“Think a little more deeply,” said the old man.  “If the mind have senses, must it not have a body?”

“A body!  You are going too deep for me, Mr. Allison.  We say mind and body, to indicate that one is immaterial, and the other substantial.”

“May there not be such a thing as a spiritual as well as a material substance?”

“To say spiritual substance, sounds, in my ears, like a contradiction in terms,” said Fanny.

“There must be a substance before there can be a permanent impression.  The mind receives and retains the most lasting impressions; therefore, it must be an organized substance—­but spiritual, not material.  You will see this clearer, if you think of the endurance of habit.  ‘As the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined,’ is a trite saying that aptly illustrates the subject about which we are now conversing.  If the mind were not a substance and a form, how could it receive and retain impressions?”

“True.”

“And to advance a step further—­if the mind have form, what is that form?”

“The human form, if any,” was the answer.

“Yes.  And of this truth the minds of all men have a vague perception.  A cruel man is called a human monster.  In thus speaking, no one thinks of the mere physical body, but of the inward man.  About a good man, we say there is something truly human.  And believe me, my dear young friend, that our spirits are as really organized substances as our bodies—­the difference being, that one is an immaterial and the other a material substance; that we have a spiritual body, with spiritual senses, and all the organs and functions that appertain to the material body, which is only a visible and material outbirth from the spiritual body, and void of any life but what is thence derived.”

“I see, vaguely, the truth of what you say,” remarked Fanny, “and am bewildered by the light that falls into my mind.”

“My purpose in all this,” said Mr. Allison, “is to lead you to the perception of a most important fact.  Still let your thoughts rest intently on what I am saying.  You are aware of the fact, that material substances, as well inorganic as organic, are constantly giving off into the atmosphere minute particles, which we call odors, and which reveal to us their quality.  The rose and nightshade, the hawthorn and cicuta fill the air around them with odors which our bodily senses instantly perceive.  And it is the same with animals and men.  Each has a surrounding material sphere, which is perceived on a near approach, and which indicates the material quality.  Now, all things in nature are but effects from interior causes, and correspond to them in every minute particular.  What is true of the body will be found true of the mind.  Bodily form and sense are but the manifestation, in this outer world, of the body and senses that exist in the inner world.  And if around the natural body there exist a sphere by which the natural senses may determine its quality