g the body and
soul of Richard.

Slowly and carefully the doctor advanced, as against an enemy who will
defend his position to the last. But how was he astonished, when, being
attacked, Frank showed no disposition to defend that most highly
vaunted doctrine of modern science--materialism! This was almost as
puzzling to the doctor as the eternity of matter. Tired of skirmishing,
the doctor set to work to close with the enemy, and strike him down.

"I have looked only cursorily at the writings of the materialists: you
have studied them carefully; and you will oblige me much if you would
give me the foundation on which the whole structure of materialism
rests."

"The materialistic system is very simple," answered Frank.
"Materialists reject all existence that is not sensibly perceptible.
They deny the existence of invisible and supersensible things. There is
no spirit in man or anywhere else. Matter alone exists, because matter
alone manifests its existence."

"I understand. The materialist will only be convinced by seeing and
feeling. As a spirit is neither spiritual nor tangible, then there is
none. Is it not so, friend Richard?"

"You have included in one sentence the whole of materialism," said
Frank coolly.

"I cannot understand," said Klingenberg hesitatingly, "how the
materialists can make assertions which are untenable to the commonest
understandings. Why, thought can neither be seen nor felt; yet it is an
existence."

"Thought is a function of the brain."

"Then, it is incomprehensible how the sensible can beget the
supersensible. How matter--the brain--can produce the immaterial, the
spiritual."

Richard was silent.

"At every step in materialism I meet insurmountable difficulties,"
continued the doctor. "I know perfectly the organization of the human
body, as well as the function and purpose of each part. The physician
knows the purpose of the lungs, heart, kidneys, and stomach, and all
the noble and ignoble parts of the body. But no physician knows the
origin of the activity of the organism. The blood stops, the pulse no
longer beats, the lungs, kidneys, nerves, and all the rest cease their
functions. The man is dead. Why? Because the activity, the movement,
the force is gone. What, then, is this vivifying force? In what does it
consist? What color, what taste, what form has it? No physician knows.
The vivifying principle is invisible, intangible perfectly immaterial.
Yet it exists. Therefore the