reality, freedom, and accountability. In this process he appropriates for personal use, from the materials furnished by the manifestations of the mind, such forms as correspond with the present wants of his personal constitution; and makes use of these appropriations, in the relation of cause and effect, as means for the production of ends in securing the greatest amount of good that is possible for him, or what is good for him upon the whole. Thus, instead of a dual and discordant consciousness spontaneously realized, the nature of which is incomprehensible to him, he seems to construct for himself a self-conscious, calculated, comprehensible individuality, which is consistent in character, and the composition and operations of which are thoroughly comprehended, because calculated and constructed by himself. We say that the individual appears in this way to construct his own life, - that this must so appear to him, in order that any apparent reality or freedom should be communicated to it, and that it is absolutely necessary that he should believe in his reality, freedom, and accountability: but we do not mean to say that this is the fact; on the contrary, we affirm, that, not being an absolute cause, he cannot be a creator, and therefore cannot originate any thing, and that his natural life is an unreal appearance, that is the opposite of what it seems. While appearing to construct his own life, it is really constructed for him by the divine providence of God, who is the real governor of the World, and must either ordain or permit the production of every thing that takes place in the Universe; and therefore, although the individual determinations are governed by the strongest motive, in his endeavor to procure the greatest amount of good for himself, these determinations are either counteracted or directed, so that what is really good for him upon the whole, instead of what he believes to be so, shall be provided for him. It is therefore written, "I am Jehovah, and none else; besides Me there is no God; forming Light, and creating Darkness, making Peace, and creating Evil: I Jehovah am the Author of all these things."*

We will now describe this form of Personal Consciousness, and obtain a conception of the principles through which the Individual becomes incarnated as a Living Soul, and also of the manner in which this incarnation is effected. We have seen that the Human Soul is created with the capacity for being developed successively in three several spheres of consciousness, which are described in

Lowth's "Isaiah."

the Scriptures as births of blood, of water, and of spirit; and which we have shown to be a development in an external-natural, an internal-natural, and a spiritual sphere of consciousness. We have also shown that the Human Constitution, in which this threefold consciousness becomes realized, is divided into two spheres, a sphere already described as containing the principles of the mind, or of the general consciousness; and a personal sphere, now to be described, which includes three spheres of Individuality, or Will. The dualistic form of this personal consciousness, corresponding with the dualistic principles of the mind which is the form through which the individual obtains a definite consciousness and becomes specifically manifested, is constituted by two indefinite universal principles, which are affinities for Truth and Good, and constitute the most concentrated form of Individual Want; each principle containing Male and Female spheres, which are opposite Universal and Personal elements: these principles we name "Personality" and "Property." They are universal affinities, and also receptive and constructive or individualizing principles, which are related as internal and external, and correspond with truth and good; each of which is calculated for the unconscious appropriation and individualization of vital and also of destructive laws and phenomena, under the universal law of Contrariety, which governs all natural manifestations, and demands the combination of vital and destructive elements. These appropriations are therefore made by the personifying principles from the realizations of the mind, or of the general consciousness, the principles of which become developed in correspondence with the growth of these personifying powers, and therefore with the present want of the individual, under the operation of this law. The character of these appropriations in the external-natural and internal-natural spheres of consciousness, and the manner in which they become realized, will be described in illustrating this universal law of Contrariety. We there show, that, in an external sphere, the individual appropriates incarnations or representations of vital universal laws, combined with destructive partial and personal forms; while, in an internal sphere, he appropriates intuitions and conceptions of destructive universal laws, combined with vital partial and personal forms: the first being combined and manifested through the Will in a vital manner, or with the subjection of destructive partial and personal forms to vital laws incarnated in external forms and institutions; while the second are combined and manifested through the

Will in a destructive manner, or with the subjection of vital partial and personal forms to self-conscious conceptions of destructive universal laws corresponding with the natural life, which is representative of the finite principle. These combinations and manifestations are effected through the supernatural form of the individual soul, which is the incarnation of the individual as One in a Tri-personality of spirit, soul, and body, representing Existence, and constitutes Individuality or Will; the Spirit being conscious and vital, the Soul relative and representative, and the Body externally productive and internally destructive: and we conceive this tri-personality to be constituted by three principles, which are three spheres of life manifested as one, and we name them "Consciousness," "Relation," "Direction." Through this threefold sphere of manifestation, the individual realizes a form of life, or consciousness, representing Individuality, or Existence, and appears to construct his own life, in a natural manner, from a self-conscious determination of himself in view of opposite things, calculating means to ends in the production of what appears to him to be his greatest good; while in reality his life is constructed in a supernatural manner by the divine providence of God, in the production of what is in reality the greatest good for the individual. The form of this sphere of personal consciousness is therefore to be stated as follows:

FORM OF THE PERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS,

WHICH CONTAINS

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE HUMAN SOUL.

The dualistic form of the Soul is constituted by two indefinite universal principles, which are the most concentrated form of Individual Want:

PERSONALITY. - PROPERTY.

These are combined, incarnated, and individualized by three principles, in three spheres of manifestation, related as spirit, soul, and body; which constitute a definite, self-conscious, tripersonal individual principle, which we call Will, or Individuality:

CONSCIOUSNESS.

RELATION.

DIRECTION.

We shall be assisted to make this conception of the personal region of the human constitution more definite by referring to the forms of the mind which have already been described, and to the universal laws which govern the construction of all forms of existence. We have shown, both from the ground of Absolute Science and from the Scriptures, that every thing is created as a dualistic form, constituted as "two and two, one against the other;" we have shown how every thing does so exist; and that, in the constitution of the human mind, this two and two are constituted, both in the general form of the mind and also in each one of its departments, by male and female spheres, each one of which is constituted by male and female elements, through the supernatural combination of which, incarnation and multiplication are effected; these being spheres of Truth and of Good, each of which contains an internal element corresponding with a universal and vital, and an external element corresponding with a partial, or personal, and destructive principle, and representing infinite and finite laws. We have shown that these male and female spheres and elements are related as vital and destructive, the opposition between them being characterized in the Scriptures as "life against death, good against evil, the godly against the sinner, and the sinner against the godly;" the male demanding the subjection of the female, that production may be effected through the establishment of universal laws for universal ends, thus representing the Infinite; and the female demanding the subjection of the male, that production may be effected through the establishment of universal laws for personal ends, thus representing the Finite these male spheres and elements constituting the Not Me of the Individual, and these female spheres and elements constituting the Me of the Individual. This relationship is represented in a great variety of external forms in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in a more internal manner in the Epistles of St. Paul ; while in the writings of Philo Judæus, who was a Hebrew, and a cotemporary of Paul, we find the following most explicit statement of it: "Of the ideas which are brought forth by the mind, some are male and some female, as in the case of animals. Now, the female offspring of the soul are wickedness and passion, by which we are made effeminate in every one of our pursuits; but a healthy state of the passions, and of virtue, is male, by which we are excited and invigorated. Now, of these, whatever belongs to the fellowship of men must be attributed to God, and every thing that relates to the similarity of women must be imputed to one's self."

We have also shown, that besides these dualistic principles, which are susceptible of a vital or of a destructive manifestation, as the universal or as the partial and personal becomes the governing power, each department contains an active, productive, and constructive principle or sphere, through which the operations of these discordant dualistic principles are combined and manifested by a spiritual power in a supernatural manner outside of the individual consciousness, or in a manner not comprehensible by him, and also in ways which he seems to comprehend, in the production of natural truth, good, and use; this being the only way in which any productive manifestation of these dualistic powers can be effected: so that, although all things seem to be produced by the individual himself in a natural manner, all things are really produced in a supernatural manner by the divine providence of God. These dualistic principles correspond with the dualistic personifying powers, and this supernatural sphere corresponds with the supernatural individualizing and constructing power which we denominate Individuality, or Will.

With regard to "Personality" and "Property," we conceive the office of these principles to be the appropriation of, or making one with the individual as property, by processes of abstraction, generalization, and individualization, such laws and partial or personal forms realized by the mind as are adapted to the present want of the individual; because, as these realizations of the mind are laws and forms universally applicable and not exclusively adapted to the present want of any one individual, unless a selection from these were made by the individual of such as are adapted to his present want, and these were individualized in systematic forms calculated for practical use, no personal use whatever could be made of them. This being the office to be performed by these principles, the laws which must govern and the functions which must characterize these personifying principles are clearly pointed out to be Appropriation and Construction. These personifying principles have been recognized in Phrenology, and also by Swedenborg, and manifestations referable to them have been described in most philosophical systems. Although the Phrenologists do not regard the Will as belonging to, or as constituting any particular department of, the human constitution, but take either the Swedenborgian view, which is, that Will is synonymous with Affection, or an opposite view, that it is "constituted by the Intellectual Faculties, " they have

*Combe's "System of Phrenology."