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MATTER PRELIMINARY TO THE EXPLANATION OF THE SECOND LAW OF THE NERVOUS AND FIBROUS SYSTEMS.

SECT. XXX.

OF THE IRRITABLE PRINCIPLE

We know not, fays Dr. BROWN, what the IRRITABLE PRINCIPLE really is. We may, however, define it to be "a property inherent in moving fibres at the commencement of their animate state, which enables them to react upon the application of fimuli; that its powers are different in different animals; and vary at different times even in the fame animal.” In like manner was Sir ISA AC NEWTON at a loss to explain what gravity was: for philosophy is aptly represented by a temple, whose front alone is visible, but whose basis is involved in impenetrable clouds and darkness. Even the Indian philofopher, who taught that the earth was fupported by an elephant, and that elephant by a tortoife, was obliged to stop somewhere.

* This difficult problem may perhaps admit of a folution, and if the 1RRITABLE PRINCIPLE be not the oXYGEN in the fyftem, its dependance or relation to it can be, however, clearly ascertained, and the reader will find this important fubject particularly treated on in this volume, Sect. XXXII. Of as related to IRRITABILITY; and Sect. XXXVI. Of OXYGEN as the Principle of IRRITABILITY.

OXYGEN

VOL. I.

SECT.

SECT. XXXI.

OF THE SENTIENT PRINCIPLE.

THE man of deep fcience comprehends no more the nature of this great prerogative of organized animated beings, endowed with brain and nerves, than the pooreft peafant; or than he understands the fecret influence of the magnet, or the irritability of the contractile fibre. NATURE has hid this attribute of her power from the vain fearch of man. Hereby SHE hath removed the line, that feparates the philofopher and the clown. But the philosopher, disappointed in this deep research, still perfeveres in the pursuit of useful knowledge, and with unwearied ardour he contemplates the different structures, wherein the fame offices are defigned by an OMNIPOTENT POWER, and he discovers, "that in animals the differences in ftructure affixed to the organs of fenfation confitute the main differences in perception;" for where the fense of smell, &c. as in the dog, is more acute than in us, the figure of that organ is more complex, and difclofing a greater degree of art: and " that the powers of the

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nerves

nerves depend on the firucture of the parts to which they are connected." Thus the nerve, which goes to the tongue, gives the fenfation of tafte, and supplies alfo the muscles moving that organ. The par vagum, which gives fenfation to the stomach and lungs, likewise affords the power of motion to the muscles of the throat. And thus the fenfation of touch may arise from the fame nerves which pervade the muscular fibres.

This doctrine is beautifully difplayed by the invaluable mufeum prepared by that first of anatomists and naturalifts, the late JOHN HUNTER. Let it not, however, lead the enemy to science (for fome fuch characters there are) to object to him on that account Materialisin and the Disbelief of the doctrine of a future ftate.

"Thou fool," fays the philofopher and apostle, “that feed which thou foweft is not quickened except it die. And that which thou foweft, is not that body that shall be: but GOD giveth it a body as it hath pleased HIM, and to every feed its own body.—So also the RESURRECTION of the dead. The body is sown (in the earth) in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is fown in weakness, it is raised in Arength. It is fown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual. Behold, I fhew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, In a moment, in the

but we fhall all be CHANGED.

twinkling

twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet fhall found, and the dead fhall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be CHANGED. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

Man, therefore, is not what he will hereafter be. What we discover of him here below, is only the gross foldage under which he crawls upon the earth, and which he muft fhortly caft off.

Could not the omnipotent AUTHOR OF NATURE, who pre-ordained all beings from the beginning, who originally enclosed the gaudy and winged butterfly in the chryfalis, the plant in the feed, comprise the spiritual body in the animal?

The animal body has no other relation than to this earth. The fpiritual body will have enjoyments which ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive; new fenfes will disclose themselves, and, by multiplying in an almost infinite degree his perceptions, his sphere will be aggrandized, and he will be equal to fuperior intelligences.

REVELATION informs us it will be fo; and the parable of the feed is the most expreffive and philofophic emblem of this wonderful pre-ordination.

The fenfes, as they will be brought into subjection to

the

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