The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1858-06-03

ton and the apprehension of a truth, O
in other words, between passion and intel
Icct, no one will for a moment dispute, bu
no one, upon the other hand, will bc fount
willing to affirm that they liavc'a differen
origin.
1t is not to be denied, that am the au
thor of my own emotions, anG also of nv
own intellectual operations. In othe,
words, l am capable of loving and o
thinking, and whatever display l may make
OF either, originates with me. If it do not
originate with me, would be glad to Je
informed as to the source of its origination
If am not the author of my own states of
thinking and loving, would be glad to
know who or what is.
Poets and novclists, and speculative gen
tlemcn, and gentlemen Of glowing magma
tons, together with the disciples of phre-
nology, arc in the habit of assigning our
thoughts to the brain, and our passions to
the heart. But each position is equally
pucrile and iancifu.
No proposition in logic can be more un-
denEble, than that if either my thoughts
originate i'll my brain, or my affections in
my heart, cannot he their author; and
hence, if not their author, I cannot be held
responsible for them.
Upon the supposi,ion that my brain is
the seat of my intellectual operations. or
my heart that Of my emotions, 1t might be
logically argued that if 1 were to become
discmbodcd after death, I could neither
think or love, independently of their opera
ton. And hence, it would follow, that
death would he the anniliation of all men
tai AMI moral states. And this would ncr-
ative the possibility of the Immortality of
the human soul.
1t Is almost the common belief now, that
there arc disemdoaied spirits or souls of men
and women in realm different from our
own, who exercise thought and affection.
This common belief is utterly at war with
the supposition that the brain is the seat Of
thought, or that the heart is the seat of tbc
affection.
No l"gician will so stnltfy himself rs to
hold, that the same embodied and disem-
bodied spirits can think and love, unless he
admit that both thought and passion arc
independent operations of the same indi
vidual, considered as unit, and considered
as independent of his bodily organs; that
is to say, independent of them for lis po,ccy
of thought and affection.
But let us listen to what two other per
sons have said on this subject, the one a
poet and the cthcr a philosopher of the
chronological school. Shakespeare says:
" 9, She that hath n heart of that fine frame.
10 pay this debt Of lope bul to brother.
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
Hath kill u the flock of all affections else
That live in herr when Hrer, brain and hcnyf.
These sovereign thrones are all supplied and filled,
Her sweet perfections, with one selfsame kppn
The poet rcckons that the heart may be
framed, and after being framed, may he
able to pay debt, which d eLt is love. and
also supposes that this frame may be pierced
by shaft, not only rich but golden, and
that it also possesses focks of affections
that may all he killed, with the execution
of love, and that that survives when liver,
brain and heart, these sovereign thrones.
are all supplied and filled with one selfsame
king.
This may do in poetry, but will it do in
metaphysical philosophy
DO not know that precisely understand
what the poet means, when he speaks of
the liver, brain and heart being supplied
and filled whether by her sweet perfcc-
nons' or by one sclf:same king.
Is he to be understood as saving that
her liver, brain and heart are her sweet nor.
tections, and that these sweet perfections
are to be supplied and filled by selfsamc
king; Or that her sweet pe.fections arc to
be referred to her capacity to love her BROTH
er and her lover2
And then, we may raise quarrel over
the word "clse."
Does it refer to her love for brother, or
love generally?
In other words, does the poet mean to ex-
claim:
slow will she love, who has heart to
love brother, when the golden shaft hath
killed the flock Of all other love than that.
and Killed thus made the love for her broth
er tile soul-surviving king of her liver,
Tram and heart, her sweet perfections -
Or: low will she love, whose heart is
OF that fine frame to love but a brother
when she comes to love lover, after tho
golden shaft hath killed the flock of all her
affections, else even that for her brother in.
cIuded, and leaving her liver, heart and
brain supplied and filled but with the one