The power of the soul over the body, considered in relation to health and morals

Preface

This sketch of the influence of the mind on the body was commenced and continued with the feeling that the soul is the true object of affection, and that all its interests are essentiallyreligious. The principal part of the volume was written, several years since, during the unwelcome but valuable leisure of disease, for the purpose of being addressed to a few young men who appeared to be deeply impressed with the nature and importance of the subject. On a reperusal of the manuscript, the recollection of this encouragement induced a hope that the publication might find an apology in the approval of reflecting readers, especially as at this. time the public mind is unusually roused to the observation of mental influences in the production of remarkable phenomena under mesmerism and disease. The views exhibited in these pages having been consolatory and instructive to himself, the author trusts will be deemed at least a good reason for his endeavor thus to obtain the attention of others. A corre-

IV PREFACE.

sponding volume, concerning Bodily Temperament, Will j and Habit, was intended to have accompanied this ; but it may more suitably follow, should public favor in any degree encourage the present adventure.

As said good old " Iohn Caius, Docteur in Phisicke," a.d. 1552, " man beying borne not for his owne vse and comoditie alone, but also for the commo benefite of many (as reason wil and al good authores write), he whiche in this world is worthy to lyue, ought al ways to haue his hole minde and intente geuen to profite others. Which thynge to shewe in effecte in my self although by fortune some waies I haue been letted, yet by that whiche fortune cannot debarre, some waies again I haue declared"

Hastings, March 11, 1845.

Part I. Chapter Page

I The Adaptation of the Body to the Soul ... 17 II. The Organs of Sense the Instruments of the ■

Mind 25

III. The Mind is not the Result of Sensation ... 29

IV. The Value of the Senses, and Observations on

their Use 37

V. Connection of the Mind with the Brain, etc. . 51 VI. Evils of Popular Phrenology ....... 59

VII. Nature of the Nervous System, and its Obedi-

ence to the Will 66

VIII. The Power of Attention, and its Connection

with Sleep 73

IX. The State of the Will in Dreaming .... 81

X. Illustrations of the Power of the Mind in Dream-

ing, Somnambulism, etc 85

XI. The State of the Attention modifies Sensation . 97

XII. The Faculty of Abstraction 103

XIII. The Difference between Absence and Abstrac-

tion of Mind, and their Relations to the State

of the Will in Connection with the Body . 109

XIV. The Action of the Mind on the Nervous Organ-

ization in Memory, etc 116

XV. The Connection of Memory with the Habit and

Condition of the Brain, and the Use of the Body 128

XVI. The Influence of Mental Habit on the Charac-

ter of the Memory 134

XVII. The Connection of Memory with Double Con-

sciousness 143

XVIII. Further Facts and Observations in Proof of the

VI CONTENTS.

Part II. Chapter Page

I. The Positive Action of the Mind on the Body, as-

serted and exemplified in the effects of excessive Attention 163

II. Injudicious Education 170

III. Peculiar Effects of inordinate Mental Determina-

tion 180

IV. The Effects of undue Attention to one's own Body 189

V. Misemploy ment of the Mind 199

VI. Chagrin and Suicide 208

VII. Irritable Brain, Insanity, etc 214

VIII. A general view of the Effects of the Passions on

Health 224

IX. Sympathy 241

X. Solitude . . . 250

XI. The Government of the Passions 258

XII. The highest Triumph of the Sotd.— Conclusion . 263

Introduction

The term soul has been preferred to stand in the title of this volume, because in common discourse it is employed to signify an individual intelligent being, which actuates the body, and is popularly supposed to be capable of an active existence independent of physical connection. It is meant to designate that which is conscious of acting, thinking, and willing. To avoid confusion, the words soul, mind, and spirit, will be employed as synonymous ; because to distinguish their proper shades of meaning would require a metaphysical nicety incompatible with the purpose of this work. We perceive the diversified operations of the thinking principle, and call it by different names, according to its different manifestations; but the unity of its nature, like that of God himself, is an announced or a revealed truth, to be received by faith, because our faculties will not allow us yet to comprehend an existence without parts. In using the senses, we speak of the soul under the term Sense ; when inferring truth from truth, we call it Understanding ; when fancying the future, Imagination ; when reviewing the past, Memory ; when choosing or refusing, Will. Yet all our faculties are but properties of one being, and we feel our identity amid all the diversity of our thoughts and purposes.

We can not explain the mode any more than the nature of that which thinks ; and mere endeavors to define what we can not demonstrate neither improve our faculties nor advance our knowledge. An elaborate disquisition on mind and matter would therefore be a useless demand on patience ; and since we can not discover any thing concerning either but in their operations on each other, if we would learn their relative importance, we must study their reciprocal influence.

Some philosophers, perhaps forgetful that mind is manifested by its own consciousness, have asserted that intelligence is but a result of material constitution, and, therefore, that the decay or destruction of the physical organization, with which it is at present connected, necessarily involves also the everlasting dissolution of the thinking principle. Whether true or false, this must be a miserable conclusion ; for it implies that our Creator, if there be one, has formed his sentient and intelligent creature, man, for no other purpose than to witness, for a short time, his own paradoxical existence, to contrast his desires with his destiny, to shrink away in terror from the sight and the thought of all that is glorious, great, good, or enduring, and to shun all notion of Deity, lest what is thus presented to his apprehension, should excite aspiring wishes, and build up lofty hopes, only that their destruction may be the more certain and the more extensive. The wondrous speculum, which restless research inspires man with ingenuity to fabricate, reflects the dim glimmerings of infinite worlds, into which he would direct his inquiring ken, only to kindle and expand, and then becloud his reason; for to follow its promptings were merely madness, and wisdom would be impossible ; even to know would be vanity and folly, unless we knew that existence might be equal to our felt capacity of enjoying it. Were & man sure that he could not possibly possess a better than this earthly life, to look off from this dull cold spot would only be to aggravate his doom. The glory of distant worlds would fall like a blight upon his being, for it will suggest possibilities of intelligence and delight forever beyond his reach.

A creeping thing prepares for its perfection, and at length bursts from its silken tomb with newlydeveloped form, appetites, and nature. Like a " winged flower/' with brilliant and delicate pinions, and rich in gems, it gladly flutters with the light, and sips nectar from the hand of God.

The grub may tend to be a butterfly, but why should the worm just peeping from its clod aspire to any thing beyond the clay on which it is destined to crawl and rot? And why should man look higher ] Why ? His spirit will not crawl ; it travels along with the light into infinite space, and calculates on a life and a capacity commensurate with its desires. He is impelled by a belief, which seems essential to his rational existence, that this beautiful world is not altogether a delusive show ; for he can not think that the wondrous facts of creation teach him to look for the end of truth only in death ; but he feels that, in proportion as his intellect expands and expatiates in knowledge, does it aspire to immortality, and when most intimate with the realities of time, his reason finds stability, satisfaction, and rest, only in communion with the Eternal.

All who have looked below the surface of things, must account that science despicable, and that philosophy pitifully meager, which afford no higher object of pursuit than a little sensuality ; no brighter prospect than a phantom life, no better end than an endless death.

If believers in the material system of faith (it demands great faith, such as it is), indeed, allow that there is existence beyond things, if they do allow a God, it certainly must be a god of their own. He can not have revealed himself to the world, for there is not any reasonable pretense to a revelation but in the Bible ; and therefore those who believe, in contradiction to that Book, the doctrine which teaches that the soul dies with the body, must have substituted their own opinions for the declarations of that venerable authority, and instead of worshiping Jehovah, or in any measure obeying his laws, they must have constituted themselves their own deity, and made their own glory and convenience the end of all their thoughts, and all their actions. Unhappy men ! like fallen spirits, their pride separates them both from divine and human sympathy, — they can not believe that omnipotence is love, and therefore they can not adore.

But there are those who tell us they have tasted a better philosophy, and they teach us to regard it as " a perpetual feast of nectared sweets," of which the more we partake the more we enjoy, and indeed the effect of its fullest enjoyment is nothing short of actual participation in Divine nature. This philosophy regards man as formed to be instructed by acquaintance with good and evil in this world, that the will may be disciplined under moral and physical law, and having knowledge imparted, and motives presented to the soul, it may be the better qualified for introduction to an enlarged existence.

It is true, that in this state all intelligence that is not instinctive or intuitive is received only through the body, but yet our reason possesses perceptions of truth which sensation could never have conveyed, and all our reflections concerning our nature terminate in the conclusion which revelation warrants,— that the soul dies not. Even the lower creatures, down to creeping things, are endowed with knowledge, which they acquire not by the use of their senses. No sooner do they burst from their " procreant cradle" than, instinct with skill, they seek their happiness in the right path, as if directly illuminated, by divine guidance. Why then should, man be without this guidance in his instinctive endeavors after his proper enjoyment and in the possession of permanent blessedness 1 There is a light which, in the hope, lightens every man that cometh into the world.

In pursuing our theme it behooves us, who profess to be Christians, not to disregard the source from whence we derive our religion, but as far as we can, to conduct our inquiries as if we really felt the force of those truths which we profess to believe. Believers in revelation are not only preserved from the misery of the skeptic, but excited to larger inquiries than he. The man of faith must be a think- | ing man, for he infers from facts, and is directed . as well as encouraged in his researches after every kind of truth ; since the book that secures his faith often supplies the subject, and also indicates the proper direction of rational study. Here we learn our origin and our end ; but without it mankind would have continued unable to discover either why or whence they had their being. The Bible indeed finds the same faults with this world that common sense does, — sin, pain and death are in it; but then in the Bible only do we discover a promise of a perfect remedy for evil in the re-adjustment of moral and material elements by God in man.

The sublimest and most interesting thoughts expressed in language are contained in the Genesis given by Moses. In this we find that the production of man was the finishing-stroke to creation — the Creator's especial thought, the final end of the six days' work. This earth appears to have been furnished for him by the creative word which said, "let light be," and light was. Man was then brought into being to behold His glory who formed our nature expressly in correspondence with Deity : " in the image of God created he him." # And as the dust was fashioned by the immediate touch of Jehovah's finger, the human structure took the impress of Divinity. That this form of earthly mold and heavenly meaning might not remain like the temple without its indwelling glory, God breathed within man's body the abiding spirit of various lives, and thus also illumined him with the moral reflection of the divine character. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and "man became a living soul." In these

* We have divine authority for understanding this expression to denote the moral excellence and dominion with which man was endowed.— Eph. iv. 24 : Col. iii. 10.

B words we have a distinct announcement that life and mind did not manifest themselves as the organization of its structure proceeded, but that vitality and intelligence were superadded, in connection with a separate existence directly imparted from Jehovah, and therefore in immediate relation with Him.

Thus man walked forth in his paradise at once the representative and the worshiper of Love, and Light, and Power, connecting the visible with the invisible worlds in his own person, and by the union of spirit with matter, feebleness with perfection, exhibiting the glorious mystery of creation, — Omnipotence revealed in contradictions reconciled. Man is the grand contradiction — a compound of paradoxes ; for he is constituted not only of opposites, but of contraries. In studying ourselves, therefore, we become intimate with the greatest difficulties and the greatest interests.

As before observed, the co-existence of mind with matter in one being is quite beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our knowledge, for we experience the fact. The reason of our compound constitution is, simply, that the Great Spirit has willed our adaptation to a physical world, from whence we are to derive intelligence and enjoyment. We find, however, that our minds are governed by laws that have nothing to do with material organization ; for our sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, virtue and vice, has no relation to bodily structure, but as the vehicle and instrument of mind. We conceive ideas, combine reason, not according to atomic affinities, but to spiritual associations. We love, hope, fear, if not irrespective of external impressions, at least without their continuance. Above all, we retain amid the changes of our bodies and the shifting variety of decay around us, a distinct consciousness of our own identity, and an intuitive conviction, as far as reason is awakened, that we hold our faculties and endowments, not from the fortuitous action of nature, as a blind power, but from the purpose of God as an informing spirit, in whom we live, and move, and have our being forever.

Whatever will tend to confirm our confidence in this position will add to our happiness ; and it is hoped that the examination of facts which illustrate our nature will constrain us, as with the force of a rational necessity, practically to acknowledge our dependence, while it encourages our reliance on Him who remembers we are dust and breathes on us his spirit. The highest thought is of eternal Being. All real adoration is the feeling of a life oeyond sense, and which organization can not contain nor manifest, much less produce. It is the proceeding spirit acknowledging in love the parent spirit ; it is the communion of the Father and the Son ; an entrance into the glory which was before the world. From everlasting to everlasting, thou art, O Infinite ! The human mind would sink crushed by the burden of the vast thought if thou didst not in humanity sustain thy creature. Enable us, O God, to reflect upon thine image in reverence, and to honor thy majesty as revealed in the fearfully wondrous frame and in the moral excellence of man.

Every sentient creature is characterized by its dispositions. The provision made for its enjoy- 1nent, and also the peculiarities of its physical endowment, must be in keeping with its will. If, then, we would ascertain the true dignity and destiny of man, we must study the scope and power of that principle in him, and how it is influenced ; for, in fact, the mind or soul is thus especially manifested in the body. We may conveniently regard the power of the soul in the following respects : —

1st. As manifested in the senses, in attention, and in memory.

2dly. In the influence of mental determination and emotion over the vital functions of the body.

THE POWER

OF

THE SOUL OVER THE BODY,

PART I.

THE SOUL, AS MANIFESTED IN THE USE OF THE SENSES, IN ATTENTION AND IN MEMORY.

Chapter I. The Adaptation Of The Body To The Soul

Throughout that part of creation within our scope, we behold evidences of infinite wisdom ; and whenever effects are traced to causes, and formation is considered in respect to its design, we discover a perfect adaptation of means to ends — the apparatus being exactly suited to its purpose, without defect, without redundancy.

When surveying any living creature, we naturally inquire, why it is provided with such and such peculiarities of organization. In answer to the inquiry we learn that every peculiarity of formation is adapted to some instinct of the creature, or accommodates it the better to the circumstances in which the Creator has placed it. Monstrosities

18 THE ADAPTATION OF

rarely happen, and only confirm the rule; for they too occur according to certain laws, which prove still more clearly than could be proved without them, to our intellect at least, that the will, which designs, and the power which executes, calculated on the disorder that created will produces, and set bounds to its interference which can not be passed. We can not, with propriety, say that one complete animal is nobler than another, because of any prominence of particular organs as compared with its whole body ; nor is one creature to be called monstrous or ugly, in comparison with another, for each is exactly fitted to its place in the grand scale of existence, and therefore all are alike beautiful, as exhibiting the wonderful wisdom and beneficence of God. But creation is graduated, and every creature has its proper place. The totality of an animal's framework indicates its position on the scale of being. If we measure man according to this standard, his superiority is at once evident Not that his body is distinguished by any marked excellence in those qualities which empower brutes, but by the symmetrical accordance of all its parts for superior purposes, under the direction of a will that can not truly sympathize with lower natures. " Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri, Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus."

This is a fine heathen sentiment, but not quite true ; for the eye of man was intended to search the earth as well as the heavens, and to behold Omnipotence in every part of the universal temple. The face is indeed the index of thought and sentiment, the medium through which mind most

THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 19

vividly communicates with mind, but yet the whole body acts together in the full expression of feeling:—

Let us imagine a human figure as if now standing before us, like the Apollo of the intellectual Greeks when he gazed on the smitten Python, We seem to see in this statue the visible idea or image of the man who aspired to be a god. At length he stands triumphant over the temptation and the tempter, content in the consciousness of a renovated and perfect humanity. Passion and intellect are blended in calm unison ; knowledge and affection are at peace ; the attributes of feeling, thought and action, are combined in one attitude, expressive of the delicate might of a living spirit. The mind reigns in that body. The incarnate intelligence manifestly controls matter by his will, and appears as if conscious of being always resisted, yet never vanquished ; but, inspired by the apprehension of his right, as vicegerent of Almightiness, he subdues resistance and surmounts difficulties by perseverance in the use of strength, that continually and spontaneously increases with every opposition to his purpose. Such is man, when sustained by the divinity which stirs within him ; the only creature on which the Creator has shadowed divine perfections, and therefore he is to be honored even in his ruin ; for when his affections and faculties are restored, as they may be, to divine sympathy, he shall again stand upright, the conqueror of the mighty serpent.

20 THE ADAPTATION OF

We have looked upon man in his highest aspect,

" God-like, erect, with Dative honor clad, In naked majesty."

But even if we regard him in his most uncultivated condition, where the intellect is left to the freedom of the elements, and educated only by the forces of corporeal necessity, we yet shall see much indication of his dignity.

The wild barbarian awakes to action, and every movement speaks of thought. He is evidently influenced by a world within him, where reflection and anticipation present incessant business for his spirit, and he will not live in the solitude of his own perceptions, but he seeks the higher pleasures of sociality and fellowship. His ideal existence is as actual as that of his body, and crowded with emotions. Memory and imagination people a world of their own, in the busy scenes of which he dwells more thoroughly and intimately than in that which is present to his outward senses. And he reveals his inner life by living language. He talks of what he feels, not only in words but also in the lineaments of his face, and while he speaks he stretches out his hand toward some object which may illustrate his words, or interest his companion, and thus by the very act of pointing, at once declares himself superior in endowment to every earthly creature, except his fellow-man; for no other holds rational discourse, or even possesses that simple adjunct to human intelligence, the power of distinctly and designedly pointing, to direct the attention of another.

We say then that the existence of a resident and

THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 21

superintending mind, a thinking principle, an intelligent spirit operating upon the body, in it, not of it, might be inferred from the external form alone ; and the manner of every movement and expression of that form proves how perfectly it was adapted for the use of a guiding and dominant spirit, pervading, informing, and employing it.

As the habits of certain animals have been correctly inferred from the examination of detached portions of their structure, so from almost any part of man's body we may at once discover that it was constructed for the accommodation and delight of an intellectual being. Even those disadvantages, in regard to the coarser physical qualities which lower animals possess, act but as stimuli to the human faculties, which supply all deficiencies, and confer the best accommodation. In fact, the excellence of man consists in the delicate adaptation of his structure, for without this the reasoning principle would be out of place. He is the most delicate creature on the earth, but yet he is not formed to hide himself. He must indeed be intrusted at first to the tenderest care of affection, to be nurtured into strength enough to endure the action of the elements amid which he is destined to dwell, yet he alone comes forth from his feeble infancy, erect, the observed, and the observer, with a mind to plan, and a hand to execute. The instrument is adapted to the agent — " Non enim manus ipsce homines artes docuerunt, sed ratio?'* But if man's body had been constituted on any inferior model, art and science could have had no outward exist- * Galen.

22 THE ADAPTATION OF

ence, and reason must have been imprisoned, in brute form. Supposing human knowledge then possible, man could only have been manifest as a subtil beast. " It is mind that makes the body rich/' but the soul needs a corresponding body, and God had wedded them together, in perfect suitability to their present business and abode.

How inconceivably exact must be the adaptation of the body to the purposes of the mind ! The organs of sense and of action so instantaneously and perfectly obey the demands of the will that in many of our most complicated and ordinary movements we are unconscious of having willed to employ the body, but it seems to have consented to anticipated intention in such a manner that we feel identified with it. So complete is the accordancy and assent between a healthy body and a sensual mind that some persons scarcely acquire a thought that takes them out of the body ; they live only in its sensations. The machine which they actuate is confounded with themselves, because it so admirably obeys their wills that they conceive no other enjoyment, and reach not so far as an idea of moral or spiritual excellence when habituated to the pleasures of sense.

While the system is in the highest state of health, that is, when best adapted for use, so great is the enjoyment of this perfect fitness that we can scarcely avoid putting our limbs into action, or as we say exerting ourselves, hence dancing becomes the natural expression of healthy gladness, for on these vigorous occasions we can not meditate, but our life and thought are altogether bent on muscular

THE BODY TO THE SOUL. 23

activity, or the use of the body irrespective of reflection. This happy activity is beautifully exemplified in healthy children, whose business appears to be merely to enjoy action and unmeaning pastime, and to exercise the senses simply for the pleasure thus afforded.

But how exquisitely the spirit becomes visible in every attitude and every feature of happy children ! We read their thoughts and feelings as perfectly as if their souls were our own. And were our minds and bodies attuned by love, we should find ourselves impelled by sympathy to join their sport. Like musical instruments of marvelous construction, we are so strong that the air which causes vibration seems to breathe but in the music, and one string is no sooner struck than all awake in harmony. And we are attuned to each other so perfectly, that under similar circumstances of health, being free from the dull pressure of care, all humanity will perhaps respond to one heart.

But the science and execution of music affords us still better illustration. How nice a structure must be called into play when a skillful pianist, by aid of an additional instrument fitted to his convenience, executes an intricate piece of music, not only in a wonderfully rapid succession of mechanical movements, but also in a manner fully to express the very feelings of his soul ! But how much more forcibly is the same power manifested in the human voice ! By it the spirit speaks not only an infinite variety of articulated sounds, but more marvelously still by the modulated language of tones, so as to excite into ecstacy or agony every sympathy within us.

24 ADAPTATION OF THE BODY TO THE SOUL*

What is it that so skillfully touches this instrument % What is it that enjoys as well as actuates, receives as well as communicates, through this inscrutable organization ? It is, as we have said, the soul or spirit, without which this body were more unmeaning than a statue, and only fit, as it would tend, to decay. It is the soul which animates the features and causes them to present a living picture of each passion, so that the inmost agitations of the heart become visible in a moment, and the wish that would seek concealment betrays its presence and its power, in the vivid eye, while the blood kindles into crimson with a thought that burns along the brow. It is this which diffuses a sweet serenity and rest upon the visage, when our feelings are tranquilized, and our thoughts abide with heaven, like ocean in a calm, reflecting the peaceful glories of the cloudless skies. This indwelling spirit of power blends our features into unison and harmony, and awakes "the music breathing from the face," when in association with those we love, and heart answering to heart, we live in sympathy, while memory and hope repose alike in smiles upon the bosom of enjoyment. It is a flame from heaven purer than Promethean fire, that vivifies and energizes the breathing form. It is an immaterial essence, a being, that quickens matter and imparts life, sensation, motion, to the intricate framework of our bodies ; which wills when we act, attends when we perceive, looks into the past when we reflect, and not content with the present, shoots with all its aims and all its hopes into the futurity that is forever dawning upon it.