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of religion are not in the first instance acquired by education and experience, but are derived entirely and exclusively from the soul; which, according to the explanation already given, is perfect in all its intellectual, moral, and religious faculties.

The senses also produce impressions on the brain of the fœtus before birth, which constitute another source of innate ideas. On this principle, the much controverted question relative to the origin of virtue and vice, and the predisposition of infants to the latter, may be satisfactorily explained.

The following remarks of Dr. HUTCHINSON, in relation to this topic, accord with the views of other philosophers, and are too appropriate to be omitted. He says: It is an arduous task to trace virtue to its original source, whether it comes to man by nature, or by custom and education, or by some divine instinct. Many eminent philosophers admit that we have innate seeds of virtue. The seeds of virtue do not show themselves so early as the seeds of vice, whatever may be the advantage of outward good example. For as that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is animal, and afterward that which is spiritual, so it may be consistent with the right order of things, that the animal, sensual, or inferior propensities, should appear before the moral or spiritual. We know not why the latter noble principles should appear in the infant, before it has discovered one spark of intellect. The following is the regular order in the scale of intellect a sensitive, an animal, an intellectual, and moral state, is gradually unfolded. The propensities which appear first, are not so excellent as those which appear last.'

All seem to concur with Dr. Hutchinson in the opinion just quoted, that vice precedes virtue in the order of time; but none have accounted for the fact why it should so occur; nor have they satisfactorily explained the predisposition of infants to vice.

I will now proceed to exhibit the facility with which this theory will elucidate this intricate subject, divest it of all mystery, and place it on the plain and simple ground of other physical operations.

I have already explained the manner in which ideas originate from the senses; that they are the first in the order of existence, and consequently make the first impressions on the brain; and that originating entirely from the body, they may with propriety be denominated sensual, or, in the language of Scripture, carnal. These ideas, thus originating from the flesh, contain all the germs of vice, so subversive of human felicity; and when transmitted to, and lodged in the brain, constitute the sensual mind, in contradistinction to the moral mind, which is derived from the soul.

The sensual mind, thus originating from the five senses, and being the first in the order of time, makes the first impressions upon the brain; and as vice is the product of the sensual mind, and most congenial to its nature, the mind of the infant becomes thereby predisposed to vice, and to all its train of evils, before the moral mind is sufficiently matured to counteract its baleful influence.

How long this influence, has been exerted, and how deep these impressions have been made, before the counter agents from the soul begin to operate, we can never ascertain. But that they are settled and radicated, accords with experience, and is confirmed by facts.

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And until the soul, by the efforts of volition, is brought to exert its influence to eradicate the impressions already made, the predisposition to vice will continue to increase, and to grow stronger and deeper, until advanced age shall render it perfectly insensible to the counter influence of the soul. It can then be eradicated only by the miraculous power of the Almighty. Thus verifying the Scripture: The sinner of a hundred years old shall be accursed.'

The order in the preceding scale of intellect, by Dr. Hutchinson, is perfectly consistent with the explanation I have already given of innate ideas, and is good authority in support of this theory. The same principles are equally applicable to explain the origin of virtue and vice. The first in his scale, the sensitive state, arises from the sense of touch, and is the first idea transmitted to the brain of the foetus. The animal state is the result of the other senses, as they successively commence operation; thus, when complete, constituting the perfect sensual mind, the origin of all vice. His second and third, the intellectual and moral state, arrive with the soul, and do not commence operation upon the brain, until respiration has commenced, and the sensual mind has made considerable progress toward its complete formation. This arrival of the soul constitutes the inceptive stage of the moral mind, the origin of all virtue, which is gradually unfolded in all its faculties, as the different organs of the brain become developed, which it is destined to occupy, and as the body approaches its mature and perfect state.

The preceding remarks relate to the mind in its sane and healthy condition. A few brief reflections will show how satisfactorily the sane principles may be applied to explain the operations of the mind under the influence of disease.

It is not my intention, at present, to proceed to a detailed exposition of the causes and treatment of insanity, but merely to indicate a few general principles that may be applied to preserve the health and to prevent the disease of the mind.

The radical difference in the intellectual faculties of men is not so great as the difference in the means which they employ for their respective improvement in knowledge. It was a common remark of Sir Isaac Newton, that if he possessed any advantage over others, it consisted entirely in his ability to control his attention. This is literally true, and is the grand secret by which the most eminent and most scientific men have acquired their highest attainments, and their prominent distinction in the world. The reason is very obvious. Those who abstract their attention from extraneous subjects, and concentrate it entirely and exclusively upon the objects of their study, will arrive at the highest possible attainments in science.

By extending this controlling influence to all the faculties of the soul, ideas which had been long dormant, and of the existence of which the mind had become unconscious, will be excited to renewed and vigorous action. The soul, with all its faculties, will be thus brought into a more intimate approximation to, and alliance with, the organs of the brain, and will consequently impart to the mind that peculiar species of intellectual, moral, or religious science, which the will makes the greatest efforts to obtain. And if its exertions operate with equal force upon all these faculties, the individual will

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thereby acquire the reputation of being not only a great and wise man, but also of being a good man, devoted to objects of piety and benevolence. The mind, like the body, requires constant and regular exercise, to preserve its healthy condition; and if suitably controlled by the will, its health and its sanity will continue to be preserved, until they are impaired by the infirmities incident to declining life. All its faculties will then be in equal and regular action. Antagonist agents will never permit this balance to be disturbed, while they are unaffected by disease. This constitutes the most healthy and sane condition of the mind; and may always be found most perfect in those eminent men who are most distinguished for a high moral intellect, but destitute of this moral restraint; men of the highest intellectual attainments are most liable to paroxysms of insanity.

When this equanimity is disturbed, and this harmony of action destroyed, by any adequate cause, a discordance in the operation of the faculties occurs, which gradually impairs the sanity of the mind, and ultimately terminates in confirmed derangement.

It will therefore be perceived that the preceding remarks justify the conclusion, that the same test which designates a great and good mind, will equally designate its most sane and healthy condition.

I consider the will to be the supreme arbiter of this epitome of the universe. It sits enthroned in regal majesty, dispensing its mandates through all the minute ramifications of its complicated empire. If these mandates are wisely conceived, and faithfully executed, by the subordinate agents which are permanently stationed at their respective posts; if the will brings the soul, with all its faculties, into complete and extensive operation upon the brain; all the departments of its government will be equally and justly balanced, and the respective powers of each department will be retained within their own spheres of action.

This condition of mind is best adapted to promote the happiness and the usefulness of the individual who possesses it. But the least deviation from this standard will mar this happiness, impair this usefulness, and induce disorder and discord; all of which evils will continue to accumulate and to multiply, precisely as the will loses its influence, or is influenced by bad motives, or ceases to control the attention and all the faculties of the soul.

The first symptoms which indicate the gradual approaches to insanity, are seldom observed: they are often denominated eccentricities of character, without the least suspicion of mental disease, and are characterized by a vacillating state of mind; a rapid transition of thought from one thing to another; an inability to confine the attention, for any length of time, to one subject. This disposition continues to increase, till it terminates in an incessant wandering of the mind.

The imagination then usurps the place of the understanding, and presents to the mind a thousand fanciful paintings, which the fancy endows with life and animation, and which it occasionally converts into castles, animals, and armies. Those persons who are in the habit of permitting their thoughts to rove at random, with no fixed object on which to concentrate, and without exerting any efforts to arrest their unmeaning current, or to subject them to the control of

the will, are always liable to become insane. It is therefore very obvious that the remedial means necessary to prevent this deplorable occurrence, in its incipient stage, must be sought for in an entire removal of the remote and exciting causes. This habitual roving of the current of thought must be arrested, and brought, by habitual and strict discipline, into a regular train of moral reflections, steadily directed to one subject. The will must resume its authority, and exert all its efforts to control the attention, and to subdue all the faculties of the soul to its sovereign power. Such a course of remedial treatment, prudently and judiciously administered, will arrest the progress of the disease in its incipient stage, prevent its ultimate distressing termination, and restore to his anxious friends one who, without these precautionary measures, might have become a perfect maniac; a tenant of the asylum; an outcast from the world.

I have now arrived at the completion of a very imperfect outline of a system of mental science, which I feel fully assured will most satisfactorily explain the mysteries connected with the immaterial part of man. That I have succeeded in producing an equal conviction in the minds of others, I can scarcely venture to hope. And indeed I have no desire to produce such conviction, unless this system shall ultimately be found to rest on the immutable basis of truth.

But before the critic dips his pen in gall, I earnestly solicit him to bestow all his attention upon this view of the subject, until, by diligent investigation, he shall acquire a perfect knowledge of all the facts, authorities, and evidence, on which it is founded, and shall also clearly perceive the facility and perspicuity with which the appropriate details may explain and develope the occult mysteries of the science of mind; and if he can then, unprejudiced and in perfect candor, pronounce its principles to rest on a false basis, and shall sustain the charge, and effectually demolish the whole fabric, by sound arguments, supported by facts, I will promptly retract my error, and cheerfully bestow upon him my warmest gratitude and most profound admiration.

But if the fundamental principles of this system shall survive the assaults of the critic, and receive the sanction of public opinion, the subject will be resumed and pursued through all the variety of details connected with the immaterial part of man, until the extensive field inclosed by this outline shall be fully occupied. And I trust that a new era in the philosophy of mind will thus be commenced, which abler talents will cultivate and improve, until the whole system of mental science shall be divested of all mystery, and so clearly elucidated and simplified, that both the material and immaterial parts of man shall be rendered equally susceptible of demonstrative proof,

REDDES DULCE LOQUI.

"T is all in vain: I have no more nor force nor fire at will,
Though doomed the trodden round to tread, a race-horse in a mill;
Like that forlorn and flaunting form, the rake's abandoned toy,
Whom grief forbids, but want compels, to wear the face of joy,
My wo-worn Muse, too long assailed by sorrow, sickness, pain,
In vain resumes the lighter note-Thalia's jocund strain.

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'Tis the wild and dark night-season; o'er the mountain's flinty cone
The stormy clouds are passing, and the wind makes dismal moan;
You may hear its gloomy chanting, where the firs wave wild and hoary,
On the summit of the headland, and the distant promontory;

For the legions of the tempest are coming one by one,

Unto the dreadful music of heaven's solemn thunder-gun!

II.

It is the wild night-season, and o'er the waters dark,
Fast hunted by the tempest, careers the freighted bark;
The sailor sees the cloud-rack fast driving in the gale,
And with cold-stiffened fingers reefs up the flapping sail;
And the hoarse-voiced captain labors with the pilot at the wheel,
While rattling o'er the ocean, comes the thunder's distant peal.

TII.

Now louder creak, ye forests! - for the night-storm hath set in,
And the distant mountains echo to its fearful, angry din;
The solemn fir woods tremble, and, rushing through the air,
The pine trees crush the night-wolf in her tangled mountain lair,
And the whistling of the cold wind is mingled with the roar
Of the torrent on the hill side, and the billows on the shore.

IV.

And so it came to pass that night, as o'er the raging sea,
Fast chased by hungry tempest, went the princely argosy;
Amid her torn and tattered sails the wild wind fiercely blew,

And the sea-brine drenched the garments of her brave and gallant crew,
While the hoarse oath of the sailor, upon the bending mast,
Rose wildly with the wailing of the errant ocean blast.

Y.

The captain and the pilot to the creaking tiller clung,

And o'er their heads the lantern from the wet ceiling swung,

And the mate yelled to the seamen through all the dreary night,

While the seaman marked the headland by the lightning's livid light,
And from his giddy eyrie saw far upon the lea

The fearful breakers rising through the wild and stormy sea.

VI.

The woody cape is full in sight-but hark!-what sound is this,
Which cometh from the wide domain of ocean's wilderness!

The lightning fiercely glimmers through the rain-beat window-pane,
As far upon the ocean it shakes its glittering chain;

And on the pilot's forehead the sweat-drops glisten bright,

As he bends to mark the needle by the lantern's flickering light.

VII.

It is it is the hurricane! With wild and gloomy roar
It rushes through the ravines, along the leeward shore:

The awe-struck pilot trembles, as toiling at the wheel,

He sees the dreadful lightning wink, and hears the thunder peal;
But he shall guide that bark no more across the ocean main,
For what can stand the fury of God's swift hurricane!

VIII,

Now louder roars the tempest, the air is all a din,
And around that fated argosy the whistling whirlwinds spin;
The pilot leaves the useless helm, and bends himself to pray,
And loudly laughs the breaker through the feathery ocean spray;
And wildly in the stormy air doth 'shriek the white sea-mew,'
As down into the ocean sink that brave and gallant crew!
Utica, April, 1840,

H. W. R.

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