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ON THE 
 
 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
ON THE 
 
 SENSE OF TOUCH, 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OPPOSED TO 
 
 MATERIALISM AND ATHEISM 
 
 BEING AN 
 
 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 6TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1837, ON THE 
 OPENING OF THE NEW COLLEGE, IN CROSBY STREET. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. AUGUSTINE SMITH, M. D. 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF LONDON, PRESIDENT OF THE COL- 
 LEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF 
 NEW YORK, AND PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN THAT INSTITUTION. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 W. E. DEAN PRINTER & PUBLISHER, 2 ANN STREET. 
 
 1837. 
 
- fJW 
 
 Entered, 
 
 According to the Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by 
 
 W. E. DEAN, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of 
 
 New Yore, 
 
TO THE 
 
 REV. REUEL KEITH, D. D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, &C, IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
 SEMINARY IN THE DIOCESS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 You have on more than one occasion expressed a wish 
 to see the argument which I informed you I had devised 
 against the Atheists. It is accordingly now submitted to your 
 consideration. But what you and others, who appreciate ab- 
 stract discussions as they merit, will think of my logic, I can 
 not anticipate. To me it appears novel, and I should add 
 conclusive, had not such eminent philosophers failed in 
 the attempt, which I have essayed. Yet whether demon- 
 strative or not, an original train of thought tending to estab- 
 lish the existence of the Deity, is not without its value. 
 The reasoning therefore which I have employed in support 
 of the sublimest of all truths, if less forcible than parental 
 fondness would represent it, may, nevertheless, be esteem- 
 ed a contribution on my part from Science to Religion. 
 
 As a prelude to the remarks in opposition to the Atheists, 
 and for reasons stated in the Lecture, I have thought it 
 well to pass Materialism through the metaphysical cruci- 
 ble. Of my analysis and its results I need not speak, since 
 you are an equally competent and more impartial judge, 
 than yours, 
 
 With continued 
 
 Friendship and esteem, 
 
 J. AUG. SMITH. 
 
 New Yore:, 
 7th Nov. 1837. 
 
ON THE 
 
 SENSE OF TOUCH 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I am happy to announce that through the fostering care 
 of the Regents, and the judicious kindness of the Trustees, 
 our College opens for the ensuing Session under the most 
 favourable auspices. We have exchanged our former con- 
 fined and inconvenient apartments, for the spacious and 
 most commodious building in which we are now convened. 
 But what is of far greater consequence, we have no small 
 accession of new talent,* and there has consequently been 
 infused into the Faculty an augmented power of imparting 
 knowledge. Under these fortunate circumstances it be- 
 comes my pleasing duty as presiding officer of the institu- 
 tion, to deliver an address in some measure commensurate 
 with the importance of the occasion. Accordingly I have 
 selected topics of the deepest interest to responsible be- 
 ings, which a physiologist, who is also a layman, is permit- 
 ted to treat. For although the Sense of Touch is my theme, 
 yet in discussing it, I hope to prove that man differs some- 
 
 * Dr. Alban G. Smith and Dr. Auiariah Brigham have been appointed 
 to chairs in the College during the vacation ; the former to teach Sur- 
 gery, the latter Special Anatomy. 
 
SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 what from the dust on which he treads, and that the vast 
 fabric of the universe is the work of Omnipotence. But 
 to establish these truths the ordinary limits* of a lecture will 
 not suffice. A tax therefore will have to be imposed, though 
 most unwillingly, upon your patience ; yet those whose 
 good nature may induce them to bear with some excess, 
 will, I flatter myself, be rewarded by an occasional sugges- 
 tion, both novel and gratifying. Where my ideas are more 
 trite, the dignity of my subject must stand for their 
 apology. 
 
 Of the five inlets to knowledge not one is more widely 
 disseminated than the Sense of Touch. Belonging indeed, 
 to the minutest microscopic insects as it is seen to do, (a) it 
 is probably co-extensive with animal life, (b) But as the 
 tactile power is most exquisite in the fifth, and as that is 
 also the gustatory nerve, to feel and to taste, are, perhaps 
 in all creatures, associate faculties. In man a capacity to 
 perceive the tangible qualities of matter is diffused in some 
 degree over his whole body, but it resides more particularly 
 in the tip of the tongue, and the ends of the fingers, and toes. 
 In the first and the last it is seldom called into use, except 
 in cases of deformity or disease. Where the hands have 
 been wanting, the toes have to a certain extent become 
 substitutes for the fingers ; and two casesf have been re- 
 ported to me, on authority not to be doubted, in which blind 
 persons were enabled to thread needles by the aid of their 
 tongues.J But it is the papillae at the ends of the fingers 
 
 * Hence, the number and the length of the notes, into which every thing 
 has been thrown that could be dispensed with in the text. 
 
 t This feat, however, requires I suspect many efforts before it can be 
 accomplished ; at any rate I have attempted it in vain. 
 
 t One of these is the celebrated Julia Brace of Hartford, who is deaf, 
 dumb, and blind ; the other was a member of one of the first families in 
 our country. 
 
 (<z), (Z»), See notes at the end. 
 
SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 which constitute for ordinary purposes the organ of feel- 
 ing ; and it is to this power in these members, combined 
 with their number,* length, and flexibility, that man is in a 
 great degree indebted for his superiority over animals so 
 far exceeding him in size and strength. He does not ride 
 the horse however, as Helvetius thought, because he has 
 fingers and toes, while the extremities of that animal termi- 
 nate in hoofs — that result being due to mental power, not 
 physical organization. The inhabitants of Caffre-land and 
 the savages of New Holland do not differ in anatomical 
 structure, as far as their upper limbs are concerned, from us. 
 Whence then their inferiority? The difference lies undoubt- 
 edly in the intellectual capacities of these several races, 
 and not in their fingers. That the hand is admirably 
 adapted to the purposes for which it is designed, cannot be 
 disputed ; but that it furnishes us with all the knowledge 
 which those philosophers, termed Materialists, ascribe to it, 
 I can by no means admit. And this point I propose to ex- 
 amine at large. First, on account of its intrinsic importance, 
 and secondly, because we derive a large portion of our 
 medical literature from France, and much of it, I allude 
 particularly to the school, first of Cabanis, and then of 
 Broussais,(c) is deeply tinctured with Materialism. Nearly 
 allied to Atheism, for I imagine the disciples of Priestlyt 
 are but few, it requires to be more thoroughly exposed, 
 because, being less shocking to our feelings, its diffusion is 
 
 * It is mentioned by Meckel as a curious fact in comparative anatomy, 
 that there is no creature in existence, which has an extremity terminat- 
 ing in more than five sub-divisions. This organization undoubtedly 
 gives us incalculable advantages, and Swift was sadly puzzled to put his 
 favourite huyhuhums upon a par with us in this particular. " They (the 
 huyhuhums) use the hollow part, between the pastern and the hoof of 
 their feet, as we do our hands. I have seen a white mare of our family 
 thread a needle with that joint"— no easy task one would think.— Vide 
 Gulliver's Travels. 
 
 t Priestly was a Materialist, but no Atheist. 
 
 (c) See note at the end. 
 
 2 
 
10 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 wider, and consequent mischief greater. But to perfect 
 my discourse both errors must be embraced— I hope re- 
 futed. 
 
 In the attempt, however, to expose and destroy these 
 unfortunate opinions, I shall have to employ an arm against 
 which my opponents will protest most loudly. " None of 
 your metaphysics for us," they will exclaim, " we are con- 
 tent with common sense." They may be so, but then they 
 must be also content with common ignorance. For common 
 sense can no more develop the nature of the human mind, 
 than common arithmetic can calculate the motions of the 
 planets. I must therefore insist upon using the only mode 
 of reasoning, which, in such discussions, will conduct us to 
 the truth. And to this there is less objection, because I shall 
 have occasion for no lengthened series of syllogisms where 
 my remarks are affirmative. When this is their character, 
 they will consist of little more than an accurate detail of 
 all the facts involved in the inquiry. As far as the Materi- 
 alists are concerned, what logic I shall require, will be 
 chiefly expended in the examination, I hope it will be 
 found the demolition, of their solitary argument. I say their 
 solitary argument, because their views so far as I can un- 
 derstand them, may be summed up concisely, but with per- 
 fect f airness as follows : " We feel matter, therefore we 
 know it exists. Produce now, that is, make manifest to 
 our senses what you call mind, or admit there is no distinct 
 existence to which that name can be applied. But such 
 evidence you have not, and must consequently acknowledge 
 that matter under one modification is cognizant of matter 
 in another state, or more specifically that matter in the shape 
 of a man, recognises matter in the form of a stone." 
 
 The reply demanded by this reasoning being confessedly 
 impracticable, it is put forth as unanswerable. To me, how- 
 ever, the insuperableness of this curious specimen of the 
 
MATERIALISM. 1 1 
 
 dialectic art is by no means its most remarkable feature. 
 That consists in the strange attempt to deduce the char- 
 acter of the power acting from the certainty of the sub- 
 stance acted upon. Accordingly, the question whether ice 
 are simple or compound, is held to be triumphantly deter- 
 mined by the averment, that extraneous bodies which af- 
 fect our faculties have a real existence ! 
 
 But secondly, as an inquiiy into our constitution must be 
 conducted by us, it follows that in carrying on such an in- 
 vestigation, we are at one and the same time agent, instru- 
 ment, and subject. Now under such unusual and per- 
 plexing circumstances, we need, and have a right to require 
 every aid, and particularly every preparatory elucidation, 
 which can by any possibility be afforded us. Yet our 
 friends the Materialists seem to think nothing of the kind 
 necessary. At any rate they have preferred a plan far 
 more summary, and to themselves far more convenient. 
 For, eschewing all troublesome preliminaries, they plunge 
 at once in medias res ; take man in the gross with all his 
 qualities, mental and corporeal, with all his vast capacities 
 and boundless aspirations, argue from him to a stone, and 
 back from the stone to him, and thus, with matchless brev- 
 ity and beauty, identify the mysterious and marvellous 
 Being, who feels and knows, with the insensate and worth- 
 less rock, which by the said Being is felt and known ! 
 
 I believe, as friend Sancho would say, this argument will 
 not hold water. Yet it must be subjected to further analysis, 
 because though ill constructed and inconclusive, it may 
 nevertheless, for any thing that has hitherto appeared, be 
 sound in its main positions. These, therefore, I shall pro- 
 ceed to attack, fully pursuaded that the premises of our ad- 
 versaries, as understood and stated by them, are as un- 
 founded in fact, as their conclusion is unwarranted by logic. 
 
12 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 But before I proceed it may be as well to state in plain 
 terms, the problem to be solved. It is this: Does more than 
 a single, solitary element enter into the composition of 
 man ? 
 
 In prosecuting the solution of this problem, I must 
 first dispose of the two affirmations of our antagonists — 
 they " feel matter and know it exists." I deny them both, 
 and take upon myself to prove, that no Materialist ever did 
 feel matter, or ever can know that it exists. 
 
 Having thus thrown down the gauntlet in the broadest 
 and strongest terms, nothing remains but to arrange the 
 conditions of the battle, that is, to premise the requisite 
 definitions. Now it is upon the words " feel" and " know" 
 that the contest is to turn ; they must therefore be explain- 
 ed. We shall begin with the first. 
 
 The expression to " feel" is ordinarily applied to. sensa- 
 tions which have not a great deal in common. Thus we 
 say, we " feel" happy, cold, &c. In the controversy in 
 which we are engaged, it refers to ideas derived strictly 
 from the Sense of Touch. 
 
 In the foregoing part of the Lecture, when describing 
 this sense, I mentioned that it is in some measure diffused 
 over the whole body. Hence, as may be well imagined, im- 
 pressions from this source career through the mind in an 
 endless current. Myriads of them, of course, are never 
 attended to, while those which become objects of con- 
 sciousness immediately undergo a species of transforma- 
 tion. The primary sensation is converted into a secondary 
 perception, and this being done, the mind instantly and 
 further proceeds to draw an inference. But these two last 
 mental operations must not be confounded with the first. 
 
MATERIALISM. 13 
 
 For that is the cause, while they are its effects, and one is 
 a mere state of the mind, while the others refer to some- 
 thing external to the mind, and of a widely different char- 
 acter. When, therefore, the Materialists say they " feel" 
 matter, they couple a fact, their being conscious* of a sen- 
 sation, which is indisputably true, with ideas which whether 
 true or false, must be investigated and proved before they 
 can be admitted. An uninformed hearer, however duped 
 by the language employed, never dreams that any discrimi- 
 nation can be required in so plain a case, and without more 
 ado, acknowledges the whole account to be not only true, 
 but self-evident. 
 
 Thus through the nearly universal carelessness and igno- 
 rance of mankind, in relation to such subjects, the Material- 
 ists duped themselves, deceive a few, and puzzle many, by 
 the mere phraseology in which their argument is couched. 
 Of this advantage an accurate detail of the facts will de- 
 prive them, and at the same time relieve you from a con- 
 tinued contemplation of abstractions. These facts, the 
 proof of which will be in your own minds, are however 
 so important, that every one will have to be commented 
 upon as it is stated. We must take them in their order. 
 
 When I hold these spectacles in my hand, I experience 
 a sensation — the sensation of resistance. If I exclude my 
 other senses, and their introduction while it embarrassed 
 the argument, would not at all aid my opponents, the Sense 
 of Touch will obviously impart no further information, bear- 
 ing upon our inquiry. It is then the sensation resistance, 
 
 * Consciousness it must be recollected is always restricted in such dis- 
 cussions as we are engaged in, to our being aware of the existence of a 
 sensation, and excludes every subsequent arTection of the mind. Thus 
 defined, it obviously cannot be otherwise than true, while perceptions and 
 inferences which are frequently confounded with it may be as we shall 
 hereafter see, are, occasionally, false. 
 
14 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 only of which I am conscious, and beyond this every propo- 
 sition must be distinctly stated and fully proved. But 
 this is absolutely impossible without the aid of metaphy- 
 sical science. What then will the Materialists do ? Will 
 they consent to invoke the assistance of what they profess 
 to scorn, and certainly have good reason to detest — the phy- 
 losophy of mind ; or, will they content themselves with their 
 solitary truth ? If so, it is well; but then their reasoning must 
 be made to correspond with their single fact — that is, re- 
 sistance which they do feel must be substituted for matter 
 which they do not feel. Thus reformed, their argument 
 would stand as follows : " we feel" resistance, " therefore 
 we know it exists ; produce now, that is, make evident to 
 our senses what you call mind, or admit there is no distinct 
 existence to which that name can be applied. But such 
 evidence you have not, and must consequently acknowledge 
 that" resistance " under one modification is cognizant of" 
 resistance " in a different state, or more specifically that" 
 resistance " in the shape of a man recognises" resistance 
 " in the form of a stone" — an idea sufficiently surprising cer- 
 tainly, whatever may be thought of its truth. It has how- 
 ever the merit of simplification pushed to its utmost limits, 
 and it is without doubt this circumstance which endears it 
 to the Materialists. (<i) But our philosophy requires a broad- 
 er foundation of facts, and for these we shall accordingly 
 proceed to seek. 
 
 In carrying on our proposed researches, a source of 
 error and confusion will have to be revealed and removed, 
 which is rather recondite, and to which slight allusion has 
 hitherto been made. It is, nevertheless, the spring-head of 
 all the difficulties attending the inquiry in which we are en- 
 gaged, and furnishes to the doctrine of the Materialists, what- 
 
 (d) See note at the end. 
 
MATERIALISM. 15 
 
 soever of plausibility it possesses. Yet an exposure of their 
 unfortunate creed to be successful, requires that distinctions 
 be seen and borne in mind, which are by no means patent. 
 To the bulk of mankind accordingly they never occur. But 
 once familiar to the mind, the toils in which the Material- 
 ists are themselves entangled, and which they spread to 
 catch others, are as cobwebs to the lion — he doth not feel, 
 he doth not know them. 
 
 What then are the distinctions, on which I lay so much 
 stress ? They consist in separating a cause from its ef- 
 ects ; in distinguishing between a state of the mind and a 
 quality of matter ; and lastly in recollecting that a premise 
 is not conclusion.* These are all which it is absolutely 
 necessary to comprehend ; but for the full understanding of 
 the subject, several collateral particulars must be included. 
 The whole will now be laid before you ; and for that pur- 
 pose, recourse must once more be had to the spectacles. 
 
 When I hold these in my hand, I am conscious as already 
 stated, of " the sensation resistance." But no sooner is this 
 experienced than our mental machinery, being set into 
 operation, and moving according to its appointed laws, in- 
 stantly excites in our minds, other and far different notions. 
 
 * Did these phenomena form a part of physical science, no observer 
 would be so gross as to confound them. But appertaining to the diviner 
 part merely of our nature, they are not thought worthy of attention, ex- 
 cept by here and there an inquirer, at whose simplicity in attending to 
 such trifles, his fellow mortals are wont to smile. The result is, that in 
 what relates to the mind, not only can no theory, as it is called, be so 
 monstrous as to fail in finding supporters ; but no random assertion can 
 be too glaringly absurd and revolting to have its believers. Science, 
 however, even metaphysical science is descending slowly, and diffusing; 
 itself gradually through the mass. All hail ! say I, to the extension of 
 truth ; and if mankind will only adopt and act upon right principles, they 
 may rail at them in words to their hearts' content. 
 
16 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 These of course stand to the first in the relation of effects 
 to a cause. Of these effects the primary one is the percep- 
 tion of the quality resistance. Now although as I have 
 said the sensation resistance, is the immediate cause of our 
 becoming acquainted with the quality resistance, and 
 although what is if possible a wider difference, one is obvi- 
 ously a state of the mind, while the other appertains, as we 
 shall hereafter see to matter, yet is the same appellation* 
 applied to both, they are virtually blended into one, nor is 
 any distinction ever taken between them, by superficial 
 inquirers. 
 
 All parties then being equally unobservant of what 
 passes in their minds, when a Materialist says he feels 
 matter, his auditor acquiesces, both understanding the word 
 first in one sense and then in the other. And not satisfied 
 with this original blunder, they immediately fall into seve- 
 ral others. For secondly, they confound the quality resist- 
 ance with the substance to which it belongs. Thirdly, 
 they disregard that quality altogether ; and thus matter is 
 supposed to be an object of direct perception. Fourthly, 
 this perception is imagined to be the result of actual con- 
 tact between the body felt, and the percipient power. 
 
 Here then are four mistakes in three words, and to these 
 must be added, what was before mentioned, the transferring 
 the certainty, which cannot but attend a sensation of which 
 we are conscious, to the supposed material cause of that 
 sensation, although the reality of such cause, so far from 
 
 * Precisely the same inaccuracy of language occurs with regard to the 
 other senses, except that of hearing. The sweetness of sugar, the green- 
 ness of grass, the smell of the rose, are all instances in which the same 
 words are used indifferently for causes or effects, for sensations in the 
 mind, or for qualities in things. But no one confounds the tune with the 
 fiddle. 
 
MATERIALISM. 17 
 
 having been proved, has hitherto been scarcely advert- 
 ed to. 
 
 The result of all this inaccuracy of observation, confusion 
 of thought, and ambiguity of language, is, that the ill-taught 
 asserter of the independent existence of mind, having incau- 
 tiously conceded the postulate, that matter is felt, and being 
 thereupon required, unreasonably enough, to produce evi- 
 dence not only equal in degree, but similar in kind, finds him- 
 self puzzled, if not conquered. Whereas had he scrutinized 
 with care and intelligence, the operations of his own mind ; 
 had he familiarized himself with the distinctions, on which I 
 lay so much stress, instead of yielding the required conces- 
 sion, he would at once say, " No ! how can you possibly ex- 
 pect me to assent to your assertion, that you feel matter 1 
 In the first place I have already denied, and do again express 
 my complete disbelief of the fact. But secondly, you ask 
 me to grant the very point, upon which the whole force of 
 your argument depends. If I admit you feel matter, I admit 
 its absolute existence. Now it is upon the certainty with 
 which you can establish such existence, that your entire 
 cause rests. In appearance and manner you are confident 
 enough of your ability to prove all you wish, while in re- 
 ality you beg the question in the form of a loose, ambiguous, 
 nay, garbled postulate. I add the last epithet, because, as 
 I shall hereafter show, when in your phraseology you feel 
 matter, you experience at the same time other impressions 
 with at least equal certainty, and these you leave out of 
 view. But to such an omission I cannot consent ; you must 
 include all your feelings connected with the point at issue, 
 or you must make no appeal to them ; if you attempt the 
 former you commit felo de se, as will in due season be ren- 
 dered manifest ; if you adopt the latter, where is your ar- 
 gument ? Would you be advised by an opponent ? Change 
 your tactics ; for in your present mode of conducting the 
 discussion, instead of proving what you wish, you unwit- 
 
18 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 tingly concede its reverse. Thus you say you feel matter ; 
 the sensation we admit ; but sensation implies conscious- 
 ness, and consciousness, by definition, is a state of the mind. 
 Here then we have mind, by your own acknowledgement ; 
 yet from this very acknowledgement, and through the aid 
 of another of the mental powers, you are endeavouring to 
 sustain your doctrine ; in other words, you are engaged in 
 the hopeless task of disproving the existence of the mind, 
 through the agency of its own functions ! 
 
 " But you will perhaps object to our definition. Do so if 
 you think proper, yet take heed what you are about ; for 
 whether there be such a thing as matter or not, the fact 
 has not hitherto been made to appear. Yet until it does, 
 you are exposed to a maxim, as true in philosophy as it is 
 in law, de non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est 
 ratio. If therefore you discard our mind before you esta- 
 blish your matter, you will attain the sublime conclusion 
 imputed to the Lordly poet, that" — 
 
 11 Nought is every thing, and every thing is nought." 
 
 Such a reply to the assumption of the Materialists that 
 they " feel matter," defies, I think, all rejoinder. You are not 
 to suppose however, that because I repudiate the logic of the 
 Materialists, I therefore deny their conclusion — the reality 
 of matter. That I acknowledge,* but not in their way, nor 
 for their reasons, and as you are at length prepared to 
 understand the premises from which this conclusion really 
 flows, and the degree of certainty which in truth attaches 
 to it, I will now proceed to lay the whole before you ; that 
 is to say, I will now explain how the idea of matter ob- 
 
 * This acknowledgment, it is almost superfluous to remark, must not 
 be pleaded in argument, unconnected with the reasons on which it is 
 founded. Thus united, it is at the service of any gentleman who may 
 wish to take advantage of it. 
 
MATERIALISM. 19 
 
 tains entrance into our minds, and how far we can be said 
 to know that it exists. 
 
 For the accomplishment of these objects I shall have to 
 define, as I formerly promised to do, the word know. In 
 its philosophical sense, and as used by the Materialists, it 
 means so certain a conviction of the truth of some proposi- 
 tion, as to preclude all possibility of error. According to 
 this definition I apprehend, to know that matter exists, is not 
 within the scope of our faculties. There is in my judge- 
 ment sufficient evidence to warrant a belief of the fact ; and 
 with such belief, Materialists as well as others, will have to 
 content themselves. 
 
 To prove this I shall have to recapitulate some of the 
 facts which have already been established. 
 
 It has been shown that under certain circumstances we 
 experience the sensation resistance. It has been further 
 shown the instant this occurs, a conviction arises in the 
 mind, that there exists also a certain quality to which the 
 same appellation is applied. Now if our mental operations 
 were to cease at this point, it is quite clear we should have 
 no conception of the substance matter. But they do not 
 cease, and will with or without our volition, carry us on- 
 ward, and force upon us the conclusion that resistance be- 
 ing a quality, cannot subsist per se, and must consequently 
 depend upon something — or substratum as it has been 
 termed. That substratum* is of course what we have been 
 so long in search of, namely, matter. This interesting dis- 
 
 * The nature of this substratum is, and must forever, remain unknown 
 to us. But this it is, and not the sensible qualities of the bread and wine, 
 which according to Hallam, the Romish Church insists is changed by the 
 act of consecration. This view of the case completely foils the vulgar 
 argument against transubstantiation, though advanced by Tillotson, and 
 endorsed by Hume. 
 
20 SENSE OF TOUCH, 
 
 covery then you perceive, so far from being the result of 
 direct and immediate perception, is brought about by a 
 very curious and complex process of the mind. By a 
 process so rapid indeed as to escape ordinary notice, but 
 neverthless capable of being entirely unravelled and perfect- 
 ly comprehended. What is singular the sequence of actions 
 which leads to the idea of matter, is originally confined to 
 the Sense of Touch. Thus, nothing of the kind takes place 
 independently of the laws of association, with regard to 
 tasting, smelling, seeing, as I am persuaded, and above all 
 hearing. And, accordingly an illustration from the last 
 mentioned faculty, will facilitate your understanding, what 
 I have been endeavouring to unfold. 
 
 When we hear a noise in the street of a particular kind, 
 we say, according to our experience, we hear a coach or a 
 fire-engine. But if reminded of the intermediate agent 
 " noise," the loosest observers are at once aware, that they 
 do not hear the coach or engine, in the same sense, in which 
 they would say they felt those machines, if their hands 
 were upon them. In the former case the difference be- 
 tween perceptions and inferences is palpable ; for all will 
 say we hear a sound, and suppose so and so. Now only 
 apply the same discrimination to ideas derived from the 
 Sense of Touch ; keep in view the intermediate agent re- 
 sistance, in the one case, as you do noise in the other, and 
 the mists in which the Materialists envelop their doctrine, 
 will be sufficiently dispersed for the truth to appear. That 
 it should beam fully upon you, a further analysis is required. 
 
 I have already stated the train of thought which gives 
 rise to the idea of matter. But with that idea, when it refers 
 to an external body, other notions are inseparably associated. 
 These are frequently disregarded, I admit, but they are 
 nevertheless always present, and may be recognized by 
 any one who chooses so to do. 
 
MATERIALISM, 21 
 
 Thus, when I press my hand upon this table, I not only 
 become cognizant of its existence, but I am also informed, 
 that it is both external and alien to the power which per- 
 ceives it. I am notified further, that the said table exists now 
 and here ; in other words, that it endures through a certain 
 portion of time, and fills a certain portion of space. Of the 
 two last ideas, I shall have something to say hereafter ; our 
 immediate business is with the two first. 
 
 Our notion of outness or externality is not necessarily 
 accompanied by that of matter. It can be excited by 
 mere pain ; thus, when we experience a simple twinge of 
 the tooth ache we suffer, and are aware that the cause of 
 our suffering is without the mind, but the idea of matter 
 does not occur to us. With regard to foreignness our idea of 
 it is very faint, unless it be conjoined with that of matter ; 
 then it is sufficiently vivid, in so much that whenever the 
 notion of matter in its concrete form, enters the imagination 
 the conviction is just as strong, that such matter is unlike the 
 mental power which perceives it, as it is that there is any 
 matter at all. In other words, when I press this table, I am 
 to the full, as confident that it is at some distance from my 
 mind, and different from it, as I am convinced there is a 
 table ; nor can I by any possibility insulate the principal 
 idea from its accessories. If the first then be taken, the 
 others must accompany it. If, therefore, matter be held to 
 exist because it is felt, mind must be held to exist also, and 
 if possible, with more certainty, the evidence in its favour 
 being as three prior perceptions* to one succeeding infe- 
 rence. 
 
 You are now satisfied I hope of the truth of what I for- 
 merly stated, that the postulate of the Materialists— they 
 feel matter, is a loose, ambiguous, and above all, a garbled 
 
 * The third perception is the quality resistance ; and there may in truth 
 be added our notions of time and space. 
 
22 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 one ; and that if the whole of the facts be taken into the ac- 
 count, and arranged in their proper order, two things (e) never 
 to be omitted in philosophical investigation, their doctrine 
 cannot stand. These gentlemen are thus placed in a most 
 awkward predicament. For if they will not advance be- 
 yond the primary sensation they are discomfitted, since sen- 
 sation is not matter. If they take the second step, so as to 
 perceive the quality resistance, and will then proceed no 
 further, they are defeated, because quality is not substance. 
 And lastly, they are utterly vanquished if they attempt the 
 final and decisive act — the recognition of external things, 
 because antecedently to such recognition, and afterwards 
 indissolubly united with it are the perceptions of outness 
 and foreignness, time and space — perceptions as demon- 
 strative at the least of mind, as is resistance of matter. 
 
 The deniers of mind have then I fear placed themselves 
 between the horns of the dialemma, by the one or the other 
 of which they are in danger of being gored. For they can- 
 not prove that matter exists, without at the same time prov- 
 ing, with even more certainty, if possible, that mind exists 
 also ; and the laws of philosophy will not permit them to 
 assume the existence of matter, and from that assumption 
 deduce the non-existence mind, for this would be not only 
 to associate ideas destitute of connection, but it would op- 
 pose aninference whichis negative, to facts which arepositive. 
 
 I repeat then that our friends must submit to be impaled. 
 For they are obliged either to accept of our mind, with their 
 matter, or relinquishing mind, matter goes along with it, 
 and so far as it is practicable for them to ascertain them- 
 selves, the earth, and the universe, keep it company ! 
 
 Having thus shown you the origin of our belief in the 
 
 (e) See note at the end. 
 
MATERIALISM. 23 
 
 existence of matter, I must next explain, the manner in 
 which we refer bodies to a moment of time, and a point in 
 space. 
 
 With regard to the first of these impressions, there is no 
 great difficulty ; the idea of duration is necessarily associ- 
 ated with every sensation, either during its continuance, or 
 as having been. But the notion of position is quite a dif- 
 ferent thing ; for you are not to suppose it is simply be- 
 cause my fingers press on this table, that, therefore, and 
 for that reason only, I suppose it occupies this particular 
 spot. Not at all ; had there not been a special law made 
 and provided for such occasions, I should indeed infer there 
 is a table, but its precise location I could never have ima- 
 gined. That law may be thus stated : Impressions made 
 upon any point of a sentient nerve, are ascribed to a par- 
 ticular part, and usually, perhaps uniformly, to the sentient 
 extremity of such nerve ; and this, although the impressing 
 cause, act, as we shall hereafter see, upon the middle of such 
 nerve, or even the reverse, its extremity.* Nay, it is by no 
 means uncommon, through what is called sympathetic ac- 
 tion, or more definitely, misplaced sensation, for pain to be 
 felt in one part of the system, while the offending matter is 
 lodged in a different, perhaps a remote region of the body, 
 where it gives no intimation whatever of its existence. 
 
 But whether a true reference take place or not, it is evi- 
 dent upon the slightest reflexion, that an act of reference 
 is indispensable. Because the mind never can be conscious 
 of any thing external to itself, and but for the provision under 
 discussion, resistance would be all it does or could know — the 
 information imparted by the eye, as in a person born blind, 
 
 * In extirpating the eye, the optic nerve is separated between the retina 
 and the brain, yet it is in the former that an intense flash oflight is per» 
 ceived at the instant of the division. 
 
24 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 not bearing upon the question. How then, I say, comes my 
 mind, although at the distance of several feet, to suppose that 
 the cause of the resistance which it experiences; that is, the 
 table occupies this particular place ? The notion of lo- 
 cality is a perfectly definite one, and its reception by the 
 mind must be accounted for. That is done by the law 
 above announced, and as far as I know, by that law 
 only.* 
 
 Having now explained to you the mode in which the 
 mind acquires the idea of matter, and the several associa- 
 tions inseparable from that idea, I may remark, that although 
 our notions of external things are primarily derived from 
 the Sense of Touch exclusively, yet those notions when 
 once obtained, are confirmed by the combined action of 
 the other senses, particularly the eye. Hence we say as 
 familiarly that we see a thing, as that we feel it. And 
 secondly, our convictions respecting external bodies are 
 further strengthened by another of the laws regulating 
 our mental operations, and which may be thus express- 
 ed. Whenever an impression (/) derived from our or- 
 gans of sense, acts upon the mind with sufficient force s 
 the conviction, however unfounded in fact, is complete 
 as to the reality of the cause of that impression. Accord- 
 ingly, a belief which in our cooler moments we know to be 
 absurd, may for a time at least, and in despite of our efforts, 
 overpower us. How many persons are there for instance, 
 who, sceptical enough as to supernatural appearances in 
 the broad glare of day, can not persuade themselves that 
 all they may behold or hear is earthly, if alone, near a se- 
 questered burying-ground, in a gloomy twilight, illuminated 
 by an occasional flash of lightning ? Thus situated, reason 
 
 * The same law explains at once whence we derive the idea of space, 
 it being involved in the location of bodies. When on^ce obtained, its in- 
 definite expansion is sufficiently obvious. 
 
 (/) See note at the end. 
 
MATERIALISM. 25 
 
 might be summoned, but vainly summoned to resist the 
 united force of impressions from without, and associations 
 from within. In the ordinary affairs of life, however, not 
 one in a million ever for a moment suspects a want of truth 
 in the intelligence communicated by his senses. With that 
 intelligence, that is, with the modifications of matter, or with 
 reminiscences of those modifications, we are occupied 
 nearly the entire whole of our waking hours. Now the 
 tendency of all these combined causes being to force upon 
 us the conviction that there is really and truly an external 
 world, their united power, in the usual state of our minds, 
 is absolutely uncontrollable. A keen metaphysician, indeed, 
 rapt in the ardour of inquiry, and plunging and revelling 
 in the depths of abstraction may, occasionally, like Berkely 
 and Hume, and eke myself, if my humble name may be con- 
 joined with theirs, believe for the moment, that all is mind. 
 But for my own part, whenever my conceptions have been 
 thus sublimated, a few strides* on terra jirma have sufficed 
 to dispel the illusion, and restore the sobriety of truth in 
 the humbling conviction, that soar as we may, for the instant 
 we are nevertheless " of the Earth — Earthy." 
 
 Is it possible then, you may be inclined to ask, that a be- 
 lief so universal and so strong, as to be doubted tempo- 
 rarily only, and by the minutest fraction of mankind, is it 
 possible, that after all, such a belief may be founded in 
 error? Yes, I fear so, because first, the thoroughness of 
 our convictions as to the truth of some opinion, is of little 
 avail in proving the correctness of that opinion. And 
 secondly, although in questions of moral propriety, the de- 
 termination of the good and the wise is decisive, yet on 
 many occasions, particularly as regards physical truth, 
 what the mass may think is of little, on others of no im- 
 
 * Mr. Hume's corrective is said to have been a game at whist, and a 
 glass of port. 
 
26 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 portance at all. Nay, where passion and prejudice can 
 operate, the united voice of the multitude becomes abso- 
 lutely a negative quantity, (g) Of the former, a belief in 
 the influence of the moon is a sufficient evidence, and for the 
 latter I need only cite the well-known exclamation, and 
 " they," that is, "the chief-priest, the rulers, and the people, 
 cried, saying, crucify him — crucify him."* 
 
 But, independently of these general considerations, er- 
 rors sometimes occur in all the intelligence imparted by 
 our external senses. The deceptiveness of four of them 
 is, indeed, universally admitted ; and though with the mul- 
 titude " seeing is believing, but feeling is knowing," yet it 
 is demonstrable that the Sense of Touch, if less apt than 
 the others to impose upon us, is nevertheless liable to do 
 so from what may be termed the indirectness of our per- 
 ceptions. What that means I will now explain. 
 
 You may recollect that when I enumerated the errors 
 involved in the expression " we feel matter," I mentioned 
 as one of them, the supposed contact of external bodies 
 with the percipient power. Now this power is manifestly 
 the mind, and that is situated unquestionably within the 
 substance of the brain, consequently more or less remote 
 from the impinging body. But there is no contact between 
 such body and the nerves of touch, not only because the 
 insensible cuticle or scarf-skin, unless temporarily abraded, 
 is always interposed, but because in nature there is no 
 such thing as contact either between bodies themselves, 
 or between particles of the same body. As the latter pro- 
 position includes the former, if we can succeed in proving 
 that, our point will be gained. 
 
 It is evident that if the particles of any substance be 
 
 * Luke xxiii. 21, (g) See note at the end. 
 
MATERIALISM. 27 
 
 already in contact, they cannot be brought nearer to each 
 other. If, therefore, they can at any time be more closely 
 approximated, it is clear they were not previously in con- 
 tact. But if we reduce the temperature of the densest 
 bodies, they will contract in every direction. It follows, 
 their particles could not previously have been in contact 
 in any one direction. 
 
 Again. The rays of light cannot pass through the par- 
 ticles of matter. In permeating bodies, they must conse- 
 quently take their course between the particles of those 
 bodies. But these rays are transmitted through the hard- 
 est masses in every possible direction, and with equal fa- 
 cility. It follows there can be no contact in those masses 
 by points or otherwise, to interrupt their progress. As, 
 consequently, there is no contact between the particles of 
 bodies, a fortiori there is none between bodies themselves, 
 and none of course between the cuticle of my fingers and 
 the table. And be not amazed at this conclusion. For it 
 is far less startling than the astounding fact, proved as I 
 think, by those ingenious gentlemen the astronomers, that 
 while we are all here in a state of apparently perfect qui- 
 etude and repose, we are actually whirling through space, 
 heels over head, ten times as fast as ever yet a cannon- 
 ball " winged its way !" (h) 
 
 It is then beyond all doubt that we do not " feel matter" 
 in the manner assumed by the Materialists ; there being as 
 certainly in the case of the tactile as of the visual faculty, 
 a medium interposed between the organ and external 
 bodies. 
 
 But if this were otherwise, if the table and my fingers 
 were in contact, it must be recollected that our organs of 
 
 (A) See note at the end. 
 
28 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 sense are neither the mind, nor the seat of the mind, that, 
 as was before stated, being at some distance, and doubtless 
 somewhere within the cranium. At that point wherever 
 it is, all impressions from without must be finally received. 
 When, therefore, a sentient nerve is acted upon by its ap- 
 propriate stimulus, the action which it excites, whatsoever 
 may be the nature of that action, has to be transmitted in 
 some mode or other, through such nerve to the habitat of the 
 mental faculties. With respect to the olfactory, optic, audito- 
 ry, and gustatory nerves, the route to be travelled is compa- 
 ratively short, and leads directly to the brain. But the case 
 is very different with the Sense of Touch, as situated in the 
 fingers and toes. From them impressions have to pass through 
 some feet of nervous chord, some inches of the spinal mar- 
 row, and a portion more or less considerable of the brain 
 itself. Here then is ample scope for irregular action, and 
 consequent deception. For the immediate physical cause 
 of our perceiving external things, must be a certain con- 
 dition of that portion of the cerebral substance, which is 
 last affected antecedently to the act of perception. It is 
 therefore absolutely certain if that portion can, through 
 any other agency whatsoever, be thrown into the same 
 condition which ordinarily causes us to perceive exterior 
 objects ; the mind in both instances being acted upon in 
 the same manner, must come to the same conclusion. But 
 in one instance we have, or suppose we have, an external 
 tangible cause for such conclusion. Whereas in the other, 
 there is by hypothesis, nothing of the kind. All we have 
 to do then is to convert the hypothesis into fact. 
 
 Before attempting this, however, I have to admit that 
 not knowing what is the precise state of the deeper seated 
 parts of the nervous system, which is the immediate ante- 
 cedent of sensation and perception, I cannot demonstrate 
 that that state is always the same, whenever those mental 
 results occur. But I can demonstrate what answers my 
 
MATERIALISM. 
 
 purpose equally well— that the mind does through internal 
 physical agency, that is, internal as regards the distant 
 sentient extremities of our nerves, and independently of 
 impressions upon those extremities, go through precisely 
 the same operations, and arrive at the same results (i) with 
 those usually ascribed to the action of external physical 
 objects. It follows consequently that an idea which may 
 be true in one instance, is certainly false in the other. But 
 where, in philosophical language, we have an event some- 
 times preceded by a particular antecedent, and sometimes 
 not so preceded, we are not authorized to predicate uni- 
 versally that such antecedent and consequent, stand to- 
 wards each other in the relation of cause and effect. And 
 consequently we cannot affirm in any given case, other 
 proof being absent, because we observe the second of these 
 events, that therefore the first has preceded it. Yet our 
 senses are necessarily the sole witnesses upon whose tes- 
 timony we have to rely, for our belief in an external 
 world. It becomes then a question of fact, whether 
 these witnesses do ever play us false — that is, whether our 
 nervous machinery does fabricate and impart to the mind 
 clear and distinct, but unfounded notions ? Now that this 
 happens frequently, and that it may be made to happen at 
 any time is certain. For in the first place, we have occa- 
 sionally dreams depending upon nervous irritation, which 
 give the most vivid ideas of external things, independently 
 of all external agency. Secondly, we have a large num- 
 ber of maniacs whose disease consists entirely in erroneous 
 impressions, communicated by their organs of sense. In 
 these persons the mind reasons logically, but from false 
 premises, deceived by the channels through which it is 
 obliged to receive its data.* 
 
 (f) See note at the end. 
 
 * It may perhaps be objected, that these cases prove nothing, since mad- 
 men furnish the example. To this I reply, there is no evidence of which 
 I am aware, to evince that we who conceive ourselves sane, are right in 
 
30 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 Thirdly, it is a well known fact, that where a lower 
 limb has been removed, the patient " feels his toes," as he 
 expresses it, for some weeks afterwards. The nerves 
 which were formerly continued to those members being in 
 a state of irritation, undergo the same changes they for- 
 merly did, affect the brain consequently in the same man- 
 ner, and lead the mind to the same conclusion. Now here 
 it is evident that but for the memory, the eye, and the 
 Sense of Touch, in the other parts of the body, the patient 
 would still believe the amputated toes to be in their wonted 
 situation. And for this belief he would have all the evidence 
 that what is commonly called consciousness* could afford 
 him. 
 
 Precisely the same phenomena, physical and metaphy- 
 sical, are of perpetual occurrence in what are now called 
 cases of spinal irritation. Thus a gentleman of high rank 
 in the law, walking in the street, felt what he imagined a 
 chip or other hard substance in his shoe. He stept into a 
 store to remove the extraneous body, and thus relieve him- 
 self from the pain which he supposed it caused him. Upon 
 taking off shoe and stocking, to his amazement, nothing 
 could be found. And if I may be allowed to quote myself 
 as authority, I can state that having been for many years, 
 as I suppose, the subject of this affection of the spine, I 
 have probably an hundred times felt pains about my hands 
 
 our notions other than this — we all concur. There was, therefore, more 
 than wit in the reply of the lunatic, who discoursed so sensibly, that some 
 one was induced to ask him why he had been consigned to an asylum 1 
 " He knew not," he said, " except that he and mankind differed as to cer- 
 tain particulars, and the majority being against him, they had locked him 
 up." 
 
 * Consciousness, as before stated, is restricted in metaphysical lan- 
 guage to the experiencing of a sensation excluding every subsequent af- 
 fection of the mind. And we now see the propriety of the limitation, as 
 otherwise consciousness itself might practise tricks upon us. In that 
 case, upon what could we rely % 
 
MATERIALISM. 31 
 
 and fingers, and which were sometimes unpleasantly sharp, 
 precisely as if some cutting instrument were dividing the 
 skin. I have sat, feeling the sensation, and seeing there 
 was no external local cause for it, and then betaken myself 
 to philosophizing about it. 
 
 But we have more striking, and more baneful evidence 
 of sympathetic action between the origin and termina- 
 tion of the nerves. It is now well known that the heart, 
 lungs, stomach, &c. &c. not only cause us to suffer, but 
 to die from disease, commencing in the proximate, and 
 then transferred to the distant extremities of the nervous 
 filaments with which these organs are supplied. Accord- 
 ingly of the multitude of victims to consumption, not a 
 small proportion are secondary, not primary cases.* 
 
 But fourthly, we can at any time cause our fingers to fall 
 into error, by crossing the first and second, and placing a 
 pea between them and the palm of the other hand. When 
 this experiment is performed a distinct impression of two 
 round bodies is received. 
 
 Lastly, every mother's son of us is deceived, as far as 
 all our senses can deceive us, in relation to the motions of 
 the Sun and the Earth. 
 
 It follows then, that the hypothesis which I undertook 
 to convert into fact, has been so converted. In other 
 
 * Thousands of teeth have been drawn which were perfectly sound. 
 Thus, I was consulted by the wife of a medical man, whose life had been 
 thought in danger, through distress and loss of rest from toothache. 
 Tooth after tooth had been drawn, without relief. On examining her 
 mouth, and observing no defect in those which remained, and under- 
 standing none had been discovered in those which had been removed, I 
 suspected the disease to be sympathetic, prescribed a few doses of calo- 
 mel and jalap, and cured the patient, 
 
32 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 words, I have proved our nervous machinery does occsion- 
 ally originate within itself, and impart to the mind clear 
 and distinct, but unfounded notions of external things. 
 The conclusion then is unavoidable, that all absolute cer- 
 tainty as to the existence of matter is precluded by the 
 moral constitution with which we have been endowed by 
 our Maker, and therefore, as I before stated, Materialists 
 like the rest of mankind, must be satisfied with belief, since 
 to know has not been vouchsafed to them or us. 
 
 Having now completed the promised analysis, we are 
 prepared to specify and sum up the results which have 
 been obtained. They are as follows : the mind is con- 
 scious of the sensation resistance : that quality as the mind 
 infers, appertains to something external and foreign to it- 
 self, which something the mind conceives to exist in time 
 and space.* 
 
 Now I beg you to observe how manifest throughout the 
 whole of the foregoing enumeration, is the primary and 
 pervading action of the mind, and how secondary, subor- 
 dinate, and dependent, is our belief in matter. Will then, 
 the Materialists, with this sequence of facts before them, 
 persist in a doctrine which inverts the order of events ? 
 If so, they should in fairness, I think, acknowledge and 
 premise the peculiarities which distinguish a school, where 
 conclusions have no relation to premises, and where effects 
 are follovjed by causes. In virtue of the first of which 
 new rules of philosophizing, the inquirer is led from the 
 
 * It would be of course ridiculous to state all these circumstances on 
 every occasion, to say I feel this or that thing being quite sufficient for 
 the ordinary purposes of life. But this brief mode expression, though 
 admirable for the despatch of business, is not equally favourable to ful- 
 ness and accuracy of thought. Home Tooke's motto therefore to the 
 Diversions of Purley, Dum brevis esse laboro obscures jio, is true to a 
 greater extent than that acute grammarian was perhaps aware of. 
 
MATERIALISM. 33 
 
 admission of passive substance to the denial of independent 
 intelligence ; and in compliance with the second, mind, the 
 power recognizing matter, is held to be derived from that 
 matter with which itself has made us acquainted ! 
 
 Having thus 'denuded, and thereby been enabled to 
 rectify the errors of my unfortunate opponents, with one fur- 
 ther remark, I will submit my cause to their, I flatter myself, 
 now enlightened common-sense. The remark is this : It is 
 alleged, that according to my own admissions, there may be 
 but a single basis — a solitary substratum for all the pheno- 
 mena which we witness, or are conscious of. Then why not, 
 it has been asked, call that substratum matter, and not mind? 
 I reply, although it is a self-evident truth, that nothing what- 
 soever can be present to the mind, except its own impres- 
 sions, and that therefore its existence is alone absolutely 
 certain. Yet I think I have demonstrated that under the 
 circumstances which I have mentioned, we infer with a 
 force entirely irresistable, the cause of those impressions to 
 be something external to the percipient power, and alto- 
 gether different from it. There is, consequently, sufficient 
 evidence to establish the existence of two substrata, be- 
 tween which, as far as we can discover, there is no re- 
 semblance. Now, I ask in my turn, if that can be called 
 philosophy which rejects a conclusion regularly deduced 
 from undeniable premises, and adheres to an hypothesis 
 whose only support is a conceivable possibility, that it may 
 accord with the truth ? 
 
 I have thus, gentlemen, in an argument too long, I fear, 
 but as plain as some thought and labour could render it, 
 exposed the mistakes into which the Materialists have fallen. 
 But my design would not be consummated did I not point 
 out what, with regard to the great mass of these misguided 
 persons is, I am confident, the source of their misfortune. 
 
34 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 It results from a delusion common to the whole race, and 
 one in which of course, primarily, we all participate. It 
 is this : Until disabused by science, we confound famili- 
 arity with knowledge. Thus ask an ordinary person why 
 water runs down a hill, and if he thinks you serious, he will 
 be amazed you do not understand so plain a thing. If, 
 however, you speak to him of water flowing up a moun- 
 tain, you will make him stare. Yet one of these events, 
 antecedently to experience, was just as probable as the 
 other, nor would one have been one whit more inexplicable, 
 than is the other. For what is called an explanation of the 
 descent of bodies, is a mere declaration that it takes place 
 not only here, but throughout the Solar, and most probably 
 the Stellar System also. But to show the indefinite exten- 
 sion of a fact, can surely throw no light upon the cause 
 of that fact. 
 
 Precisely in the same manner, from our earliest infancy, 
 we are conversant with matter in the bodies by which we 
 are surrounded. This matter we think consequently we 
 understand perfectly. But when at a later period of life, 
 our attention is turned to the operations of our minds, we 
 are at once aware we know not their nature. As this dis- 
 covery is usually made when our curiosity, being just 
 awakened, is most intense, this state of acknowledged ig- 
 norance is exceedingly embarrassing. A Materialist comes 
 across us, and says, " do not be uneasy. There is no diffi- 
 culty — no new agent in the case, your old and familiar 
 friend matter will account for all." This assurance is 
 urged so confidently, and, is at first, so satisfactory, that 
 it would be received far more generally than it is, but for 
 two considerations. These are, first, the sentiment of re- 
 ligion, and secondly, self-respect. Of the former, I shall 
 have something to say by-and-by, and with it the lat- 
 ter co-operates, not readily allowing us to admit that we 
 differ in nothing from a clod or a cabbage, save in the num- 
 
ATHEISM. 35 
 
 ber, variety, and arrangement of our atoms. The meta- 
 physician now steps in, and shows, that the pretended ex- 
 planation is no explanation at all, since we know no more 
 what gives rise to physical, than we do what produces 
 moral phenomena. 
 
 The same refined, but not therefore inaccurate reasoner, 
 further insists, and as to the bare fact, every one of neces- 
 sity accords with him, that there are two trains of events 
 going on, the one within, the other without us, which events 
 have no similarity — nothing whatever in common. It is not 
 therefore he says, more a maxim in philosophy, than a dic- 
 tate of sound sense, that causes cannot be entirely the same, 
 where effects are utterly diverse. 
 
 On the whole, then, I trust the problem has been solved, 
 and that it has been proved that there " does more than a 
 single, solitary element enter into the composition of man." 
 That though " formed of the dust," as he doubtless was, yet 
 was there " breathed into his nostrils" by his Creator a 
 more subtile— a diviner essence. And this brings us to 
 the second branch of our subject. Had man indeed a Cre- 
 ator, or more generally, had the universe one, or has it ex- 
 isted from all eternity ? 
 
 That it has so existed is maintained by a class of reason- 
 ed, who have wandered still more widely, and more de- 
 plorably from the right path, than those whose errors we 
 have just been combating. I allude to the Atheists. Their 
 number is, I believe, small, but they rank among them 
 some eminent names, that of La Place for example. 
 
 In opposing the doctrines of these unhappy persons, it 
 would be, of course, useless to quote the Bible. The argu- 
 ment must, therefore, be one of pure philosophy. And the 
 mode in which I propose to conduct it, is to inquire 
 
36 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 whence has arisen the belief of a Supreme Being in the 
 minds of men, who from the times in which they flourished, 
 or the countries in which they lived, could never have 
 heard of Revelation ? 
 
 Preparatory to the proposed investigation, I must pre- 
 mise a distinction, which has, I apprehend, been sometimes 
 lost sight of. We must not confound the source of the 
 primary idea of the Deity, with the corroborations impart- 
 ed to that idea, by subsequent observations and reflections, 
 after it has been once conceived. 
 
 The idea itself, under the circumstances supposed, has 
 been ascribed to the four following causes ; and I cannot 
 imagine a fifth. 
 
 To Tradition. 
 
 To the doctrine of Physical Causes. 
 
 Final Causes. 
 To the workmanship of the Mind itself. 
 
 I shall examine them in the order in which they are 
 stated. 
 
 Those who rely on the argument from tradition, sup- 
 pose that the information imparted to our first parents, has 
 been handed down to the present day, from generation to 
 generation, in every part of the world. 
 
 But this theory can avail nothing with our opponents, 
 who would call upon us to prove the communication of 
 the alleged information, which it is clear we cannot do to 
 their satisfaction. And to me, I must confess, the sup- 
 posed tradition seems entirely incredible. Can it be be- 
 lieved that savages, pressed from birth to death by the 
 want of raiment, food, and shelter, in so much that some 
 
ATHEISM. 37 
 
 have been found who were ignorant of the use of fire ; can 
 it be believed, I say, that such stupid, starving creatures, 
 would preserve from age to age for thousands of years, a 
 truth sublime indeed, but having no reference to their 
 daily exigencies ? 
 
 Lastly, the case of Julia Brace seems to me conclusive. 
 Though as before stated, deaf, dumb, and blind, she was, I 
 understand, manifestly impressed with the conviction of a 
 Superior Power. How could she have obtained the idea 
 through the ear, or any other of her senses ? 
 
 The philosophical train of reasoning most commonly re- 
 lied upon by Theists, until the recent investigations with re- 
 gard to final causes, was deduced from what are denomi- 
 nated physical causes. The argument has been usually 
 thus stated : As we never see an effect without a cause, 
 if we extend the chain sufficiently, we must ultimately ar- 
 rive at the First Cause. 
 
 But this logical formula has, I fear, no greater claims to 
 accuracy than that of the Materialists upon which I have 
 just descanted so much at large. For, in the first place, 
 the use of the word effect, involves something like apetitio 
 principii, or, at any rate, takes causation for granted, and 
 this must be proved and not assumed. 
 
 Secondly. Whether there be any such thing as causa- 
 tion or not, it is certain we do not see it. What we do see 
 are events — a series of events, and nothing more. One 
 follows another regularly in point of time, but invariability 
 of sequence is all it is possible for us to observe. Thus the 
 bullet is projected from the gun' after the ignition of the 
 powder. To that substance a spark had been applied, 
 &c. &c. Here are occurrences, and occurrences alone ; 
 
38 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 and however long the chain might be, its character would 
 not be altered— physical events at first, and physical events 
 throughout. But these will not answer our purpose, and a 
 new element must consequently be introduced into the 
 reasoning. That element has been stated to be the con- 
 stitution of the human mind, which, it is alleged, compels 
 it to believe, that there is a power in the antecedent, which 
 causes the subsequent incident. Granting there is such a 
 conviction, and such a power also, yet the latter, if it exist, 
 is never manifested except between two events, and conse- 
 quently can never be proved to have produced the first of 
 those events. But it is a power antecedent to the primary 
 movement in matter that we seek ; with secondaries, ex- 
 cept as scaffolding, we have no concern. And let it not 
 be said, that as matter is altogether passive, motion in it 
 could never have commenced but for some agency different 
 in its nature from matter. For however this may be, the 
 remark is of no value, because mind is in precisely the same 
 predicament — action invariably requiring, so far as we can 
 ascertain, or, in truth, conceive, antecedent and continued 
 causation, without the slightest reference to the subject of 
 that action. 
 
 Lastly, the Atheists insist that the series of phenomena 
 which is going on before our eyes, had no beginning, and 
 will have no end — an affirmation, which it would, I appre- 
 hend, be difficult to impugn by any species of proof to 
 which they will listen, unless perchance the following ar- 
 gument should find favour with some of them. It is far 
 too refined and elaborate I admit, as, is in truth, all argu- 
 mentation that can be brought to bear upon the subject, 
 for the minds of Caffres and New-Hollanders. But where 
 there is greater reach, and more cultivation of intellect, it 
 may have its weight. At any rate, attaching importance 
 to it myself, I am willing to submit it to the judgement of 
 others. 
 
ATHEISM. 39 
 
 As the basis of my reasoning, I have to assume,* that 
 the Atheists have positive doctrines of some kind or other. 
 For where they take the ground mentioned by Mr. Hume, (J) 
 that we observe certain circumstances which pass with- 
 out us, and are conscious of various sensations which occur 
 within us, and as beyond these we can perceive nothing, 
 so beyond them we will infer nothing ; if, I say, we are to 
 be thus estopped, why then, undoubtedly, as all exercise of 
 our reason is precluded, that faculty can neither establish 
 nor refute any proposition whatsoever. But if the Athe- 
 ists will advance a single step beyond this position ; if they 
 will acknowledge, that our discursive are not inferior to 
 our perceptive faculties, and consequently, supposing the 
 logic to be sound, equally entitled to command the assent 
 of the understanding, why then I think they may be dealt 
 with. For my unfortunate opponents having proceeded 
 thus far, will probably admit that there is such a thing as 
 matter, and that it is governed by laws which are uniform. 
 They, in truth, cannot object. A disciple of Berkeley in- 
 deed, if he who was 
 
 " Endowed with every virtue under Heaven," 
 
 have now on earth a disciple, may plead his privilege. 
 But a Berkeleyan and I agree on this occasion, and all others 
 must concede what I ask. With these concessions then, 
 reasonable, as I think, in themselves, and which, so far 
 as they are ad hominem, cannot be refused me, I hope to 
 make out my case. Let us now see if this can be done. 
 
 * It may be necessary to apprize some of my readers, that where nothing 
 is granted, nothing can be proved. The object of all ratiocination is to 
 show, that the proposition to be established is contained in some other 
 proportions more or less remote, which are admitted to be true. The 
 primary propositions must therefore of necessity be conceded by both par- 
 ties, and ought always to be premised, as Euclid has done with his pos- 
 tulates. 
 
 (j) See note at the end. 
 
40 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 If the substance matter exist now, it must have existed 
 from all eternity, or it has been created in time. But if 
 created in time, then it has been called into existence by 
 some quality inherent in itself, or by a power both antece- 
 dent and extrinsic. The former hypothesis, however, is 
 inadmissible, because it involves the absurdity of supposing 
 this creative quality to have preceded the genesis of the 
 very material to which it appertains, and from which it 
 cannot be separated even in imagination. A definition in- 
 deed settles the point, since the very term " quality" implies 
 a previous something, of which that quality is to be predi- 
 cated. In other words, " the wonderful fecundity of mat- 
 ter," as La Place has it, could not have been prior to mat- 
 ter itself. It may be held, consequently, as a demonstrated 
 truth, that if created at all, matter is indebted for its origin 
 to a source other, greater, and more ancient than itself — 
 that is, to the Supreme Being. But this, of course, our 
 antagonists will not allow ; and those who admit there is 
 such a thing as matter at all, maintain that it has existed 
 from eternity. 
 
 But if matter have existed from eternity, then its laws 
 have been also in operation from eternity. For other- 
 wise those laws have been impressed upon it in time, and 
 by some external and superior power, since matter could no 
 more impose new laws upon itself, than it could create it- 
 self. Our opponents, however, will no more acknowledge 
 such a power in this case, than in the former. The 
 eternity of matter, therefore, and the co-eternity of its 
 laws, are two propositions by which our adversaries must 
 stand or fall. If either fail them, their only alternative is 
 to enlarge their creed, or abandon their reason. 
 
 It only remains, then, to be seen, whether one, or still 
 more, whether both of these positions can be successfully 
 
ATHEISM. 41 
 
 assailed. In attacking them, I shall begin with the second, 
 and confine myself to the chemical laws of matter, as the 
 argument deduced from them is equally conclusive as from 
 any, or all the others. Let us then endeavour to ascertain 
 whether there has been no commencement to the action, 
 that is, to the existence of these laws. For no one, I pre- 
 sume, will contend that chemical affinities lay dormant for 
 countless ages, and then spontaneously burst forth with all 
 their energies. 
 
 It is a self-evident truth, that if the universe were com- 
 posed of one simple chemical element, no chemical action 
 could ensue. If it were composed of two, having an affin- 
 ity for each other, they would combine, and then their mu- 
 tual agency would cease. Were there three elements only, 
 two might first unite, and they with the third. Were four 
 the number, an additional combination might take place, 
 &c. The general proposition cannot then, I think, be contro- 
 verted, that in a body or system of bodies, where the number 
 of chemical elements, how great soever, is limited at all, the 
 number of chemical changes which those elements can under- 
 go is also limited* But these changes being in constant 
 progression, time is the only condition requisite for their 
 completion. They are not yet completed, however. They 
 have not, therefore, been going on iYom all eternity, since 
 in eternity time must have perfected whatever time can 
 accomplish. There was, of course, a period at which 
 
 * As far as I can judge, the number of chemical combinations not only 
 cannot exceed the number of chemical elements, but, if these be limited, 
 must be one less. Yet these elements themselves bear an inconceivably 
 small ratio to the amount of material particles, since all the existing atoms 
 of sodium, for instance, supposing that to be a simple substance, constitute 
 but one element in chemistry. Hence, according to the doctrine hereaf- 
 ter to be maintained by the Atheists, it will follow that there are two 
 things infinitely numerous ; one of which is, nevertheless, to the extent 
 of our comprehension, infinitely less numerous than the other. 
 
 6 
 
42 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 as no chemical changes occurred, there could be no chemi- 
 cal laws. These laws consequently did not then exist. 
 They have necessarily, therefore, originated in time, and as 
 they could neither create themselves, nor be created by 
 matter, they must have been impressed upon matter by 
 some external and superior power, which was to be prov- 
 ed. 
 
 Again. In every case of chemical action, the stronger 
 affinities overcome the weaker. The tendency, therefore, 
 always is to the firmest unions, and to those ultimately, 
 which are absolutely indissoluble. But few, perhaps none 
 of these have as yet taken place. Now the only element 
 which can be wanting for that purpose — the only one 
 which is not already present is time. There has not, con- 
 sequently, hitherto been time enough to effect at any rate, 
 all of these irrefragable combinations. The processes 
 necessary, therefore, for their completion, have not been in 
 regular progression from all eternity, since " in eternity 
 time must have perfected whatever time can accomplish," 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 But as the foregoing argument is a very general one, a 
 particular illustration of it may not be superfluous. 
 
 It is quite clear that oxygen, for example, has a greater* 
 attraction for some one element than any for other which 
 exists in nature. However the fact may be, we will call that 
 element carbon. With carbon then oxygen will unite in 
 preference to any other substance, whenever it has an op- 
 portunity of so doing. Its tendency to form such a union 
 being incessant, as has already been shown, and the com- 
 
 * It would answer the purposes of my argument equally well, to sup- 
 pose the affinity of oxygen for carbon to be as great, as for any other sub- 
 stance. 
 
ATHEISM. 43 
 
 bination when effected being for ever, it is matter of de- 
 monstration, that the ultimate result of the chemical laws 
 now in operation must be a state of universal chemical qui- 
 escence. But as yet there has not been time for that re- 
 sult, &c &c. (k) 
 
 There was then an epoch when no chemical laws prevail- 
 ed. But matter, destitute of chemical laws, is contrary to 
 all our knowledge and experience, and therefore its existence 
 in such a state cannot be admitted. It follows, therefore, 
 that as the chemical laws of matter have had a commence- 
 ment, so matter itself has had a beginning ; it has conse- 
 quently been created, and its laws stamped upon it by a 
 superior Being — the proposition which was to be proved. 
 
 Now the only possible mode of escape from the forego- 
 ing conclusion, is by the adoption of three assumptions, all 
 incomprehensible, and all destitute of proof. The first of 
 these is, that the number of chemical elements in the uni- 
 verse is absolutely unlimited ; the second, that these vari- 
 ous elements are so situated in space, as to come within 
 the range of their respective affinities ; and lastly, that a 
 succession of these elements has,in point of fact, acted from 
 eternity upon the mass of which our globe is composed. 
 
 With respect to the first of these, the onus probandi lies 
 perhaps as much on the one side as the other; we will there- 
 fore say no more about it. The second is rather unwieldy, 
 though something like evidence in its favour should be fur- 
 nished. But the third being the averment of a specific fact, 
 we have a right to ask, Where is your evidence ? If this be 
 required, it is obliged to be conceded, there is none of a 
 positive character, and recourse must of consequence be 
 
 (Jc) See note at the end. 
 
44 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 had to the argumentum ad ignorantiam — we do not know 
 that it has not been so. But this is altogether inadmis- 
 sible. For this were not simply to reverse the order of sci- 
 ence, but to annihilate science, since it is the well-known 
 rule that in the pursuit of truth, we are to proceed from the 
 known to the unknown. Whereas, according to Atheistical 
 dialectics, we are to advance not only from the unknown 
 but against the known. Yet what conclusions can stand, if 
 it be allowable to assail them in this wise? And what securi- 
 ty have we for the stability of the fabric of human knowledge, 
 if the sacred temple is to be breached from batteries erected 
 upon nothing ? The Atheists, therefore, cannot be permit- 
 ted to allege gratuitous suppositions, alike improbable and 
 inconceivable, and thus invalidate results regularly derived 
 from premises which are undeniable. They must conform 
 with greater strictness to the rules of that philosophy which 
 they profess to hold in such respect, and on which they 
 place such exclusive and implicit reliance. (I) 
 
 But it is not certain that if the three assumptions which 
 I have enumerated were granted, my second argument 
 would be thereby eluded. To escape this, something further 
 is required — the atoms must be not only unlimited in number, 
 but infinite in power. For if the particle a be chemically 
 united to the particle b, the former must have for the latter 
 a definite force of attraction, great or small. But stronger 
 affinities alone can overcome those which are weaker, a 
 consequently will not reject b to unite with c, except it 
 have for c a greater affinity than for b. By parity of rea- 
 soning, c will give place to d only upon the same principle 
 of superior force, and so on to the end of the alphabet. But 
 a power which can act with an energy perpetually aug- 
 menting through an infinite series, must be itself infinite. 
 a then must have a chemical attraction which is infinite, 
 
 (l) See note at the end. 
 
ATHEISM. 45 
 
 and that is absurd. Yet if this power be finite, and be 
 placed in circumstances to exert itself without ceasing, 
 sooner or later, it must be neutralized. This is not yet 
 done, however ; there has not, hitherto, been time enough 
 for that effect to be brought about. But in eternity, 
 time must have perfected whatever time can accom- 
 plish. There was, of course, a period at which chemical 
 laws did not act, and consequently did not exist, they have 
 necessarily, therefore, originated in time. If, however, such 
 were their origin, matter also, as we have seen, has had its 
 beginning. But it was proved at the very outset, that mat- 
 ter could create neither itself nor its laws — the one and the 
 other therefore have had a Creator. Unless, consequently, 
 there be in my logic some flaw which I am unable to 
 detect, so far from both the positions, on which every rea- 
 soning Atheist must rely, being impregnable, neither can 
 be maintained. My argument then is closed — my task 
 completed. There is a God, who, for reasons which seem- 
 ed unto him good, has called into existence, and stamped 
 with His Laws* all that we behold, and more than we can 
 imagine, as was to be demonstrated. 
 
 Having thus disposed of Physical Causes, we come now 
 to those termed Final. 
 
 The application of that phrase to causes has always ap- 
 peared to me unfortunate, since when thus combined, its 
 meaning cannot be understood without the aid of a defini- 
 tion. It refers to the uses or ends for which something is 
 made or done. Thus, to adopt Adam Smith's illustration, 
 the final cause of the movements of the hands of a watch, 
 
 * These laws, to avoid irreverence, are usually denominated the laws 
 of matter, or, more general!}', those of nature. 
 
46 SENSE OF TOUCH, 
 
 is to show us the hours of the day, while the efficient cause 
 of those movements is the elasticity of the springs of the 
 machine, (m) In Natural Theology, it has reference to 
 what are supposed to be the designs of the Divine Archi- 
 tect in the construction and arrangement of the Solar Sys- 
 tem, and more particularly in the organization of the ani- 
 mals and plants living upon the earth. The subject has 
 been recently elucidated much at large, and in some re- 
 spectsvery ably, in the well-known Bridgewater Treatises. 
 But with regard to the immediate object which we have in 
 view, I must say, that in my estimation, these elaborate 
 performances are a failure. He who will not admit design, 
 and therefore infer a designer, from observing the structure 
 and adaptation to his service of his own hands and eyes, 
 his other organs and other limbs, may be safely pronounced 
 beyond the reach of any amount of evidence of that descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 But be that as it may, for our purpose arguments de- 
 duced from final causes are of no avail. Since no one 
 can imagine that tribes of savages, stupid and ignorant as 
 they are frequently found to be, would ever engage in 
 speculations so refined, and so remote from the affairs of 
 ordinary life, as are reasonings about uses and ends. In a 
 philosophical age indeed, considerations of this kind be- 
 come objects of attention as a matter of course, and to the 
 Theist they are highly curious and interesting, (n) But upon 
 the Atheist I fear they will have little effect, because in my 
 humble judgement the whole doctrine is entitled to nothing 
 like the weight usually ascribed to it. That a designer 
 may be deduced from what we observe in the mechanism 
 of animals and plants I allow. But bearing in mind the 
 well-known rule of logic, that conclusions can never have 
 greater strength or breadth, than the premises from which 
 
 (m), (n), See notes at the end. 
 
ATHEISM. 47 
 
 they are derived, I submit to any person of reflection, how 
 poor, how inadequate are the impressions which the con- 
 templation of animal or vegetable structure can impart, of 
 that Awful Being, the very idea of " whose might, majesty, 
 and dominion," subdues the reason, and dazzles to blind- 
 ness the imagination. When sufficiently recovered from 
 these overpowering conceptions to exert his ordinary facul- 
 ties, nothing can exceed the littleness, the insignificance of 
 man — of every thing which appertains to him, and of every 
 thing by w 7 hich he is surrounded. Nay, when entirely col- 
 lected, he will perceive that he is environed on every side 
 by imperfection, (o) The universe, we have seen tends 
 if not to annihilation, yet to a species of death in the close 
 of all chemical action, nay of mechanical motion also, if 
 some recent speculations, be w T ell bounded, which would 
 prove a resisting medium diffused throughout space. But 
 as for us ive manifestly, and every other form that lives, 
 have appointed periods of birth, growth, maturity, de- 
 cline, and dissolution, (p) It is in vain for the Theist to 
 urge that this is a part of the plan of the Great Designer. 
 " True, most true," the Atheist replies, " but that only shifts 
 the imperfection from the execution to the scheme, and you 
 are not authorized to predicate omnipotence and omnis- 
 cience in the one case, more than in the other." 
 
 On the whole, then, I conclude that the idea of a Su- 
 preme Being, cannot be traced in every people among 
 whom it is found, to tradition. I conclude further, that 
 reason alone, however confirmatory of that idea when 
 once developed, can never originate it from the contempla- 
 tion of either physical or final causes. It follows, conse- 
 quently, we must seek elsewhere for its source, and that 
 source can be no other than the workmanship of our own 
 minds. These, when properly constituted, and improved 
 
 (o), (p) See note at the end. 
 
48 SENSE OF TOUCH. 
 
 to a certain, and very moderate point, develop the deep 
 conviction that there is a God ; (q) that he is Supreme, 
 and that we are his dependent creatures. Theism then is 
 of that class of inherent feelings termed instincts, and is 
 usually denominated the sentiment of religion.* Dis- 
 tinct from reason, though as we have seen, fortified by that 
 faculty when sufficiently cultivated and enlarged, it forms 
 the characteristic of our race. I know of no other attri- 
 bute of man, in which the lower animals do not to a great- 
 er or less degree participate. But in religious emotions 
 he stands alone and pre-eminent. I have always, there- 
 fore, thought that an individual who labours under the griev- 
 ous misfortune of being an Atheist, having lost the divine 
 image to which by inheritance he is entitled, so far from 
 being reviled and upbraided, should be pitied, soothed, and, 
 if possible, restored to the " high estate" from which he has 
 fallen. Then would he recover his lost birth-right, and re- 
 join the universal human family in acknowledging his Cre- 
 ator, and in paying homage to that Dread Power, in whom 
 he and we, and all, " live and move, and have our being." 
 
 * The radical independence which exists between this sentiment, the 
 Moral Sense, and the discursive faculty being established, as these ele- 
 ments commingle in every conceivable proportion indifferent individuals, 
 we are at no loss to understand anomalies which we so often see, and 
 have occasion to lament. The first may be exalted, the second obtunded 
 or vitiated, the third perverted. Or contrariwise, the last may be sound, 
 the second sensitive and correct, but the first torpid. In a perfect charac- 
 ter, each would exert its proper influence, while a just and controlling 
 judgment reigned paramount over all. 
 
 (q) See note at the end. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
NOTES 
 
 (a) An animal may be defined physically an organized substance, hav- 
 ing a distinct receptacle for food — that is, some cavity which answers the 
 purposes of a stomach. Metaphysically, an animal is a being which has an 
 idea of itself, as contradistinguished from all other things or existences 
 in nature. But here a difficulty arises. A polypus may be divided into 
 two, and each portion acquiring a new stomach, is thence forward a new 
 animal. But two may, it is said, be blended into one. Now, in that 
 case, what becomes of their previously distinct personal identity 1 Per- 
 haps, as in a bicephalus terrapin exhibited some years ago, there are 
 two minds to one body. 
 
 (b) In animalcules, these, or whatever other senses they may possess 
 must, when compared with ours, be immeasurably accute, since to our 
 dull organs, unless aided by powerful magnifiers, their food, their foes, 
 nay, themselves, are imperceptible. Those pests, too, which prey upon 
 us, show a preference for some individuals, and an aversion to others. 
 The predilection of musquitoes for strangers is well known ; and fleas 
 have also their favourites. Thus, I know a gentleman who declares the 
 former never molest him, and if by any accident one of the latter makes 
 a lodgment about his person, the only annoyance he suffers, results from 
 the rambles over his body, of the animal in his efforts to escape, which he 
 never fails to do on the first opportunity. 
 
 (c) Nothing, in my opinion, proves so conclusively the deplorable want 
 of sound learning in the medical students, generally speaking, of our 
 country, as the spread among the profession of the notions of Mons. 
 Broussais. I am confident that if one thousand lads of good understand- 
 ing, were taken and carried regularly through the higher branches of 
 philosophy, not half a dozen would be disturbed by his metaphysics, and 
 not even one would pause ere he rejected his medical doctrines, so pal- 
 pably are they at variance with facts, for which we have all the testimony 
 our senses can afford. 
 
50 NOTES. 
 
 Luckily a reformation as regards moral, and which it is earnestly hoped 
 will extend to medical science, has commenced in Paris under Royer 
 Collard. Coussin, too, has ranged himself under the banner of truth, but 
 he has borrowed from the school of Kant and his disciples. How far this 
 may be an improvement, I cannot say, German metaphysics having al- 
 ways foiled my efforts to understand them. But, at any rate, a spice of 
 mysticism is preferable to the chilling errors of the followers of Cabanis. 
 
 This note refers to page 10, line 9, the reference being omitted by mistake. 
 
 In this appeal to common sense, and denunciation of metaphysical rea- 
 soning, the Materialists are joined by a large class of persons of very op- 
 posite sentiments, and it is amusing enough to observe how the common 
 sense of one of these parties conflicts with the common sense of the other. 
 The one it teaches they have a mind, the other it informs there is no such 
 existence. The former it instructs in all they wish to know, or believe 
 to be knowable, touching the operations of that mind, while the latter are 
 given to understand there are no operations of the kind. It follows, of 
 course, they both agree that to investigate mental phenomena is an idle 
 waste of time and thought. And it follows further, that when the com- 
 mon sense of the one set comes into actual collision with the common 
 sense of the other, neither being furnished with facts or arguments, the 
 battle has to be waged by an interchange of round assertions and hard, 
 words. After a few broad-sides of this cheap and harmless ammunition, 
 they separate, each convinced that his own common sense is very wise, 
 and that of his opponent very foolish. 
 
 In addition to the above anomalies, I think I have noticed some other 
 curious particulars connected with this vaunted power. In the first place 
 it seems to have little skill in physical, while it luxuriates in moral sci- 
 ence. Thus, I have neve? heard of the man whose common sense taught 
 him that the earth moved round the sun. Whereas I have seen many 
 who derived from this faculty all requisite information, not only in rela- 
 tion to their own minds, but on such simple subjects as political economy 
 in general, and the circulating medium in particular. 
 
 Secondly, I have observed that those who think they abound in this 
 quality use the term, as applied to themselves, ironically. It is their un- 
 common sense which enables them without an effort, to see so much, and 
 so clearly, where those ordinary men Plato and Aristotle, Berkeley and 
 Hume, and Adam Smith, to say nothing of living writers, Mr. Gallatin 
 among others, have left some things to be explained. 
 
 May I be permitted to hint to these exceedingly sharp-sighted gentle- 
 men, it is not always sufficient that we ourselves discern true results. 
 For if these are in any degree recondite, we never can be absolutely cer- 
 
NOTES. 51 
 
 tain they are true, and therefore to be implicitly relied upon, unless they 
 flow by regular deduction from indisputable premises. 
 
 Moreover, on many occasions, the truth is of little importance, unless 
 we can enable others to see it as well as ourselves. Now, to do this ar- 
 rangement, facts, arguments, illustrations, and precise phraseology are ne- 
 cessary, and these I believe common sense does not furnish. 
 
 Lastly, I apprehend that though men of common sense may know all, 
 that is true, yet they are at the same time apt to know a good deal more. 
 It is frequently as necessary to unlearn as to learn ; study, therefore, I 
 am inclined to think, would improve even them negatively, if not posi- 
 tively. Let them try the experiment diligently for some years, and if 
 they are not thereby rendered wiser one way or the other, I for one will 
 admit, that they are indeed very uncommon persons. 
 
 This note likewise belongs to page 10, line 13, also omitted. 
 
 Suppose a person were to go to an astronomer and say, " Sir, I under- 
 stand you assert that the major axis of the earth's orbit is invariable in 
 its length. Now, I do not believe one word of that statement." " No !" 
 the man of science would reply, " then I will prove it to you." If to this 
 it were rejoined, " Do so, but recollect you are not to employ for that pur- 
 pose the differential, or any similar calculus, since to nothing of the kind 
 will I listen. As far as the Arabic numerals will go, I am at your ser- 
 vice, but beyond them I will hear nothing, and admit nothing." What, 
 I say, would be thought of the wisdom of such a procedure ? Yet, why 
 the only guide to knowledge is to be accepted in one case, and rejected in 
 another, I never have been able to understand. For all refined reason- 
 ings, if correct, are to common sense, what the calculations of astronomers 
 are to the four rules of arithmetic— they are always in unison so far as 
 they go, but they cannot proceed equally far. 
 
 (d) Excessive simplification is alike fatal in metaphysics and medicine. 
 In both, any very comprehensive hypothesis may, from the very circum- 
 stance of its extreme generalization, be at once pronounced false. 
 
 The brilliant discoveries in astronomy have, I am persuaded, had an 
 ill effect on other branches of knowledge. The grandest of the physical 
 sciences stands doubtless alone in the singleness of its principle. In the 
 others, an augmentation in the number of their elements may not, as in 
 chemistry, keep pace with their improvement, but perfect them as we 
 may, the amount of their ultimate facts can never be small. 
 
 (e) It is lamentable to see the numerous and grave errors into which 
 theorists fall, who undertake to speculate upon subjects of the deepest in- 
 
52 NOTES. 
 
 terest to human happiness, from disregarding the two requisites stated in 
 the text. What is remarkable, such errors never, perhaps, occur, at least 
 so glaringly, among physical inquirers, where the evils arising from such 
 blunders would be comparatively nothing. Thus, whether Berzelius 
 should omit some element in the analysis of a mineral, or Sir John Her- 
 schell should mistake a subsequent result for an anterior cause, might not 
 be material. But in moral reasoning, it is absolutely fatal to overlook 
 facts, as Miss Martineau and others have done, in relation to the matri- 
 monial compact, and thus deduce a conclusion, which if acted on, would 
 uproot the very foundations of society. Or like Mr. Hume and his fol- 
 lowers, to annihilate virtue by transposing, and thus ingeniously trans- 
 forming subsequent considerations into antecedent and ruling motives. 
 Or, after the manner of some Southern gentlemen of note and talent, who, 
 by omitting much more than half the facts, have contrived to prove that 
 slavery is beneficial to a new country, which is found to improve more 
 rapidly from compulsory than from free labour. Of course in estimating 
 the progress or condition of a recently planted people, the only items to 
 be computed are the number of trees which have been felled and yards of 
 ditch which have been dug — the state of society as regards its improve- 
 ment, religious, moral, and intellectual, its habits of feeling and thinking, 
 and its modes of acting, being counted for nothing ! 
 
 From what we daily see and hear it is evident that, as regards the 
 world, any thing will pass for philosophy, or even fact, provided mind be 
 the subject. In that case be the assertion ever so gross, the reasoning 
 ever so absurd, or the conclusion ever so monstrous, the author need not 
 apprehend the want of disciples, nor fear detection, if to prevent the one, 
 or accomplish the other, his readers have to turn their eyes inward. Since 
 to do that would be to study metaphysics ; and who, in this money-loving 
 age and country, would forfeit his pretensions to common sense % 
 
 (/) I am disposed to think that every impression made upon our senses, 
 induces a belief more or less vivid, and more or less momentary, or con- 
 tinued in the reality of the impressing cause. On the other hand, a pre- 
 conceived notion predisposes our organs to convey impressions corres- 
 ponding with those notions. Hence, a firm conviction that spectres are 
 sometimes visible, inclines the eye under appropriate circumstances, to 
 see what it otherwise could not discern. 
 
 Where the mind is sound, reason readily corrects the false intelligence 
 which may be received from without, except the impression be exceed- 
 ingly intense, or both novel and strong. In the former case, it has more 
 than once proved ineffaceable, producing mania, of course. As in the 
 case which Garrick used to act of the Grandfather, who playing with his 
 grand-child out of an upper window, the infant sprang from his arms, 
 and was dashed to pieces. For ever after the miserable old man con- 
 
NOTES. 53 
 
 ceived the horrid scene to be passing before his eyes. In the latter, the 
 remedy is to repeat the impression at proper intervals, until the judgment 
 can master it. Thus, when a sailor-boy first goes aloft, that his vision 
 may not delude him with the idea of danger, he*is directed to look up, 
 until habit can give him confidence in his security. 
 
 (g) A great moral truth at its first annunciation, almost infallibly en- 
 counters the opposition and reproaches of mankind. Nor can this be 
 otherwise, since it is nearly certain to condemn some of their cherished 
 indulgencies. 
 
 In former days the promulgators of just, though obnoxious doctrines, 
 paid the penalty of their lives, for endeavouring the reformation of their 
 fellow mortals. But thanks to modern improvement, hard names are the 
 only resource of those whose logical ability is not upon a par with the 
 ardour of their zeal. But only let a person cry out " Great is Diana of 
 the Ephesians," and he and his doctrine are, for the time at least, lauded 
 to the skies. 
 
 I have often thought there is something hard in the lot of philosophers. 
 A few indeed, like the mighty Stagyrite, Newton, and Adam Smith, are 
 immortalized. But ordinarily, the fate of a man of genius is this. He 
 makes and proclaims a discovery. In proportion to its importance, is the 
 victory against him and his doctrines. Gradually, however, the latter, if 
 sound, wins its way. As it finds favour with the public, its author is dis- 
 regarded, until finally at the same moment that his views are adopted and 
 become common property, he is himself forgotten. How many political 
 writers and speakers in this country, daily pour forth sentiments, not im- 
 proved in the transmission, for which they are ultimately indebted to 
 Locke and Trenchard — men of whose names they never heard ! Hence, 
 nothing is more natural than for people to ask in all sincerity, of what 
 use are philosophers % For mankind at large, as Mr. Stewart beautifully 
 expresses it " having in their minds no point of departure," are not aware 
 of the progress they make, nor of course, of their indebtedness to the real 
 authors of that progress. If at all soured indeed, people are apt to ima s 
 gine the world has retrograded in their day. And even where the tem- 
 perament is more happy, or fortune has proved more propitious, where 
 they are alive to the immense advances which have been made, are mak- 
 ing, and, as I believe, will continue to be made in knowledge, in virtue, 
 and in happiness, they are apt to be content with their state of fruition, 
 without a very strict inquiry into the causes of their felicity. He, there- 
 fore, who wishes to add his mite to the mass of general improvement and 
 happiness, must, like Mr. Malthus, keep his temper, and practice patience, 
 secure of the applause of the few, and regardless of the neglect of the 
 many. And thus will he secure the great, and almost the only reward 
 
54 NOTES. 
 
 he can expect— the gratifying reflection that he too has been a benefactor 
 to his race. 
 
 (A) Those of my readers; who prefer, direct experiment to reasoning, 
 will probably be satisfied with the following authorities. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton having placed the smooth, convex surface of a hem- 
 isphere of glass, very accurately ground, upon a polished plate of the 
 same substance, observed the ring of light which was formed at the point 
 where the one rested upon the other. He then placed weight after weight 
 upon the flat portion of the hemisphere, and noted the change wrought 
 as more pressure was applied, upon the light at the point indicated. The 
 result of his calculations was, that a force equal to two thousand pounds 
 to the square inch, all that the materials would bear, approximated the 
 two pieces of glass to the eighty thousandth part of an inch. 
 
 Professor Robison of Edinburgh, from whom I quote, from memory, 
 however, not having been able to find a copy of his Lectures in the city, 
 repeated the experiment with the same result. But Dr. Brewster has 
 shown that when ordinary light will detect no intervening space between 
 two surfaces, the fact of their being even then occasionally separated, may 
 be exhibited by polarized light. It is now, indeed, so universally admit- 
 ted that neither bodies nor particles of bodies touch each other, that Na- 
 tural Philosophers and Chemists, when they wish to be particularly ex- 
 act always speak of apparent contact. And it is, I understand, the 
 opinion of the best thinkers in physical science, that in the most compact 
 bodies the spaces between the particlesfexeeed in an immense ratio the 
 particles themselves. The Metaphysicians, however, avoiding excess in 
 refinement, and what might be suspected as paradox in assertion, are con- 
 tent in their reasonings with the gross, demonstrated, ar,d admitted fact, 
 that there can be no contact as regards bodies — particles they leave to the 
 ingenuity of the mechanical and chemical philosophers. ■ 
 
 (i) We are so accustomed to suppose there is a necessary connection 
 between our perceiving bodies and their existence, that it sounds very 
 oddly when we are first told we may see, hear, nay feel, as we imagine, 
 when in truth there is nothing to be seen, heard, or felt. The mystery is 
 at once cleared up by what is stated in the text, in relation to the irregular 
 action of the nervous system ; and to these must be added the disordered 
 movements of the mind itself. The whole doctrine of visions, spectres, 
 ghosts, &c. is thus at once explained, without impeaching the veracity of 
 those who aver they have seen unearthly things. Take the following as 
 an example. 
 
NOTES. 55 
 
 A legal gentleman of eminence in London was ill with a pleuritic af- 
 fection. When convalescent he saw one evening in his easy-chair, the 
 figure of a female to whom he had been fondly attached, and who had 
 been dead for some years. Her countenance was directed towards him 
 and smiling. The patient being convinced it was an illusion, tried vari- 
 ous experiments, and after a time it disappeared. As it happened, he 
 suffered a relapse, and the figure again returned, but now looked frown- 
 ingly. 
 
 Had the mind of this individual been feeble, his temperament enthusi- 
 astic, or his character one of timidity, the effect of such a vision may be 
 well imagined. 
 
 Brutus, as the classical reader will recollect, heard, as well as saw, 
 the spectre which appeared to him. And there is one case on record 
 where the nerves of touch were also imposed upon, the person feeling, 
 hearing, and seeing an imaginary blue dog. An occurrence like this, 
 however, is rare, but the instances of optical deception are innumerable. 
 
 (j) I would not by any means have it supposed that I consider this most 
 ingenious writer and amiable man, as an Atheist in fact. In what manner 
 his sceptical doctrines may have struck others, I do not know, but the most 
 prominent of them have always appeared to me like logical jugglery — the 
 author neither thoroughly convinced himself, nor expecting to convince 
 others. Their effect accordingly upon my mind has uniformly been to pro- 
 duce a sort of ludicrous wonderment, as remote as possible from conviction. 
 From this circumstance, and from the dress and style in which Mr. H. 
 has clothed his thoughts, confining their perusal to persons somewhat 
 curious in their tastes, and of cultivated understandings, his writings 
 have, I am persuaded, done far less mischief than is generally supposed. 
 How ill they are calculated to please even a strong, but uncultivated in- 
 tellect, the following anecdote will prove. 
 
 The celebrated Patrick Henry having enjoyed none of the advantages 
 of ear]y education, and in after life wishing to improve himself, applied 
 to Mr. Jefferson for the loan of some books. Mr. J. put into his hands 
 Hume's Essays. After a few days Mr. Henry returned the work, beg- 
 ging it might be exchanged for another, " as he could not get on with it 
 at all." 
 
 Gibbon, in my opinion, has done, and will do more injury to the cause 
 of Christianity than the entire host of literary men combined. 
 
 With regard to that portion of Mr. Hume's doctrine which is our im- 
 mediate concern, the fatal, though amusing inconsistency, was charged 
 upon him of framing arguments, and writing books for the edification 
 
56 NOTES. 
 
 and conversion of readers, when his reasoning, if sound, demonstrated 
 there could be no readers for the latter to instruct, or the former to con- 
 vert. 
 
 I, however, have always thought it most remarkable, that so very acute 
 a dialectician as Mr. Hume, should have participated in the error of the 
 Materialists, formerly pointed out, and have supposed it possible to dis- 
 prove the existence of the mind by one of its own functions. 
 
 Had Des Cartes varied his celebrated dictum he might, it is probable, 
 have saved many from error. Instead of saying, " I think, therefore, I 
 am," a more precise, and consequently a better expression would have 
 been, " my mind thinks, therefore, my mind is." 
 
 {k) Should the arguments stated in the text be admitted, they overthrow 
 two speculations, which have been put forth in the interesting science of 
 Geology. The first is quoted by Mr. Dugald Sewart, who does not ap- 
 pear to have been aware of its fallacy, from, I suspect, Dr. Hutton. The 
 idea suggested is, that a succession of changes, from chemical action of 
 course, is to take place upon this earth " through the endless flux of time." 
 But according to the doctrine for which I contend, there is a limit to the 
 number of these changes ; and the occurrence of one consequently dimi- 
 nishes, to that extent, the possible amount. They must, therefore, sooner 
 or later come to an end. 
 
 The second hypothesis, which is incompatible with my reasoning, has 
 been brought forward by Mr. Lyell. That accomplished and indefatiga- 
 ble Geologist, supposes that the causes, of necessity chemical, now modi- 
 fying the surface of our globe, continue to act with all the intensity of 
 former days. But this it appears to me cannot be so. Because in addi- 
 tion to what I have stated in the text, stronger affinities will, ceteris paribus 
 take precedence of the weaker in point of time. Consequently the most violent 
 combinations will occur first, and then the less violent in the order of their 
 strength, until all visible action ceases. Now the only method of eluding 
 this argument is to show that in the progress of time, circumstances arise 
 which compensate the operation of the foregoing principle, and maintain 
 uniformity in the intensity of chemical action. And this I conceive to be 
 not only impossible, but the reverse of the fact. For every new union, 
 so far from predisposing, indisposes a particle to enter into new asso- 
 ciations. Thus, sodium is more ready to combine than soda ; soda than 
 the carbonate, of that substance ; the carbonate than the sulphate, &c. 
 until the metaloid will enter into no further combination at all. A priori 
 reasoning therefore, seems to me to confirm the theory of Mr. De La 
 Beche, and, I believe, the majority of Geologists, that the powers now af- 
 fecting Geological changes are less energetic than they formerly were. 
 
NOTES. 57 
 
 If my observation may be considered as dust in the balance between such 
 authorities, it coincides with the latter, and corroborates my argument. 
 
 The result of the whole is, that sooner or later a state of repose must 
 occur, never to be disturbed through the endless lapse of time, without the 
 intervention of that Power whose fiat first called matter into existence, 
 and then subjected it, for the time being, which for our system cannot, I 
 should infer, be more than a few millions of years, to such rules as to His 
 good pleasure seemed fit. 
 
 (I) But if the objections to the mode of reasoning, which the Atheists 
 will be compelled hereafter to adopt, were less insuperable than they are, 
 yet they could not use it without destroying themselves. For its employ- 
 ment would immediately deprive them of the only plea possessing a shad- 
 ow of plausibility, which they have hitherto been able to urge against 
 the Theists — their admission of a Power uncreated, boundless, and eter- 
 nal, while for themselves they say, they will acknowledge nothing which 
 reason does not sanction, and reason cannot sanction what reason cannot 
 fathom. But these deluded votaries of reason will be henceforth driven 
 from their negatives, and will have to contend for something which had 
 no beginning, will have no end, incessant in its action, and possessed, in 
 one respect at least, of infinite power. Can they now taunt the Theists 
 with going beyond their reason 1 
 
 I do not profess to be deeply read in Atheistical writers, and the fore- 
 going assertion as to their solitary plea, is founded upon the following 
 circumstance. 
 
 When a student of medicine in Paris. I became acquainted with a gen- 
 tleman who has employed more time, money, and personal exertion, with 
 a view to the benefit of his fellow mortals, than any individual whom I 
 have personally known. He possessed the unfortunate opinions which I 
 am controverting, and we had frequent discussions on the subject. His 
 argument was in substance what I have stated, and was thus expressed : 
 That Christians are to be sure blockheads enough for professing to walk 
 by faith, but that of all fools in the world the Deists are the greatest. For 
 that they who acknowledge reason for their guide, hold opinions which 
 confessedly reason cannot, strictly speaking, comprehend. 
 
 I maintained my cause to the best of my ability, but being young, and 
 less conversant with dialectics then, than I have since been, I could not do 
 it justice. Otherwise I could have shown that reason can demonstrate a 
 fact, which reason cannot conceive. The argument is equally short and 
 conclusive. Either there are bounds to space or there are not. But bound- 
 less space is clearly beyond the ken of our faculties, and bounds to space 
 are equally so, since in the latter case the question would instantly arise, 
 What is beyond the supposed bounds % 
 
58 NOTES. 
 
 In sober truth, however, so feeble in capacity is the human mind, so 
 circumscribed are its operations, that a genuine philosopher has to admit 
 his ignorance a million of times, for once, that he can boast of his know- 
 ledge. 
 
 {m) Efficient and final causes are not, infact, more broadly distinguished 
 in physical, than they are in moral inquiries. Yet it is by confounding 
 those causes that sceptics, from Mr. Hume downwards, and misanthropes 
 of every age, who have denied the reality of human virtue, have endea- 
 voured to sustain their lamentable error. Take benevolence as an ex- 
 ample, and the question can be settled without the aid of logic or philo- 
 sophy, by every one who will consult his own bosom, and answer the fol- 
 lowing questions. Breathes there a sane, human being, who, on seeing a 
 child fall into the water, and there struggle for its life, would not feel an 
 emotion to relieve that child for its own sake % If so, what is the nature 
 of that emotion 1 
 
 My queries, it is to be observed, are propounded upon the supposition, 
 that the spectator performs no act, so that there shall be no blending of sub- 
 sequent considerations arising from having done our duty, with, an- 
 tecedent, and moving states of the mind. 
 
 (n) Every inquirer into the wonders of creation, has, I presume, his 
 peculiar taste, but to me the application of the doctrine of final causes to 
 moral phenomena, has always been far more agreeable than to physical 
 arrangements. For our faculties are so humble that there must be about 
 the latter a coarseness, and a clumsiness, if words of such apparent irre- 
 verence may be used, to bring them down to the level of our capacities. 
 From these derogatory associations the first are exempt. Thus the me- 
 chanism by which the bones are connected, and the blood propelled, is 
 sufficiently obvious, while the brain, from its infinitely more delicate and 
 curious structure, is to our dull perceptions very nearly a terra incognita. 
 
 But the gratification is great, and frequently unmingled, when in con- 
 templating human conduct, we observe how each toiling pismire, heed- 
 less of others, and bent upon the attainment of his own little ends, but 
 verifies the words of the poet — 
 
 " Each seeks a separate goal, 
 
 But Heaven's is one, and that the whole." 
 
 Whoever wishes to see this on a large scale may consult the Wealth of 
 Nations, and they will be there taught the manner in which the vanity 
 and selfishness of the nobility, broke the chains of the feudal system, and 
 thus conferred upon the world the liberty which we now enjoy, and its 
 
NOTES. 59 
 
 consequences, knowledge, wealth, virtue, and happiness. These have 
 increased, are increasing, and, in my hope and belief, will continue to in- 
 crease so long as it shall please the beneficence of the Supreme Ruler to 
 continue the present order of his creation. 
 
 (o) Those who think they can reconcile physical imperfection and 
 moral evil, however slight or transitory, with the attributes of the Deity, 
 must extricate themselves as they can from the following argument. It 
 was, I believe, framed before the days of Epictetus, and if I mistake not, 
 may be found in his works. 
 
 Either God has the power to prevent evil, and not the will, or he has 
 the will and not the power, or neither, or both. But the first supposition 
 impeaches his benevolence, the second his omnipotence, and the third, the 
 one and the other. He is, however, both omnipotent and benevolent; 
 there is, consequently, say the stoics, no such thing as evil, and what is 
 thus designated are mere accidents, beneath the attention of a wise man. 
 Happy is he whose experience confirms this logic ! 
 
 Archbishop King quotes the foregoing reasoning, and vainly inclines 
 to the intractability of matter, as some of the older philosophers termed it, 
 as a mode of escape. Paley, too, has examined the question, but not with 
 his usual ability, nor what is much more remarkable, with his usual can- 
 dour. The following is his syllogism : — 
 
 " Either God wished the happiness of men, 
 
 or He wished their misery, 
 
 or He was indifferent and unconcerned about both." 
 
 He then goes on to say, that God has not wished our misery, nor is he 
 indifferent, and therefore he wishes us to be happy. 
 
 Now here it is manifest that the fourth and true predicate has been 
 omitted. For our Creator has wished us to experience some enjoyment 
 on the one hand, and to suffer some misery on the other. The former, I 
 think, predominates, but that there is no small amount of the latter, the 
 bosoms of us all can painfully testify. 
 
 Evil, says Paley, no doubt exists, but it is never the object of " contri- 
 vance." Whence comes it then 1 Through accident, or, as he seems 
 unwillingly to admit, from inability ? But in philosophy there is no such 
 thing as accident, nor, as we have seen, can inability be predicated of an 
 Omnipotent Being. But, moreover, Paley is mistaken in his fact. Evil 
 is sometimes designed. The talons and beak of the hawk, however ne- 
 
60 NOTES. 
 
 cessary to himself, are contrived to inflict pain upon the dove. And even 
 in us, no one can doubt that our teeth were as much intended to ache upon 
 occasion, as to chew in ordinary. For they are furnished with nerves, 
 which answer no other purpose that I know of, except to give pain, since 
 these may be destroyed without impeding mastication. At any rate, every 
 one must see that our teeth might have been rendered as insensible as our 
 nails. 
 
 If, then, it be asked, how I extricate myself from the difficulty, I reply, 
 I do not extricate myself at all, since there is sufficient evidence to com- 
 pel a belief in the Omnipotence and Benevolence of the Creator on the one 
 hand, while on the other, painful experience and observation daily prove 
 the existence of evil. The facts I connot reconcile, and where I " cant 
 unravel," I " learn to trust." 
 
 By the way, it is a singular circumstance Geology should prove, that 
 animals preyed upon each other as they do now, before the creation of 
 man. 
 
 1 have heard it suggested in argument, that the imperfection of man is 
 no impeachment of the Omnipotence of the Creator, because it is not de- 
 rogatory to suppose him incapable of creating a perfect being— that is, 
 one equal to himself. 
 
 The reply to this is, I fear, equally brief and decisive. If there be a 
 doubt whether the Deity could have created us perfect, there is no man- 
 ner of question, if he had thought fit so to do, he could have formed us 
 far more perfect than we are. 
 
 O) The necessary physical cause of death appears to depend upon the 
 following circumstances. First, all living substances, whether animal 
 or vegetable, are composed of solids and fluids. Secondly, the latter must 
 circulate through former, or existence ceases. Thirdly, the resistance 
 which the parts that are stationary oppose to those which are in motion, 
 augments from the instant, *a separate vitality is established. Fourthly, 
 the motor power also increases for a certain period, in a higher ratio than 
 the opposition which it has to overcome. But lastly, this power acquires 
 its maximum, and then declines, so that sooner or later a counterpoise 
 must take place, and with it death. This sequence of changes requires, 
 of course, very different portions of time in the several classes of animals, 
 and the various tribes of vegetables. Thus the whale is supposed to live 
 about a thousand years, while some ephemeral insects do not exceed a few 
 hours. Among vegetables the disparity is still greater. The Adansonia 
 Digitata, or Boabab, will endure for upwards of four thousand years.. 
 
NOTES. 61 
 
 while some of the more fugitive fungi " spring in anight, and wither in 
 a day." 
 
 (q) This impression, of course, the most sublime that can enter into the 
 imagination of man, although solitary in degree, is not insulated in kind. 
 We have other instincts equally original, and more direct in their bear- 
 ing on civilized society, in so much, indeed, that political institutions can- 
 not exist where they are disregarded. Of these, it is sufficient for my 
 purpose, to mention our sense of justice and the feeling of love. The 
 former teaches us to respect what belongs to others ; the latter, distinct 
 from the desire for offspring, and so opposed to mere animal passion, with 
 which gross writers confound it, that the contrast forms the basis of nearly 
 the entire mass of novels, predisposes the virtuous minded of either sex, to 
 form unions which shall terminate only with life. The laws, therefore, 
 which enforce the rights of property, and which render the matrimonial 
 compact indissoluble at the will of the parties, are not as some superficial 
 thinkers have supposed, the arbitrary enactments of ignorant and inter- 
 ested legislators. That these enactments should be productive of occa- 
 sional evil, amounts to no more than this— man is their subject. But the 
 sources of these ordinances lie deep in the recesses of the human heart, 
 where, shrouded from the gaze of the ignorant, and the consciousness of 
 the cold and the sensual, play the secret springs of human conduct, and 
 human institutions. To the streams which flow from these fountains, 
 when they are themselves uncontaminated, for the purity and warmth of 
 the moral affections are of far more importance in such inquiries, than 
 acuteness of intellect, the lawgiver merely, perhaps unwittingly, gives 
 force. Perceiving- that certain observances are indispensable to the ex- 
 istence of those forms of polity, which it is his object to perpetuate, he 
 frames his statutes accordingly. But in so doing, he in effect says, " I but 
 carry out the intentions of your Creator. If you, for whom I legislate, will 
 obey the guides which he has implanted in your bosoms to keep you in the 
 paths of rectitude, my regulations will be null, because did they not exist, 
 you would nevertheless comply with what I now enjoin. If, however, 
 your monitor be silent or your inclinations vicious, if in defiance of your 
 Maker's laws, you will steal, rob, or commit adultery, then shall you meet 
 at my hands with that punishment which you have merited." 
 
 In all this, of course, there is nothing new, but old truths must be some- 
 times re-stated ; and, moreover, I could add to Mr. Hume's admirable re- 
 marks on the philosophy of matrimony, physiological arguments, both 
 new, and of great weight, but this is not the place. 
 
 This note should have been placed at the foot of page 28. It refers to the 
 word " habitat," in the eighth line of that page. 
 The special seat of the mind, if there be one, has never been ascertain- 
 ed. The upper portion of the brain {cerebrum,) and, perhaps, its anterior 
 
62 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 lobes, may be more particularly devoted to the operations of the intellect. 
 But accident and experiment have established the fact, that two small 
 bodies {corpora olivaria,) more regularly and beautifully oval, though in 
 other respects resembling plump grains of wheat, form the domicil of the 
 vital principle. These little eminences, of such importance in the animal 
 economy, and as white as snow, are situated anteriorly and just within 
 the head, where it is united to the neck. 
 
 THE END. 
 
POSTSCRIPT 
 
 The favourable prospects announced for the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons in this city, at the delivery of the 
 foregoing Lecture, are in progress of fulfilment. Already 
 do its numbers exceed those of last year, and they are con- 
 stantly augmenting. When, then, we consider the en- 
 larged and improved means of instruction which this In- 
 stitution now affords, the commodiousness of the building, 
 perhaps unequalled, certainly unsurpassed in the Union, 
 and the unbounded facilities of the Anatomical Department, 
 we may confidently anticipate for it a long and successful 
 course of prosperity and usefulness. 
 
 December 1st, 1837. 
 
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