The economy of the animal kingdom, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically

발행: 1846년

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sourco a higher intellectual light, by Whicli the things imaginodor comprehended under a limited forin, are perceived stili morohighly and abstractedly : this is the origin of thought, Whicli is

a faculty of the minit, So distinet hom imagination, Whicli is a faculty of the animus, that the tWO can exist either conjointlyor separalely. By the faculty of thought We approach stillnearer to the supreme intuitions of the foui, although to iis very generat intuitions. In faci, netther this faculty nor thought caii exist und subsist utiless a certain light soWs Dom tho foui into the sphere of iis thoughis, nam ely, into that of the mitid: a subject of Which We have Spolien abOVe.

NON is Wo considor hoW tho intellectual light of tho solatsows in, for tho light of the foui is tWosold, as regarding boththo mind and the animus, in Whicli respect it is distinguishod by degrees of universality,) it Will be seen Dom the causes above explored, that this light traveis by the Same path as every

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God; although they consess that the essenee of God cannot bon part os a created substance. Others have hold that ali solvis Uere created by God ut the beginning of the Worid, and Werethen successively intruded tuto hodies. Others have taught that

particular fouis for individual men Were not taken Dom thebosom of matter, Or made With the assistance of matter, butworo infused by God into createn matter. Others again, as Tertullian and the western presbyters of his time, maintainediliat the foui of the son was generated Dom the foui of thesether, in the fame maniter as the body of the son Dom thobody of the fallier. Aristolle and the Peripatetios declared that there is in matter a natural poWer os receiving a Solii, althoughΠot os giving essetice to a Soul. Hence many theologians assertiliat in the production of man there are tWo actions involved; One, the action Os God creating the foui; the Other, the actionos the parent uniting by seminal viriue, as an instrument, thes ut created by God, With matter. Ait these opinions combineto form a perfeci uni ty, When We gain a clear perception of life

in ali created things according to the modi sed character and capacity of each. Ρari II., Chap. III., Sec. V.; and n. 270, 271.)3II. Besore me conclude this subjeci, We must consider thequestion, Whether the soles is to be called material or immateriai. We have osten suid above, that in regarn to substance the foui is a fluid, nay, a fluid most absolute; produced by the aura of the universe; enclosed in the fibres; the matter by Whicli, Dom Whichaud for Whicli, the body exisis; the supereminent organ. We have also said that the influxion os iis operations is to be examinedaecording to the nexus of Organie substances, and according tollio forin determined by the fibres : also that iis nature, Or Operations collectively, regard this fluid as their subjeci; and that

these operations, in So sar as they nre naturat, cannot be Separated hom the fluid) excepi in thought; so that nothing here

Ρly by composition, and by the addition Os a number of things

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that through changes in the state Os active entities have beeomo ineri aud gravitatin g; sor instance, nil the mere elements of the earth, as Salis, mineral8, yc. The si si aura of the woridis not matter in this sense; for nei ther gravity nor levi ty can beprodicatod of it; but on the contrary, active force, the Originos gravity and levity in terrestriat hodies, Whicli do not of them-

causing, directing force. Heuce net ther gravi ty nor levi ty caribu predicated of this suid, made up as it is of this force or

ment alone is prepared, before We have the meastare, or haVeseen the form, of the body; and in ordor to malle it sit, We figure to Oursolves an idea of the body, Which idea may be immateriai. But teli mo Whethor the ideas of the animus ure materiat, or not 3 Ρerhaps they are, inasmuch as images, and even the Very eyes, are materiai. But as it is the ossico of tho 80ul to seel, to See, and to imagine, equalty as to Understandand to think; yet the ideas of the lalter facultius are callud immateriai, because intellectual; perhaps because the substances that are their subjecis are not comprehended by sense; and stili material ideas not only agree but communicate Willi immaterial ; are they then any ideas at ali besore they partake of theli se of the foui 3 Apari Dom this, are they Dot modifications ΘΙs they are modifications, Or analogous to modifications, then Ido nos understand in What Way an immateriat modification is distinguished Dom a materiat modification, unless by degrees, in that tho immateriat is higher, more universat, more perfectand more impercepti ble. Is not every created thing in the Korid aud nature a subject of extension 8 and may not eVerything, as extended, be called materiai 3 In faci the sirsi sub-Stance itself in this sensu is tho materia prima of ali other

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SOund renson, Whateuer is substantial and floWA DOm a sub Stantiat in the createn universe of nature, is matter : there remodification isseis is muster, as it dous not extend One tota be-yond the limit os substanco. Pari II., 11. 293.) But as for themore nobie essetice or life of the foui, it is not raised to any that is more perseus, hecause it is One Only essenoe; but the solatis an organism formed by tho spirituous fluid, in Whicli respectgrenter and tesser exaltation may be predicated os it. Τhis essenduand life is not created, and there re it is not proper to cali it

ries in respect to iis reception of this lila; nor therelare themiiad; nor there re the animus, Dor the Sight, the bearing, nor even the body isseis so sar as it lives. For nil thuso livo tholi se of their solii, and the foui lives the lise of the spirit of God, Who is not matter, but essenue; Whose esse is life ; Whose life is Wisdom; and whose Wisdom consisis in belloiding and embrac-ing the ends to be promoted by the determinations of mat- ter und the forms os nature. Thus both materiality and im- materiali ty are predicabie of the foui ; and the materialistaud immaterialist may each abide in his OWn Opinion.

Τho spiritu us fluid is thoroughly adapted and ready to fineupon it infinite variety, and to undergo infinite changes Osstate : hetice it is in the most perfeci harmonio variety, both With respect to the paris in iis system, and With respect to disserent systems relatively to each other. By means of this varietytho solii is enabled to know overything Whatever that happens Without and within the body, and that comes in contact Withtho body; aud to apply iis force to those things that occur Within, and to give iis consent to those things that occur Withoiit. Thus We may Understand What Dee choice is : namely, that the mindlias the poWer to elect Whateuer it destres in a thought directedio an eud: helice to determine the body to aci; Whether ac- cording to What the animus Wishes, Or Whether the contra :

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undone, is granted to human mitids as a means to the ultimate

tuste uson it in sinite variely, and to underoo in sinite changes of state. The higher and more perfect entities of nature excol allothers in this, that they are more susceptibie of varietu, henee more ready to undergo change of state. But here We must explain What We mean by change of State, and harmonic variety resulting theresrom; and lest our ideas shouid bo tostin the indeterminate and abstraci, let us attach them at onceto an example. From a volume of uir, and the modes of acting thereos, We know the nature os every part of it; for a part is the least volume of iis atmosphere, and the nature Ofthe atmosphere is plainly manifested in the action os manyparis besore the sensorium, Whicli is rendered consciolis of iis mutnt1Ons. The air, as We ali linoW, readily alloWs of belligeither condensed in space, Or expanded, With a disseretice almost incredible, according to the experiments of Boyle. Hetice iis

modisiability, and aptitudo for taking upon it ali variety; Or forconstituting an atmosphore Of Whose paris not one is altogether Mike or equat to another; but ali are in perfeci harmonio variety relatively to ea ch Other, Whicli causes an equilibrium os the Whole. Those paris that occupy the upper region of the atmOSphere, are alWays more expauded and light than thos ethat occupy the lower region; henee the tWo ure ever unlike in their force of acting, and in the vigor aud degree of their elasticity. In these respecis the higher auras exceed the loWer almost in the proportion of myriads of myriada to one; fortu their susceptibility of varioty, and in their change of State, their clites perfection consists : this produces perfection of forces aud modificatious, and euabies them to serve RS the cauSeS Os

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infinite varietius in the posterior or consequent sphere. uenestit follows that tho srst aura, formen to the forces of nature inher most persect state, involves the Whole possibili ty os applyingilself to overy inconceivable minutia of Variety, consequently of Concurring Willi every assignable determination: so that on this account it deserves to be callest essentiat force, essentini elasticity, and primordial naturo, although it descends Dom Sub Stances prior to iiseis. Or is We may speali according to therules of elastic and purely natural forces, We should say that iiselasticity is exactly equat to the pressing force, or that it rencis

With an identioni forco to that by Whicli it is pressed; that thesum of the forces besere and after collision is the fame; Orthat tho quantity of the forces is maintained in every collisionand aut of pressure; that no impetus can be conceived in it, and no resistant, but only an agent: that no impression upon itis Iost, but passes unimpatred into the WhOle atmosphere; SheWing that there is a unanimous consent of ali the paris, and thatoach pari corresponds in iis character to iis Whole universe; and that in the pari as a least type lies ali that had preexisted in the WOrid: not to mention Other predicamenis, of whicli I have Spolien in my Principia, Ρari I., Chap. VI., Where I have called this aura, the srst element of the worid. In ordor that themutuat harmonic variety of iis paris may come under the imagination of thought, let iis regard it as the atmosphore of the

universe, Or ns the universe itself, and suppose in ii as many perfectly active centres as there are Stars Or Suns; the universeboing thus dividod into ad these singular universes. FolloWing the fame path let iis further suppose that there are the samenumber of spheres of activity and universat Vortices, under Whicli, and in Whicli, the vortices of the planeis or earthS gyrateas inferior Vortices. In every Sphere of activity, or in every WOrid, no One part of this aura is ever exactly similar Or equat tonny other; since there is a Successive disserenoe of forces corresponding to every part of the distance from the centre os activity;just in the fame manner, although beyond imagination more perseetly and universally, as there is in the atmosphere of theair, according to regiOns, and according to the distances fromthe centre of gravity; for belWeen the first aura and the stirthere is this disseretice, that the former involves active force

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alono, Whilo the lalter besides has the adjunct of gravity. Honcotho Wonderfui harmony of ali things, and the equilibrium os

tho wholo; and heuce the faci that there are as many forces os nature in her most perfeci State, as there are fornas and paris constituting the universe. Τhis mutation, Whicli is the poWoros expansion and compression, is to be called their accidentalmulatron, Or rather their natural mutation, as being the persection of their naturo.

313. From this supreme aura of the Worid let iis pass to thuspirituous suid, Which, as We have Osten indicated, is the richostprogeny of the Sald aura. Essecis prove very clearly, that allthe above persection is transferred into this fluid by iis parent

aura, for What in the animal hiragdom can be conceived more suid than 1t 3 What more modis able 3 What more accommodateto assume every form3 In fael, as a perpetuat mollier and nurse it enters every texture, the least a8 Weli as the greatest, and continues, irrigates, nouriShes, actuate8, modisies, formes

and renovates it. Ρari II., Π. 22I.) It feeis Whatever of mutabili ty happens in any degree of iis series, and pours forti, every larce impressed, ali and entire, upon neighboring and distant paris; and seals the outermost sphere With the samo presenee and faculty as the Dearest. Ρari I. n. 100.) In virtuo of this character, this fluid is the living force or natural liso ofiis Lingdom, and the representation of the grand universo in iis oWn limited universu; heiace by eminence it may be callod

or it may be salil to be any one of the paris that persorin any ossice in any part of the Lingdom. Illius it is in a manner tho

Supereminent lung, IDUSele, glanii, organ, WOmb, Ac., Whicli denominations are ascribed to the cortical substance in an inserior degree. Ρari II. 11. 176, seqq. I am ut a Ioss to knowon What principie or faci those persons rely, Who Iove to predicate hard uess of the spirituous suid; When in faci it loses iis busy lisse, and declines to inertia and death, in exact proportion as it Ioses 1l8 elastici ty. For I know not What universat substance could do What has to bo done, is in iis leasis it Wore of itself inert, and at QVery imperceptibie moment of iis circulation lost some considerable amount of tho forces it had received, and at every potnt Herexe8isting. Froin the Wonderi ut character of this fluid originates

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CVery sensation and determination of the will into aci; also thonmaging production of soritis; the perpetuat animation Os the system; and tho taci that the suid can bucome so fixed as toassume the sorm os a litile tunic Ρari II., Π. 296, 297) ; the harmonio varioty os ali the cortical substances of the medullary, nervo us, and motive fibres; of the blood; of the other fluids; of the viscera in the Whole anil in pari, and of the essecis there rom resulting. Ρari I., n. 97-90, 602-606.) Where re this accidental mutation of this suid is iis vertest persection, and derogates in no respect Dom iis form, and talios nothing hom iis

this perfeci mutabili ty of the higher entities. Wolfi corroborates this position. The state of the foui,' says he, is continuallychanging : the foui continuatly tends to change of state : allthe changes of the so ut talae their rise 1 rom sensation c.

Psychologia Nationalis, k 58, 56, 64.

314. There is no Worthier matter of e quiry With in the siel dos rational psycholo , than that presented by the question, Whether besides the ab ove accidental mutation there can existulSO a real or essentiai mulation in the spiritu us suid : and is Such real mutation exi sis, Whether it comes in any Way besore the Understandi g; for certainly it comes under the head os rational psychology as the main potnt 1 rom Whicli ali the restselloWS. From a comparison of the spiritusus fluid With theaura Os the universe, that is to say, with the first aura of the worid, it folioWs of necessity, that both are born to tine lap0Πthom infinite variety, this being the spring of their natural perfection ; While Devertheless there is this differetice, that thosethings that are impressed iapon the spirituous fluid, inhere in it; or that the paris in the fibres put On the stato that principies

procure sor them, as is evident Dom Our remembrance and un-

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mnte, and relapses at Once into iis natural state, after theassail aut force has consed. Such mutation in the spirituous suid, Whicli must bo called a real or essentiat mutation, comes to heconsidered either in relation to iis principio Os motion, or to iis reception of life . Is any mutation happonod Willi rogard to iis principie of motion, the so ut might cense to be the Order, truth, laW, and representation Os iis universe: but that no suci, mutation talies place is confirmed by fact; sor Whatever be a man scharacter, stili his children are born with the dotalis of thohuman fortia; Wherens is an essentiat mutation could bo induceti, the human race in the lapse of ages might degenerate into so me monst1ous Shape disserent from tho human. learn also Doma rationat anatomical onquiry that this cannot be, for the spiritusus fluid resides so high ab ovo Other Druis, and is concealedso deeply Within iis fibres, that it cannot be touched as regariis iis essentiat determinations by any extrinsie natural force, utileSSby a force of the most generat Linil derived fro in the perpetualdisharmoni es of the senses, especialty of sight. But besides that this sensu in iiself does not penetrato beyond the sphere of the animus, and by no means reaches the mind Ρari II., Π. 308 , much Iess the vertest singular sphere of the foui, no assectionean result Dom it to the essentiat doterminations of this fluid.

Aud moreovor it is most Wisely provided by the Creator, thaldisharmonios stiali be discussed by perpetuat harmontes; si or the variety of ali things is most beautiful, and particularly of the 0bjects of sight;) also that the eye shali suffer Dom in harmo-uious objecis bosore the brain and iis organism. Again, themost perfeci and persistent constancy in form and essen ceever accompanies the sirst entities Os nature. Ibid., Π. 313.)Heuce it follows that no mutation, not even a generat mutation, can bo induceti upon this quid by this chanuel; on Whicli subjeci the reader Will see more in the sequel. NoW is no essentialmutation ean come by Way of the Sight, much Iess ean it come byWay of the other Senses, of hearing, iaste and smeli, Whicli arestili more generat; least of ali can it como Dom touch, Or from

os ali the senses. Ly an essentini mutation Of the Sotai, I meana mutation Oi iis essentiat determinations, or of iis sorua, So fara8 it can be redueed from a more perseet to a more impersect

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the membranes, tympana, and cochleae of the ears, or themotivo fibres of the heari, Or the vaseular Or nervous lines of nny Other viscus, Wore redueed to a disserent and more or tessordinate siluation and state, exceeding their natural state; asWhen circlos are reduced to figures not circular. Such in eSsentiat mutation, therelare, cannot possibiy happen to the spiri- tuous fluid, in rogard to iis principie of motion. The apparent

deviation os nature in monstrous foetuses, arises DOm Contingent Causos extraneous to this fluid.

3I5. But it is a plain truth declared by datly experienee,

not an essentiat mutation, like that describod above; but stillit is a real mutation higher than the essentiat, in the spiri- tuous fluid itself, and it rendors this suid either botter orWorso stlod sor receiving Wisdom. Liso itself is impassive, and insoWs in One Only manner accordi g to the modised character and capacity of tho subject Ρari II., n. 26I). This mutation there re deservos to bo called a superior essential mutation, the cause of Whicli assecis tho fluid itself, since tho fluid is thes ut, capable of intelligetice, and is the spirit. Ibid., n. 245.

In Ordor to represent to ourselves the cause and reason os this mutation, We must descend Dom the spiritu us fluid itsolf to iis more generat Operations, or to the miud and the animus. Wes id a bovo that the light of the foui floWs tuto tho sphere os themiud according to the state sacquired a posteriori of the paris constituting the fibres; consequently according to their acquireddisposition; in order that the perceptions of things may tali morenearly under the intuition Of the foui, Whicli solus in alWays

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