Book Description

Excerpt from Physiology of the Soul and Instinct, as Distinguished From Materialism: With Supplementary Demonstrations of the Divine Communication of the Narratives of Creation and the Flood Such a conviction, arising from demonstrative proof, which appeals to the senses as well as the understanding, it appears to the writer, has been wanted by the human family, however they may be disposed, in the main, to accede to Revelation, or to listen to the natural suggestions of Reason. If the writer has failed, he will enjoy the consciousness of knowing that he will have done no harm to morals or religion, and that the worst of the issue will be the trouble that may devolve upon others in restoring the subject to its former obscurities and consequent tendencies." The second edition of the work on the Soul and Instinct, consisting of a small duodecimo, from the Preface to which the foregoing remarks are derived, has been before the public since 1849; and as the Author is not aware of any adverse criticisms, he offers this octavo edition in the belief that it will be found even more unexceptionable than the former. The facts and illustrations are greatly amplified, and the Author has aimed, so far as the subjects will admit, at a simplification that may adapt the work to the common understanding. He has also introduced a variety of topics which have appeared in some of his other works that have only an indirect, but, nevertheless, an important bearing upon the question relative to the Soul as distinguished from Materialism. Among the principal of these is the new doctrine of the "Correlation or Equivalence of the Physical and Vital Forces." If a principle of life be denied, in accounting for the endless and unique phenomena which appertain to the functions of organic beings, it is sufficiently apparent, independently of the avowed doctrines of materialism, that the phenomena of mind, from their connection with the same organization through which the functions of life are conducted, may be plausibly referred to the same physical causation. This doctrine of "Correlation of Forces" has therefore been made the basis of the "new materialism". hence it becomes necessary to expose its fallacies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.