular inward labratory dissolves a portion of
this modified protoplasm, the solution so formed will pass into
my veins ; and the subtil influences to which it is then subjected
will convert the dead protoplasm into living protoplasm and
and thus transsubstantiate sheep into man/’

He claims that the matter of life, i.e., that from w T hich all
organized beings are formed, is identical, and that their re¬
spective organizations are due to the forces of the molecular
basis. What is this “singular inward labratory” to which he
refers, and the “ subtil influences ” to which digested food is
subjected that converts it into living organisms ? Is it not vital
force ? I will not contend that all flesh when deprived of vital¬
ity may or may not be resolved into some like, simple element.
But, if all originate from the same basis and the forces of this
molecular basis operate to form the various vegetable and an¬
imal organisms, why does this same force from the same mat¬
ter of life construct an animalcule and a whale ? Why does one
part form the minute odium albicans, and another the white
oak tree ? Is not the difference in the flesh of man and other
influences due to the “ subtil influences ” to which it is sub¬
jected in the organism? It never is observed elsewhere, and
shows that this “subtil influence” is a property of the organ¬
ization, and not of the original matter entering into it, and
that it never assumes the character of the material substance
composing the organization, until it has been subjected to its
influence, or the influences of the forces belonging to the or¬
ganization. This power to assimilate new matter to itself
gives to all organizations that character we term life. In¬
organic matter seems to be endowed with properties in some
respects similar to organic. Thus the crystal will form from
its mother liquor, each metal according to a definite form,
and seems to obey the same law that operated to construct the
body. But the force that constructs the crystal and that which
constructs the body differs in this : you cannot remove it from
the metal—a very slight cause often drives vital force from an
organized body. Break a crystal, or piece of marble into
many fragments and each preserves its integrity. Remove a
portion of an organized body and it immediately undergoes
change. To maintain its integrity it must remain in an in¬
timate union with the body from whence it derives vital powder.

■ [ 15 ]

If transformed into the substance of any other organism,
this takes place only when brought under the “ subtile
influences ” of the “ singular inward laboratory,” Nature has
provided in such organism.

Prof. Huxley says : “ If I sup upon lobster this same matter
of life becomes a part of humanity. Were I to be shipwrecked
and this action reversed, the same lobster might return the
compliment by converting humanity into a crustacean.” This
in no way proves that lobster and man are identical organ¬
izations, or that the forces of the molecular basis make this
transformation, but it clearly shows that the forces peculiar to
the organism of each, accomplish it.

The great effort of so-called scientific men of the present day,
is to decry Revelation and Faith, and base everything upon
experience. Observe, as long as you will, the transformation
of the matter of one organization into that of another, and
your experience throws no light upon the nature and source of
the forces operating, further than the phenomena resulting
from their activity. If there is no such thing as vital force,
what originates chemico-vital action, and what arrests it?
Why will it not proceed as well in, what we term, a dead body,
as in a living one ? Simply, because something is wanting in
the dead body that is supplied in the living one. This invisi¬
ble something does the work. Must we remove it from the
body, hold it up to public gaze before its existence will be
acknowledged ? Is this to be the test of all our knowledge ?
Must all faith be forever obliterated, and the word become ob¬
solete? If all our belief is thus subject to experience, how
meagre will be our stock of knowledge.

An amusing application of this theory occured a few years
since, at a ministerial association held at Danville, Ills. A
good brother, who had been reading some of this class of
writers, who rest upon experience, declared that he preached
only what he had personal experience to confirm. Some one
inquired if he ever preached the doctrine of the final resurrec¬
tion of the dead. The good brother was greatly mortified at
the failure of his theory. Thus it is with all who attempt to
construct theories that will set aside the Creator, and elevate
the phenomena of matter to His place. We are glad that
men, of equal intellectual capacity, with more expanded rea¬
soning faculties, interpret nature differently. Beale: Life,
Matter and Mind ; p. 4, says : “ He, who choses, may accept
upon faith as an article of belief that all the action of living
beings are due to ordinary forces only; but it is absurd to
put forward such conclusions, as if it had been proved, or as

[16]

if it were capable of proof.” On page 130, he says : “All the
energy, authority and influence this school can bring to bear
will not succeed in forcing thoughtful and intelligent people
to accept such assertions. What strikes one as most wonder¬
ful is, that any one should try to make people believe that
ordinary force can form, or has formed, mechanism, or other
things in this world capable of working or action.”

Do you believe in this doctrine: That in all this fair earth no
evidence exists of an intelligent cause that directs the forces ? Do
you believe that the lightning, which, it is said, Franklin tamed,
and which Morse taught to write, and which, amid the terrors
of the storm, speaks of the power and glory of God, is the
same blind force that reared your frame from the dust of the
earth, moves your body as a nerve force, warms it, thinks, feels,
reasons, and wills for you?

No one disputes that all the ordinary forces operate in the
living body, but they operate only in a body said to contain
life, for this alone can utilize them. The presence of another
and higher force seems necessary for the proper action of the
physical forces. Life is an independent force, like mind—a
force resident in the organization—at times but a transient
tenant. When vital force ceases to operate, the physical forces
are powerless. When vital force is active in a plant, the sun¬
light decomposes the compounds which nourish it—carbonic
acid releases its carbon, which is deposited in the plant. Re¬
move this force, and the sun shines in vain upon it. The grain
of corn, planted beneath the sod, puts forth its sprout before
sunlight falls upon it. Stored up with the germ is sufficient
nutriment to maintain its growth until it appears above the
surface. When this store is expended, sunlight is needed to
decompose the compounds that shall nourish it. We say Na¬
ture provides this energy; the materialist says it is the molec¬
ular basis that affords this power. The materialist urges that
mind exhausts nerve force, and that nerve force wears out the
body: Steam wears out an engine—is steam, therefore, a prop¬
erty of the engine?

In order that you may be enabled to compare the views of
the two schools, I will present in brief the argument upon
which they rest their theories. First, that of the Physiological—
then that of the Psychological school :*

The Materialist believes not in the separate existence of
mind, but says that we know only of its existence by its man¬
ifestations ; that experience alone must be our instructor, and
that of a mind acting apart from matter, we have no experi-
*On the relations of soul to matter, see Porter’s Human Intellect, pp. 16 to 40.

[17]

ence. As we have before stated, the fact that we have no such
experience, is not conclusive evidence that mind can not so
exist. It rather tends to show our limited knowledge, than the
contrary.

Another argument advanced is, that mental power is devel¬
oped only in a degree that corresponds with that of the physio¬
logical and anatomical development of the cerebral structures.
Growth of mind keeps pace with growth of brain. Matured
mind is only functional activity belonging to a fully developed
cerebral organization.

Again, it is alleged that the mind receives its store of knowl¬
edge through the senses—hence the mind is dependent wholly
upon the body. The eye gives knowledge of light, color, dis¬
tance ; the ear of sound; the nerves convey ideas of resist¬
ance, extension, weight. The destruction of a single organ of
sense deprives the mind of all knowledge to be obtained in
that direction. As the organs of sense are one by one de¬
stroyed, so does the possibility of the mind diminish for the
acquisition of knowledge. This goes farther than Locke and
the Sensual school, who declared that there is nothing in the
mind that has not first been in the senses. It shuts off all
upon which the Mystics rest in their philosophy—i. e., that the
mind may be in direct communion with God, and receive di¬
rect revelations of his will. It reduces the mind to a com¬
pound body, composed’of the senses, or makes it but the sum
total of them, for, however else they may explain it, according
to this theory we have no knowledge of mind further than that
learned by the exercise of the senses, and in proportion as
they are wanting, so is the evidence of mental existence di¬
minished. For it is clear by this process of reasoning that the
organs of sense are not servants of the mind, but mind itself.
By it, if the organs of sense did not first act, there would
never be mental activity, and there would be increased mental
activity in proportion as the senses are stimulated.

It is true that the main process of developing the idiotic
mind is through the senses, and unless aroused through them
can never be aroused. If we regard the senses as only out¬
posts where sentinels are placed who give the mind notice
within of all that is observed without, then it in no way fol¬
lows that they are other than sources of information.

Again, and this is the strongest argument that is advanced,
the materialist urges that mind is a property of brain, for the
reason that all changes in the brain affect mental activity. A
change in the circulation, either congestion, loss of blood, or
a blood stream loaded with impurities; pressure upon the

[ 18 ]

brain substance; the irritation of inflamation; a disturbance
in remote organs, suspends or modifies mental action.

The advocates of this theory claim for it that it is but the ex¬
tension of ordinary physics to the brain. Thus low in the order
of nature we have the attraction of gravitation and of cohesion.
A little higher, chemical affinity, chemical action and combina¬
tion. By chemical laws bodies are called into existence that
had no existence before—thus sulphuric acid, a violent poison,
may unite with magnesia, a compound unlike either, a new or¬
ganization as it were. The lower bodies are regulated by
mathematical laws, which is mainly force of gravity, and the
higher by physical, which become more and more complex as
we ascend in the order of nature. Thus, as we ascend from
the attraction of simple particles of matter, as in cohesion, we
next find the formation of crystals, still, however, obeying
mathematical laws, in always assuming definite forms. To fol¬
low out the theories of this school, we must still extend this to
the development of cell life and activity—to animal existence,
and the functional activity of every organ of the body.

Such are the grounds upon which rest the theories of the
Physiological school, who claim that a cabbage head differs
only in degree, not in kind, of energy, from the heads of those
who accept its teachings.

But, however exclusive and one-sided the views of this
school may be, they have accomplished much for science, by
inciting observation, experiment, and research.

The Psychological school regards man as an intelligence,
served by organs. In metaphysics they are termed dualists ,
because they regard the mind as an entity*—i. e., mind and
body as two distinct organizations. This class includes those
who accept the teachings of Revelation. They also believe in
the immortality of the soul. There are many who believe that
the mind is a property of brain, who claim that if man has a
soul it is something distinct from the mind. But a soul with¬
out a mind is something inconceivable to us. The common
view of the relation of mind and body is well illustrated by
Plato, in the dialogue of Socrates and Alcibiades, first Aleib-
iades. I give it as translated by Sir William Hamilton:

Socrates. Hold, now, Alcibiades, with whom do you at
present converse? Is it not with me?

Alcibiades. Yes.

Soc. And I also with you? Ale. Yes.

Soc. It is Socrates, then, who speaks? Ale. Assuredly.

Soc. And Alcibiades who listens? Ale. Yes.

Soc. Is it not with language that Socrates speaks?

• Entity , that having existence independent of the idea.

[19]

Ale. What, now ? Of course.

Soc. To converse and to use language, are not these, then,
the same? Ale. The very same.

Soc. But he who uses a thing, and the thing used, are not
these different? Ale. What do you mean?

Soe. A currier—does he not use a cutting knife and other
instruments? Ale. Yes.

Soc. And the man who uses the cutting knife, is he different
from the knife he uses? Ale. Most certainly.

Soc. In like manner the lyrist—is he not different from the
lyre he plays on? Ale. Undoubtedly.

Soc. This, then, was what I asked you just now—does not he
who uses a thing seem to you always different from the thing
used? Ale. Very different.

Soc. But the currier—does he cut with his instruments alone,
or also with his hands? Ale. Also with his hands.

Soc. He also uses his hands? Ale. Yes.

Soc. And in his work he uses also’his eyes? Ale. Yes.

Soc. We are agreed, then, that he who uses a thing, and the
thing used, are different? Ale. We are.

Soc. The currier and the lyrist are, therefore, different from
the hands and the eyes with which they work ?

Ale. So it seems.

Soc. Now, then, does not a man use his whole body?

Ale. Unquestionably.

Soc. But we are agreed that he who uses, and that which is
used, are different? Ale. Yes.

Soc. A man is, therefore, different from his body?

Ale. So I think.

Soc. What, then, is man? Ale. I can not say.

Soc. You can at least say that the man is that which uses
the body? Ale. True.

Soc. Now, does anything use the body but the mind?

Ale. Nothing.

Soc. The mind is, therefore, the man.

Ale. The mind alone.

A French writer, Gatien Arnoult, makes the following ap¬
peal to experience:

“ I turn my attention on my being, and find that I have or¬
igans, and that I have thoughts. My body is the compliment
of my organs; am I, then, my body, or any part of my body?
This I can not be. The matter of my body, in all its points,
is in a perpetual flux—in a perpetual process of renewal. I —
I do not pass away, I am not renewed. None, probably, of
the molecules which constituted my organs some years ago

[ 20 ]

form any part of the material system which I now call mine.
It has been made up anew; but I am still what I was of old.
These organs may be mutilated; one, two, or any number of
them may be removed; but not the less do I continue to be
what I was—one and entire. It is even not impossible to con¬
ceive me existing, deprived of every organ. I, therefore, who
have these organs, or this body, I am neither an organ nor a
body.

“ Neither am I identical with my thoughts, for they are
manifold and various. 7, on the contrary, am one and the
same. Each moment they change and succeed each other;
this change and succession takes place in me, but I neither
change nor succeed myself in myself. Each moment I am
aware or am conscious of the existence and change of my
thoughts; this change is sometimes determined by me, some¬
times by something different from me; but I always can dis¬
tinguish myself from them—I am a permanent being, an en¬
during subject, of whose • existence these thoughts are but so
many modes, appearances, or phenomena; I, who possess or¬
gans and thoughts, am, therefore, neither these organs nor
these thoughts. 1 can conceive myself to exist apart from every
organ; but if I try to conceive myself existent without a
thought, I am unable. This or that thought may not be per¬
haps necessary, but of some thought it is necessary that I
should be conscious, otherwise I can no longer conceive my¬
self to be. A suspension of thought is a suspension of my
intellectual existence; I am, therefore, essentially a thinking,
a conscious being; and my true character is that of an intelli¬
gence, served by organs.”

Arbuthnot in a poetical way presents the same ideas :

“ What am I, whence produced and for what end ?

Whence drew I being, to what period tend ?

Am I the abandon’d orphan of blind chance,

Dropp’d by wild atoms in disordered dance?

Or, from an endless chain of causes wrought.

And of unthinking substance born with thought.

Am I but what I seem mere flesh and blood,

A branching channel with a mazy flood ?

The purple stream that through my vessels glides,

Dull and unconscious flows, like common tides.

The pipes, through which the circling juices stray,

Are not that thinking 7, no more than they;

This frame compacted with transcendent skill,

Of moving points, obedient to my will;

Nursed from the fruitful glebe, like yonder tree,

Waxes and wastes—I call it mine not me.

New matter still the mouldering mass sustains;

The mansion chang’d the tenant still remains;

And, from the fleeting stream, repaired by food,

Distinct, as is the swimmer from the flood.”

[ 21 ]

The Psychological school, like the Physiological, views hut
half the subject. It maintains that no study of the brain, how¬
ever far it may be carried, chemically, anatomically, or physi¬
ologically, can throw any light upon the mysterious union of
mind and matter. It studies only the agent. The Physiolog¬
ical school ignores the agent, admits no intervention of creative
intelligence, divine, initiative, nor human free will; it denies
all intelligent providential law, confounds subject and object ,
and satisfies itself with an analysis of the instrument, rather
than aspire to a knowledge of the agent. It rejects the voice
of conscience and of intuition, and has been likened by Joseph
Mazzini to the man who analyzed the ink with which a poem
was written, and declared that he had discovered the secret of
the genius who wrote it.

The Psychological school regards the mind as a distinct ex¬
istence, and the nerves and senses as only so many gates
through which knowledge enters to it. Their arguments are
that the phenomenon of mental action are unlike the phenom-
enoa which belong to matter. The phenomenoa of material
substances can be reduced to a common basis—they are dis¬
cerned by the senses. They can be felt, seen, tasted, touched,
and measured. Mental phenomenoa are known only in con¬
sciousness—they can not be measured, weighed, touched, or
tasted. They are.. wffiolly unappreciable by the senses. The
phenomena of matter, as motion, taste, color, weight, density,
sound, etc., can be appreciated by the senses. But who can
measure the volume, weight, density, or velocity of thought ?
Electricity, heat, light, and chemical affinity, obey their respec¬
tive laws, but wffiat code of laws will regulate a train of thought,
or govern the production of a single idea? The physical forces
are identified with the presence of matter, and have besides
well known definite relations with matter. Thought, though
dependent on the brain, can not be recognized as having a sin¬
gle property that characterizes these forces. The mind can
recognize its own states, and distinguish its own action from
that of every force around it. This is what is meant in meta¬
physics by the term consciousness. In consciousness we recog¬
nize the fact that, while heat or electricity can be conducted
from one body to another, the mind retains its own identity,
its productions are not capable of being conducted away,
nature having made no bridge over which a thought can be
carrried from one mind to another. In conscious mental action
we learn that the mind is not the body, but distinct from it—
its master, the mind can act in opposition to all the physical
forces to a certain extent, and even vital force, as in resisting

[ 22 ]

the tendency to sleep, or fatigue, and in many ways assert its
independence and/ separate existence. The mind is a control-
ing, self acting power, matter inert. The energy that induces
mental action is within, it can resist, or elect to act, through
volition, under the influence of external influences, recogniz¬
ing this influence, hence rendering Consciousness the most
credible witness introduced by either school. Writers of this
school have advanced many theories to explain the union, or
intercourse of mind and matter, and our lecture would be very
incomplete without we presented the main doctrines, presented
to explain this relation.

Laromiguiere, “ Lecons de Philosophic,” has presented the
theories of the Dualists under four heads:

1st. Of the system of Assistance or of Occasional causes ; 2d,
of the Pre-established Harmony; 3d of the Plastic medium ;
and 4th of Physical influence.

1. The first, or doctrine of Divine assistance maintains that
   there can be no possible communication between mind and
   matter. This was taught by Descartes, De la Forge, and
   Malebranche. It asserts that when there is motion in the bodi¬
   ly organization, God excites in the mind corresponding repre¬
   sentations. When thoughts arise in the mind, He expresses
   them by a corresponding movement in the body.

God, according to the advocates of this scheme, governs the
universe, and its constituent existence, by the laws according
to which He has created them ; and as the world was origi¬
nally called into being by a mere fiat of the divine will, so it
owes the continuance of its existence from moment to moment
only to the unremitted perseverence of the same volition. Let
the sustaining energy of the divine will cease, but for an in¬
stant, and the universe lapses into nothingness. The exist¬
ence of created things is thus exclusively maintained by a
creation, as it were, incessantly renewed. God is thus the
necessary cause of every modification of mind, and His
efficiency is sufficient to afford an explanation of the union and
intercourse of extended and unextended substances.

“ External objects determine certain movements in our
bodily organs of sense, and these movements are, by the nerves
and animal spirits propagated to the brain. The brain does
not act immediately and really upon the soul; the soul has no
direct cognizance of any modification of the brain ; this is im¬
possible. It is God himself who, by a law which he has estab¬
lished, when movements are determined in the brain, produces
analogous modifications in the conscious mind. In like man¬
ner, suppose the mind has a volition to move the arm; this

[23]

volition is, of itself inefficatious, but God, in virtue of the
same law, causes the answering motion in the limb. The body
is not, therefore, the real cause of the mental modifications;
nor the mind the real cause of the bodily movements. Never¬
theless, as the soul would not be modified without the antece¬
dent determinations of the soul—the changes and determina¬
tions are in a certain sort necessary. But this necessity is
not absolute; it is only hypothetical or conditional. The
organic changes, and the mental determinations are nothing
but simple conditions, and not real causes; in short they are
occasions or occasional causes.”

The sum of this, the Cartesian view, is that God is the only
real agent in the universe.

II. The second system is that taught by Liebnitz. This
denies not only all connection between spiritual and material
substances, but between all substances. The author of this
hypothesis, who also maintained the view that man is composed
of monads, explains the apparent communion of mind and
matter, from a previously decreed mutual adaptation and co-ar¬
rangement of the Creator. This is the doctrine of pre-estab¬
lished or pre-determined harmony.

Leibnitz reproaches the Cartesians with converting the un¬
iverse into a perpetual miracle, and of explaining the natural,
by a supernatural order, this would annihilate Philosophy ;
for, Philosophy consists in the investigation and discovery of
the Second Causes which produce the various phenomena of
the universe. You degrade the Divinity, adds Leibnitz, you
make Him act like a watchmaker, who, having constructed a
time piece, would still be obliged himself to turn the hands,
to make it mark the hours. A skillful machinist would so
frame his clock that it would go for a certain period without
assistance or interposition. So when God created man, he
disposed his organs and faculties in such a manner that they
are able of themselves to execute their functions and maintain
their activity from birth to death. This theory is, that “ God,
before creating souls and bodies, knew all these souls and
bodies; he knew, also, all possible souls and bodies.”
Now, in the infinite variety of possible souls and bodies,
it was necessary that there should be souls whose series
of perceptions and determinations would correspond to the
series of movements which some of these possible bodies
would execute; for in an infinite number of souls, and in an
infinite number of bodies, there would be found all possible
combinations. Now, suppose that, out of a soul whose series
of modifications corresponded exactly to the series of modi¬
fications which a certain body was destined to perform, and of

[24]

this body whose successive movements were correspondent to
the successive modifications of this soul, God should make a
man, it is evident that, between the two substances which
constitute a man, there would subsist the most perfect harmony.
It is thus no longer necessary to devise theories to account for
the reciprocal intercourse of the material and spiritual sub¬
stances. These have no mutual influence—no communication.
The soul passes from one state, one perception, to another,
by virtue of its own nature. The body executes the series of
its movements without any participation or interference of the
soul in these. The soul and body are like two clocks accurately
regulated, which point to the same hour and minute, although
the spring which gives motion to one is not the spring which
gives motion to the other. Thus the harmony which appears
to combine the soul and body is, however, independent of any
reciprocal action.

This harmony w T as established before the creation of man,
and hence it is called the pre-established, or predetermined,
harmony.”

III. The third hypothesis has for its author Plato. He
illustrated the relation of soul and body, by saying : the soul
is in the body, like a sailor in a ship; that the soul employs
the body as its instrument, but that the energy, or life and
sense of the body, is the manifestation of a different substance
—of a substance which holds a kind of intermediate existence
between mind and matter. This doctrine claims that this
plastic medium participates of the two natures; it is partly
material, partly spiritual. As material, it can be acted on by
the body; and, as spiritual, it can act upon the mind. It is
the middle term of a continuous proportion. It is a bridge
thrown over the abyss which separates matter from spirit.

IV. The fourth hypothesis, or that of physical influence, is
the doctrine taught by the Schoolmen. It is the oldest of the
four doctrines, and was advocated by Aristotle, and taught in
the earlier schools of Greece. This is the commonly accepted
doctrine of the Psychological schools of the present day,
modified as each may think itself able to substitute a better
hypothesis. This doctrine Laromiguiere sums up as follows :

66 External objects affect our senses, and the organic motion
they determine is communicated to the brain. The brain acts
upon the soul, and the soul has an idea, a perception. The
mind thus possessed of a perception, or idea, is affected for good
or ill. If it suffers it seeks to be relieved of pain. It acts in
its turn upon the brain, in which it causes a movement in the
nervous system : the nervous system causes a muscular motion

[ 25 [

ln the limbs, a motion directed to remove, or avoid the object
which occasions the sensation of pain. The brain is the seat
of the soul, and, on this hypothesis, the soul has been compared
to a spider seated in the center of its web. The moment the
least agitation is caused at the extremity of this web the
insect is informed and put upon the watch. In like manner
the mind situated in the brain has a point on which all the
nervous filaments converge; it is informed of what passes at
the different parts of the body; and forthwith it takes its
measures accordingly. The mind thus acts with a real effi¬
ciency upon the body. This influence or action being real,
physical in the course of nature, the body exerts a physical
influence on the soul, the soul a physical influence upon the
body. This system is simple, but it affords us no help in
explaining the mysterious union of extended and unextended
substance.”

And now, gentlemen, with the theories of these two schools
before you which will you accept. Will you ignore the
existence of matter, and study only the phenomena of mind, or
will you ignore mind and confound Cause and Effect. It is a
metaphysical axiom that the effect can never be the cause.*

The Physiological School studies only effects and raises them
to the grade of causes. • Force is made to be self-acting and
self-directing, the phenomena resulting from force are effects
not causes. Mental phenomena bear the same relation to
mind. If you believe that common force, or chemical action
produces thought, take a brain to the laboratory of our distin¬
guished chemist, and ask him by any process known to
chemists to produce a single thought. As w T e forewarned you
we fear your conclusions are no clearer than before we began.
We are unable to demonstrate to you clearly the process by
which a single thought results, the relation of mind and
matter by virtue of which mental phenomena are produced.
We have shown you, more by inference than by direct proof,
that mind is a final cause, a first cause, an ordinary, directing
force, dependant upon a material world, a material organiza¬
tion, and physical laws for its operations and manifestations.
I admit that every mental action is coincident with some vital
change in the brain, but I do not admit that mental action
consists in this vital change, more than that the movement,
the wear and tear of an engine, is the force that moves it.
Where else in nature do we find the same thing become at the
same time cause and effect. The operation of an intelligent
cause alone can satisfy the mind of man as an explanation of

• I. e. the same thing can not be at the same time cause and effect.

[ 26 ]

the workings of the mind. The mind of a Creator is every¬
where displayed in all His works. It

“ Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart.”

If you accept these views you run the risk of being called by
the self styled scientific men of this generation, a saint. But
remember, gentlemen, that weak minds, unaccustomed to bear
the burden of thought, who accept everything as authority upon
the opinions of others, when they come in contact with this
class of men, who ridicule every accepted principle of truth
and who have no reverence for Revelation, are easily turned
aside and made to disown the teachings of their own consciences,
and becoming skeptics, readily believe that education and
social influence alone inculcates these eternal truths. But
whether you accept my views or not, let me warn you that
science which prides itself in its own wisdom, has in no age of
the world sustained itself. It falls. “ Science without relig¬
ion is insane, reason without revelation gropes about in the
dark, and Philosophy loses her ordination as Priestess of the
Most High, unless she be faithful in her office, as bearer, of
both incense and light.”

With theories that develop man through successive degrees
of animal existence from the lower forms of life, through the
agency of self acting force, I have no sympathy more than
those which make all force identical. I believe man’s origin
more elevated. “ The hand that molded the dust into the abode
of a sentient being, touched it with perfection; and no better
type of form or finish will be required by the spirit of man
through the dispensations of earth, be they dark or be they
glorious, than a body like that in which the first man bowed in
worship, or walked erect in fellowship with his God.” Truth
ever is the same, whether accepted or rejected. Moral clouds
may obscure it, skepticism shut it off as a cloud the Sun, yet

“ Fond, impious Man ! thinkst thou yon sanguine cloud,

Baised by thy breath, has quenched the Orb of day ;

To-morrow he repairs the golden flood,

And warms the Nations with redoubled ray.”

But after all, in your conclusions your own judgments must
guide you, whatever respect you may show me as your
instructor the assertion of the poet will be realized :

“T’is with our judgments as our watches; none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.”

[27]

With this conflict of opinion and diversity of judgment, how
shall we study the mind.

The Psychologist says : study phenomena. The Physiologist
says : study the brain. Gentlemen, the common sense way is
to study both. Take a practical view of the question. When
a medical man is called into court to interpret the elements
that constitute a case of insanity, does he figure before the
court and jury brain cells, and processes, talk of connective
tissue, of tubuli, of cortical and white substance ? Does he
state how much the brain of the individual is deficient in
phosphorus, that the laboratory wants stocking up; does he
discuss brain circulation, the relative weight of brain to mental
capacity? All questions that are legitimate in their true rela¬
tions to insanity. No, he becomes at once a Psychologist.
He considers the power of Will, attention, memory, reasoning
faculty and judgment. He makes his “ opinion ” up from a
metaphysical stand point, and if physical symptoms exist
indicative of corporeal derangement he details them to
stengthen the presumption that insanity exists, but in no case
would he on these alone risk an opinion that would affect his
reputation. When we study electricity we study not only
phenomena but materials. We learn what substances are good
conductors and what are non-conductors. We study strength,
weight, durability; and when we utilize steam, in the application
of instruments to every day requirements. What would you
learn of electricity from an analysis of the conducting wire ?
What would you learn of steam though you dissected every
engine in the land without you employed this motor power ?
What do you learn of nerve force by an analysis, microscopic
examination, or any test to which you can submit a portion
of a nerve trunk ? The microscope, the scalpel, and the
laboratory will give you an insight into healthy brain and nerve
structure. Study the instrument. The instrument in oper¬
ation elicits phenomena that are indices of its perfect condition.
Study the phenomena. The only true method consists in a
thorough knowledge of the anatomical and physiological rela¬
tions of the brain, joined to a thorough analysis and classifica¬
tion of mental phenomena. With this in view, our next lecture
will discuss the three divisions or departments of the mind,
recognized by metaphysicians, the Intellect, the Sensibilities,
and the Will, as a basis for a study of the varieties of insanity.
When we study the pathology of insanity, the subject will
receive due consideration from the physiological stand point.

And now, gentlemen, in conclusion, let me beg of you not to
despise any source of information that can afford you light to guide you in the study of insanity. If because morality and religion have been based upon the views of the meta¬
physical school, if they are in harmony, or rather if they are
blended, and you are skeptical, do not ignore its teachings lest
you be charged with fanaticism or aught else. Is it more
pleasing to you to believe yourselves bastards, the children of
chance, the offspring of the physical forces, than to accept the
Biblical account of the creation of man ?

“ If man is thus an orphan at his birth, and an outcast in his
destiny; if knowledge is to be his punishment and not his
pride; if all his intellectual achievements are to perish with
him in the dust; if the brief tenure of his being is to be
renounced amid the wreck of vain desires, of fruitful hopes,
and of bleeding affections, then in reality as well as in metaphor
is life a dream.”

There are but two sides to the question ; on one hand you
have the conjectures of man, on the other Revelation. The
Bible is not an expounder of science, but with no better light to
guide us shall we accept it ? Shall we not acknowledge that in
all that pertains to the spiritual, the mind of man, its Author,
the Creator of mind, is the best expounder.

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