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But the difficulty with Calvinism, as such eulogists of it as Mr. Froude and Mr. Carlyle unconsciously to themselves suggest, is that it tends to set Power above' Love as the Divine Instrument for subduing and controlling the hearts of men. As in the pagan drama of the Prometheus Bound, Force and Strength are made or rather seem to be made the heavenly messengers. Calvinism does not sufficiently place a Father upon the throne of the universe. So it often loses sight of the welfare of the individual in a coldly benevolent calculation of what the welfare of the largest number may require. Cromwell's massacre at Drogheda and Mr. Carlyle's elaborate vindication of it may illustrate what I mean. For good men's ideas of what is righteousness on earth are apt to color their ideas of what the divine righteousness may be.

Calvinism, like the Roman Empire and like the Roman hierarchy in the middle ages, has had its great and beneficent work to do for humanity—a work which, perhaps, could have been done by no other agency. But out of the current Protestant theology certain Calvinistic features which were deeply stamped upon Calvinism by the Roman Law may now, I think, in the Divine Providence be seen disappearing. It is probable that they have served their day and that their mission is accomplished. The Spirit who is the guide of the church of Christ into all truth, seems to be making a truth which Calvinism neglected to be the new center of theology. That truth is the Fatherhood of God as revealed to the world through the Sonship of Jesus Christ our Lord. The correlation of this truth with the great doctrine of Divine Sovereignty for which Calvinism witnessed, may be found in these words of the apostle Peter:

"And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear."

In these words of the apostle John :

"If any man sin we have an advocate (not with the judge but) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

And finally in these words of our Saviour:

"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter therein."

ARTICLE III.-PHYSIOLOGY VS. PHILOSOPHY.*

In this exceedingly practical and luxurious age, when the movement of one's finger ends in San Francisco may be heard half around the globe; when we may determine the elemental structure of a star the rays of whose light have been millions of years in reaching our earth, almost as surely as if it was near us; when the common people of a nation of 45,000,000 live in a daily luxury of food and home, which fifty years ago only the wealthy could have, and all by means of the wonderful advances made by science, it is not surprising that there exists. in the very sound of its name a fascination which belongs to that of no other general term so often heard in these days.

On the other hand, when we remember how long and how patiently the brightest minds, the keenest intellects have been devoted to the study and elaboration of philosophy, and with what exceedingly meager results so far as practical advantage in the way of material wealth and physical comfort is concerned, we may not wonder that this name has, in these latter days, lost much of its former charm for minds which are eager to push forward in the grand struggle for wealth or fame. Indeed, there seems to be a kind of stigma attached to the term Metaphysics by the active, investigating minds of to-day ; there is thought to be something so unreal, so unpractical in its study, as compared with that of science, that its claims and advantages in helping to elucidate some of the yet unsolved problems of life would appear to be in danger of being overlooked, if not forgotten. It is but fair, however, to remember that in the ages gone by, some of the grandest discoveries the human mind has ever made-discoveries by means of which science itself has been made possible and built up step by step, discoveries some of which have made known our relation to the universe of worlds outside our own, have come to us through the door of philosophy, and while science was in the cradle of infancy. It may not, therefore, be wholly unprofitable to

* Read before the New England Psychological Society, March 9th, 1880.

compare some of the more important claims of both science and philosophy, in helping to elucidate the still apparently unsettled problem of life and mind in their relation to body, in which as psychologists we have so large an interest.

In this proceeding I shall contrast to some extent the views of physiology with those of philosophy; intimating, also, as far as may be necessary to my purpose, points of agreement between the two.

I shall refer first to some of those which physiology presents as the results of recent investigations and prophecies of future revelations in her domain of science.*

First. Physiology views man as an animal, and an animal only. There exists no duality of his nature. It is a unitentire, and in no respect differs from that of other animals except in degree. She begins with Protoplasm as the basis of all forms of living matter and the Protozoa as the beginning of animated structures. These consist of simply a homogeneous, unindivualized mass. There are neither cells, blood-vessels, or nerves. They have neither stomach or lungs, and yet are sensible to external stimuli.

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From these forms she passes up to those having the rudiments of a nervous system, viz: fibers connected with a cell and as the structure becomes more complex these fibers with their cells increase in number until nerves and brains composed of white matter are formed.

In fishes appear the first rudiments of the cerebral hemispheres in the form of "a thin layer" of gray matter near the optic lobes, while in birds "they have so far increased in size as to push forward the optic lobe." In the mammalia, their size is still further increased, and in the monkey and finally in man they attain "their largest size, projecting over and beyond the cerebellum."

It is claimed that in all this ascent from the most rudimentary forms to those of the most complex nature, the office of the white matter and the sensory ganglia are the same, and

*In the following brief sketch of some of the views and claims of mental physiology, the writer has mainly followed the last edition of Maudsley. The views expressed, however, would probably not differ in any essential respect from those held by Tyndal, Huxley, Hæckel, and others of the modern school.

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that in these respects all animals differ only in degree and not in

nature.

It is further claimed that in proportion as the gray matter and cortical substance of the brain is increased in volume, in like proportion does intelligence increase, so that the bird exhibits far more of this than the fish, the lower forms of the mammalia than the bird, and the higher forms of the latter than the lower forms; and that brute reason differs in no respect from human reason except in degree.

The wonderful difference exhibited often between some species of animals possessing only a small portion of gray substance, as compared with other species possessing much larger developments in this direction, is explained by the assumption that the proportion of gray matter must correspond with the relative size of the whole structure, and that intelligence is affected by the quality as well as the quantity of the cortical substance. It is further claimed that many classes of animals would exhibit much larger degrees of intelligence if they were not enslaved and kept in subjugation by their enemy, man, who possesses such vastly superior endowments.

So much then for physical structures in relation to the nervous system. Physiology now goes further. She has pried into the inmost structure of the convolutions of the brain in search of that wonderful, intangible something which we call mind. She has brought to her aid not only the scalpel and the eye, but also chemistry and the microscope, thus increasing her power of sight more than a thousand fold. She has not only traced back step by step each nerve to its origin and connection with its cell ganglia, but she has pressed on into the myriads of systems and structures of the gray substance of the brain. She here finds untold numbers of cells, connective fibres, and blood vessels, composing a machinery of the most wonderful and delicate complications. As impressions from without are received by the nerves in the lower order of animals, and conveyed to the sensory ganglia, and then discharged along the motor nerves outwards, causing movements, in like manner she claims that impressions are received and pass on to the cells spread over the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, and are there fashioned into ideas and sentiments; that in both

cases the operation is the same except in the one case the sensory ganglia are alone affected, while in the other the impression passes on to the cells of the cerebral hemisphere, eventuating in ideas. In the one case there is "a sensorial arc," and in the other "an ideational arc.". In the first, "the function is sensational and sensori-motor action," while in the other it is "perception and volition."

Physiology further claims that the gray or cortical substance of the brain is largely composed of countless circuits of nerves and connecting cells, along which impressions are in constant motion, or a series of vibrations. These vibrations are proportioned to the quantity and quality of the convolutions of the brain. They are more in number in monkey than in the dog, and more in man than in the monkey. They are more in the negro than in the bushman, and more in the white man than the negro. On their frequency may depend the vast difference between the intellect of genius and that of the boor, that of the poet and the laborer. If, therefore, these vibrations were only of sufficient frequency in the latter, he might become the former-a Shakespeare, a Herschel, an Aristotle, or a Kepler. Perceptions, memory, reason, judgment, all are mere movements or vibrations of different kinds and degrees of these multitudinous nerve-paths and cells. Self-consciousness, attention, will, all are so many different forms of this same wonderful activity of nervous tissue, or perhaps it may more properly be said activity of different parts of the brain.

To all questions as to the several so-called characters or qualities of mind, she replies, first, that memory is the organized result of all the antecedent experience of the individual, and pertains alike to the nerves of the body and the brain. As the result of all impressions conveyed along nerve-paths, and consequent perceptions and actions, there remains a "residuum" -a certain something, which increases on the repetition of each nerve-experience. This certain something or "residuum" ultimately becomes memory, i. e., the experience becomes so stamped upon the nerve cells and fibers of the brain as to become ineffaceable, and ever afterwards remains, except as affected or erased by disease. The countless experiences of individuals attaining to mature and old age, she claims, are 33

VOL. III.

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