factitious habits, of his superadded
necessities, of his false prejudices; put aside systems, study your own
heart, listen to the inward dictates of feeling, let yourself be guided
by the light of instinct and of conscience, and you will again find the
first Adam, like an incorruptible marble statue that has fallen into
a marsh, a long time lost under a crust of slime and mud, but which,
released from its foul covering, may be replaced on its pedestal in the
completeness of its form and in the perfect purity of its whiteness.

Around this central idea a reform occurs in the spiritualistic
doctrine.--A being so noble cannot possibly consist of a simple
collection of organs; he is something more than mere matter; the
impression he derives from his senses do not constitute his full being.

"I am not merely a sensitive and passive being, but an active and
intelligent being, and, whatever philosophy may say, I dare claim the
honor of thinking."

And better still, this thinking principle, in Man, at least, is of a
superior kind.

"Show me another animal on the globe capable of producing fire and of
admiring the sun. What? I who am able to observe, to comprehend beings
and their associations; who can appreciate order, beauty and virtue; who
can contemplate the universe and exalt myself to the hand which controls
it; who can love the good and do good, should I compare myself to
brutes!" Man is free, capable of deciding between two actions, and
therefore the creator of his actions; he is accordingly a first and
original cause, "an immaterial substance," distinct from the body, a
soul hampered by the body and which may survive the body.--This immortal
soul imprisoned within the flesh has conscience for its organ. "O
Conscience, divine instinct, immortal and celestial voice, unfailing
guide of an ignorant and finite but free and intelligent being,
infallible judge between good and evil, and rendering Man similar to
God, Thou foremost the superiority of his nature!"

Alongside of vanity, by which we subordinate everything to ourselves,
there is a love of order by which we subordinate ourselves to the whole.
Alongside of egoism, by which Man seeks happiness even at the expense of
others, is sympathy, by which he seeks the happiness of others even
at the expense of his own. Personal enjoyment does not suffice him;
he still needs tranquillity of conscience and the effusions of the
heart.--Such is Man as God designed and created h