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    become one , or a unity , in the thinking subject ; but matter is not , and cannot be , an absolute unity , because it consists of . divisible parts , of which each one has its own individual subsistence " I suppose that chemists of the present century will not admit our author's proof of the negative to be complete . . Since , according to the latest chemical doctrine , there are ultimate particles of matter which are indivisible ,

    that is , there are atoms ; and since the reasoning of our philosopher has not proved it impossible that the soul of man should be one of them , it seems to fall short of a demonstration , that it is impossible the soul should be material . His reasoning in this place only proves the soul to be one and indivisible , and that it cannot be an aggregate or a system of parts . That gravity and the power to think co-existing in the same substance involves a contradiction , requires a separate proof .

    " Queit . 2 . If matter in its proper nature is incapable of thinking , cannot the'Almighty communicate to it this property ? " This notion is usually supported by the authority of a great man , John Locke , who has suggested it in some part of his works . Since his time it has been repeated by many with a sort of triumph , as being unanswerable ; but I believe the English philosopher himself never considered it so . The

    Cartesians taught , that if body were capable of thinking , the nature of thought must be found in the conceptions of extension and motion : but thought and extension , motion and perception , or our notice of motion , are unlike in nature , and belong to disparate properties ; for join and transpose the corporeal parts as you will , there results no idea of the transposition , no perception of the change effected by it . Hence they concluded , that motion only belongs to what is extended , and that thought belongs to what is unextended and incapable of motion . As it seemed to be proved in this way that perception is not in the nature of matter , Locke asked properly , whether the Almighty could not impart to matter a power which it does not possess in itself . But if what has been said under the preceding question be true ; if , in order to perception , what is manifold in the object must become individual in the idea of it by the percipient subject , since matter is always compounded of parts ; perception is as absolutely impossible to matter , as it is impossible that a square should be a circle . To resort in such a case to Omnipotence is to imitate the good woman , who hoped to get the first prize in a lottery without putting into it , because nothing is impossible to God . I do not , however , deny that the doubt suggested by Locke is removed in a very plain way by the Cartesian method . It is proved , that properties are not communicable , and that infinite power cannot impart to a substance a property which is not in its nature . Here I will insert a dialogue which passed between Hylas and Philonous , in which the latter has illustrated this thought by an example which brings it before the eves .

    " HyL If matter in itself cannot think , may not the power to think be communicated to it by the Almighty ? ' Phil . We will inquire . The Almighty causes the rose to grow upon the thorn . How is this done ? Is a new rose-bud created out of nothing every year at the season of roses , and set into the stem ? " HyL That is not done . The germ rather is contained in the thorn , from which the bud shoots out in its proper season . " Phil . If any man should aissect the germ , and examine its structure through the microscope , will he not plainly perceive that the rose is developed out of the finelv organized germ ?

    m * ¦ . 1 * * " HyL Certainly , if the instrument magnifies sufficiently . " Phil . But if the Almighty would cause the citron to grow on the rosestem , which now bears only the rose , must not this fruit , which is not natural to the plant , be created , and set into the stalk ?

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    32 Letters from Germany .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 32, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/32/