from the nature of attention,
and from the association of ideas, that unity is one of the principal
characteristics of mind. It is this which constitutes personal identity;
an attribute that, however unsatisfactory may be the explanations which
have been given respecting it, we all of us feel, and that lies at the
foundation of all our voluntary actions, and all our morality.

Analogous to this unity of thought and mind, is the arrangement of the
nerves and the brain in the human body. The nerves all lead up to the
brain; and there is a centrical point in the brain itself, in which the
reports of the senses terminate, and at which the action of the will may
be conceived to begin. This, in the language of our fathers, was called
the "seat of the soul."

We may therefore, without departing from the limits of a due caution
and modesty, consider this as the throne before which the mind holds its
court. Hither the senses bring in their reports, and hence the sovereign
will issues his commands. The whole system appears to be conducted
through the instrumentality of the nerves, along whose subtle texture
the feelings and impressions are propagated. Between the reports of
the senses and the commands of the will, intervenes that which is
emphatically the office of the mind, comprising meditation, reflection,
inference and judgment. How these functions are performed we know not;
but it is reasonable to believe that the substance of the brain or of
some part of the brain is implicated in them.

Still however we must not lose sight of what has been already said,
that in the action of the mind unity is an indispensible condition. Our
thoughts can only hold their council and form their decrees in a very
limited region. This is their retreat and strong hold; and the special
use and functions of the remoter parts of the brain we are unable to
determine; so utterly obscure and undefined is our present knowledge
of the great ligament which binds together the body and the thinking
principle.

Enough however results from this imperfect view of the ligament, to
demonstrate the incongruity and untenableness of a doctrine which
should assign the indications of different functions, exercises and
propensities of the mind to the exterior surface of the scull or the
brain. This is quackery, and is to be classed with chiromancy, augury,
astrology, and the rest of those schemes for discovering the future
and unknown, which the restlessness and