all tending to a denial of its immortality, or what is nearly the same, to the denial of its conscious existence after death, until the supposed event of the resurrection of the material body at some distant future, what becomes of all the internal moral motives and restraints against vice and crime and sin in all their developments in our fallen nature? In such teaching can there be any impulsive efforts awakened in our unregenerate nature to depart from evil? And will not our fallen nature still indulge in all its hereditary tendencies to depravity, as most congenial to its native genius, disposition, and taste? What motive does such negative, yea infidel, teaching supply "to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in the first place," when, according to such teaching, there can be no reasonable hope that this blessed kingdom can be consciously enjoyed immediately after death? What motive is there in such teaching to self-denial, to the daily bearing of our cross, without which we cannot become the Lord's disciples, or true Christians? What, with the notions of the Archbishop, becomes of the teaching of the Apostle, who says that "there is a natural body and there is [not there will be] a spiritual body"? And again-"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [the natural body] were dissolved, we have a building of God, [a spiritual body] a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and we are rather willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (ii. Cor. v.) What becomes of the Lord's declarations as to the rich man and Lazarus, who, immediately after death, were in their spiritual bodies the one in heaven and the other in hell? What becomes of His declaration to the thief on the cross, that this day he should be with him in Paradise? Surely these, and various other declarations in the Scriptures, could not have been present to the mind of the Archbishop when he made such extraordinary and groundless statements. What, then, are we to conclude but that the prevailing theology is, as to this important point, as well as to every other, effete,-barren of every principle of genuine truth; and defunct,-incapable of imparting any living principle or heavenly impulse to the soul? No wonder that infidelity, scepticism, and a merely negative rationalism, yea, even pantheism itself, should abound in the Christian world, where such teaching, from the highest authorities, is seen to prevail! Now, this unpretending little work, containing multum in parvo, is intended, as when carefully considered it is highly calculated to do, to stem this torrent of ignorance on this most vital question,-" What is the Human Soul?" and to impart a true knowledge respecting everything that can be known, or that is desirable to be known, of the human soul. For as it is justly remarked by the author, "The answer furnished to this question will be found to lay open the whole subject of mental philosophy." The topics of which it treats in the solution of this question, and which should have been displayed in the table of contents, are as follows:: "The Soul is most substantial;"—"the Soul is in a human form;"—"Man is not Life, but a Recipient of Life from God;"-" The Soul is spiritually organized for the Reception of Life;"-" The Organic Forms Recipient of Life in the Soul, are called the Will and the Understanding which, taken together, are called the Mind;" "Life resides essentially in the Will, and becomes formed in the Understanding;"-.“ The Soul is in a State of Purity and Order only so far as the Will and Understanding constitute a One,-or, are united as in a Marriage;"-"The Memory is Man's Book of Life;"-"The internal and the external Man;"" Conscience;"-" The Soul is perfected by three distinct and successive Degrees;"-" All changes in the State of the Soul or Mind, are nothing but changes in the recipient Forms which constitute its Organization;""The Soul is omnipresent in the Body;'" General Conclusion." All these important topics, which involve a comprehensive knowledge of the soul, and lay wide open the entire field of mental philosophy, are briefly but luminously discussed and explained. Scripture, reason, and common sense are made by the able writer to combine their testimonies in demonstrating the truth of the various positions and stateAll teachers of youth, as well as all ministers of the Gospel, and especially all the teachers in our Sunday Schools, should be possessed of this little manual, which so clearly developes the principles which lead to a true knowledge and philosophy of the soul. ments. The work also contains three other chapters on the following weighty subjects: "The Important Distinction between the Free-will, or Free Determination of the Soul, while in the Body, and when separated from it." "The Divine Foreknowledge as connected with the Soul's Free-will." "The Life after Death, or the State and Condition of the Soul in the Life to come." These subjects are very ably treated, especially the first and the last. But the second, we think, is not so profoundly handled as we should have expected from so practised a thinker and so able a writer. Two or three propositions, scarcely touched upon, are indispensable to a more satisfactory solution of this knotty and difficult question. But our space does not now permit us to enlarge upon this subject. Some other opportunity may serve our purpose. We earnestly recommend this work to our readers. N. S. No. 148.-VOL. XIII. 154 Poetry. THE STREAM OF LIFE. BY SPENCER T. HALL. My life a mountain stream has been; What power to fix its course had I? O God of Love! let trust in Thee O God of Wisdom! ever be, As Thou hast ever been, its Guide! The infant rill, when illness crossed And stopped its voice of joy with pain, Till its faint path seemed dried and lost, Thy goodness soon brought forth again; And on with laughter and with shout It held, in morning light descending, Winding and jetting in and out, And glad as it would know no ending! And I remember looks of pleasure, And words of thankfulness and praise, Soft sunshine of thy face, my mother! My elder sister's gentler aid! And younger brethren, kindred streams, All these were there, the tiny tide Enlarging with their varied mind, While on, from scene to scene, it hied— Though cheerful, grave; though bashful, kind. Then into deeper, duskier bowers, With yet increasing force it went, And found in schooltime's tangled hours Oh, school to me thou wert not dear, Next, through thy opening landscape, Youth! And bore them on in pride before it. At length, o'er Manhood's varied plain, Yet speeding on, through friends and foes,Through rocks and meads, as God is willing, More useful getting as it goes, Until, its destiny fulfilling, The stream bears on the little boat, And next the heavier keel succeedeth, And then a thousand barks can float Yes! such is Life: it comes to birth, Then finds at last that not alone Unto itself was its ordaining, But that it most enjoys its own And mine a stream perturbed has been; O God of Love! let trust in Thee And may Thy wisdom ever be, Through good and ill, its constant Guide! 1851. Thus, as yon cloud-descended rill All-blest, All-glorious, and Sublime ! MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA.-NATURAL towards which her attention was con "A young girl named Elisa Durrand (whose father is a proprietor and farmer in the environs of St. Cloud), had a lethargic sleep, which lasted fifty-six hours. After this period, she awoke into her ordinary state, with a singular impression, which presented the most extraordinary phenomena. "Elisa, aged 15, was as joyful and merry as any in the village, until one day, when she remained motionless upon her chair, and only answered the questions that were addressed to her in monosyllables. In the evening she fell into a cataleptic state, which was characterized by the rigidness of her limbs and her fixed look. At this juncture the girl's faculties and senses acquired a sensibility and capacity which transcended the ordinary limits assigned to human power. For example, she not only possessed the gift of the second sight, which some of the Highlanders of Scotland are said to enjoy, but also that of the second hearing, that is to say, she heard the words uttered near her, and those that were spoken in places more or less distant, centrated. "Every object placed in the hands of this cataleptic subject presents to her a double image. She has the same idea as others of the exterior form and appearance of the object, but she distinctly sees, besides, another form, the representation of its interior, that is to say, all the properties it possesses, and the uses to which it is destined in the order of creation. In a number of plants and metallic and mineral specimens placed under her observation, she signalized many latent and unexplored virtues which reminded us of the alchymists of the middle centuries, perhaps too lightly considered as visionaries. Some experiments have already confirmed the reality of the young girl's revelations. "She experieneed a similar effect upon the appearance of individuals with whom, by the contact of hands, she was in communication. She saw them, at once, such as they were, and such as they had been at a younger age. All the semblance of age and disease disappear, and if a limb is wanting, there is in her view another substituted for it. She pretends, apart from all modifications which result from the vital action, that the corporeal form remains entirely reproduced or renewed by the nervous fluid. She assures us that this is the second man, [or internal] the image of the first [or external] in all the periods of its existence, which is not liable to destruction, and is recognised in a world not so material [as this]. Transported into places where there are tombs, Elisa saw and depicted in the manner we have related, individuals whose remains had been interred, when she experienced spasms, nervous crises, similar to those she felt when she approached places where exist, no matter at what depth in the earth, water or metals. 66 |