lectual errors should be vindicated. Meanwhile I venture for myself to continue a straightforward course of biblical inquiry, and to give to the world, under the general prompting of such motives as seem to me to become a Christian, the conclusions at which I arrive from the evidence that forces itself upon my mind. If valid, they will probably approve themselves to those who may think them worthy their attention. If fallacious, the exposure of the error is but the penalty that every sensible man is prepared to pay for the possibility of error in the free expression of his opinions. New-York, August, 1845. G. B. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Scriptural Distinction between Soul and Body, § 3. in the sense of Life, yuz, Anima, the Vital Principle by which the Body lives, § 4. as the Seat of Sensation, the Subject of Bodily Appetites, Desires, and the various kinds of Sensual or Animal Affections, § 5. in the sense of Animus, Rational Soul, Mind, and considered as the Seat of vari- ous Passions, Emotions, the Affections per- taining to a Rational Being, such as Love, 69 § 4. in the sense of Anima, yuzǹ, Animal Life, Vital Spirit, or the Principle of Life as embodied and manifested in the Breath of § 5. in the sense of Animus, veμa, Spirit, the Mind, viewed as the Seat and Subject of Thought, but more especially of Emo- tion, Feeling, Passion, and Affection, §6. in the sense of a Spirit, a Personal Agent, § 2. in the sense of Mind, Understanding, Wisdom, the Faculty of Thinking, &c., § 3. as denoting the Principle which is the Seat and Subject of Sensations, Feelings, Emotions, and Passions of various kinds, as Love, Joy, Confidence, Hope, Hatred, THE SOUL. Preliminary Remarks. ANTHROPOLOGY is the appropriated term for the science of man. Its two grand divisions, founded upon the twofold distinction of man's nature, are physiology and psychology, the first relating to the body, the second to the soul. Man, in both these departments, is a proper theme of scientific research. The phenomena of his being, the laws of his animal and intellectual economy, constitute a field of inquiry which lies open to the freest investigation. The exhibitions. of divine power and wisdom and benignity which shine forth in the human frame draw largely upon our devout admiration, and are among the thousand-fold works of the Almighty Architect which are diligently "sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." Man is a microcosm involving a miniature universe of wonders, the complete development of which is the work of ages. It is possible, however, to certify the results of our inquiries in this department to a given point, and when this point is attained, whatever it be, it is impossible to say that we may not advance beyond it to another, and thence to another still, and so on indefinitely, in continual approximation to a perfect knowledge of the structure of our bodies and our souls. The presumption is not in saying, "Thus far have we come," but in saying, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther;" for it is not. in the compass of human intelligence to set limits to the possible extent of acquisition in our knowledge of any and every part of God's works. As the field is boundless, so the progress in it is interminable. Nor does the fact of a Revelation having been accorded us put any bar in the way of our profoundest inquest, on the ground of Reason, into the great truths which form its themes. The nature, state, and destiny of man enter largely into the disclosures of holy writ; but why should this prevent the prosecution of our researches, by the independent lights which God has given us, into the internal constitution of the bodies and souls of which we find ourselves possessed? Is there any danger that we shall by and by reach a point where Reason and Revelation will come into inevitable conflict? How can this be, if Reason and Revelation acknowledge the same divine source? Is not the universe itself a Revelation of its Author, a Revelation made to the Reason of intelligent beings, and is it conceivable that the disclosures it contains should be in any way at variance with the sense of a written record announcing a portion of the very truths which the universe comprises? We are far, indeed, from affirming that unassisted Reason can grasp all the verities which may be supposed to enter into a Revelation from God. But so far as Revelation and Reason cover a common ground, the last inductions of the one must necessarily harmonize with the true-meant averments of the other; and the only question that can arise is as to the certainty of the results of the latter, and the true interpretation of the former. There are doubtless cases where the apparently irresistible conclusions of science do conflict with the apparently obvious sense of Scripture, so that there seems no alternative but that the one must give way before the more imperative claims of the other. The results of Astronomical and Geological science present a case in point. Now what shall be done in an emergency like this? The evidence of the truth in both these departments is so absolutely decisive and overwhelming, that the mind which appreciates it feels that it would be guilty of doing a moral violence to its higher |