Buchanan's Journal of Man, October 1887: Volume 1, Number 9
Philosophy
Buchanan's Journal of Man, October 1887: Volume 1, Number 9
Medicine -- Periodicals; Phrenology -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
his own in the end, are not the thoughts which he has stored in his
perishable memory; but the fire of love and light which he has kindled
in his heart. If this fire of life burns at his heart it will
illuminate his mind, and enable the brain to see clear; it will
develop his spiritual powers of perception, and cause him to perceive
things which no amount of intellectual brain-labor can grasp. It will
penetrate even the physical body, and cause the soul therein to assume
shape and to become immortal.
It is not to be supposed that the above truths will be at once
accepted by every reader of the JOURNAL, except by such as have given
deep thought to the true nature of man. Neither are they a subject for
scientific controversy or disputation. A knowledge of the truth is not
produced by disputations and quarrels, but only by direct perception,
experience, and understanding. The conclusions which man arrives at by
logic are merely productive of certain opinions, and these opinions
are liable to be changed again as soon as the basis from which his
logic started, changes. A real knowledge of spiritual truths requires
a power of spiritual perception, which few men possess. Nevertheless,
even our logical deductions, taking as a starting point that which we
know to be true, will help us to arrive at the same conclusions at
which the Hermetic philosophers arrived by the power of spiritual
perception.
[In the foregoing passage, Dr. H. professes to state doctrines
derived from intuition or spiritual perception by the ancients,
and also recognized to-day by spiritual perception. To me they
appear as the results only of that sort of ancient SPECULATION,
which recognized earth, air, fire, and water as the four
chemical elements of all things. I do not find them sustained by
the spiritual perception of those who have the intuitive powers
to-day, nor by scientific investigation. The substance of the
heart is _not the seat of life_. It is a merely muscular
substance, and ceases all action when separated from its
controlling ganglia. The vitality of the heart lies in its
ganglia--in other words, in the nervous system, _in which alone
is life_, and of which the brain is the commanding centre. That
life resides exclusively in the nervous system is one of the
established principles of physiology, which cannot be disturbed
by any theories descending from antiquity, before the dawn of
positive science. That the will resides in the blood and the
heart, is about as near the truth as Plato's doctrine that the
prophetic power belonged to the liver. If the region of Firmness
in the brain be large, it will be strongly manifested, even
though the heart be feeble, and as easily arrested as Col.
Townsend's. But if the upper surface of the brain be diseased,
or sensibly softened, the will power is almost destroyed, even
if the plethoric, hypertrophied heart is shaking the head with
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