"There now remains to be disposed of, in some way, the question as to the nature and reality of mind, which was rather evaded at the commencement of the lecture. The reason was, that I am forced to differ widely from the two great physiologists whom I have so often quoted this evening. Most people, following in part early instruction, in part revelation, in part spiritual manifestations, and in part trusting to their own consciousness, hold that the human mind is a spiritual substance which is associated with the body during the life of the latter in this world, and which remains in existence after the death of the body, and forms the spiritual clothing or embodiment of the immortal soul; and that the individual, therefore, lives after death as a spirit in the human form; that of this spiritual man, the soul is the essential being, of which may be predicted a good or evil nature, while the mind, which clothes it as a body, consists of the spiritual substances, affections, and thoughts, which were cherished and formed during the natural life. Together with the above convictions respecting themselves, most people, when thinking independently of theological sublimations, feel willing to admit that animals have, in common with man, fewer or more natural affections and thoughts which make up their minds, but that the inner and immortal soul, which would retain them as part of an individual after death of the body, is not possessed by the beasts that perish. In short, the vast majority of mankind, when thinking quietly, and especially in seasons of bereavement, feel well assured of the real and substantial existence of the human mind, independently of its temporary association with the perishable body. But in antagonism to this simple and comforting faith, stand theological incomprehensibilities on the one hand, and scientific skepticism on the other. The former would have us believe that the soul is a mere vapor, a cloud of something ethereal, of which can be expected nothing more useful than 'loafing around the Throne,' while the latter asks us to recognize the existence of nothing which the eyes cannot see and fingers touch; to cease imagining that there is a soul, and to regard the mind as merely the product of the brain; secreted thereby as the liver secretes bile. Let us hear what the two leading nervous physiologists, of this country, have to say upon this point: 'The brain is not, strictly speaking, the organ of the mind, for this statement would imply that the mind exists as a force, independent of the brain; but the mind is produced by the brain substance; and intellectual force, if we may term the intellect a force, can be produced only by the transmutation of a certain amount of matter; there can be no intelligence without brain substance.'--FLINT.