Hobbes, have been improved by Priestley and Barlow, and diffused through every order of society, by emissaries of the present day. Infidelity is a pernicious evil. The different branches into which it shoots, are but distinct parts of one great whole. And whether infidelity approach us in the stern philosophy of a Priestly, or in the scepticism of a Rousseau; in the polite ignorance of a Volney, or the naked blasphemy of Thomas Paine, the identity of its nature is not thereby changed. The streams may be different, but they all originate in one common fountain, and all terminate in one ge

neral issue.

To sit as idle spectators on the issue of these commotions, is no longer a matter of indifference; but to be active in the cause of truth is a duty which every man owes to his God and to his country, to himself and to posterity; and that man must be deficient in the discharge of his duty, who, to the utmost of his power, will not exert himself to check the progress of so destructive an evil.

Under the influence of this principle, I have been led from traditionary belief, to an investigation of first principles, and the result of my inquiries is, a full conviction that rational principles must support the fact. The arguments which have produced that conviction, I have committed to writing, and am now about to commit them to the world. The modes of reasoning, therefore, which I have adopted, are founded upon no preconceived hypothesis; and

and after the human understanding has put forth all her efforts, it is "by toil and art the "steep ascent we gain." If, however, in any given momentous instance, the tardy movements of philosophy will lead us to the same conclusions which the Bible has already formed, it affords us no contemptible evidence of its authenticity; and Revelation challenges our belief in those instances where we can trace no relation.

The ground on which I have assumed the present question, is simply this-Have we, or have we not, any rational evidence of the soul's immortality, admitting that no revelation had ever been given us from God? If we have, infidelity loses one of its strongest fortresses; if not, all rational proof of the immortality of the soul is at once done away.

Whether the present Work, like those bubbles on the passing stream, which float along and then expire, will engross the attention of mankind only for a moment, and then disappear; or pass onward to ages which its author can never reach, are points which events can alone decide. I have not vanity enough to presume, that infallibility has impressed her footsteps upon every sentence which I have written; the arguments, however, are such as have produced conviction in my own mind, from a persuasion that they arise from the fixed relations of things. I have attempted to erect this fabric on such facts and propositions as are incontrovertible, and have traced the intermediate ideas

which appeared to have stood in contact with one another, t that conclusion which I had in view.

To those who are skilled in the critical accuracies of grammar, my language may sound harsh and unharmonious, and some solecisms may appear; but the real critic, and the candid of every description, I am persuaded will readily make allowances for these imperfections, when they consider my situation in life, and the disadvantages under which I have written.

I have no apology to offer; I publish with diffidence, but I publish with deliberation; I solicit no favour which justice and candour will not entitle me to claim, and which I have been more than once convinced the public are ready to bestow.

Should what I have written be made instrumental in reclaiming but one from the fangs of infidelity, or in preventing another from becoming its victim; it will afford me a consolation which will accompany me through life, and I hope, be remembered with gratitude through all'eternity.

ORIGINAL ESSAY.

PART 1.

ILLUSTRATION OF THE IMMATERIALITY OF THE

HUMAN SOUL.

CHAP. I.

OF MATTER.

SECT. I.

Every thing in Nature included within the con. fines of Matter and Spirit.-Man consists both of Matter and Spirit.-Substance defined.

IN the vast empire of created nature, there are but two primary substances with which we are acquainted, which have in themselves a positive existence, and these are, MATTER and SPIRIT.Within the confines of these two substances, all species of Being, whether animate or inanimate, as well as the individuals of each species, claim their existence, and ultimately resolve themselves. And although the diversified scenery of nature, may furnish the senses with an infinite variety, yet these two substances are invariably, in their physical natures, the same; and the phenomenon of nature is nothing more than the distinct modifications under which these substances are presented, through the senses, to the intellectual powers.

These two substances have their beings independent of each other, having properties which are totally distinct, and which they cannot partake in common with one another.

In the commencement of this Essay, it will instantly occur to the intelligent reader, that I have either designedly deviated from the common path in which many writers on this subject have walked, or that I have been guilty of a flagrant omission. It may not, therefore, be unnecessary in this place to avow, that the former has been the case.

It has frequently been asserted-that man is a threefold compound, consisting of body, soul, and spirit ;that the body is formed of gross corporeal particles; that the spirit is pure intelligence; and, that the soul is a kind of ethereal vehicle, in which the spirit is enclosed, in order to its union with the grosser compages of the body. Such is the notion of body, soul, and spirit!

Perhaps an inability to comprehend, how pure spirit could be immediately connected with particles so gross as those of which the human body is composed, may be among the primary causes of this theory of man. And hence the conception of this ethereal vehicle, which is presumed to act as a medium between these two distant natures.

That we cannot conceive how two natures, so physically distant from each other, as matter and spirit, can be immediately united, is a truth which I readily admit; but I fear that the admission of an ethereal vehicle, will give the difficulty no solution. The sublimation of matter can never destroy any of its permanent properties, nor in any wise change the identity of its nature. Let any given portion of matter pass either through an alembic of alchymy, or an alembic of the mind, the same conclusion must inevitably follow: There can be nothing but matter which refinement can leave behind, and there is nothing but matter which refinement can take away. The only changes which refinement can