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Article REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DRAMA, &c. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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Review Of Literature, Drama, &C.
poianeous with that of the body , after an advanced period of life . For it is an undoubted fact , and almost universally true , that the mind before extreme old age , becomes more sound , and is capable of greater things , during nearly thirty years of diminished bodily powers ; that , in most cases , it suffers no abatement of strength during ten years more of bodily decline ; that , in many cases , a few years of bodily decrepitude produce no effect upon the mind ; and thatin some instancesits
fa-, , culties remain bright to the last , surviving the almost total extinction of the corporeal endowments . It is certain that tlie strength of the body , its agility , its patience of fatigue , indeed all its qualities , decline from thirty at the latest ; ancl yet the mind is improving rapidly from thirty to fifty ; suffers little or no decline before sixty ; and therefore is better when the body is enfeebled , at tlie age of fifty-eight or fifty-nine , than it was in the acme of the corporeal faculties thirty years
before . It is equally certain , that while the body is rapidly decaying , between sixty or sixty-three ancl seventy , the mind suffers hardl y any loss of strength in the generality of men ; that men continue to seventyfive or ssventy-six in the possession of all their mental powers , while few can then boast of more than the remains of physical strength ; anel instances are not wanting of persons who , between eighty ancl ninety , or even older , when the body can hardly be said to live , possess every faculty of the mind unimpaired . We are authorised to conclude , from
these facts , that unless some unusual ancl violent accident interferes , such as serious illness or a fatal contusion , the ordinary course of life presents the mind and the body running courses widely different , and in great part of the time in opposite directions ; and this affords strong proof , both that the mind is independent of the body , and that its de struction in the period of its entire vigour is contrary to the analogy of nature . " Tlie strongest of all the arguments both for the separate existence
of mind , and for its surviving the body remains , and it is drawn from the strictest induction of facts . The body is constantly undergoing change in all its parts . Probably no person at the age of twenty has one single particle in any part of his body which he had at ten ; and still less does any portion of the body he was born ivith continue to exist in or with him . All that he before had has now entered into new combinations , forming pares of other men , or of animals , or of
vegetable or mineral substances , exactly as the body he now bas will afterwards be resolved into new combinations after his death . Yet the mind continues one anel the same , " without change or shadow of turning . " None of its parts can be resolved ; for it is one anel single , and it remains unchanged by the changes of the body . The argument would be quite as strong though the change undergone by the body were admitted not to be so complete , and though some portion of its harder parts were supposed to continue with us through life . "
The Heavens , by Robert Mudie , Author of A G-uide to the Observation of Nature , iSfc . S ^ c . Ward and Co . —Hitherto , scientific writers have in their practice very much resembled charlatans at a fair : they have , it is true , shewn wonders , but the exhibition has been coupled with a language known only to tlie profession . Tlie spectators bave gaped ancl listened ; and though generally much astonished , have rarely been edified . Tlie writer on popular astronomy has indulged in his hey presto / in common with the mountebank : the sole difference
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of Literature, Drama, &C.
poianeous with that of the body , after an advanced period of life . For it is an undoubted fact , and almost universally true , that the mind before extreme old age , becomes more sound , and is capable of greater things , during nearly thirty years of diminished bodily powers ; that , in most cases , it suffers no abatement of strength during ten years more of bodily decline ; that , in many cases , a few years of bodily decrepitude produce no effect upon the mind ; and thatin some instancesits
fa-, , culties remain bright to the last , surviving the almost total extinction of the corporeal endowments . It is certain that tlie strength of the body , its agility , its patience of fatigue , indeed all its qualities , decline from thirty at the latest ; ancl yet the mind is improving rapidly from thirty to fifty ; suffers little or no decline before sixty ; and therefore is better when the body is enfeebled , at tlie age of fifty-eight or fifty-nine , than it was in the acme of the corporeal faculties thirty years
before . It is equally certain , that while the body is rapidly decaying , between sixty or sixty-three ancl seventy , the mind suffers hardl y any loss of strength in the generality of men ; that men continue to seventyfive or ssventy-six in the possession of all their mental powers , while few can then boast of more than the remains of physical strength ; anel instances are not wanting of persons who , between eighty ancl ninety , or even older , when the body can hardly be said to live , possess every faculty of the mind unimpaired . We are authorised to conclude , from
these facts , that unless some unusual ancl violent accident interferes , such as serious illness or a fatal contusion , the ordinary course of life presents the mind and the body running courses widely different , and in great part of the time in opposite directions ; and this affords strong proof , both that the mind is independent of the body , and that its de struction in the period of its entire vigour is contrary to the analogy of nature . " Tlie strongest of all the arguments both for the separate existence
of mind , and for its surviving the body remains , and it is drawn from the strictest induction of facts . The body is constantly undergoing change in all its parts . Probably no person at the age of twenty has one single particle in any part of his body which he had at ten ; and still less does any portion of the body he was born ivith continue to exist in or with him . All that he before had has now entered into new combinations , forming pares of other men , or of animals , or of
vegetable or mineral substances , exactly as the body he now bas will afterwards be resolved into new combinations after his death . Yet the mind continues one anel the same , " without change or shadow of turning . " None of its parts can be resolved ; for it is one anel single , and it remains unchanged by the changes of the body . The argument would be quite as strong though the change undergone by the body were admitted not to be so complete , and though some portion of its harder parts were supposed to continue with us through life . "
The Heavens , by Robert Mudie , Author of A G-uide to the Observation of Nature , iSfc . S ^ c . Ward and Co . —Hitherto , scientific writers have in their practice very much resembled charlatans at a fair : they have , it is true , shewn wonders , but the exhibition has been coupled with a language known only to tlie profession . Tlie spectators bave gaped ancl listened ; and though generally much astonished , have rarely been edified . Tlie writer on popular astronomy has indulged in his hey presto / in common with the mountebank : the sole difference