We speak of the brain as the seat of the mind, or soul. If we mean by this simply, that this is the great central organ of that system in the body (the nervous system) through which the mind acts upon external things, and is acted upon by them, it is correct so to speak. But if we mean to localize the mind, as sitting there, and especially if we fix upon some one part of the brain, as Descartes did upon the pineal gland (a body smaller than a pea) as the seat, the throne of the mind, the illustration is an erroneous one. The mind acts upon the whole body, through all the parts of the nervous system, and each portion of that system has its own peculiar offices to perform in obedience to the mind. This is as true of the brain as it is of the rest of the nervous system. This organ is a complex one, and the different parts have their different offices. This we know in regard to some of these parts, and we can justly presume it in regard to others. And we do this without adopting the fanciful ideas of phrenologists in locating the different faculties of the mind. While the brain is the great central organ of the nervous system, by which the mind imparts and receives impressions, there are other parts of that same system which seem to bear some other relation to the mind than that by which they transmit these impressions to and from the mind through the brain, as the nerves ordinarily do. They seem to have a connection with the mind independent of the direct agency of the brain, and for aught we know they have such a connection. When the mind is affected by any passion, either of the cheerful or the depressing kind, its sensible effects upon the body are not observable chiefly in the brain, but in the region of the heart and the other organs adjacent to it. The thrill of joy is felt there, and grief produces there its sensation of oppression, prompting the occasional sigh to relieve it. Such facts as these led an eminent French physiologist, Bichat, to adopt the theory, that while the intellectual functions have their seat in the brain, the moral sentiments have theirs in the ganglionic system of nerves, (as it is called,) which has certain great nervous centres in the region of the heart, stomach, &c.