The Mysteries of Masonry

By L.E. Reynolds

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The Mysteries of Masonry is an outline of a universal philosophy founded upon the ritual and degrees of ancient freemasonry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles River Editors
• Release date: Mar 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781518368486

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Reynolds

THE ARGUMENT.

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EVERY ONE THAT HAS RECEIVED the degrees of Ancient Freemasonry, is aware that they represent The building of a spiritual Temple, not made with hands; eternal in the heavens.

Are these symbolic representations arbitrary? Or do they exist in the nature of things? These are questions that must arise to every reflecting Mason. If they exist in the nature of man, the degrees of Masonry must be, not only a likeness of the natural formations of the human body; but, of the universe itself; and the opening of the degrees and their ceremonies, must refer to the orderly changes of the mind, and the progress of creation.

The reflecting mind may at once see, that all created things run in series and degrees, as end, cause and effect; that the effect, when carried into uses, becomes the foundation of other causes and effects. Thus, that the universe is a system of uses, causes and effects, consisting of a series of three, six, nine and twenty-seven; with their attendant orders of three, five and seven, in likeness of the degrees of Ancient Masonry. The object of the present work, is to unfold a knowledge of these decrees in the creation of the universe; and the regeneration of man agreeably to the principles of science, as far as they have been developed.

Where these have failed, the author has relied upon the highest probabilities of science. If he has ascended into the regions of the vast and unknown, and unlocked and brought forth their hidden mysteries, it has been because the foot-prints of Masonry have led him in that direction, and its symbols have furnished a ready key to unlock their wonders; for which he claims the indulgence of the Craft.

The Author.

INTRODUCTION

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AS THE EARTH IS COLD in winter, but revives under the genial sun of spring, bringing forth her love flowers as a token of divine favor; so the heart, when chilled by selflove, is a dreary waste, and darkness is upon the face of the deep. But when the heavenly spirit of charity moves upon the waters, the heart is warmed, and the understanding is illuminated by a divine light. A thousand principles of latent truth spring forth to quicken and elevate the imagination to view, with reverence and awe, the unfoldings of those principles handed down to us through the golden age of man, concealed in correspondential semblances, locked like a precious casket, and sealed with seven seals, which the Divine Hand will only open to a loving heart and faithful breast.

To the selfish man, masonry is a dreary road, strewed with unmeaning ceremonies and the dry husks of the past. God is love, and warms the breasts of his children with mutual love, and charity is the fruit. An honest man is the noblest work of God. Honesty springs from love, and is not the work of policy. The empire of charity is the counting house and workshop, through which she dispenses her blessings. The judge who condemns the guilty, has performed an act of love to humanity. A kind and sympathetic spirit, and a liberal hand, governed by a judicious head, are tokens of a loving heart; a blind sympathy may be the impulse of a depraved heart suggested by an unlawful end. Charity is the work of principle and sympathy. The heart and the head must join in the act. Our affections are best protected by an enlightened understanding. Without it, the work of the heart may be used to pervert order, and, what we intended as a good, may become the greatest evil. Faith and charity cannot be separated. The love of use to the human family ever seeks the truths of a living faith. Whatever is good, is also true, and vice versa. The mind, that loves truth for the sake of truth, loves good. These are inseparably blended, like light and heat, in the rays of the sun. Hence charity is equally as much the work of truth as it is of love. Love is the soul of truth, and truth is the body of love. Therefore he, who is in charity, is also in truth and love.

To teach the truth and inculcate the precepts of charity, for the sake of a divine life, are the sole ends and objects of masonry. Hence, all the instructions given in the Masonic Lodge, are representative of a true and universal system of religious doctrines, constituting a universal faith in God and the sacred Scriptures, charity being the end or life. Thus faith and charity are both adjoined, making the true Mason, either one, alone, being dead. Therefore, we must look to the ritual of Masonry for the true doctrines of the sacred Scriptures, and to the life of the Mason for true charity or a heavenly life. Masonry is explanatory of the life and doctrines of the church.

No. 2. Ancient Masonry is a life of charity, agreeable to a certain system of natural, moral and spiritual truth, correspondentially and representatively given in three discrete degrees, each degree consisting of three continuous degrees. Hence, they are termed three, and three times three, or nine. The instruction is natural, when it relates to our duty to ourselves; moral, when it relates to our neighbor; and spiritual when it teaches our duty to God. Instruction is conferred, when it is given through a correspondential and representative ceremony, and communicated, when orally explained.

Representation is the substitution of natural objects and ceremonies, to represent spiritual substances and acts, in which the mind sees the parallelism. Correspondence is the agreement and parallelism that exist between the principles and qualities of natural things and the truths and affections of the spiritual. Thus light corresponds to truth, and heat to love. Correspondence and representation are not mere comparisons, to be used at the discretion of the speaker, but arise from fixed and positive laws of parallelism and agreement, that exist between mind and matter, or the natural and spiritual worlds, which are discrete or distinct substances, that can in no wise be compounded, but are parallel by agreement of uses. So that the spiritual world rests in and upon the natural, and every natural substance and quality serves as a vessel and base for the spiritual world or world of mind: and yet the substances of each are distinct. The parallelism between natural and spiritual objects does not take place by any agreement of form or geometrical principle; but arises alone from uses—the parallelism being between the uses in the two worlds of mind and matter. When objects in the natural world perform certain uses to the body and natural things, we must reflect and discover what mental ideas and substances perform the same use in the world of mind, and the correspondence and representative will be complete.

There are no such things as literal truths in Masonry. Every word, action or substance represents a rational idea or spiritual truth. The working tools and implements of Masonry are symbols or representatives of spiritual operations and truths. Hence, in order to understand the spiritual world, we must first comprehend the natural. The desire of spiritual knowledge, first culminates in the natural, then ascends to the spiritual; so that the natural is the base of spiritual thought; and just in proportion as we understand the laws and uses of this world, we are prepared to comprehend those of the next. The great use of uses is the progression, growth and regeneration of the spiritual man, which are the object and end of Masonry. But our motives and ends govern our reasoning and train of thought. If other motives be uppermost in the mind, we have but little care and thought upon the subject of regeneration. Man must first feel the necessity of being saved. This, in Masonic language, is called the desire of light. The Holy Bible is the great light of Masonry, but this can best be understood by doctrinals, which are taught in the symbols of Masonry.

No. 3. In contemplating the three discrete degrees of Masonry, we behold the trinity of God, the order of the heavens, and the three-fold life of man. In the natural man, there are formed, in the successive order of his creation, three receptive planes of will, understanding and action. These are the first stages of the creation, in which the man’s powers are altogether natural, relating only to the gratification of his desires and the preservation of life. If his creation were arrested here, his desires would grow into an unrestrained selflove, and love of the world. Earth would become his empire of thought and affection. He would regard all things as proceeding in the order of creation, from the solid to the fluid and gaseous forms; thus the order of creation would be reversed. He would regard God as a principle, and himself its highest manifestation, and hence the Pantheistic idea of Gods many. This state, in Masonic language, is a state of darkness: and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

The next stage of creation consists of three successive states of implantation of truth; first, in the memory, secondly, in the understanding, and lastly in the will, which corresponds to the initiation, passing and raising of the candidate. Then follows the confirmation of these truths, by work, in the three several higher degrees, by which he makes them his own, interwoven into a divine life of charity, by which he becomes a man-angel, and stands in the presence of his Maker. These six successive states are the Masonic days of creation. The seventh is a day of rest. These are spiritual states of regeneration or the perfecting of the intellectual principle; then follow the six states of implantation and confirmation of the affections, which are represented in the higher degrees of Ancient Masonry.

There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, 1. Cor. 15, 44. The natural body is first, afterwards the spiritual, 1. Cor. 15, 46. The corporeal and sensual body is purely animal, and composed of substances belonging to this world, and to the natural sun. The spiritual body is composed of spiritual substances, and belongs entirely to the spiritual world. Between these two worlds, there is a parallelism. They adjoin by agreement of uses, and not by infusion of substances.

Masonry treats of the formation of the spiritual man, which is represented by the building of Solomon’s Temple; and each mason is represented, as building to himself a spiritual house, not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens. We cannot, therefore, treat of the formation of that house, without first explaining the formation of the natural body and its correspondential and receptive degrees.

No. 4. Altogether the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms rise in discrete degrees, with lofty, mental grandeur, above each other, yet they occupy a world of effects, far below the commencement of the Masonic creation. One is a state of ultimation of natural substances, the other of mental creation. They are separated by a discrete degree. No sublimation of ultimate matter can ever elevate it to a thought, substance of the human mind. The mind surveys, with a pure and serene light, the world below. But the natural mind, without the opening of the spiritual, can never contemplate the spirit, and any essay to arise terminates in a negation that places spirit in the dust beneath its feet, as the offspring of matter.

All things live and subsist from an interior principle, by discrete degrees, yet more and more interior, until they terminate in an infinite will and understanding, in which the past, present and future join as in a circle, in a simultaneous and progressive order, like the instantaneous conception of a mighty problem in the mind, where all the operations are present, yet to be outworked in progressive states. That Being is not a combination of effects, but the First Cause, existing in three discrete degrees, in his manifestations of will, understanding and action; yet in himself, he is distinctly one. He has no law in common with other substances, no more than the cause can operate in common as the law of the effect. He is therefore distinctly a person, having no law or principle in himself common to any other person. From his divine good flows forth his creative fiat, through his divine Wisdom or Word, in endless successive order, like a mighty sun of causes, through discreted suns, into worlds of ultimate effects, clothed with the three kingdoms of nature for the reception of man.

No substance of these three kingdoms can become a part of any living organism without decomposition, and a regrowth, under the direct influence and laws of the organism in which they are incorporated; the new growth being in a certain likeness of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. Thus all things proceed in series of life and death, running through three discrete and six continuous degrees, in likeness of the degrees of Masonry which we shall now proceed to unfold as contained in the natural organism of man.

Physiology is a world in itself. We therefore can give but a rapid sketch of the degrees in the physical system, and advance to the more important unfolding of the parallelism that exists between the symbols of Masonry and the mental states and conditions of the mind, or, in other words, the parallelism that exists between mind and matter. Natural objects and actions are the resting points of thought, and no man can reflect upon spiritual things without natural objects as his starting point; and then he cannot proceed without a knowledge of the laws of correspondence and representation, which are the spiritual language of nature, contained in the symbols of Masonry. The mind cannot be elevated into the sphere of life and comprehend its laws, without the aid of the science of correspondence and representation. All the natural sciences treat of the arrangement and qualities of natural objects, that come under the notice of the senses and may be demonstrated by observation.

By the laws of chemistry, we may follow the affinities of the elements through their various changes; but whenever they become subject to an organism or germ of life, they pass beyond our reach and become the subjects of death again, before we can apply the analytical powers of chemistry. It is true that we may analyse the various substances of an organism, and ascertain what elements have entered into its composition; but it is beyond the skill of the chemist to produce a like organized substance. We may infer many things relative to’ the process of the growth of plants and animals, which are of great use, but the law of life can only be comprehended and understood through the science of correspondence and representation.

We shall therefore proceed to the consideration of the degrees contained in the body, and afterwards to the degrees of the spirit, and finally to the changes that take place in the progressive states of regeneration, taught through the correspondential and representative ceremonies of Masonry.

OF THE DEGREES IN MAN.

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NO. 5. ALL THINGS MOVE by a mysterious cause. We behold the elemental world tending to the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms of nature, with an unerring certainty, through chemical combinations. Hence we are irresistibly led to infer that all of the elements, in their solid, liquid and gaseous forms, have been previously prepared and arranged under three distinct spheres of chemical affinities, with a view to their ultimate combination in the body of man, and for his express and immediate wants. We are also led to the conclusion, with equal force, that every combination of the elements, as well as the elements themselves, are referrable to one or the other of these kingdoms; and, that every particle of nature has its seed-germ planted within it; and, so far as science has unfolded the causes, we are directed to light, heat and electricity, in their discrete degrees, as the great workers in the laboratory of nature. There is no combination, action or decomposition in nature without their excitation. They constitute a trinity of three, and three times three.

There are three rays of light, the red, yellow and blue, containing three discrete rays of heat, of different refractive and chemical power, susceptible of demonstration from the thermometer and prism. In the great field of nature, they excite positive, negative and animal electricity in their respective kingdoms. In the mineral, it is electric; in the vegetable, it is aromal; and in the animal, it is magnetic. In their continuity and unity, they form the substance of the animal spirit in its three kingdoms of primates, with its throne in the base of the brain, with all the animal affections, powers and appetites; whence the animal spirit descends through the nerves, and presses on every molecule of the body, and pervades the great laboratory of the blood in the three kingdoms of its red globules, fibrine and albumine, which agree with the electric fluids of the three kingdoms of nature. The electric and magnetic fluids, which reside in the red globules and fibrine, are positive and negative to each other; but unite their common power in the albumine. The blood globules, like little earths, are lighted and vivified as from a great central sun. Being freshly coated with a deep alluvial soil from the decomposed kingdoms of food, through the chyle, in passing the lungs, they are oxidized and warmed from the atmosphere; whence they are again returned to the heart, where they are magnetised by the heart through the white blood.

The red globules are thrust forth into the arteries in the spring of their orbits, in little groups of globules, in their three, five and seven fold order. In this state, the vitalizing and fecundating influence first commences upon a single particle, which brings forth its metallic and mollusca tribes. Upon the adjoining globule next spring forth from its coating, in order, all the varieties of the vegetable formation, shooting forth as little trees, plants and shrubs. In successive order of formation, there follows, upon the adjoining globule, every beautiful form of the infusoria tribes, in the type of the animal creation. These operations are reversed in the aged; the order of the animal creation coming forth first. These little form substances, which have grown in likeness of the three kingdoms, have their instantaneous day of life and die; decomposition follows, and they are expelled from the red globules, and taken up by the white blood that immediately surrounds the globules, which has been electrified by the white and red globules and formed into lymph, which acts as a vehicle receptive of the form particles that have been cast off from the globules. The fibrine of the blood slightly contracts, drawing the red globules to the centre, throwing the lymph and white globules to the surface, along the walls of the arteries. The red globules now repel each other, and, as the arteries branch in a thousand directions to their final destination, the red globules pass single into the capillaries, being held together by the fibrine, the lymph, containing the nutrition derived from the growth and death of the three kingdoms, that takes place upon the globules heretofore described, passes through the walls of the capillaries by exceedingly minute vessels, passing directly into the glands and cellular tissue. The red globules, and white blood after it is deprived of its nutriment, passing onward in the capillaries through the glandes, enter into the veinous capillaries, where they give off their surplus light and heat. The fibrine and red globules, contracting, reject portions of the serum and watery substances of the blood, which, in a normal state, passes in a gaseous, insensible perpiration.

If the temperature of the system be suddenly raised, the blood contracts more violently, and ejects its watery substances as sensible perspiration. Each secretory organ has its own peculiar electric motion which contracts the blood, causing it to eject such portions as may be required by the organ, until the oxygen and vitalizing gases, together with the nutritious substances, are exhausted from the blood. The blood at this point becomes absorbent, and takes on a sheet of electric light from the nerves and surrounding electricity, and returns with its surplus of carbon, through the veins, towards the heart, while the lymph, derived from the white blood which passed off through the walls of the arterial capillaries, conveying its nutriment, from the growth in the blood of the three kingdoms of nature has conveyed its richly laded substances to every tissue and pervaded every cell with its vitalizing influence, taking on such substances from the glands as may be required for the blood, and is collected into the small lymphatic vessels, and returns by the throracic duct towards the heart. Having been supplied and refreshed by the decomposed substances derived from the food, through the decomposing fires of nature, it ascends and again is united with the veinous blood just before it reaches the heart. The arterial blood, ascending to the head, gives off its lymph in the manner heretofore described, the brain being supplied with vitalized blood by four large arteries; namely, the two carotids, and the two vertebrals. These ascend, dividing into innumerable small branches, ramifying the dura mater, from which the arterial capillaries descend dipping in to the great cortical substances of the brain, giving off its lymph, which is taken up by a class of cells arranged in the tissues in a glandular form. There being three cells of a primitive character, the walls of which are composed of smaller cells, the walls of these again are composed of a third class of a still finer texture. The membranes or coatings of the cells are continued and formed into cerebral tubules in a three, six and nine fold order.

Thus the lymph is sifted and strained, as it passes inwardly to the substances of the brain, giving off its vital forces of light, heat and electricity in their continuous degrees, the states of which are represented by the nine colors of the positive and negative spectrums, which will be hereafter treated of when we come to speak of the nine portions of the brain. The finer portions of the lymph are consumed in the operations of the brain and nervous system; the serous portion of the lymph being collected by the ventricles, and used for the softening of the tissues of the brain. The lymph of the scalp, neck, face, and upper portion of the chest, is collected and returned to the veinous circulation by the right throracic duct. Thus it is that the blood is the seat of life, and any part or organ of the body, deprived of arterial blood, becomes immediately paralized and dead. The three kingdoms of nature hold a distinct or discrete relation to each other; yet they compound, by their continuous degrees, in a three, six and nine fold principle. From these again arise a series of orders which follow as three, five and seven, which will be explained when we come to treat of these numbers in Masonry.

The mechanical manifestations of the blood, in external uses, take place by corresponding organs and parts of the body, which are directly adapted to the wants and uses of life in the external world. The first elementary organs or tissues, which composed the whole and entire bodily form, are three, namely: the nervous, vascular and cellular tissues; from these again are derived the white and yellow fibres, which compound, with considerable variety, in an areolar tissue, which is receptive of the cells, glands and follicles. These nine degrees of the bodily formation compound in the soft and hard tissues, which consist of muscles, membranes and tendons, cartilages, bones and ligaments, sacs, tubules and glands. These are manifested and grouped in the human body in a series of three, six and nine parts; namely, the head, chest and abdomen, the fore-arm, arm and hand; the femur, leg and foot. These consist of groups which are in themselves articulated agreeably to their order, which will be treated of when we speak of the subject of orders. The nine groupings of the form are duplicated in the right and left sides.

The interior organs, also, consist of nine groupings, namely: the brain, heart and lungs, the liver, stomach and bowels, the spleen, kidneys and organs of generation. Thus the groupings of the human form are twenty-seven, being a multiplication of three and three times three, which being again multiplied by three, give twenty-seven, which is the full number of cryptic Masonry.

The great uses of the human system are nine, expressed by nine groups in the body; namely, the heart, lungs and stomach with their appendages; the muscles, bones and excretory system; the integumentary, or skin, and generative organs. These are all harmoniously arranged, and inductively acted upon by the nervous system, the centre of which is the brain, it being the great centre or seat of life and sensation, through which the blood charges the system with its vital forces or animal spirits, ultimately accumulated and reworked in the nine lobules of the testes, and elaborated into a minute form or principle of the human brain.

The soul-germ takes upon itself a foetal body in the womb from the blood of the mother. When all the organs are formed, the blood, which exists in the arteries and veins at the time of birth, receives an independent motion by the inflowing of forces from the external world through the medium of respiration and the skin. The heart is stimulated to action, and an independent circulation of the blood is produced, with its laboratory of chemical forces for the future growth of the body and mind. The forces of the human system are derived from the same source as those of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, which are light, heat and electricity.

There are three degrees or rather separate atmospheres, each having an elemental formation or composite. The atmospheric air is composed of gases mingled together, within which exists an etherial atmosphere, consisting of caloric and ether, the active force of which is electricity in its continuous degrees. Within these, again, reside the most subtle forces of the sun. The decomposition, or separation of caloric into its continuous degrees, produces the manifestation of the different heat rays. The decomposition of ether, is induced by the active forces of caloric, which produce the sensation of light, the electric force being the combined result of each.

The decomposition of electricity into its discrete degrees, gives rise to the electric, magnetic and aromal forces as they exist in the kingdoms of nature, which will be hereafter illustrated. The positive and negative electricities are the result of decomposition or division into their respective degrees, the recombination of which give rise to the phenomena of attraction and repulsion. A decomposition of the electric forces also takes place by passing a current at right angles to a different conductive body, producing an inductive current, which is always at right angles to the motive force. The atmosphere acts as a lens, decomposing the light and heat of the sun, producing the inductive, electric and magnetic currents of the earth, which are similar to the nervous forces in man.

There are three degrees or rather separate atmospheres, each having a composite elemental formation. The atmospheric air is composed of gases mingled together. Within this, exists an etherial atmosphere, consisting of caloric and ether, the active force of which is electricity in its continuous degrees. Within these, again, reside the most subtle forces of the sun. The decomposition, or separation of caloric into its continuous degrees, produces the manifestation of the different heat rays. The decomposition of ether is induced by the active forces of caloric, which produce the sensation of light, the electric force being the combined result of both.

No. 6. There are nine groupings of the brain which are receptive of the forces of the blood; three of which are primitive and discrete in their character, the others are compound and inductive; neither of these groups can induce action by itself. It requires at least three of the groups, on both sides of the brain, to induce co-ordinate action in the body. Every act of life, to be truly rational, must partake of the entire forces of the brain. Hence, there is a great circuit of the mental forces through the commissures of the brain and oblongata, descending to the body. Animal life, perception and order are located in these basular lobes on either side of the base of the encephalon; namely, the cerebellum, anterior and middle lobes. The cerebellum is the seat of the animal will, and receives, by influx, all the laws of natural order, relating to procreation and civil life. The anterior lobes are "perceptive in their character, and receive by influx all the forces and powers of special sense. The middle lobes of the brain are the true seat of action, and are both compound and inductive in their character, receiving the vital forces of the cerebellum and anterior lobes, which they first present for approval and support to all the other groups, collecting the combined action and forces of the three basular lobes, on either side of the brain, passing them upward by the middle cornues along the hippocampus major. The electric forces of the upper posterior lobes are brought forward along their cornues by the commissures of the hippocampus minor, extending forward and downwards to the floor of the lateral ventricles, passing forward through their commissures; they receive the forces of the rational faculties by the commissures of the anterior cornues; and are collected by the corpus callosum. Passing upward and backward, they descend to the body by the six commissures of the oblongata and spinal cord.

The inceptive forces of the cerebellum are pulsatory, which continue in . their life currents as described, by the hippocampus major, fornix and corpus callosum; where they receive, by the cross commissures, another pulsatory motion which flows in through the superior hemispheres of the brain, uniting the forces of the middle respiratory, central lobes on either side of the lateral ventricles, which now into the pulsation of the cerebellum during their passage through the commissures of the corpus callosum.

It is important to the life-actions of the body and mind, that these two pulsatory motions should exactly agree as to time, so as to unite their combined efforts in all the operations of life. The respiratory motions of the brain take place, in a normal condition, about every fourth pulsation. The brain swells and the corpus callosum rises, with a gentle motion, at each respiration. As these currents and forces are constant in their operation, they are provided with three sets of fibres, one of which proceeds from the middle basular lobes, one from the cerebellum, and one from the superior hemispheres. Thus, the day, with the regenerate man, who stands in divine order, is divided into three equal parts; giving eight hours for the avocations of life, eight for the relief of a worthy distressed brother, and eight for refreshment and sleep; the cerebellum standing watch by night, and holding the reins of life, the perceptive faculties watching by day during the common avocations, and the superior hemispheres of the brain holding the control during the hours of devotion. These necessities will be more apparent when we come to speak of sleep.

In the unregenerate man, the influxes of the upper brain are weak and feeble, so that they are unperceived in the mind and body; but, as regeneration takes place, these influxes increase, until they are seen and felt by the higher faculties of the mind, when they assume a full and complete control of the entire being.

There are fibres entering the nervous system from each degree of the brain; but, in general, there are three great systems of nerves, arising from the lobes in the base of the brain; namely, the nerves of special sense, and the motor and involuntary nerves. The involuntary nerves have their centres in the cerebellum. The motor nerves take their rise in the middle lobes, and the nerves of special sense derive their power from the influxes of the anterior lobes of the brain. Fibres, from each of these systems, enter the ganglionic, which, in the main, is involuntary, its great office being to decompose, allot and partition the nervous forces agreeably to the wants of the human system, manifested in the different organs. The nerve fibre of the brain does not extend into the organs, but acts upon their forces by decomposition and induction, producing chemical action by their recombination.

No. 7. The cerebellum acts as a ganglion upon the forces of the spinal cord during the wakeful state of the mind. The nerves of special sense, collected in the medulla oblongata, are positive to the cerebellum and the ganglionic system; so that a third part of their fibres, or tubules are entirely at rest; yet they receive a passing current that restores the wear and tear of the night; also the frontal perceptive powers of the brain are entirely at rest, the same being the case with the motor fibres of the central lobes.

When these portions of the brain become weary and require resuscitation, the cerebellum becomes active, and produces a positive power on the nerve fibres of the spinal cord and ganglionic system. Embracing tire head of the medulla oblongata close in the folds of the ponsverolii, it sends around it a spiral band of electric currents, and sends down the spinal cord a flow of inductive electricity. The ganglionic system becomes generally active and positive to the nerves, giving off by the spinal column. The electric forces of the brain extending down the spinal cord, proceed no further than the root of the branching nerve to be affected, passing round the root. It decomposes the electricity of its centre, thereby producing an inductive current in the nerve branch, and returns again to the brain. The inductive current, in the branching nerve, becomes positive, again decomposing the electric current of the ganglion, sending off an inductive current to the muscles and bodily organs, as the case may require, and vice versa with the returning current.

The nerve forces of light, heat and electricity, which are set at liberty by the