to arise from
combinations of matter, has an origin which is, like itself,
spiritual? For we can obtain matter from matter, and spirit from
spirit, but never obtain spirit or life from dead matter.

The genesis of the human brain is therefore a microcosmic epitome of
the macrocosmic evolution, controlled by the "over-soul"--the Divine
power, of which we know so little.

To return to the embryo brain, which gives us visibly the epitome of
the evolution of vertebrated animals,--why is it not also an epitome
of the entire animal kingdom, from the radiata, articulata, and
mollusca to the vertebrata, instead of representing the evolution of
vertebrates alone? It may be so. It may be that man and other animals
in germination pass through _all_ stages, from the lowest to the
highest; but the microscope cannot reveal the fact, for the jelly-like
or fluid conditions of the nervous system during the first month after
conception do not enable us to discover any organization or outline
from which anything can be learned. And yet, from certain interesting
experiments in sarcognomy which have never been performed except by
myself or my pupils, I am disposed to believe that the germinal
process of man goes beyond the beginning of the animal kingdom, and
that he retains in his constitution spiritual elements which might not
improperly be called, not a photograph, but a psychograph of the
entire animal kingdom,--yea, of everything that lives, and even of the
mineral elements that have no life.

These things are wonderful and grand indeed, but the self-sufficient
powers that rule the world of human society have no desire to know
them, and hence I have been content to enjoy them alone, or with a few
enlightened friends.

It is in the second month of life in the womb that the fish form of
brain is distinctly apparent, as shown by Tiedemann. The fish form is
that in which we have only a rudiment of the cerebrum, which is so
large in man. Behind the little cerebrum, which is smaller than the
bulb of the olfactory nerve, we have the middle brain or optic lobes,
which give origin to the optic nerves, and behind them the cerebellum.

Let it be understood that the cerebrum is the psychic brain, the
cerebellum the physiological brain, and the optic lobes the
intermediate or psycho-physiological brain, not sufficient to give the
animal its character and propensities, but sufficient to guide it in
swimming about.

[Illustration]

What the