physiological work which severely tasks the brain, and in which you
examine the intricate question of soul distinct from mind.

"And, here, I can conceive a cause deep-hid amongst what metaphysicians
would call latent associations, for a train of thought which disposed you
to accept the fantastic impressions afterwards made on you by the scene in
the Museum and the visionary talk of Sir Philip Derval. Doubtless, when
at college you first studied metaphysical speculation you would have
glanced over Beattie's 'Essay on Truth' as one of the works written in
opposition to your favourite, David Hume."

"Yes, I read the book, but I have long since forgotten its arguments."

"Well in that essay, Beattie[1] cites the extraordinary instance of Simon
Browne, a learned and pious clergyman, who seriously disbelieved the
existence of his own soul; and imagined that, by interposition of Divine
power, his soul was annulled, and nothing left but a principle of animal
life, which he held in common with the brutes! When, years ago, a
thoughtful imaginative student, you came on that story, probably enough
you would have paused, revolved in your own mind and fancy what kind of a
creature a man might be, if, retaining human life and merely human
understanding, he was deprived of the powers and properties which
reasoners have ascribed to the existence of soul. Something in this young
man, unconsciously to yourself, revives that forgotten train of meditative
ideas. His dread of death as the final cessation of being, his brute-like
want of sympathy with his kind, his incapacity to comprehend the motives
which carry man on to scheme and to build for a future that extends beyond
his grave,--all start up before you at the very moment your reason is
overtasked, your imagination fevered, in seeking the solution of problems
which, to a philosophy based upon your system, must always remain