to be "a
combination of the most volatile auras or gases, diffused over the whole
body, though traced in a more concentrate form in some organs than in
others;" and it is described as "the very texture of that separate state
of existence which the infallible page of Revelation clearly indicates
will be ours."

A form of the theory very nearly resembling this has been recently
reproduced. It consists in representing the Mind or Spirit of man, not
as a mere fleeting phenomenon of the brain, or an evanescent effect of
its organization, but as a distinct substantive product, generated,
indeed, from matter, and partaking, therefore, of its nature, but so
exquisitely subtle and ethereal that it has no resemblance to the
grosser materials of the body, and admits only of being compared with
the Dynamides--the imponderable elements and forces of Nature. This
"spirit" is generated in man by his peculiar organization, and
especially by the action of the brain; it is capable of surviving the
dissolution of the body, of retaining its individual consciousness after
death, of passing into new spheres of being, and of rising from lower to
higher states, according to a law of eternal progression. Such is the
theory of Davis, the "Poughkeepsie Seer;" and such also, with some
variations, is that of the author of "The Purpose of Existence."

"Matter and Spirit," says Davis, "have heretofore been supposed to
constitute two distinct and independent substances, the latter not
having any material origin." ... "Instead of making material and
spiritual existence totally disconnected, the object and intention of
the foregoing has been to prove, by acknowledged laws and principles of
matter, _the production of intelligence,_ the perfection of which is
_spirit_;" to show that "the Organizer uses Nature and all things
therein as an effect, to produce _spirit_ as an end and designed
ultimate." The author of "The Purpose of Existence" adopts a similar
view. He tells us, indeed, that "the first simple forms or states of
existence are admitted to be _two_, spirit and matter,--the first the
moving power, the second the moved substance;" that of the positive
essence of either we can arrive at no knowledge; and that "whether
spirit be a refined, etherealized portion of matter, or a distinct
dynamic principle, we cannot ascertain." And yet, one of the leading
objects of his work is to account for "the origin and development of the
human mind;" and this he