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352 THE AKRON OFFERING. February, 1850. For the Offering. The Soul.1 In the affairs of this world, men are governed by a wise and safe maxim. It is this—Secure the higher or more important interest first—even, if need be, at the sacrifice of some secondary or minor interest. If this same principle were adopted and applied to man’s immortal interests, we should at once see an entire change in the state of society, affecting the pursuits, business and morals of man. We should then see, that insatiate concern manifested for the full and mature development of the mental and moral powers of the Soul, which now characterizes the pursuit of wealth and pleasure. Is not our spiritual being worthy of infinite more concern, than our physical and perishing nature? And yet how sadly it is neglected. This is partly owing to the deep corruption of the heart; partly to early and matured habits of vice and intemperance; and partly to a want of sound and comprehensive views of the nature, powers and susceptibilities2 of the Soul. 1. The primary definition for “soul” at this time is the “spiritual, rational and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from brutes; that part of man which enables him to think and reason, and which renders him a subject of moral government.” Today we use words such as “the mind” or “consciousness” or “self” or even “identity” to describe what was often called the “soul” in antebellum America. And as this essay reveals, today we also have a much stronger understanding of the physical basis of mental activity. The belief that the soul was immortal thus raised questions for antebellum Americans about what change or transition might start the continuation of thinking after the body has died. See Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846), 773, http://books.google.com/books?id=XKERAAAAIAAJ. See also pp. 288–92. 2. Capabilities “of admitting any thing additional, or any change, affection or influence.” See Webster, 814. February, 1850 353 My object in penning these lines is to direct the attention of the reader of the Akron Offering to this subject—a vast, comprehensive and pleasing theme. I do not expect to fathom my subject, nor indeed present it in a satisfactory light to all who may read the subsequent remarks, but I trust they may excite thought and investigation on some of the topics which we shall introduce to the reader’s notice. We remark then, man is unlike every other being in the world, and constitutes a separate and distinct class of existences; underived from any other species. It has been asserted, we know, that he is only the completion of a chain—commencing with the animalcula which is undiscernable by the most powerful microscope, running up through animate creation, until the Ape or Ourang Outang becomes the progenitor of the human race.3 Such philosophy is doubtless conclusive proof to all those who embrace this view of the subject; but equally as conclusive proof to us, that they have thought upon the subject about as much as their professed progenitors are capable of. But if man is a mere animal, he is a strange one indeed. He only has improved and progressed of all the animal tribe, since the day God called existence into being. Yet enough of speculation upon this foolish and absurd philosophy (falsely so called,) let us then notice in the following order, the nature, properties, powers and susceptibilities of the soul. 1. Its Nature. The soul then is divine. We use the term divine not to designate the character of the soul—for character is the result of conduct; but to designate the essence or subsistence of the soul. That the soul is divine in the sense, we infer from the account given us, as to the measure of its communication to man at his creation. Man is represented as having been 3. The author has evidently been reading reviews of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) by English writer Robert Chambers (1802–71) and Thoughts on Animalcules (1846), an important early work on microscopy by English geologist Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790–1852). Vestiges advanced crude evolutionary theories of the origin of life and man; the ensuing enormous and intense controversy discouraged Charles Darwin (1809–82) from writing about evolution for more than a decade. Mantell’s fame as a scientist began with his 1825 discovery...

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