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GEORGE K. The mind has senses, which it puts into

the body's senses.

MR. ALCOTT. Has the mind any other senses than those which it puts into the body's five senses?

GEORGE K. Yes; a sense of good.

MR. ALCOTT. Has the mind a sense about right and wrong?

SEVERAL. Yes; conscience.

MR. ALCOTT. How many of you have this inward, this spiritual sense of right and wrong ?

(A pause.) (See Note 8.)

MR. ALCOTT. Yesterday one of the boys behaved wrong and was punished. When he came into school, yesterday morning, his eyes looked large and bright. When he comes into school to-day, his eyes are half shut; why is this?

SEVERAL. Conscience.

THE REST. The spirit's senses.

WELLES. Shame is one of the spirit's senses. (See Note 9.)

MR. ALCOTT. The boy I have been speaking of may rise and show himself.

(Several rose.)

Well! I thought of one; but conscience, it seems, thought of many more.

LUCY and others exclaimed. The spirit's senses.

Intuition of
Spirit.

has

MR. ALCOTT. Such of you then, as think there is something within you which is no part of your body, but which moves your body, acts in it, and is better than your body, and your body lives upon it, may hold up your hands.

(All held up hands.)

Analysis of
Spirit.

How many think a good name for this is mind,

(Several held up hands.)

or soul, or God, or intellect, or conscience, or spirit?

(Most agreed upon God as the best name.

One said

Spirit was the best; another said God and Spirit were the same.)

MR. ALCOTT. I prefer the word SPIRIT. And soon we shall begin to talk of a particular Spirit that came into the world and took a body; and acted in the world; and we shall inquire what became of it when it left the world. What Spirit are we going to talk about? ALL. Jesus Christ.

MR. ALCOTT. How many of you will always know hereafter what I mean by the word spirit, when I use it? (All held up their hands.)

ANDREW. I think the word conscience would be a better word than spirit. (See Note 10.)

Functions of
Spirit.

MR. ALCOTT. Conscience is spirit acting on duty; Mind is spirit thinking; Heart is spirit loving; Soul is spirit feeling; Sense is spirit inquiring into the external world; Body is the instrument and organ of spirit. The action of these is divided between consciousness and conscience.

CONVERSATION II.

TESTIMONY OF NATURE AND SCRIPTURE TO SPIRIT.

NATURE AND SCRIPTURE.

Idea of Spirit.

II. ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE.

1. Physiological Facts. Reproduction and growth; light and shade; incubation and birth; budding and efflorescence; fountain and stream.

2. Psychological Facts.- Birth and death; renovation and decay; sense of imperfection; standard of perfection in conscience; idea of absolute and derivative being.

3. Historical Facts. - - Record of spirit, or Scripture; General Preface to the Gospels from the Sacred Text; credibility of witnesses; authenticity of the Gospel Record; sum of results.

MR. ALCOTT. What was the conclusion

Idea of Spirit. to which we came, after the conversation of Wednesday last?

SEVERAL. That there was a Spirit.

MR. ALCOTT. Did each of you conclude and feel it proved in your own heart, that there is a Spirit ? (All held up hands.)

MR. ALCOTT. What do you understand by an inward proof of Spirit?

CHARLES. What one feels, and thinks.

Analogical
Evidence.

Physiological
Facts.

MR. ALCOTT. Are there outward evidences of Spirit?

CHARLES. Actions, any actions, outward actions, an earthquake, the creeping of a

worm.

GEORGE K. Moving, the creeping of a baby.
LEMUEL. The moving of a leaf, lightning.

ANDREW. A waterfall, a rose.

FRANK. Walking.

SAMUEL R. A tree.

EDWARD C. A star.

SUSAN. The sun.

GEORGE B. A steam engine.

MR. ALCOTT. Where does the spirit work in that? GEORGE B. In the men that work it.

CHARLES. No; in the steam.

EDWARD J. In the machinery, and the steam, and the men, and all.

MR. ALCOTT. You perceive then what I mean by outward evidence of spirit?

CHARLES. Things, external nature.

MR. ALCOTT. And this will be our subject in part to-day.

Reproduction and Growth.

MR. ALCOTT. Do smaller things prove greater things, or greater things smaller

things? How many do not understand me? (Several held up their hands.)

Does an acorn prove there has been an oak, or an oak prove there has been an acorn ?

(Some said one and some the other, as they did also to the next question.)

MR. ALCOTT. Which was first in time, an acorn or an oak?

GEORGE K. Sometimes one is first and sometimes the other. In the woods, oaks grow up wild; and you can plant acorns and have oaks.

SAMUEL R. I think God made oaks first, and all the other oaks there have ever been, came from the acorns of those first oaks.

MR. ALCOTT.

Light and Shade.

Does light prove darkness,

or darkness light?

SEVERAL. Each proves the other.

MR. ALCOTT. Can nothing prove something?
ALL. No.

MR. ALCOTT. But darkness is mere absence of light. Is darkness any thing to your spirit?

SEVERAL. No.

CHARLES. I think darkness is something.

MR. ALCOTT. Is darkness any thing to your senses? ANDREW. No; it only seems so.

MR. ALCOTT. What does it seem to be?

ANDREW. It is the shadow of light.

Incubation and
Birth.

MR. ALCOTT. Does the egg foretel the chick, or the chick the egg?

(They first said one, and then the other, and then both, and some referred to God who could make either.)

Budding and Efflorescence.

SUSAN.

MR. ALCOTT. Which has most mean ing, a bud or a flower?

SEVERAL. A flower.

A bud, because it is going to be a flower,

and makes you think of it.

EDWARD J. Perhaps the bud will be picked. MR. ALCOTT. Accidents are always excepted. (He then asked like questions about many things, among the rest a brook and the ocean, the cradle and the grave, and similar answers were returned. He remarked that their answers showed which minds were historical and which were analytic. He then went on :)

Psychological Facts.

Which is the superior, spirit or body?
ALL. Spirit.

MR. ALCOTT. Lemuel, will you give me a reason?

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