hasty physiologists to sneer at the doctrine of a soul. Sometimes two imperfect bodies are joined together, as in the Hungarian Sisters, who were united back to back, and whose main blood-vessels, the aorta and vena cavæ inferiores, were joined together. They had distinct consciousness and mental peculiarities, but their sympathies with each other were beautiful and intense. Here were two souls united by affection, as their bodies were by blood-vessels.

What physiologists expect in such cases does not always happen. Thus, in that form of monsters in which the upper axis is double, and the lower part single, as with Ritta and Christina, it was expected that each head wonld possess voluntary influence over the entire lower half of the body, but, instead of that, it was found that each head governed its corresponding lower extremity, and only when the middle line of the body was touched was it felt by both individuals.

Now as we know nothing of the soul but by consciousness, it is certainly somewhat unphilosophical for the physiologist pertly to ask, Where is the soul of a monster that exhibits no such consciousness? God will answer that question, because He excites us to inquiry on purpose to answer us. Let us wait; we shall understand more of souls ere long. In the mean time, we will observe facts as they are the lessons which the Allwise has set before us. There is an instructive one published in the medical journals for 1821. It is an authentic case of a lad who had a headless body growing out of his stomach. Whatever part of this supplemental body was touched, the touch was felt by the lad as if a corresponding part of his perfect body had been touched. Here, then, we have one soul in connection with two bodies. But is it not folly to ask, Where was the soul of the brainless body, seeing that a soul, if such a being exists, must have its place appointed by its Ma

ker, and can not by us be known to exist, unless in a corporeal frame fitted to manifest it?

From these wonderful facts it would appear, that when two bodies of similar nature, or with nerve-power of the same kind, are closely approximated, they act upon each other, and the mind resident in the one, being suitably directed by will and attention, perceives through the other. They are in nervous rapport with each other, and so fully sympathize, as to be, in fact, one body or system. Hence we may literally receive the language of the apostle : Aut an nescitis quod agglutinatus meretrici unum corpus sit? (Erunt enim inquit duo ad carnem unam.) Of course they are subject to the same laws, in consequence of obedience to the same impulse.

Many of the marvels of mesmerism admit of a similar interpretation, and he must be a wild kind of philosopher who would deny the possibility of known facts, rather than endeavor to explain them. Mesmerism is not a whit more puzzling than many common things in natural history. What can be more stupendous than the manner in which distinct individuals act in sympathy together, as most perfectly one, and yet apart? A multitude of unities in the same body, having the same feeling and the same desire, and yet susceptible of separate existence as a multitude of individuals, is seen in that wonderful compound being, the Virgularia Patagonica, a polypus, described by Darwin, in his Journal of a Naturalist. He says: "Each polypus, though closely united to its brethren, has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacule. Of these polypi, in a large specimen, there must be several thousands; yet we see that they act by one movement; they have also one central circulation, and the ova are produced in an organ distinct from the separate individuals. Well may we be allowed to ask, What is an individual?" To which we

reply, that individuality does not necessarily belong to one organism only, but as a sense of being is essential to it, and this, as far as we know, can only be acquired objectively, at least in this world, therefore God provides a suitable body for every soul. It is a self-hood which brings organs peculiarly and appropriately organized under its own power, and into its own sphere, as media of sensation and of action. Here we discern how wisdom, beauty, benevolence, and love, are evinced in the plan of creation-the happiness of individuals depends on sympathy with others, and the feeling of self becomes the basis of social union.

Among human beings there exists such a power of sympathetic consent that a multitude may be apparently possessed by the same spirit; the organism of each instantaneously taking on the same action simply from the general attention being directed to the same objects. If we would learn the full extent of sympathy, we must study the records of the Dancing Mania, or see the Barkers, the Shakers, the Jumpers, the Dervises, and other Convulsionaires, at their devotions. There are many facts which tend to convince us that a large company may be put into such relation to each other, under similar circumstances, as that the very same idea shall present itself to all at the same moment.

If, then, a number of perfectly distinct bodies and minds are capable of being so completely actuated together, we may cease to wonder that a thousand polypi, bound in one by a fleshy union, should move as if impelled by one mind, and experience pains and pleasures in common; consort and consent destroy not our idea of individualism, but rather confirm it. Probably, however, Darwin's observation led him to too hasty a conclusion; and what Muller states concerning the Polypifera may, in every instance, be true-"the irritation of a single polype causes the contraction of that one only,

and not of all the polypi of the stem. The stem itself has no individuality, it has no will, and is incapable of conceiving any objects of desire. In it, however, resides the power of producing new individuals by the power of germination."

CHAPTER VI.

MATERIALISM AND DEVELOPMENT.

THE order of the universe is maintained by law. Every atom obeys the fiat of Omnipotence, and therefore takes its place in relation to other atoms. Each element possesses a nature and affinity, binding it to the connection which the Creator requires it to hold for specific purposes, such as the formation of certain definite compounds subject to aggregation. But the same power which determines the composition of every part and every mass of matter, also determines its size and proportion in regard to other parts and masses.

We recognize in dead matter four forces: a force which causes particles to adhere together, which is called the attraction of cohesion; a force which causes mutual action among the elements of which any substance may be composed-chemical affinity; a force which causes weight-gravitation; and a force which tends to separate particle from particle, element from element, and to counteract gravitation itself-repulsion. All these forces are subservient to organization, under the qualifying influence of the vital principle, which exercises a power that, to a certain extent, modifies all material operations; while another power, still more inscrutable—namely, mind, controls the living organization, to the formation of which all the other forces contributed. We, of course, now confine ourselves to the consideration of organism, as existing in our own bodies, which are manifestly constructed to subserve the purvoses of that which feels, acts, and thinks within them.