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Untitled Article
tstoMsh ing declaration for one who bel ieves that only by Jesus was immortal life brought to light . Neither he nor I , neither the im . materialist nor the materialist , can , from our system , draw one argument worth an ace that we
shall live again . Neither can answer the question , < c Man giveth up the ghost and where is he ?" His lamp and mine will soon be extinguished ; and , were it not for our Lord ' s consolatory assurance , ' lam the resurrection and the
life , " neither he nor I could indulge a hope that we should live again in any form : he has not taught any thing about a separate soul , but explicitly that the body
shall be raised dnd live again ; not that it shall be joined again by its soul , which in the mean time will be safely kept in an
intermediate state „ " The soul of man may be of isubstance something similar to Deity . " So then the Deity himself , the Great immaterial Spirit ,
is a substance . Oh ! ye immaterialists , how long will ye halt between two opinions ? If the Lord tea spirit , call ye him not a substance ; if he be a substance , talk
not of the spirit of man—a substantial spirit is just as intelligible as a square circle . < f If the materialist should contend that a faculty of thinking is juperadded to matter by the Deity , either I know not what he means
° V &c . That Mr . P . may not * now what he means is very pos-8 | ble , but it is absolutely certain f"at he does see a power of think' ng which belongs to matter in the for m of a horse , a dog , an ele * phant , as well as in the form of
* man . It maybe that thinking ls * s necessary an attribute of the
Untitled Article
brain , as strength is of the muscles , and elasticity of animated flesh . " A man may lose his arms and
legs , and yet be conscious of be * ing the same identical being . " But he cannot lose his brain with the same safety ; a proof that he does possess a portion of organised matter without which his
consciousness would cease . If the brain be uncovered and exposed to the action of heat and cold , it would not be Ions before he lost all idea of identity . And if you suppose
the soul to sit regent on the brain , how extraordinary it is that you will either completely confound thrs spiritual substance , or cause
it to cease to be , by a violent assault on her throne , or even by gently turning it topsy-turvy . So inert is this spirit , that it cannot exist otherwise than just as it is . The power of thinking , like the power of action , is always affected by the accidents belonging to matter .
c We do not possess one particle of matter which we possessed a few years ago , and yet our consciousness remains / ' How far this
is true of the bones and the brain , we are not fully certified . The softer exterior parts of the body are exposed to the influence of external causes , and therefore waste and change , though still the ? circulation of the blood and juices is not impeded . Probably the brain , which is securely encased , may not be subject to these changes . It may swell out and g row , and become perfect like the body ; in many cases it appears also to exhaust and wear out with the body . The circulation of the juices of the brain may be as essential to thought , as the circulation of the juices of the body are to sensation .
Untitled Article
On the Letters Against Materialism . 5 Q 7
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1811, page 597, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2421/page/21/
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