CHAP. V. VER. 30. 345

and natural sense. To partake of one’s flesh and blood, does not, in ordinary life nor according to scriptural usage, mean to partake of his substance, but it does mean to partake of his life. The substance of which the body of any adult is composed is derived exclu- sively from his food and from the atmosphere. A few years after the formation of Eve not a particle of Adam’s body entered into the composition of her frame ; and yet she was then as truly as at the begin- ning, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, because derived from him and partaker of his life. For the same reasons and in the same sense we are said to be flesh of Adam’s flesh and bone of his bones, although in no sense partakers of the substance of his body. In like manner nothing is more common than to speak of the blood of a father flowing in the veins of his descendants, and of their being his flesh. This means, and can only mean, that they are partakers of his life. There is no community of substance possible in the ease. What life is no man knows. But we know that it is not matter; and, therefore, there may be com- munity of life, where there is no community of sub- stance. There is a form of life peculiar to nations, tribes, families, and individuals ; and this peculiar type is transmitted from generation to generation, modify- ing the personal appearance, the physical constitution, and the character of those who inherit it. When we speak of the blood of the Hapsburghs, or of the Bour- bons, it is this family type that is intended and nothing material. The present Emperor of Austria derives his