MASTER NEGA TIVE NO. 92-80713 MICROFILMED 1993 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the "Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or other reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: MITCHELL HENRY TITLE: ESSAY ON THE CONNEXION OF... PLACE* CAMBRIDGE [ENG] DA TE : 1843 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROiFORM TARGET Master Negative # Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record f ' V 215 Zl I'ii-tchell, Henrv V An essay on the connexion of revealed relig- ion nnd medical science, v:hich obtained the '^V/ix" prize at St Bartholomew's hospital in 1843 Cambridge fEng^ 1843 77 p No 1 of a vol ( j of pamphlets r Restrictions on Use: > TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO: FILM .SIZK: ^J ^J)~-'. IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA WAJiB IIB _ DATE FILMED: ^'_lAsA2^ INITIALS _!^_L_ HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS. INC WOODDRIDGE. cf liy c Association for information and image iManagement 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 1 2 3 ilU llllilllllllllilllllllllillllll mmmm Inches 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 n 12 13 14 iiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiH^ 15 mm M ITT TTT I T I I TTT 1.0 km |2.8 S IP^ 16.3 ■ to ts. ^ ' 1.4 |2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 I.I 1.25 T I I I I I T 5 MflNUFflCTURED TO flllM STRNDfiRDS BY APPLIED IMfiGE- INC. ^ ^ ^ i'^^* No.\. r AN ESSAY oir i T.H E CONNEXION 4>F il\5 Ti in the ffiltu i?f llcw l^orU 1 \* REVEALED RELIGION A.KD MEDICAL SCIENCE, WHICH OBTAINED THE "WIXPRFZE AT St. BARTHOLOMEWS HOSPITAL IN 1843. BY HENRY MITCHELL, STUDENT. CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY WARWICK AND CO., HOBSON'S-PLACE. M.DCCC.XLIII. i ^ ERRATUM. "? Page 41, line 2, for " without it is illustrated by whatever, " .tc. read " without it are illustrated by whatever," &c. (\ f < J / f/. Introductory Remarks — The Doctrine of "Design" as evinced in the Creation of the Earth : of Plants : Irrational Animals, and finally of Man — Design evinced strongly in the forma- tion and adaptation of the Organs of Respiration and the Cir- culation — Position and Prospects of Man as revealed in Scrip- ture, and rendered probable by facts notorious in Medicine — Immortality of the Soul — Attributes of the Deity. — Conclude ing Observations on the connexion of Revealed Religion and Medical Science together with certain deductions. > 1 > 1 i INTRODUCTION. " He that takes away Reason to make way for Revelation, puts out the light of both ; and does much about the same as if he would persuade a man to put out his eyes, the better to receive the remote light of an invi- sible star by a telescope." Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding. \ t It is one of the proudest boasts of the Christian, that the Holy Religion which he professes courts inquiry ; and, by challenging his reason, confirms his faith. For, although there may be, as there undoubtedly is, much in his faith which is beyond and above his unassisted reason, there is nothing which is contrary to his reason. To select, therefore, some well-established science, and from facts never questioned in that science, to trace out analogies which render intelligible, or probable, cer- tain facts occasionally questioned in religion — the doing this is but in conformity with the spirit of Christianity : is but carrying out the principle of being able to give " a reason for the hope that is in us." Now, medical science (including in that phrase me- dicine, and all sciences tributary to medicine) is pecu- VI INTRODUCTION. liarly adapted for such selection, and for many reasons. Above all sciences it exhibits to demonstration the ex- istence of a creating and provident intelligence ; it is a science appreciated by many, unknown to none, and, strange to say, it is the science which has been per- verted, in some instances at least, into an instrument for subverting religion, and defying the Godhead. As medicine, then, has furnished the weapon of attack, let it also supply the armour of defence. In thus endeavouring to demonstrate the credibility of Revealed Religion by an appeal to Science, we are not treading unfrequented ground : if we seek for autho- rity or sanction in the " magic of a name," we may find it in Butler, in Paley, in Ray, in Clarke, in Derham, in KeiU, in Newton, and in Locke. The example of men so pious and so learned, whilst it leaves the un- practised writer but slender hopes of compassing origi- nality, removes at least from the attempt all charge of presumption or irreverence ; and convinces us that, should we fail in our endeavour, " We ought t(» blame the culture— not the soil." ( ) I. i V.' . K \ \ \ AN ESSAY, ^C. PART I. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN.^^ When we behold in science or in art, means nicely adapted to an end, and generally if not uniformly at- tdiUihg that end — ^when we remark that certain causes are selected for producing certain effects, which effects they generally, if not uniformly, produce — then we are irresistibly led to imagine and infer the existence of Design ; that is, we think it more probable that some designing agent has selected the causes and arranged the means, than that the causes and means should have arranged themselves, or should have fallen together by mere accident. And in proportion as the end to be obtained was lofty, or the effect mighty, in like pro- portion would the designer obtain credit for the suc- cessfril accomplishment of his design. Now, as it is evident that this position would be ad- mitted by all fair disputants as applicable to art and 8 THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. Tlili DOCTRINE OF DftiSIGN. ^ science, wliy is it not applicable to nature ? If exact and uniform adaptation of certain means to a certain end, accomplished or accomplishing, infer design in art, why not in nature ? If the means did not pro- duce the end by chance in art, why by chance in na- ture ? In effect : if art prove the existence of a de- signing artist, does not nature prove it also ? Admit the position in one instance, and how, logically, can you deny it in the other ? Let us endeavour, then, to ascertain, whether in na- ture there exist means so nicely and so constantly adapted to an end, as to warrant us in pronouncing that adaptation the result not of accident b.ut of design. Let us draw our example from the Creation of Man , as revealed in the book of Genesis. Now, as in an essay it is clearly impossible to detail the proofs of design afforded by every part of the animal economy, let us take our stand upon some one organ, or upon some one series of organs combined to produce some necessary ftmction — the respiratory and circulatory systems are peculiarly eligible : and these systems are so pecuKarly eligible, not because they prove design more clearly or more readily than other systems^ but because they admit of being examined briefly, and with- out continuous appeals to minute anatomy. In order that a being, such as man, may exist beyond the moment of his birth, it is necessary that there be ready prepared for his use, Istly, a certain mixture of gases for him to respire ; Sndly, a certain fluid termed blood, on which the respired gases may produce a V ( \ determinate result ; and, 3rdly, a series of organs in which the air and the blood may mutually act and react. Assuming that our first parents were constituted, — that is, physically constituted as we, their descendants, arie, — and there is no evidence that they were phy- sically otherwise constituted: for it is recorded that Adam ate, and walked, and talked, and slept; then the three essentials above insisted on, were as neces- sary for their continued existence as for ours.* In the first place, then, of Air : for that is the mix- ture of the gases intended for respiration. Air was formerly considered an element: it is now ascertained to be a mechanical mixture of two perma- nently gaseous elements, oxygen and nitrogen : in the proportion of about 20 or 21 parts of oxygen to 80 or 79 parts of nitrogen, in 100 parts of atmospheric air. This relative proportion is observed with wonderful exactness, an exactness the more astonishing when we reflect upon the processes of deterioration and change always going on. Observe, the air is not, as might have been antici- pated, a chemical union : the oxygen and nitrogen are not chemically united, but merely mechanically mixed; fo'r though oxygen and nitrogen may unite, and do unite to form many compound bodies, tliey — as it were * Our first parents, doubtless, possessed many advantages, physical advantages, wliich we lack ; but this does not imply that their or^feiiization wAS physically othei-wise thati, ot contrary to, ours : their advantages were so many additional gifts, superadded to an organization unsullied and undepraved. B 10 THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. in defiance of a natural law — never unite to form atmos- pheric air. And for this exception to a general law, the wisest, the most benevolent reasons mav be assigned. Had it been ordained that the union of oxygen and nitro- gen in the atmosphere should depend upon the higher attraction of chemical affinity, it is easy to perceive that the present beneficial results could not have en- sued. The divellent force exercised by the lungs must have been proportionately increased, and the tranquil process of breathing must have been changed for one of violence and strong exertion. All the active properties of the atmosphere are re- ferable to the oxygen it contains : without oxygen, no animal can live ; it is essential to life, and yet, curious to relate, by altering in any degree the relative amount of oxygen in the air, we endanger the existence of the respiring animal ; diminish the oxygen, and the animal must perish from inaction and exhaustion ; increase the amount of it, and the animal shall die from a morbid excess of vital function inducing fever. Is there nothing in the foregoing observations to rivet our attention, nothing to confirm our faith in the doctrine of design ? Is it by chance or by design that the air is a mechanical mixture, not a chemical union ? that its composition is determinate, unchanged, and unchangeable ? That oxygen exists in it in precisely the right proportion for cherishing life, and in no other ? Which answer affords the more probable, the more reasonable solution? i 4< \ / \ \ THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 11 We have hitherto viewed the atmosphere as a mix- ture of oxygen and nitrogen only, and in connexion with the respiration of animals only : but it is well known that plants respire, and equally well known that they cannot respire, since they cannot exist in, a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen only. Thefr very existence demands the presence of a certain principle in the air, named by Dr. Black " fixed air ;" and since his time, more scientifically known as " carbonic acid gas." This carbonic acid gas exists in the air, at all times and in all places : as likewise does water, in the condition of aqueous vapour. Carbonic acid is a com- pound, consisting of equal volumes of oxygen and carbon, — a compound, in which carbon is in its highest degree of oxidation ; it is heavier than air, and is a product of combustion, fermentation, and the respira- tion of animals. Although essential to the continuance of vegetable existence, it is speedily fatal to animal life, since no animal can respire in an atmosphere that con- tains carbonic acid to any amount. It will be observed, that the principles which are indispensable to animals, are noxious to vegetables ; and that the principle which is necessary to vegetables, is destructive to animals. But since both animals and vegetables exist simultaneously, exist in security and in integrity, how is this seeming anomaly reconciled, this apparent discord converted into universal harmony ? By the following arrangement ; and the entire scope of the material universe cannot furnish an example of design more clearly demonstra- tive, more indubitably prospective. 1 12 THE DQCTRINE OF DESIG^. THP doctrin;e of d;bsign. IB The leaves, and perhaps some other green parts of plants, possess the wonderful power of absorbing and decomposing carbonic acid ; of taking to themselves, as part of their vegetable structure, one element, the car- bon, and of breathing forth again to the air the other element, oxygen. Plants perform this function, only when exposed to the direct rays of the sun, or to the diffused light of day ; sun-light is essential to the due and constant process of decomposition. It will be remarked, that plants abstract from the air carbonic acid, which is destructive to animal life, and evolve oxygen, which is essential ; it will presently be shown, that animals, on their part, retain a gas that is useless to vegetables, and give off a principle hereafter to become their pabulum vitce. Such, and so won- derful, is the harmoniously constructed mutual adapta- tion which — ^not the result surely of blind accident or mere chance — ^pervades and unites the systems of res- piration in plants and animals.* Having stated a few only of the many facts — facts unquestioned — connected with the atmosphere, and the relation of plants to that amosphere, let us ascer- tain whether these unquestioned facts tend in any • Vegetables are amongst the principal agents in purifying the atmosphere ; but they are not the sole means of its purification : the equable diffusive power of gases, the ascent of heated car- bonic acid through the air, the currents induced in the atmos- phere by changes of temperature and electricity, may be enume- rated as causes tending to the same eflFect ; and in all probability many other agents, unknown to us, are constantly in operation to produce the same beneficial result. \ / ) 1 degree to confirm the history of creation, as revealed in Genesis; or, in other words, whether they in any degree render it probable that Creation is the work of a designing, fore-planning Author. The Sacred Volume informs us that light and dark- ness were created : that the waters which had hitherto overspread the void and shapeless earth, were gathered together under the firmament, so that dry land ap- peared ; and that subsequently to this, vegetables were created. Now the facts above detailed, render it most probable that this, and no other, must have been the established order of creation. Light and also air (im- plied in the expression, firmament), together with the dry land, must have appeared before vegetables, since vegetables are rooted in the dry land, and are stimu- lated by the light to decompose the air. That the entire earth was once overspread with water, geology establishes on sufficient evidence. Rooted in the dry land, and struggling as it were for existence, each herb and tree is silently but constantly preparing the atmosphere for an order of beings greater and higher in the scale of creation; and as light and air were created for plants that were subsequently to profit by such creation, so vegetables were gradually improving the air, and at the same time preparing themselves for a race of beings that was subsequently to profit by that existence.* In the present day, it is no uncommon occurrence to notice ferns, palms, and mosses preparing, as it were, desolate regions for future habitation. s 14 THE DOCTRINE OP DESIGN. And in due time that race appears : tor irrational animals having been created, man enters a world already prepared for his reception. That this was in reality the order of creation, both botany and geology agree in affinning ; that this must have been the order of creation the present state of our knowledge renders as strongly probable as that we did not create ourselves, or were not created by mere accident. Man, then, having appeared in the world — that world being prepared for him — can we detect any appearance of design in the structure and arrange- ment of those means, by the agency of which he will continue in the world i And this brings us to consider, 2ndly. " That certain fluid, termed blood, on which the respired gases may produce a determinate result." Now, concerning blood, physiologists diflfer greatly : they differ as to the method, and period, and process of its formation : they are ignorant of the organ or of the apparatus of organs, by which this important fluid is secreted or elaborated ; but they all agree in assign- ing to it a post of the highest importance in the animal economy, — they one and all agree in the emphatic language of Scripture, that " the blood is the life," for a gradual diminution of its amount brings us nearer and neaier to death, whilst a sudden abstraction of any quantity brings death itself. The blood is the fluid from which are derived the materials for the formation and nutrition of all parts of the animal body ; it takes up the effete decomposed particles from the difl'erent tissues, for the purpose of their excretion by special I i 1 { THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 15 organs, and is renovated by the new nutrient matters poured into it by a system of vessels, known as lymphatics or absorbents. The blood which is brought to the heart from the lungs by the pulmonary veins, and projected by the left ventricle through the aorta, and its branches into all parts of the body, has a hrigU red colour, that which returns through the venous system of the body to the right ventricle to be thrown by it again into the lungs, has a dark red colour. This dark or vmous hlood having performed the circuit of the bodv, be- comes unfit for again stimulating into unwearied action its various organs; it must previously undergo some process of purification, some process of chemical change ; it must in effect be converted from the dark red into the bright red, that is, from venous into arterial blood. To effect and secure the process of *^ arteriali- zation," (as the conversion of venous into arterial blood is termed) is the object and end of respiration. Im- pelled by the right side of the heart, venous blood rushes into minute and attenuated vessels spread out on the walls of the air vesicles of the luno-s. A current of air and a stream of blood are thus brought into so close an approximation that nothing intervenes between the two fluids, but the fine membranes of which the air vesicles and the capillary branches of the pulmonary artery are composed ; and these mem- branes being pervious to air, the air comes into direct contact with the blood, the two fluids react on each other, and in this manner is accomplished the ultimate object of respiration. 16 THE DOCTRINE OP DESIGN. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 17 Upon examining the fluids thus exposed to this mutual action, it will be found that both have under- gone remarkable but uniform changes. The air has lost oxygen and acquired a nearly equal volume of carbonic acid, whilst the blood has yielded up carbonic acid to acquire a nearly equal volume of oxygen; it has rejected that which was pernicious to obtain that which is vital, and by the change it loses its dark venous hue, and assumes the bright arterial colour, — it entered the liing unable to nourish the body, and unequal to maintain life : it quits the lung the very fountain and source of nourishment, the essential sup- port of vitality. All the manifold causes, concomitants, and effects of' respiration have not here been enumerated, but it is con- jectured that enough has beeti said to answer the ends proposed. Enough has been' said to show clearly the mutual relation of animals and Vegetables — to show that each system lives and performs its part not alone or selfishly, but for the general benefit of a mighty whole — to show that when one system rejects what is per- nicious to its own welfare, it is but evolving a principle essential to some other system-^to show that the har- mony each system diflfuses is but the counterpart of the harmony it enjoys. Is, then, this exactly adapted mutual relation, this prospectively contrived rejection and adoption, this nice and pervading harmony, the mere result of some lucky chance, some fortunate accident? In this " mighty maze," is there traceable ^*' no plan?" Or does this exquisite art exist without an artist ? » 1^ I i )& V . r > 3rdly. We will now briefly advert to the series of organs, by the instrumentality of which the air and blood are enabled to act and react on each other — the heart, the larynx, trachea, bronchi, and also the lungs. The blood, being necessary to nourish the tissues and to stimulate the organs, must be in motion to be borne to them. An apparatus is provided, partly for the purpose of originating an imjielling force to put the blood in motion, and partly for the purpose of convey- ing the blood when in motion to the different parts of the body; the heart is the impelling organ, the great vessels in immediate connexion with it are the trans- mitting organs. The Heart is divided into two sets of chambers, one for the reception of the blood from the different parts of the body, the other for the communication of the impulse which keeps the blood in motion. The cham- ber which receives the blood is termed an auricle, and is connected with a vessel termed a vein : that which communicates the impulse is termed a ventricle, and is connected with an artery. The auricles are situated immediately over the ventricles, from which they are separated by a septum, but with which they commu- nicate by an opening (termed the auriculo-ventricular orifice), this orifice being guarded by an exquisitely contrived flood-gate or valve, which permits the blood to flow onwards in the proper direction, but prevents all regurgitation. It is customary to divide the heart into a right and c 18 THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. left side, and to say that it consists of a right and left auricle, a right and left ventricle. It is above stated, that in nomishing the tissues and stimulating the organs the blood parts with its nutritive and stimulating constituents, and receives in return some ingredients which can no longer be usefully employed in the economy, and others which are po- sitively injurious. An apparatus must be established, then, for its renovation and depuration : this organ is the lung, and to this organ the blood must in like manner be conveyed. Thus the blood moves in a double circle, one from the heart to the body, and from the body back to the heart, termed the systemic circle; the other from the heart to the lung, and from the lung back to the heart, termed the pulmonic circle. Hence, the human heart is double, consisting of two corresponding parts, pre- cisely the same in name, in nature, and in office ; the one appropriated to the greater, or the systemic, the other to the lesser, or the pulmonic circidation. There is a complete separation between these two portions of the heart, formed by a strong muscular partition, which prevents any communication between them, except through the medium of vessels. From this meagre and imperfect account of the heart, enough only being given to understand the theory of its action, let us trace the circulation of the blood through it. The veins which carry the blood to the right or pulmonic chambers are two, one of which THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 19 i ' f i } M^ \ \ brings it from the upper, and the other from the lower parts of the body ; the first is called the superior, and the second the inferior, vena cava. Both pour their blood into the right auricle ; from ihe right auricle it passes into the right ventricle, from which springs the artery which carries the blood from the heart to the lung, the pulmonary artery : this is the pulmonic circle. From the lung, the blood is returned to the heart by four veins, termed pulmonary veins, which pour the blood into the left auricle ; from the left auricle it passes into the left ventricle, from which springs the artery which carries out the blood to the system, termed the aorta : this is the systemic circle. In the system, the minute branches of the aorta unite with the minute branches that form the veme cavce, which return the blood to the right auricle of the heart : and thus the double circle is completed. In this manner, then, is the heart's action continued, unwearied, unaltered, uninterrupted, from the first breath that betokens life, to the final expiration that announces death. The heart, contracting v^ith a pressure of sixty pounds, pumps through itself the whole mass of circu- lating fluid, about twenty-eight pounds, say, twice in every five minutes, or twenty-four times in every hour. In order that the blood shall proceed in the proper direction, and in no other, certain flood-gates or valves are contrived, which by their peculiar construction and position, prevent all reflux and regurgitation, and com- «0 THE DOCTRINE OP DESIGN. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 21 pel, as it were, the current to pursue the proper direc- tion ; valves are as essential for the heart to act effec- tively, as they are for a common pump to act effectively; and the arrangement is as mechanical and as clearly necessary in one case as in the other. The contraction of the ventricles would drive the blood into the auricles and veins, as well as into the arteries, if the valves were not so constructed and attached as to allow the expul- sion of the blood only in certain directions ; and when the contraction of the ventricle ceases, regurgitation from the arteries cannot take place, for the blood itself presses down the valves, towards the centre of the vessel, and spreads them out, so as to close the ori- fice ; thus the heart, by this arrangement of its valves, is constituted a kind of forcing-pump. The force exerted by the heart is vital ; it is distin- guished from mechanical force, in being produced by the very engine that exerts it. In the best constructed machinery, there is no real generation of power : there is merely concentration and direction of it ; but the heart produces a force equal to a pressure of sixty pounds, by the gentlest application of a bland fluid. Here no force is communicated to be again given out, as in every mechanical moving power ; but it is new power, power really and properly generated ; and this power is the result of vital action, and is never in any case the result of action that is not vital. To guard an organ of so great importance, the heart is enclosed in the bony walls of the thorax, and is, more- over, invested with a tough, strong, membranous tis- ^ ^ \ ^.. \ sue, the pericardium, which surrounds it in such man- ner as to protect its substance, without confining its motion ; the inner surface of this membrane is continu- ally bedewed by a serous secretion, which keeps the heart in a state of suppleness and moisture. The action of the heart is involuntary ; had it been otherwise, our constant care, our unresting attention to a function so essential, would leave us leisure for nothing else. The Larynx, Trachea, and Bronchi. — The windpipe is a tube which extends from the mouth and nostrils to the lung ; it is attached to the back part of the tongue, and passes down the neck, immediately before the eso- phagus (the tube which leads to the stomach). In dif- ferent parts of its course, the windpipe is differently constructed, performs different offices, and receives different names. The first, or uppermost division, is termed the larynx, the second the trachea, the third the bronchi ; it is preserved as a rigid, open tube, by the disposition of certain highly organized cartilaginous rings. The larynx is the organ of the voice, and, viewed in this capacity, its conformation exhibits many and won- derful adaptations to the circumstances that regulate sound : but it is only as an organ of respiration that we are here called upon to examine it. At its upper part, is a narrow opening of a triangular figure called the glottis, by which air is admitted to and from the lung ; immediately above the opening is placed the cartilage which obtains its name from its situation, epi-glottis ; this is attached to the root of the tongue, and may be 22 THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 2S distinctly seen in the living body by pressing down the tongue. As the glottis is situated so immediately before the esophagus, how is it that food intended for the esophagus so rarely passes into the glottis ? By an arrangement as beautiful in its contrivance as it is beneficial in its result : during deglutition the epi-glottis is carried completely over the glottis, partly because it is necessarily forced backwards when the tongue presses backwards in delivering the food to the pharynx ; partly because it is carried backwards by certain minute muscles which act directly on it; and perhaps also partly in consequence of its own pecidiar irritability : thus then is a bridge formed by which the foreign matter may reach its destination without risk or fear of danger. The moment the action of deglutition has been performed, the epi-glottis springs up from the aperture of the glottis. Not only does the glottis reject the touch of a crumb of bread, or of a drop of water, should any crumb or diop accidentally fall into it, with a spasm that convulses the whole frame, but it actually refuses to admit, actually closes itself against certain gases destructive to animal life ; all the acid gases, for instance (excepting carbonic acid), chlorine, nitric oxide, fuoboric acid gas, fluosilicic acid gas, and ammonia. Here then is an ever-watchful sentinel, who not only gives the alarm but repels the attack. Yet this irritable organ so painfully impatient of offence, is serenely passive on the inspiration of common air. Thus do we owe our safety to its sensibility, our comfort to its repose. \ I 1 \ The second portion of the windpipe, termed the trachea, commences at the under part of the larynx, and extends as far as the third dorsal vertebra, oppo- site to which it divides into two branches termed the bronchi. One of these branches termed the right bronchus, goes to the right lung, the other branch, the left bronchus, goes to the left lung. The bronchial tubes do not divide to any great degree of minuteness when they arrive in the lung, but terminate abruptly in air vesicles. These vesicles have been before mentioned as those, on the membranous walls of which the ramifica- tions of the pulmonary artery are found. The junction of air vesicles and blood vessels constitutes the lung ; for the lung is composed of air vessels and blood vessels united and sustained by cellular tissue, and inclosed in a thin, firm, membrane, the pleura. This pleura is a serous membrane, exceedingly thin and delicate, but still firm, which lines the inner surface of the walls of the thorax, and is reflected over the lungs. A fold of each pleura extends from the spinal column to the sternum, dividing the cavity of the thorax into two parts ; this portion of pleura is termed the me- diastinum. The two lungs occupy the sides of the chest; they are completely separated from each other by the membranous partition just described; between the two folds of the mediastinum, namely, in the middle of the chest, but inclining somewhat to the left side, is placed £4 THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 25 the heart, enveloped in another serous membrane, the pericardium. In the living body, the lung on each side completely fills the cavity of the chest, following passively the move- ments of its walls, and accurately adapting itself to its size ; consequently, during life, there is no cavity, the chest being always completely full; the pleura which invests the lungs, and that which lines the ribs, is con- tinually lubricated by a serous moisture, which enables it to play backwards and forwards with much ease, and without attrition. The bony parietes of the thorax, from their arched form, are admirably adapted to afford secure protection to the important parts contained within them ; whilst from their lightness, elasticity, and arrangement, they are no less adapted for incessant and easy motion. The rationale of inspiration and expiration is as follows : — Atmospheric air, or perhaps the instinctive desire for respiration, irritates the nerves concerned therein; these impart or communicate that irritation to the respiratory muscles, and by their agency the ribs rise, a certain muscle dividing the thorax from the abdomen, termed the diaphragm, descends, and the lungs passively following all movements of the parietes both elongate and expand. But by such elongation and expansion the air in the interior of the lungs becomes rarer than the external air, — or in the case of an animal breathing for the first time, a vacuum is created ; the external air then rushes in and con- \ A i i f \ tinues rushing in, until an equilibrium is established between the density of the air within the lungs, and the density of the external air. At the instant that the expanding lung admits the current of air, it receives a stream of blood — the air rushes through the trachea to the air vesicles — the blood flows through the trunks of the pulmonary artery to its capillary branches, spread out on the walls of the air vesicles, driven by the contraction of the right ventricle of the heart ; and thus are the air and the blood brought into contact. But this act of inspiration — this raising of the ribs and descend- ing of the diaphragm — calls into action the power of certain antagonistic muscles, the abdominal. These muscles exerting themselves pull down the ribs again — the diaphragm ascends — the cavity of the thorax diminishes, and the lungs are compressed, such com- pression diminishing their bulk, and forcing out the greater part of the contained air. But at the same instant that a portion of air is expelled from the system, a stream of blood, — namely, blood that has been acted on by the air — arterial blood — is propelled from the lung, and is borne by the pulmo- nary veins to the left side of the heart, thence to be transmitted to the system, there to diffuse life and nourishment, unresting energy, unwearied activity. Such is a brief account of the means and ends, the causes and effects for the sake of which, and by the instrumentality of which, the respiratory system ^* moves and has its being." DEDUCTIONS FROM From this brief outline, slender and imperfect as it confessedly must be, since its aim is rather to explain principle than illustrate detail — rather to inquire why organs act than to narrate how they act — in this brief outline can we detect any traces of that design which, if once admitted, must infer an intelligent, prospective designer ? Or, is it merely a list of certain phenomena which occasionally follow each other, we know not why or wherefore, without order or without connexion ? Is there no design traceable in the air as a mechanical mixture ? Or, if it be a chance mixture in this case why do not oxygen and nitrogen form chance mix- tures in any other case ? If we admit chance at all, we must not limit it at all. If the adjustment of valves in the heart — valves which compel the fluid to assume one direction, and that dii-ection the right direction — be brought about by chance, is the adjustment of similar valves in certain vessels the result of chance ? or is the presence of valves in one system of vessels and their absence in another the effect of chance ? * Is it by chance that the glottis uniformly rejects food, — the esophagus never ? Or, that the glottis uni- formly admits atmospheric air, but never admits certain irritant gases ? If these anatomical contrivances prove not design, then does no one work of human art prove design : if anatomy be chance, all is chance. The mind * This allusion has reference to the well known physiological feet, that veins are generally provided with valves, the arteries never, since the valves of the aorta and pulmonary arteries at their origin, belong rather to the heart than to the arteries. \ 4 « •i ^ { THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. «7 that does not see, or will not acknowledge design in the works of nature, ought to refer its scepticism to some inward defect of its own, rather than to any lack of external evidence. But it may be contended by some, that what has been termed " a principle of generation," will sufficiently account for all the phenomena in anatomy, without seeking farther or higher for a final cause. The reply to this will be, that " generation " is not a " principle," but a process. Now a process is the " established method of producing any effect," and evidently implies the adaptation of certain means to attain a certain, end : but such adaptation would infer design. Thus '' generation," so far from disproving design, would but afford a strik- ing instance of it. Or, if it be urged thaf all we see may be referred, that is, finally referred, to the operation of the " laws of nature," our answer will be in the well-known language of Paley, " A law pre-supposes an agent, for it is only the mode according to which an agent proceeds ; it implies a power, for it is the order according to "which that power acts; without this agent, without this power, which are both distinct from itself, the law does nothing, is nothing."* i( (f a a \ * The " laws of nature," so far from being, as they are some- times conveniently assumed to be, inflexible and immutable, frequently bend to circumstances — instances of exception to, or modifications of, otherwise universal laws, are to be found in the mechanical mixture of the gases that compose air, and in the sudden expansion of freezing water, the objects attained by 28 DEDUCTIONS FROM It is sometimes urged, that as we in reality know nothing, so neither ought we in reality to speculate concerning these matters ; but the fact of our not know- ing everything, does not lessen either the value or the truth of the little we do know. We may not know how to construct or arrange the valves of a forcing-pump, but we do know that the construction and arrangement evidence intelligence ; we know enough for our argu- ment, — nay, more than this, we know enough to render it highly probable, that did we know more, our argu- ment would appear yet more incontestable. WJiy then should we go out of our way to conjure up objections, when common sense and common experience alike pro- nounce a solution much more rational, and much more probable ? We know one cause, and o?ily one, capable of uniformly adapting certain means, to procure certain ends : that one and only cause is " design,^^ the off- spring of Intelligence. Let us then, quitting all quib- bling sophistries and transcendental speculations, as useless — let us boldly and at once affirm, what all common sense and common experience forbid us to deny — ^let us at once acknowledge, that in creation we recognise ^^ design;" let us at once declare that God is the designer. But it may still be objected, that admitting a Deity designed the world, you have not proved He created such exceptions render it infinitely more probable that a design- ing and benevolent being has pre-ordained the exception than that the "laws of nature" should suddenly and for the occasion relax their usual operation. THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 39 *^ ( i ( matter ; a designer does not create, that is, does not of necessity create, he only arranges that which is already created. A man may arrange various parts in any given work of art, so as to constitute a forcing-pump : but he does not create one particle of matter, — he is a designer, but not a creator. How, then, is it to be proved that God is the Creator, and not merely the Designer ? or why, since something must have always existed, may not matter have been that something ? Now, a complete and positive answer to this not un- frequent question is impossible ; that is, our profound ignorance renders such an answer unattainable. We do not even know what this so called " matter " is, with which we make so vastly free in our speculations, and cannot therefore estimate either the duration of its existence, or the mystery of its creation; but we do know, that, admitting an Intelligent Designer of nature, we must allow His power to be infinite, since we can perceive no bounds to it, and to assert that any creation is beyond omnipotence, is to be guilty of a contradiction in terms. Probability, — a trust-worthy guide where mathematical certainty fails — ^probability would in- duce us to believe, that He who could animate dead mat- ter with the principle of vitality; that He who can from elements, petty and discordant, elicit results mighty and harmonious ; that He who can sustain and regulate each and every part of an entire universe, could also have created that matter which He compels into unfailing obedience. Besides all this, we daily sec mind, an ex- \ 30 DEDUCTIONS FROM istence nobler than matter, created, not from matter, for it is immaterial, as will hereafter be proved, but created out of nothing ; but if God can create a thinking, which is the nobler substance, out of nothing, a fortiori, He can create matter. This much common logic renders probable : and if the arguer from probabilities convinces not, no one will convince who admits that he is unable to define the infinite, or to ascertain the incomprehen- sible. Thus, then, science, philosophy, and probability alike agree in corroborating the assertion, that "In the begin- ning, God created the heaven and the earth." The preceding remarks have tended to show, that there is nothing unreasonable, nothing improbable, nothing opposed to science, or the present state of our knowledge in the Mosaic account of creation ; and our endeavour has been rendered the more earnest by the reflexion, that of late years the books of Moses have been subjected to attacks, as uncalled for as they are unfounded.* These books have been characterised as ♦ In receiving the account of physical phenomena, as detailed in the early parts of the Old Testament, we must constantly bear in mind, first, the exceedingly metaphorical nature of the composition in which such detail is couched ; and, secondly, the utter ignorance in physical science of the readers to whom the descriptions are addressed : so that evidently, the sacred writers sought rather to adapt such descriptions to the limited compre- hension of the reader, by making use of well-understood images or generally received expositions, than to aim at elaborate ex- planations, which, though more correct, would prove altogether useless, because altogether unintelligible. 4 \ t> if i THE DOCTRINE OF DESIGN. 31 f • ^ utterly opposed to all science, and as unessential to Christianity — ^in short, as documents that may be re- ceived or rejected, as best suits our fancy or our convenience. That they are not utterly opposed to science, a peru- sal of the foregoing pages will, it is hoped, go far to satisfy the reader. That those books which were deemed worthy of frequent quotation by Christ him- self, are unessential to Christianity, is a proposition that will be assented to by those only who imagine, that tamely yielding up the out-works of our faith, is the way to secure the "Holy of Holies" itself from desecration. Their reception or rejection is a question that a man must answer to his conscience and to his God. But the world being created, and prepared for him, man is not only sent into it, but he is sent into it to occupy some peculiar definite position, that position being determined upon before his creation. " And God " said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; " and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, " and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Thus man is not only to live and move on the earth, but to live and move a mo- narch on that earth ; a monarch pre-ordained by Him whose image he reflects. But, as in helpless infancy and drivelling old-age, the descendants of Adam are inferior in power to very many beasts of the field ; and even in vigorous manhood, are inferior to not a few of them : how happens it that they a iC i^ 32 THE POSITION OF MAN, continue that dominion which their great Ancestor established ?* It is on account of his mental and reasoning faculties, that man preserves an undisturbed sway over brute force : it is his mind that subdues matter. Let us, then, examine the constitution of this mind, so essential to the well-being of man ; and this examination shall be so brief, as barely to subject us to the charge of straying from medical into metaphysical science. Observe then the faculty of reason, so necessary in its existence, so mighty in its results ; observe the helps which are provided for the exertion of this faculty: — Istly. Attention, the power by which the mind fixes itself upon a subject. 2ndly. Curiosity, or the thirst of knowledge, a desire that renders any new idea the source of attraction, a desire proportioned to the novelty of objects, and consequently to our igno- rance of them, a desire, the gratification of which teaches us all we know in infancy and early youth; and 3rdly. The powers of association whether natural or acquired. Consider, moreover, the phenomena of memory, a faculty so important that without it no intellectual progress whatever could be made — consider the efficacy of habit in rendering that memory both ready and tenacious— the efficacy of habit in effecting our im- * The brute creation appears, as it were by instinct, to ac- knowledge the natural superiority of man ; for the strongest brute avoids him in general, and rarely attacks him, except in self-defence. ( ^ r ^ i HOW MAiNTAINEt). ss \ provement, both intellectual and moral, since it fur- nishes us with the chief, almost the only power we possess of making the different faculties of the mind obedient to the will. Scan well these phenomena, and we can but admits that these are means adapted and intended to produce some necessary end : we can but admit that not the heavens alone proclaim the glory of God, or the earth only shows forth His handy-work ; but that " design" is evidenced in the mind, as in the body, by the selec- tion of certain means to produce certain ends. That the means selected are efficient to produce the end intended, all history past and present avouches^ we read the fact in the conversion of roving barbarians into polished Athenians — in the transformation of law- less bandits into voluptuous Romans ; and, aided by a pure and humanizing religion, in the change of blood- stained idolaters into civilized Christians. It is not denied that this superiority over brutes may, in some degree at leasts be ascribed to the pecu- liarly advantageous conformation of the human body, to the agQity of our foot, to the swiftness and strength of our arm, to our upright and commanding position, to the quickness and extended range of our vision ; but still all these physical advantages without the superin- tendence and co-operation of mind would have left us comparatively low in the scale of creation. Such was man when he arose, as yet pure and un- polluted, to govern the teeming world delegated to his control ; but something was still wanted to crown the E 34 THE POSITION OF MAN. full measure of his bliss : though a monarch he was an hermit, with no one to share his empire or partake his bliss. " And the Lord God said : it is not good that the man shoidd be alone, I will make him an help meet for him ;" and then appeared Eve, the mother of us all. If woman were destined as an "help" meet for man when she had but to partake of his perfect felicity, how "meet" an "help" she has become to him since his lapse from virtue and attending happiness, let all his- tory declare. It may be affirmed, without risk of contradiction, that woman, in every age, in all climes, has been the first and leading agent in humanizing and ameliorating society. Blot out her existence, and the physical world would lose half its beauty — the moral, all its light. Our first parents so created, and so endued were the happy denizens of Eden, where sin and shame, desola- tion and angidsh, were known but as a threat, were viewed but as possibilities that woidd never affect them with a sense of sorrowful reality. Viewing a creation so happy and so unruffled — man gifted with vast capacities for enjoying pleasure, and the universe abounding with means for supplying it — who, in picturing to himself such a world, can refrain from feeling that intensity of significance conveyed by the sacred historian in the words " and God saw every thing that he had made : and behold it was very good." After describing the work of creation, in a style suffi- ciently accurate to satisfy faith, if not sufficiently minute A- i OUR ORIGIN FROM ONE COMMON STOCK. 35 to gratify curiosity, the book of Moses proceeds to de- tail the fall of man from virtue and happiness, and to relate the sad consequences of such fall.* These dire- ful consequences unfortunately are too often experi- enced ; are too generally known to sufFering humanity, to require proof from medicine, or any other science. It has often been afiirmed, that the numberless dif- ferences of colour, stature, and intellect, observable in the great family of man, seem to indicate that all man- kind could never by any possibility have deduced their origin from one common stock. But this argument, however specious it may appear, is quite disproved by the researches of modern science, which demonstrate most unequivocally that mankind are not different spe- cies of one genus, but different varieties of one species. " The races of the human species," says Miiller, in his admirable Elements of Physiology, "answer to the general notions of a race ; they are different forms of one species, which are capable of fruitful union, and are propagated by generation ; they are not different species of one genus : for were that the case, their hybrids would be unfruitful. Here, as in the case of *' other animals, all the varieties are to be regarded as " aberrations from one type, caused partly by differences in the progeny of the same parents, maintained by repeated propagation of similar forms with one ano- ({ (C <( m A. more significantly, and more accurately, than any other known language in the world. The names of various ancient nations also are of Hebrew origin, being derived from the sons or grandsons of Shem, Ham, and Japhet; as the Assyrians, from Ashur; the Elamites, from Elam ; the Aramaeans, from Aram ; the Lydians, from Lud ; the Cimbrians or Cimmerians, " from Gomer ; the Medians, from Medai, the son of Japhet ; the lonians, from Javan, &c. "Further, the names given to the heathen deities, suggest an additional proof of the antiquity and origi- nality of the Hebrew language : thus Japetus is de- " rived from Japhet ; Saturn from the Hebrew word nnti^ (Satan) to be concealed, as the Latins derive Latium from " latere," to lie hid ; because Saturn " was reported to have been concealed in that country from the arms of Jupiter, or Jove as he is also called, v^hich name is by many deduced from Jehovah : Vul- can, from Tubal-Cain, who first discovered the use of iron, brass, &c. Lastly, — the traces of Hebrew " which are to be found in very many other languages, " and which have been noticed by several learned men, " afford another argument in favour of its antiquity and priority. These vestiges are particularly conspicuous in the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Phoenician, '' and other languages spoken by the people who dwelt " nearest to Babylon, where the first division of Ian- " gnages took place." (f tt it tt tt tt tt it tt it tt it tt tt tt tt tt PART II. THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF MAN. Such as we have above detailed is the present position of man as recorded by Revelation, and confirmed by the results of common experience : but, do the Sacred Pages, that relate his fallen condition, afford no ground for hoping brighter things to come ? Is this admirable apparatus of organs placed beneath the control of a still more marvellously constructed mind, merely that he may deceive himself with day-dreams which death shall prove to be unsubstantial ? In this harmonious combi- nation of mind and matter, shall nothing prove eternal but the silence of the dust ? If this be the case, the Creation of Man is a startling anomaly; for mighty means produce but a common-place result. We are not, however, abandoned to a state so utterly hopeless, for the Bible announces in terms too express to be misunderstood, that mankind is appointed to live in a future state ; ^^ that, then, every one shall be re- warded or punished, rewarded or punished respec- tively, for all that behaviour here, which we compre- hend under the words virtuous or vicious, morally <( « (( IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 39 .i * f I, A " good or evil, and that our present life is a probation, " a state of trial and of discipline for that future life." Let us enquire how far the science of Medicine, by ana- logy or positive fact, renders such promises in no degree incredible or improbable : and firstly of that which is the foundation of all our hopes, of all our feaxs— a future life. That Mind, or the Soul, exists, is at least as evident as that Matter exists ; nay, some maintain, even more > evident,* for all aroimd us may be merely a creation of fancy, and often is nothing else : t but that Mind, that the sentient principle, that the thing or being which we call " I," and " We," and which thinks, feels, and reasons, should have no existence, is a contradiction in terms. To know, therefore, that we are, and that we think, implies a knowledge of the soul's existence : but as this knowledge is altogether independent of matter, we have at any rate as safe an assurance of the existence of mind as we can possibly have of the existence of matter. But if this existing mind or soul be not immO' terial, we have no ground from reason for presuming it immortal ; on the contrary, if it consist of material parts, or if it consist of any modification of matter— or if it be inseparably connected with any given pecuHar confor- mation or organization of matter^then of necessity it * The late Bishop Berkeley, in his " Principles of Human Knowledge," boldly asserts that we have no evidence of the existence of any thing external to our minds ; thus altogether denying the existence of matter. t In dreams, in the delirium of fever, in delirium tremens, &c. &c. I 40 IMMATERIALITY OF T&E SOUL. IMMATERIALITY OF THE SOUL. 41 (C a must perish as the physical frame dissolves : for, though the body be not absolutely annihilated, yet every par- ticular conformation or organization is absolutely anni- hilated, and the soul depending for its existence on such organization or form of matter, must of necessity share its fate. The immateriality of the soul, therefore, is essential to its immortality. In the celebrated tale, Hasselas, Dr. Johnson has defined immateriality to be " a natural power of perpetual duration, as a consequence of exemption from all causes of decay." There exist many and good grounds for believing that mind is altogether independent of, and altogether different from, matter ; that is, altogether immaterial. In the first place — ^if any arrangement of, or combina- tion in, matter, give birth to mind, this is an operation at once peculiar and unexampled ; for figure will pro- duce figure still, when combined with figure, though different from what it was before ; but it will produce nothing else, save only figure : motion will produce only motion ; colour, colour ; smell, smeU. But all the combinations you can imagine of figure, motion, colour, and smell, can only produce a new combination, in which there can be no absolutely new quality that was not there before. But the " Materialists " have to main- tain that, by matter being arranged in a particular way, there is produced both the organized body, and some- thing altogether different from it, and having not one of its properties — neither dimensions, nor weight, nor colour, nor form. t i ^ i \ A ;f ^ \ Again, the mind's independence of matter, and ca- pacity of existence without it, is illustrated by whatever shows the entire dissimilarity of its constitution the inconceivable rapidity of its operations, for example, — its power of calling up images in dreams, in a moment of time — and its power of abstracting itself from present scenes and present occurrences, even in our waking hours. Another striking dissimilarity is found in the fact that mind is actually created every day ; whilst the ma- terial world affords no example of fresh creation : such as it was, in point of quantity, when its existence began, such it still is, — every part is subject to change, unceas- ing change ; but no one particle has, since the begin- ning of all things, been created or destroyed. Again, a perfect image is reflected on a mirror, a lake of clear water, and on the retina of the eye : the conscious being alone, who uses the eye, recognises the image ; the eye itself no more perceives it than does the mirror or the lake, yet is the image equally well re- flected in all cases. Now, admitting the soul can only in this case perceive through the help of the senses, how does it perceive tvith that help, if the agent of percep- tion be not something superior to mere matter ? AU our ideas of annihilation are derived wholly from matter — from the examples of change undergone by matter ; but for the example of these changes we should not have even a notion of destruction or annihilation : but we have above shewn that matter, since the first dawn of Creation, Tiever has been annihilated; indeed. 42 IMMATERIALITY OF THE SOUL. when we speak of annihilation, we coin a word to which no precise meaning can be attached by our imagina- tions. Is mind, then, more liable to destruction than matter ? Since we cannot, by any process of analogous reasoning, conceive anything ceasing to be, which once existed, surely it is more logical to conclude that mind, once created, continues to exist, than that it suddenly and at once perishes. But, if it be demanded, why should not the mind, as the body, be changed or dissipated, or resolved into its elements ? The answer is at hand. The mind differs from the body in this-^it has no parts, it is absolutely one and simple ; absolutely integral, indivisible, indk- certihle, and consequently indestructible. "Whatever perishes," says Dr. Johnson, in Rasselas, " is de- stroyed by the solution of its contexture, and separa- tion of its parts ; nor can we conceive how that which " has no parts, and therefore admits no solution, can be '' naturally corrupted or impaired." The mind's independence of the body is frequently strikingly exemplified at the termination of many chro- nic diseases of a fatal nature, when,— with physical strength utterly prostrated, and the corporeal frame worn down to a very shadow of its former self,— the mind, still amid this wreck of matter unaltered and un- impaired, shaQ evince tokens of apprehension, memory, reason, all entire ; shall evince, moreover, tokens of the utmost force of affection— a sense of character, of shame and honour, and the highest mental enjoyments and sufferings even to the last grasp. a it (( IMMATERIALITY OF THE SOUL. 4S \ It may also be remarked, that the physical capabili- ties of the body begin to degenerate from the age of thirty at the latest— its patience of fatigue, its power of continued active exertion, for example : not so the mind, which flourishes in the frdl vigour of its energy up to a very much greater age, and begins not to fail until the senses fail to supply it with impressions from the exter- nal world ; for, as the senses are the channels by which mind communicates with matter, when these channels cease to convey impressions, the mind of course ceases to be cognizant of them, since it cannot respond to that which it is not permitted to appreciate. But here the defect resides not in the mind, the source of intelligence, but in the bodily senses, its ministers ; whose duty it is to convey information— and even then, the mind will, as it were, retire within itself, and, forgetting a world that has almost ceased to disturb it — ^will ruminate as logically as ever upon by-gone scenes and by-gone occurrences.* • When we employ the phrase " independence of matter," we neither assert nor imply that the laws that regulate matter do not, to a certain extent at least, modify the development and manifestation of mind; we merely affirm that material influence can affect or modify the essence of mind in no kind or degree : it is but reasonable that, whilst the mind resides in its " tabernacle of flesh," It should in some measure be amenable to the laws that regulate the world ; for if man were sent into the world, and the noblest part of his nature might with impunity bid de- fiance to all the laws that regulate that world, what a scene of lawless confusion would disgrace all Nature ! The mind is suf- ficiently influenced by the body to remind it that it must become a fellow-sufferer as well as a fellow-labourer. 44 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. But the crowning argument for the Soul's indepen- dence of, and dis-connexion with, matter, is derived from strict and accurate researches in Physiology. It is proved to demonstration, that each and every part of the animal body is continually undergoing the process of waste and repair : that effete particles are constantly being removed from the body, and fresh particles are as constantly being deposited to supply their place. This process goes on so rapidly and so uniformly that, in about the space of every five years (or perhaps less), the animal frame does not contain one single particle that, five years before, entered into its composition : the ani- mal frame has, in that interval, undergone complete destruction, and as complete repair. This applies to every part of the body. But the mind remains un- altered amidst all this : every old particle in the brain has been removed, even the form — that is, the old form of the brain has disappeared — the old organization has been broken up — but the old mind, of perhaps fifty years duration, is stiU there : five times in those years has the brain undergone entire change ; but yet in that unaltered mind still dwell the scenes of our boy-hood, and the visions of our youth. This argument, the truth of which no one can deny, and the cogency of which ought neither to be evaded nor explained away, goes far to prove that there is nothing impossible in the notion that the soul can outlive the entire destruction of the body : whether that destruction be affected suddenly and at once, as by death, or slowly and by degrees, as in absorption, matters but little to the argument. k I )■ IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 45 \ Destruction of the body by no means infers destruction of the mind ; and this position the above -quoted phy- siological fact appears to prove almost as rigorously as '•' if one were to rise from the dead." Now if death — that is the dissolution of the animal frame — be not de- structive of the soul, it is scarcely imaginable that any- thing else can be. Thus far our arguments have endeavoured to show the possibility of the soul surviving the body ; let us now turn to examine the probability of its doing so. A firm and unswerving belief in the immortality of the soul, and in its existence in a future state, has pre- vailed, and still prevails, in every country — however polished or however barbarous — in the intellectual phi- losopher of Athens, and in the cannibal savage of New Zealand. Such belief appears, in fact, a principle, ra- ther than a doctrine, a principle which a vast majority of men in all times and in all nations, has admitted as it were by instinct, and believed by intuition — a principle which has been, and still continues, the very ground-work of every religion under Heaven. The general preva- lence of such belief in an hereafter is, to say the least, a remarkable phenomenon, and one that needs to be ac- counted for. A plausible explanation of it is the Divine implantation of the belief : if this solution be rejected, the objectors are bound to substitute a better. If not in- stinctive, the belief must have been generated and de- rived — let them show its generation — if they call it a conclusion, let them name the grounds of such conclu- sion. L^t those who maintain the immortality of the 46 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL- PROBABILITIES OF. 47 (( <( soul to be an error, show the origination of an error so generally adopted, so universally propagated. It has been frequently objected that this belief in a future life formed no part of that most important reli- gion — the Jewish — since no allusion to a future state ia to be met with in the Old Testament.* This objection, however, is without weight, because without truth. Take, for instance, such passages as the following, and very many such may be produced : — '^ Then shall the " dust return to the earth, as it was ; and the spirit re- turn unto God who gave it." EccL xii. 7. " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall '^ awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame : " and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of " the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- " ness, as the stars, for ever and ever." Dan. x. 2. " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall " stand in the latter days upon the earth : and though, " after my skin, the worms shall destroy my body, yet " in my flesh shall I see God." Job xix. 25. Now, if these passages do not imply something stronger than a mere allusion to a future state, they are insignificant and hardly intelligible. But not only are mankind impressed with an abstract belief in a future state, they are animated with " a •* The objection, perhaps, ought rather to be stated thus r — no allusion to a state of future existence is to be met with in the Jewish Law as taught by Moses. For a full and satisfactory explanation, the reader is referred to Warburton's " Divine Le- gation." i " longing after immortality " — a passion so intense and so abiding, that every other passion dwindles into very insignificance upon comparison. Do then, the firm belief in, the ardent hope for, im- mortality, indeed signify nothing ? Have they been im- planted by a Benevolent Being, merely to awaken those aspirations of the soul that never can be satisfied ? Are they fictions utterly groundless, which in all places, in all ages, occupy and have occupied the thoughts — and, swaying the motives, have influenced the actions — of all mankind ? If these be not instincts, implanted for the guidance and consolation of fallen humanity, where, or how, are we to look for instincts at all ? The supremacy of that guiding principle of our moral nature — the conscience (of which more wiU be said hereafter) seems in some measure to indicate immorta- lity to man : for if it be designed to point out what is prudent in this life only (as some maintain), why, when this life draws towards its close, should conscience then be most awake ? why most exert itself, when all exer- tion is too late to be available ? Nature, who does no- thing in vain, appears from this view to be using a cause that can by no possibility be productive of the desired effect ; or, indeed, be productive of any effect at all. Again, the unequal distribution of rewards and pun- ishments on this earth — that is, the misery in which virtue often exists, and the prosperity not seldom at- tendant upon vice — seems to demand and announce some future state in which equal justice may be ren- dered to all. 48 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL- PROBABILITY OF. 49 Again, as by mental culture, the soul improves and gradually rises towards perfection, if it were to be anni- hilated at the close of a long and well-spent life, would it not be annihilated precisely at that period when, nearest approaching perfection, it least deserved to perish ? The existence of the soul in a new state, after the dissolution of the body — nay, the existence of that body itself in a new state — is nothing contrary to the analo- gies uniformly observable in Medical Science. Can any future state be more unlike our present, than our present is dissimilar to the state in which we existed previously to birth ? and yet, as we underwent so mighty a change at birth without injury to our soul, why may we not, by parity of reasoning, undergo as mighty a change in death, and with as little injury ? Or how know we but that our death, like our birth, so far from terminating our being, may immediately, and in the natural course of things, put us into a higher and more enlarged state of being ? Analogy certainly favours the supposition ; and no one argument that can be adduced positively refutes it. The present existence of our souls is in no slight de- gree a presumption for their iiiture existence ; since it 18 much more probable that existences once created should continue to exist, rather than cease to exist. If there be a Creator and a Designer in the Universe — (and we have elsewhere endeavoured to prove that there assuredly is) — then must this great and mighty Author of Nature be a Spirit, for we dare not presume ' .;-' < ' Mi s Him to be corporeal : and, if a Spirit, then we have evidence that mind has existed, and does exist, inde- pendent of matter : Mind all powerful and all superior, because the very Creator and Eider of matter itself But even if every argument here insisted on were untenable, there could be nothing incredible in the assertion, that He who could fashion the living, could also raise the dead — that He who could create the soul, could create it for eternity : and if reason threw no light on this important part of Revelation, there would be nothing preposterous in the belief that an Almighty Agent coiild easily decree immortality to man. Thus have we endeavoured, by selecting a few argu- ments only, out of a crowd, to prove the possibility, cre- dibility—nay, more, the probability of a future life.* But the consideration that imparts so vital an interest to this future life, as revealed in the Scriptures, is the supposition that our happiness and misery hereafter, depend upon our actions here. Now very many facts in Medical Science, tend to render this supposition probable, and that, to a very * We are compelled to argue from probabilities only : for the writer who promises to demonstrate, by mere unaided reason, the immortality of the soul, promises too much. We are assured of immortality only in Revelation; in the Gospel only are "life and immortality brought to light." This assurance must be received as an article of Faith. And strange enough it is, that men, who, in the ordinary affairs of life, draw so largely upon faith, should, nevertheless, refuse all faith when it is most essen- tial. If Religion were reducible to a mathematical certainty, there would be no room for the exercise of Faith, and no merit in believing. G i it THIS LIFE A STATE OF high degree. Few are prepared to deny that all we enjoy, and by far the greater part of what we suffer here, is put in our own power— that is to say, we can, or may, by foreseeing consequences, so direct our ac- tions or shape our habits, as to secure a certain amount of pleasure, or avoid an uncertain amount of pain— we aU are able to effect so much generally speaking. And if the Creator of the Universe have annexed delight to ••■le actions, and uneasiness to others (and that he has done so can neither be denied nor doubted), then is He not only the Ruler of the world, but a Ruler who go- ¥ems that world in accordance with a certain system— to wit, the system of Rewards and Punishments. That we are in effect governed by a system of rewards and punishments, is, in Medical Science, rather a mat- •« of every day experience, than a deduction of pure veaaon : it is a matter so evident as to render any mi- nttte examination altogether superfluous. For if oui* physical health and bodily integrity be not, in a great measure, dependent upon our own exertions, or conse- quent upon some prescribed observance of certain laws appertained beforehand, then is the whole science of medicine an absurd impertinence—a romantic assump- tion, more arrogant that its worst enemies ever affirmed it to be. Thus, then, medical experience most fully shows that there can be nothing incredible in the general doctrine of religion, that men shall be punished or rewarded hmrmfter, since every hour brings ^vith it instances of a system of government which implies in it, rewarding and pimishin^ here. TEIAL OE PROBATION. i^l I ■( > mi K \ It is no valid objection to urge, in reply to all this, that offenders occasionally escape punishment ; or, that punishment generally follows crime with a slow and halting pace : escape is the rare exception, not the abiding ride : the approach of the penalty may be slow, but who has not felt that it is certain ? The debauchee may, like him of Babylon, revel in impiety ; but the hand that decrees his fate is already writing on the wall : the obdurate may harden his heart, as did the Egyptian of old ; but the sea is at hand that shall pre- sently o'erwhelm him. But the Creator of the world is not only the natural — He is also the Moral Governor of that world ; and the phenomena observable in the moral constitution of man, render a state of future distributive justice yet more probable than do any phenomena observable in his physical constitution. Man is endued with a moral nature, with moral faculties of perception and action ; and, by the essential constitution of this moral nature, he naturally and unavoidably approves certain actions as good, and reprobates certain others as evil. He thus approves and reprobates almost as it were involuntarily and intuitively, irrespective of all consequences which such actions may have produced, or may yet produce — he naturally approves virtue as virtue, and reprobates vice as vice. Now, as this moral nature must have come firom God, we can recognise in it a declaration, as it were, which side He is of, or what part He takes — a declaration that cannot be overlooked or denied — a declaration for virtue «5w 5a THIS LIFE A STATE OF high degree. Few are prepared to deny that all we enjoy, and by far the greater part of what we suffer here, is put in our own power — ^that is to say, we can, or may, by foreseeing consequences, so direct our ac- tions or shape our habits, as to secure a certain amount of pleasure, or avoid an uncertain amount of pain — we all are able to effect so much generally speaking. And if the Creator of the Universe have annexed delight to some actions, and uneasiness to others (and that he has done so can neither be denied nor doubted), then is He not only the Ruler of the world, but a Ruler who go- verns that world in accordance with a certain system — to wit, the system of Rewards arid Punishments. That we are in effect governed by a system of rewards and punishments, is, in Medical Science, rather a mat- ter of every day experience, than a deduction of pure reason : it is a matter so evident as to render any mi- nute examination altogether superfluous. For if our physical health and bodily integrity be not, in a great measure, dependent upon our own exertions, or conse- quent upon some prescribed observance of certain laws ascertained beforehand, then is the whole science of medicine an absurd impertinence — a romantic assump- tion, more arrogant that its worst enemies ever affirmed it to be. Thus, then, medical experience most fully shows that there can be nothing incredible in the general doctrine of religion, that men shall be punished or rewarded hereafter, since every hour brings with it instances of a system of government which implies in it, rewarding and punishing here. ] * .. < ; U TRIAL OR PROBATION. 51 ^ It is no valid objection to urge, in reply to aU tliis, that offenders occasionally escape punishment ; or, that punishment generally follows crime with a slow and halting pace : escape is the rare exception, not tlie abiding rule : the approach of the penalty may be slow, but who has not felt that it is certain ? The debauchee may, like him of Babylon, revel in impiety ; but the hand that decrees his fete is already writing on die wall : the obdurate may harden his heart, as did the Egyptian of old ; but the sea is at hand that shall pre- sently o'erwhelm him. But the Creator of the world is not only the natural — He is also the Moral Governor of that world ; and the phenomena observable in the moral constitution of man, render a state of future distributive justice yet more probable than do any phenomena observable in his physical constitution. Man is endued with a moral nature, with moral faculties of perception and action ; and, by the essential constitution of this moral nature, he naturally and unavoidably approves certain actions as good, and reprobates certain others as evil. He thus approves and reprobates almost as it were involuntarily and intuitively, irrespective of all consequences which such actions may have produced, or may yet produce- he naturally approves virtue as virtue, and reprobates vice as vice. ^ Now, as this moral nature must have come from God, we can recognise in it a declaration, as it were, which side He is of, or what part He takes— a declaration that cannot be overlooked or denied— a declaration for virtue 52 GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. (( (C a and against vice — a declaration which renders it pro- bable to the highest degree that, if God reward at all, or punish at all. He will assuredly reward virtue and, punish vice. And such we find to be the case, now, in this world ; for (besides the moral nature which God has given us, and our natural notion of Him as of a Righteous Go- vernor) we may distinctly trace, amidst all the confusion, and wickedness, and disorder of men, the sure princi- ples and beginnings of a moral government : — " By a moral government is implied," says the great Bishop Butler, " a government that consists not barely in re- warding and punishing men for their actions, which the most tyrannical person may do, but in rewarding the rightemSy and punishing the wicked— in rendering " to men according to their actions, as good or evil." Is no such system perceptible here on earth ? Can we fail to perceive that, everywhere, virtue brings its own reward — vice, its own damnation i That, every- where, virtue is commended as beneficial to society : vice proscribed as prejudicial / That, everywhere, the most abandoned and licentious of nations, or of indi- viduals, make open ana formal professions of justice, veracity, and humanity— they " affect the virtue if they have it not ? " that, everywhere, the " still smaQ voice " of a reclaiming conscience— that last abiding representative and witness of Him who implanted it — will, amid the wildest anarchy of mans insurgent appe- tites and sins, loudly assert the certainty and severity of a coming vengeance ? Can we fail to own the inhe- GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 53 ► < ! \ K U \ rent pleasure of the virtuous, and misery of the vicious, affections? Can we, in short, blind ourselves to the palpable evidence ihat, in all places, in every age, the course of the world has been, and still continues, in support of virtue, and in condemnation of vice ? We cannot fail to perceive all this, or to recognise all this ; for it is a matter not of speculative opinion, but of every-day fact* Such are the principles of moral government percep- tible even in this world : man is endued with a moral nature, and the moral government consists in rendering him happy or unhappy, in rewarding or punishing him, as he shall follow, neglect, or depart from the moral rule of action interwoven in his very nature. That re- ward or punishment does so foUow, on compliance with, or departure from, the dictates of our moral nature, is notorious even to a proverb ; and it is remarkable that a life of uniform and unswerving morality procures not only that unruffled serenity which the world cannot give or take, but frequently secures many physical ad- vantages — ^health and long life; for longevity is inti- mately connected, almost necessarily connected with health and happiness. How clear must have been the perception of this truth in the mind of the Jewish * It is worthy of note, that the sudden and involuntary acceleration of the circulation which we term " blushing," is an effect which looks to the impulses of a moral nature for its effi- cient cause ; and, as man is the only animal gifted with a moral nature, so is he the only animal endued with tnc " proud pre- rogative of blushing " (as an old author has quaintly said). 54 THIS LIFE A STATE OF Legislator when he made the promise — " that thy days " may be long in the land which the Lord thy God " hath given thee," — the sanction of every religious observance, and the motive to every moral duty. Nor does suffering follow immorality less certainly, as the annals of medicine can attest from experience as ample as it is sorrowful : and such suffering is entailed not only on the actual offender, but too frequently on those connected with or descended from him — fre- quently is " the sin of the fathers visited upon the chil- dren even unto the third and fourth generation." Thus, then, even this brief and far from complete review demonstrates that there can be nothing prepos- terous in the general doctrine of religion, that man shall be rewarded or punished hereafter, since such a system of government is but analogous to — is but of a piece with — the system that obtains he^^e ; and if, amid all the disorders and obstructions of a rebellious world, a sys- tem of moral government still progresses steadily but surely, have we no ground to hope, or, perhaps, to fear, that, in some future state of existence, when all disor- ders and all obstructions are removed, this same moral system shall advance even to its termination and fulfil- ment ? Or, can we, blind to all analogy, and deaf to all probability, so deceive ourselves by sophistry, or so harden ourselves by infidelity, as to deem mere idle words, that solemn declaration — " for all these things, God shall bring thee to judgment ? " It is admitted, on all hands, that this i^oral govern- ment, as dimly seen and indistinctly comprehended by I i ; \ PHYSICAL AND MORAL DISCIPLINE. 55 II us, may not appear the very perfection of moral govern- ment : but when we call to mind our own ignorance, our own short-sightedness, as viewing only a minute fraction of a mighty whole — when we reflect upon the many obstacles which a rebellious world may oppose to a moral system which operates slowly and by degrees — ought we not rather to infer that, if any imperfection exist, it resides not in the system, but rather in our observation of it ? That this state of present existence may be viewed as a state of probation, is, indeed, but a necessary corollary from the observations immediately preceding, since pro- bation is implied in the very notion of moral govern- ment ; for, if our physical and temporal interest be not forced upon us, or even offered to our acceptance, but only to our acquisition — and if we be in danger of miss- ing our interest from any strong temptation to neglect or act contrary to it, or by any temptation which pro- poses particular and present enjoyment in the room of general and abiding advantage — then are we in a state of probation with regard to our physical nature — a state of probation, trial, or physical discipline ; so morally, when allured by the snares and temptations of vice to forego the uniform discharge of duty, because such duty may be disagreeable, or even difficult, we are on the point of abandoning future interest, for present ease, then would it well become us to remember that we are in a state of moral probation, trial, or discipline. Indeed, any man, who considers the physical and moral constitution of his species, together with the adap- -{ 56 THIS LIFE A STATE, &c. tation of external nature to such constitution, cannot but acknowledge that this world is peculiarly fitted — if not positively intended — to be a state of discipline for our improvement in virtue and piety ; a state of disci- pline physical and moral, and passive as well as active — a state wherein we have to undergo difficulties as well as to struggle against them — to suffer as well as to act. k 4 > I- I PART III. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY AS DEDUCIBLE FROM MEDICAL SCIENCE COMPARED WITH HIS ATTRIBUTES AS REVEALED IN HOLY WRIT. From the examination of the mighty works of the Creator, and of His probable designs as regards the rational and responsible portion of His creatures, let us, ascend to a consideration of the attributes of the Deity Himself. If this investigation be conducted in a lowly and sub- missive spirit, there is nothing in it which can be charged with presumption, or deemed inconsistent with perfect and rational devotion — it is, in fact, but ascend- ing through " Nature up to Nature's God." For the wisest purposes it has pleased Providence to veil in awful mystery almost all the attributes of the " Ancient of Days," beyond what natural religion teaches ; for, although revelation introduces the Deity to human apprehension, under an idea more personal, more determinate, more within its compass, than the theology of nature can do — although we there are made more certain of His existence, and become acquainted H 58 THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. with his will — yet it is remarkable that his peculiar at- tributes are nearly the same in the volume of nature, and in that of His revealed word. If, then, in careful imitation of Holy Writ, we con- fine our explanations to what concerns ourselves, with- out affecting more precision than the subject admits of, the attributes of the Deity may be brought in some measure within the span of our intellect, and the terms by which we characterise those attributes may be ren- dered consistent with our notions of truth and reason. Design demonstrates the Personality of the Deity as contra-distinguished from the "Laws of Nature," " a principle of generation," or any other principle which, admitting efficacy, would exclude personal agency ; for design is an emanation from mind, fore- seeing and fore-planning : but wherever mind exists, it constitutes a person. We have endeavoured to show above that inert matter could not have arranged itself, but must have been arranged by some intelligent mind, that is, by some intelligent person. Design, therefore, if admitted, must prove personality more incontestably than it can prove any other position whatever. The Unity of the Deity is deducible from the unity of design that pervades all nature : thus — that same in- fluence of gravitation which draws downwards a floating feather, marshals all the planets around the sun ; that same vital air which supports man, sustains an animal and cherishes a plant — it invests all parts of the globe, and connects all ; that same electricity which flashes from the thunder-cloud, glitters in the northern lights ; the THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. 59 ^ i. ^ > i ♦ \ heat of the noon-day sun differs nothing from the heat of the common lamp, save only in intensity ; the light of one star differs nothing from the light of another star, save only in degree ; and light, from whatever source emanating, obeys the same laws of refraction and re- flexion ; the sexual system which obtains in the animal kingdom is continued also throughout the vegetable. Thus there exists a perfect unity — or, as it has been sometimes called, a personality— in the kind of contri- vances in which the universe abounds, an unity which bears evidence to the universe being a spacious house- hold under the one and consistent direction of Him, who is at once the Parent and the Master of an universal family. The God who could have created the universe must of necessity be omnipotent, at least we cannot define His power : the God who can sustain and regulate an uni- verse, must of necessity be omnipresent and all-knowing, for everywhere we recognise His presence, and admire His wisdom. He must be Self-Existent and Eternal ; for any thing, or person, that is indebted to another prior existence for creation, cannot be God — since it or he depends, or did depend, on some original contri- vance *^ ah extraP The goodness of God is the attribute that the whole science of medicine declares most audibly, most unde- niably. (By medicine we here, as before, include all sciences subsidiary or tributary to medicine.) The ge- neral course of the world is in favour of happiness ; and despite the misery and desolation that man wilfully 60 THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. entails on all around and about him, this world is a happy world after all : and although it is the province of medicine to minister to the helpless and the hope- less, yet, amid the evil, there is perceptible " some soul " of goodness would men observingly distil it out." This matter is worthy of a more attentive conside- ration. Anatomy, or indeed common experience, renders it evident that enjoyment is an object and result of healthy organization, if not the ultimate object and result : sen- sation cannot be the ultimate object, for sensation is either pleasurable or painftd — every sensation termi- nates in a pleasure or a pain. Now the production of pain is the indirect, not the direct — the extraordinary, not the ordinary — result of the actions of life : pain, therefore, may be the exception, but pleasure is the rule. This happy disposition might have been other- wise ordered, had God not willed our enjoyment, or had He been merely indifferent to it. But the Creator has, as it were, gone out of the way, purposely to add pleasure to sensation, such pleasure being in no way essential to the production of sensation ; for example, it is essential that we should see, but not essential that the flowers of the field should be painted with ten thou- sand hues to delight our eye, all different yet all beau- tiful ; it is essential that we should hear, but not essen- tial that nature's woodland warblers should break forth into a gush of choral melody — the hearing is essential, but not the music that delights it ; it is essential that we should eat, but not essential that our food should i THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. 61 4 » ' ( ♦ / \ leave upon the palate a sweet and savoury impression : yet how vast a fund of enjojnnent is derived from pros- pects that delight, from harmony that entrances, or from banquets that entertain — all so many special pro- visions unnecessary and superfluous except for our en- joyment. But if the pleasm-es that arise from the ordinary ope- rations of sense form in the aggregate an incalculable sum, how great is the accession brought to this stock by endowments much higher in order,— the intellectual faculties ; and how much more intense, both in kind and degree, is the pleasure derived from sensation, the moment it becomes combined with an intellectual ope- ration : how superior, for instance, is the intellectual conception of beauty to the mere perception of sense. The herds that graze the meadows breathe the scented air, they hear the song of birds, they view the ever- changing, ever-moving clouds by day, and see the watchful stars by night ; but these sights and sounds fall upon their senses dull and without effect : it is only to the ear of reason and of intellect that they discourse the eloquent music of nature — the poetry of heaven. And these enjoyments of intellect are not destroyed or impaired by being distributed among a multitude of partakers; they gratify, and equally gratify, an. unli- mited number to an almost unlimited extent. But there exist pleasures of another class, pleasures having no relation to a person's own sensation or hap- piness — pleasures springing from the perception of en- joyment in others — these have been by some mctaphy- 62 THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. sicians not inaptly denominated ^^sympathetic pleasures." How beautiful is the constitution of this part of our nature, by which the most transporting pleasures the heart receives are the direct reflexion of those it gives. But we must not permit ourselves to be misled, as some have been, by any unreal or exaggerated idea of the benevolence of the Deity. There are some who would resolve the whole character of God into one attri- bute, that of a simple absolute benevolence — a placid undistinguishing tenderness ; and in virtue of such assumption would despoil Him of all sovereignty, and all sacredness, of truth, of justice, and that strong re- pugnance to moral evil which has received the peculiar denomination of Holiness, — viewing him only as the In- dulgent Father, and not also as the Righteous Governor of men. Now any such assumption is absurd — absurd to the degree of being ridiculous, if the consequences were not of so awful a nature ; it can be supported neither from revelation nor from the moral or natural system of this world's government. From both these sources we deduce this never-to-be-forgotten corollary, that God wills the happiness of man, but wills his virtue more ; for, in effect and historical fulfilment, the greatest virtue and the greatest happiness are at one : and ow/y, only mark ! through the medium of virtue can any substan- tial or lasting happiness be realized. Nowhere in the physical world do we recognise any swerving from that strict line of justice which an upright Judge has insti- tuted ; immorality or irregularity beget their own pun- \ i ) »> THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. 63 \ ishment ; nay, so exact and undeviating is the routine of the retributive system, that even folly or indifference — faults of the head, not heart — often entail serious in- convenience or positive suffering. Whence, then, it may be demanded, do the sup- porters of this gratuitous assumption deduce analogies or probabilities on which to build up such an hypo- thesis? Assuredly not from a revelation, which tells that a fallen and degenerate world is saved only by the accepted sacrifice of an atoning Mediator ; assuredly not from a constitution and course of nature which everywhere calls aloud that its God is Holy and Just, and that with Him is neither " variableness nor shadow " of turning."* Do not these attributes of the Deity, demonstrable from medical science, correspond with His attributes as recorded in holy writ ? Do not both concur in afiirm- ing that He is One — Self Existent — Eternal — Omnis- cient — Omnipotent — Benevolent — Just and Holy ? The arguer for the goodness of God is not unfre* * Indeed we everywhere collect from the Bible, that God is ^ not merely a God of Mercy, but a God of Justice. During the continuance of the first dispensation, the era of communications from God addressed to the senses, we continually learn that He severely punished His own chosen people, the Jews. He severely afflicted David, " a man after God's own heart," Hezekiah, and many other chosen servants, as a punish- ment for their neglect or moral guilt. And it is not a little remarkable, that the punishments so inflicted were in the majo- rity of instances certain severe diseases and bodily ailments ; in- deed, we may gather from all parts of the Old Testament that the infliction of disease constituted a very essential portion of the Moral Government of God. 64 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. quently harassed with some such question as the follow- ing : — How, under the regency of an Almighty Being- merciful and benevolent, do you consistently account for the vast amount of evil, unavoidable evil, that everywhere and at all times impends ? — Such question emanating from an individual hostile not only to Chris- tianity in particular, but to all systems of religion in general. Now if such individual reject the solution of the origin of evil as recorded in Revelation, none other, in any degree satisfactory, ever has been adduced, or in all probability ever will be. It is worthy of note that all nations, civilized or savage, believe and propagate a tradition which tells of a golden age, and a genial clime, in which their ances- tors lived happily because virtuously ; and that, lapsing from this state of blissful enjoyment, sorrow and anguish and death were let loose as consequences and punish- ments. Such traditions, it will be remarked, embody the spirit, though not the letter, of Scripture informa- tion on the subject ; the universal prevalence, the uni- versal adoption of such a solution over the whole earth, is an argument for its efficacy and its truth which the disbeliever ought neither to overlook nor undervalue. But as has been implied above, if Revelation be ques- tioned on this subject, any appeal to reason is as absm'd as it is presumptuous ; the matter is so utterly, so en- tirely, beyond the scope of unaided intellect, that it is wonderful so much time and erudition should have been expended upon it. We are, then, and must continue (if Revelation be doubted) profoundly ignorant of the whole matter — it i i 4 r f I { THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 65 remains just where it was, in its mighty, unfathomed obscurity ; and the Atheist's question, captious as it is, proves nothing, but his own audacity and our short- sightedness. But if we confine our observations to that only which affects ourselves, experience in general, but medical experience in particular, will frirnish us with abundant evidences of the goodness of God even in the operation of those circumstances which we at once recognise as evils. Pain is readily acknowledged an evil by all; yet, from the operation of an evil so partial, how universal the good that accrues. Does not pain act, as it were, in a conservative capa- city, teaching vigilance and caution, both giving notice of danger, and exciting endeavours to avoid it ? Whole portions of our bodies might be, and would be, irre- trievably injured, did not pain stand by as an ever- watchful monitor. Severe pain cannot endure very long, it either ceases spontaneously, is relieved by art, or it destroys the suf- ferer ; for as there is a point of wretchedness beyond which life is not desirable, so is there a point beyond which life is not maintainable. And that pain can be relieved at all, either by the skill of man or by the instrumentality of certain vegeta- ble and mineral productions liberally scattered through- out the world, is in itself cogent evidence of the uni- versal, untiring, goodness and mercy of God.* * Surely, the natural power, which man possesses, of alle- viating the sufferings of his felIow-men~of averting, or in some I 66 THE SOUL OF GOODNESS IN THINGS EVIL. Disease is an evil : but an evil which man's own im- morality or neglect, or the immorality and neglect of his progenitors, have entailed Upon him— this at least holds good in a vast majority of cases. Disease, as a rule, seldom proves fatal. On looking over the records of that truly noble institution, St. Bartholomew's Hos- pital (to which it is alike our pride and privilege to ^long), one cannot fail to be struck with the raritv of death, as compared with the frequency of recovery. Now, as no cases are admitted into the wards, unless they be really of a serious nature, this fact in the sta- tistics of disease tells forcibly in support of our argu- ment.* measure of softening down, the punitive consequences of their previous misconduct — surely this power, derived of course from God, tends, in a degree at least, to throw some light on that essential but much impugned doctrine of Christianity, the Media- tion of Christ. The visible government which God exercises over the world, is by the instrumentality and mediation of others : from the cradle to the grave, we owe our life, our happiness, our exemption from misery, to the instrumentality and mediation of others — what, then, can there be, unnatural or preposterous, or contrary to analogy, or experience, or philosophy, or proba- bility, in admitting Christ to be " a Mediator between God and man." This analogy, if it stood alone or unsupported, might be deemed but a slender foundation to raise a positive opinion upon ; but, at any rate it supplies an answer to a merely arbi- trary assertion, without any kind of evidence, urged by way of objection against a doctrine, the proof of which is not from. reason but Revelation. * Disease, moreover, is the herald of death ; for it both an- nounces his approach, and at the same time prepares the patient and his friends for the blow. Disease is also one of the prin- cipal secondary causes (perhaps the prmcipal secondary cause) in God's moral and natural government of this world. ; ' \ r } ii f \ t THE SOUL OF GOODNESS IN THINGS EVIL. ^7 There is inherent in the animal economy, a power or principle which resists the influence of any morbid impression ; or labours, as it were, to obviate or remove the ill-efFects of previously existing disease. We recog- nise the operation of this redeeming principle in the circumscription of abscesses in cellular tissue — ^in the gradual and safe removal of an extremity that has lost its vitality — in the adaptation of a dislocated joint to some new circumstance incident to its displacement, and in the spontaneous cure of innumerable diseases. This inherent power or principle, termed by some writers the " Vis Medicatrix Naturce'^ — striving at first to resist all disease ; and, secondly, endeavouring to re- move all bad results — ought assuredly to be adduced as a witness of the universal goodness of God. Death is instinctively avoided by humanity, as the leading and crowning evil of all : but if the grisly monarch be confronted in the bold yet calm spirit of Christian Philosophy, his sting loses more than half its virulence. We have seen that, where pain becomes insupportable, or disease uncontrollable, death comes kindly as a relief; and in this case, so far from being the greatest evil, is an infallible remedy for all other evils — for, with whatever feelings of awe the thought- less and the worldly may regard his steady advance, the sufferer, racked in body but yet prepared in mind, welcomes him as the usher to that repose where " the " weary are at rest." As immortality here is out of the question, it becomes a point for consideration whether, in our present fallen condition, the soul coidd part from 68 THE SOUL OF GOODNESS IN THINGS EVIL. the body in a manner more easy or calmly than it does in the process of natural death : for the pang of death, if any, can be but momentary, and its terrors ought to prove unsubstantial to him, who, assured of immortality, views death, not as the termination ot a life he wishes to renew, but as the commencement of an eternity he hopes to enjoy.* * Certain infidel writers, misunderstanding the import of the word "Death,*' as used in the book of Genesis, have asserted that, as death is an essential, unavoidable, result of life, it is untrue and absurd to pronounce it the consequence and punish- ment of sin. On this subject, Bishop Jeremy Taylor has the following admirable remarks : — '* Man did not die as death is " taken for a separation of soul and body ; that is not death *' properly, but the ending of the last act of death. If Adam *' had stood, he should not always have lived in this world, for *' this world was not a place capable of giving a dwelling to all *' those myriads of men and women which should have been " bom in all the generations of infinite and eternal ages. The *' death, therefore, which God threatened to Adam, and which " passed upon his posterity, is not the going out of this world, " but the manner of yoiny. If he had staid in innocence, he " should have gone from hence placidly and fairly, without vexa- " tious and afflictive circumstances ; he should not have died by " sickness, misfortune, defect, or unwillingness : but when he " fell, then he began to die, the same day — so said God, and that ** must needs be true ; and therefore it must mean that, upon " that very day, he fell into an evil and dangerous condition, a *' state of change and affliction. Then death began, that is, the " man began to die by a natural diminution and aptness to dis- •' ease and misery. Death is not an action, but a whole state *' and condition, and this was brought in upon us by the ofiencc *' of one man." I y i / S { PART IV. DEDUCTIONS : AND CERTAIN CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. It may, perhaps, be permitted to me, in this place, to introduce a few deductions in conclusion, which flow naturally from the subject, but which could not conve- niently be classed under any of the foregoing divisions of the Essay. And, firstly, concerning the miracles of our Saviour, as contrasted with the slow and gradual effects of any medical proceeding. That any person, who could cure diseases instantly, and at once, must be some being higher and mightier than a mere mortal, is a truth that needs no discussion.* * Indeed, our Lord and Saviour continually appeals to the miraculous healing of diseases as proofs of his divine mission and authority. When the Baptist sends two of his disciples to enquire " Art thou He that should come ? or look we for ano- " ther? " our Saviour, desires them to tell John "that the blind " see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and " the dead are raised." Again, note His question to the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, — " Whether is easier to say to the sick " of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and " walk." V 1 70 THE MIRACLES OF OUR SAVIOUR. The disbelievers of Christianity, therefore, have as- serted one of two things — either that the diseases never were cured at all, or that, if cured, they were merely nervous disorders, which in many instances have been cured through the influence of the imagination only. Whether they were cured at all is a question of his- torical accuracy which has been again and again dis- cussed to the entire conviction of any impartial enquirer. Whether, if cured, they were merely nervous diseases that might have been cured by any body who possessed sufficient influence over the patient's imagination, is a matter that we will examine a little more in detail. The custom of explaining away all miracles, by refer- ring them solely to the operation of the ordinary laws of nature — thus making them miracles only in the ima- gination of the simple and uneducated who witnessed the eflfect without rightly understanding the cause — ^has of late prevailed but too much on the European con- tinent. In Germany it is acknowledged as the staple dogma of a sect, whose constituent members appro- priate to themselves the title of " Rationalists," a body of men who possess all the sophistry of the infidel, yet lack his courage to avow it, seeing that they admit the letter of Revelation, yet repudiate its spirit wherein alone consists its efficacy. In order to confound these sceptics, nothing more is required than a full and fair examination into any given miracle, and all the circumstances attending or result- ing from it. Let us select the resurrection of Lazarus as an exam- ) { THE MIRACLES OF OUR SAVIOUR. Tl > pie. The Evangelist St. John thus relates the event: — Lazarus fell sick, died, and was buried four days pre- vious to the arrival of our Saviour. That he really had died, and was not merely in a state of trance, or coma, or catalepsy, is proved by the assertion of his sister, that decomposition of the body had abeady commenced.* Now decomposition of a body decides, at once and im- peratively, that such body has ceased to live. At the mandate of our Saviour, Lazarus comes forth from the tomb— of the by-standers, many acknowledge Christ as God, whilst others hasten to inform the Pharisees '' what things Jesus had done"— but aU, be it remarked, by word or deed, admit the reaHty of the miracle, and the power of Him who wrought it. Now this simple narrative admits of no softening down--no explaining away ; it is either wholly true or wholly false : if wholly false, would men, like the Pharisees, have declared in public council, " What do we ? for this man doeth many ttiiracles— if we let him thus alone, all men wiU beUeve on him." Take again the cure of a man blind from his birth— this could not be a merely nervous disease. Again, the * The writer is well aware that authorities differ as to the exact meaning to be attached to the observation of Martha— *^ Lord, by this time be stinketh, for he hath been dead fcmr « dmjs." Some imagme that here Martha merely alludes to a notion very popular among the Jews, viz., that decomposition always commenced on the fourth day after death ; others are disposed to believe that Martha here states not a matter of opi- nion, but a matter of fact. The writer of this essay adopts tliat meaning which appears to iUustrate and corroborate his argu- ment the better of the two. i 7g THE RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF MEDICAL MEN. cure of the nobleman's son, who lay sick of a fever at some distance from Christ at the very instant that our Saviour spake : the imagination of the patient cannot avail here, for he could not know the exact instant at which his father should happen to meet Jesus.* The second deduction which appears to flow natu- rally from the subject, is to the effect, that a medical man, of all other men, should be among the last to deny or attack the truth of Revelation, on the ground that it is unintelligible or inexplicable. That which hourly takes place around him, about him, and within him, his science in its proudest at- tempts, acknowledges as inexplicable, because unintel- ligible ; he lives, and moves, and operates, through the medium of agencies unintelligible and inexplicable : and if he cannot ascertain or comprehend the physical — the substantial — the corporeal ; how can he hope to define and analyse the metaphysical — the spiritual — the intan- gible ? To doubt the whole, where he cannot explain the whole, would be to disbelieve his own profession ; yet he disbelieves it not, seeing and understanding enough to render a firm belief in the whole, neither unreasonable nor unnatural. Let him argue in the same spirit with regard to Christianity, and he will deduce the same result ; let him constantly bear in mind that > 4 <( cc THE RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF MEDICAL MEN. 73 ancient remark " He who beUeves the Scripture to " have proceeded from Him who is the Author of Na- ture, may well expect to find the same sort of difficul- " ties in it, as are found in the constitution of Nature." And familiar as he must be with the death-bed of wret- chedness and misery, let him ever be among the last to dissipate that cheering hope of immortality which, like the rainbow, displays itself most brighitly in the darkest clottd. ^1 ♦ Many objections have been urged against the actual death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour; these objections have been most triumphantly refuted by Dr. N. Wiseman, in his ** Twelve Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion.'' f \ u CONCLUSION. 75 CONCLUSION. In the preceding observations, the writer of them, has constantly been indebted to the productions of our most esteemed English Theologians : he has almost constantly retailed the arguments of much better and much abler men, and has in no instance hesitated to borrow the truth, wherever he imagined the truth was likely to be found. But with all these acknowledged advantages, he has but too good reason to fear, that the execution of his design, is in no degree commensurate with the high and holy dignity of its subject; and when he pleads the difficulty of the undertaking, he prefers a plea that may account for imperfection, although it in no measure atones for it. But, however limited may have been the measure of his success, it is consoling to reflect, that the Holy Religion he has endeavoured to substantiate, requires not his feeble support. A Religion which, in the be- ginning, propagated by twelve obscure fishermen of Galilee, succeeded in overcoming all the influence of Rome, and in silencing all the philosophy of Greece ; and in these latter days has shaken iniquity in its very strong holds, — can be in no peril of falling. Christianity is so perfectly reasonable, so accurately adapted to the wimts and wishes of humanity at large, V \ • I that it must flourish, that is, must ultimately flourish, wherever reason prevails, or wherever a fallen hu- manity sufiers. But although Christianity (humanly speaking) be certain of ultimate victory, it is not secure of undis- turbed repose; for, though, happily, there now exists no Nero who dares persecute, and no Felix who can enchain ; still the Atheist and the Deist, the disbe- liever and the unbeliever, are as anxious as ever to disprove and subvert. Hitherto, however, their puny and ineffectual hostility has but aroused a band of de- fenders still more able, and much more successM. The Christian of our own day has nothing to fear — yet everything to hope: his religion has alike stood the test of noisy persecution, and of silent contempt : — of aU that could destroy, and aU that could dis- courage : — of captious sophistry ; and of time — all- revealing — all-disproving — all-correcting — all-testing time; by these infallible exponents of truth — ^these unerring detectors of imposture has Christianity been " weighed in the balance ;" and the united voice of a thousand ages proclaims " that it is m)t wanting,"* * There may exist some points of connexion between Revealed Religion and Medical Science which may appear to have been omitted, or but slightly alluded to, in this Essay ; but the writer has everywhere been more anxious to establish broad and gene- ral principles than to trouble the reader with minute and comparatively insignificant detail. He has endeavoured, by analogies and probabilities, to enunciate the leading principles of our Holy Religion ; oftentimes rejecting detail, as tending to render longer a production which he fears has already run too Ion; »?:• i V ., / ANALYSIS. Introduction y PART I. THE CREATION AND PRESENT POSITION OF MAN. Page The Doctrine of Design 7 „ „ as evinced in the Creation of Atmospheric Air 9 )) J, „ „ of Vegetables . 13 91 n in the mutual dependence of Ani- mals and Plants 16 ,) „ „ in the formation of the Respira- tory Organs in Man 17 Deductions from the Doctrine of Design 26 The Position of Man : how maintained .31 The Creation of Woman 33 Our Origin from One Common Stock 35 PART II. THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF MAN. Page Immortality of the Soul 39 Immateriality of the Soul - . . 40 Immortality of the Soul — probability of 45 This Life a state of Trial or Probation 49 God's Moral Government 51 This Life a State of Physical and Moral Discipline ... 55 k ANALYSIS. 77 PART III. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY. Page Attributes of the Deity 57 The Origin of Evil 64 " The Soul of Goodness in things Evil " 66 PART IV. CERTAIN DEDUCTIONS. Page Concerninji; the Miracles of our Saviour 69 „ the Religious Belief of Medical Men .... 72 Conclusion • . 74 • !l \ ■ I V i i