AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND PROSPECTS OF THE ADAMITE RACE: AS VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SCHEME OF CHRISTIANITY. PUBLISHED BY G. B. WHITTAKER AND CO. AVE MARIA LANE, LONDON. MDCCCXXXVIII. AN INQUIRY, &c. Of all the various objects which present themselves to our observation, there is none so striking, so full of thought-stirring mystery, as the sight of an animated being, at one moment, full of energy, cognizant of things around it, actuated by impulses of various kinds from without and from within, a being of sensations and of passions, a living frame consisting of intricate textures and complicated machinery, performing many and various actions, all of which are subordinate to, and in harmony with, each other; and the sight of that same animal, at the next moment, lying motionless, passionless, senseless, lifeless; changed, within the lapse of that moment, into a mass of dull matter, whose elementary parts, being, at once, set free B from the powerful controul and influence of some invisible agent, yield a ready obedience to the laws of chemical affinity; and, separating from that confederacy in which they had been bound, pass into a variety of new combinations, causing an entire decomposition of the body which they, so lately, constituted. What, then, has occurred, in this one moment, to produce this mighty change? We are told, that the animal has died, has What, then, was this been deprived of life. Life? Where was its peculiar seat? Whither has it gone? What was its essence; what its mode of acting; why, and how, did its action cease? We know not. But, this body, which we are contemplating, has lost, not only its life, that something which controuled, and moulded, and gave energy and impulse to, the matter of which the body was composed; it has, also, lost that other something, which, also, was, in some way or other, connected with it, which dwelt in it, and made use of the several bodily organs as media of sensation or as instruments of action; that, also, has quitted the body. What was this late inmate of the living body? Where was its peculiar seat? What the tie that linked it to the living frame? |