_ which subsist between the "mind"
and the "body;" they have in no degree served to obliterate the
_distinction betwixt the two_.

In perfect consistency, however, with this conviction, we may frankly
avow our opinion, that some of the older opponents of Materialism
adopted a method of stating their argument which appears to us to be
liable to just exception, and which the progress of Physical, and
especially of Chemical science, has tended greatly to discredit. They
seem to have been apprehensive that by ascribing any peculiar properties
or active powers to matter, they might incur the hazard of weakening the
grounds on which they contended for the spirituality of man and the
supremacy of God. Thus, in the "Inquiry into the Nature of the Human
Soul," by Andrew Baxter, the existence of any active property or power
in matter is explicitly denied, and the only property which is ascribed
to it is a certain passive power, or "vis inertiae," by which it is
incapable of changing its state, whether of rest or of motion. This "vis
inertiae" is not only supposed to be the sole property of matter, but is
even held to be inconsistent with, and exclusive of, any active power
whatever; and all the effects which are usually said to be produced by
it are ascribed to the power of an immaterial Being. We are told that
"vis inertiae," or "a resistance to any change of its present state, is
essential to matter, and inconsistent with any active power in it;" that
"all gravity, attraction, elasticity, repulsion, or whatever other
tendencies to motion are observed in matter (commonly called natural
powers of matter), are not powers implanted in matter or possible to be
made inherent in it, but impulse or force impressed upon it _ab extra_;"
and that "the cause of its motion must be sought for in something not
matter, in some _immaterial cause or being_."--"Gravity," for instance,
"is not the action of matter upon matter, but the virtue or power of an
immaterial cause or being, constantly impressed upon it." Nor has this
doctrine been confined to such metaphysical reasoners as Andrew Baxter.
Professor Playfair tells us, that when he was introduced to Dr. Horsley,
the Bishop "expressed great respect for Lord Monboddo, for his learning
and his acuteness, and (what was more surprising) for the soundness of
his judgment. He talked very seriously of the notion of _mind being
united to all the parts of matter and being the cause of motion_. So far