"When a glass of wine turns a wise man into a fool, is it not clear that the result is the consequence of a change in the material conditions ?"[156] Now, these facts are sufficient to show that, in the present life, there is a very close and intimate union between the soul and the body, and that they exert a reciprocal and very powerful influence.

This is admitted by the firmest advocates of _Spiritualism_; nay, it is necessarily involved in the doctrine which they maintain, relative to _the union_ of two distinct, but mutually dependent, principles in the present constitution of human nature.

But it is far, very far, from affording any ground or warrant for the idea, that Matter may be identified with Mind, or Thought with Motion.
There are certain Theological considerations which, if they have not been pleaded as reasons, may yet have been felt as inducements, to the adoption of the theory of Materialism.

Not to speak of the difficulty which has been felt in explaining "the traduction or propagation of human souls," occasionally referred to in this controversy, it is plain that many Deists in the last century, and that not a few Atheists still, have been induced to embrace and avow Materialism, with the view of undermining the doctrine of man's immortality, and of a future state of rewards and punishments.

It is equally certain that Dr.Priestley was influenced by his peculiar views as a Socinian; for he tells us himself that the doctrine of Materialism commended itself to his mind as a sure and effectual means of disproving _the preexistence of Christ_.