The use of the body in relation to the mind

Preface

This volume was written with the hope of promoting the study of a subject, than which, as there is none more important, so there ought not to be any of greater interest ; for the right use of the body involves the whole doctrine of human economy, in regard both to sociality and to self, not only in relation to time, but also to eternity. The object has not been to produce a system? r z treatise, the formality of which would be repulsive, except to a few, but, in a series of cursory, and yet connected essays, familiarly to invite public attention to those things, some knowledge of which, although quite overlooked by the majority of mankind, is essential to individual prosperity. The topics are presented as they were felt by the author, in the study and practice of his profession ; and much of the work consists of moral deductions from physiological facts, which certainly demand profounder investigation than this work admits. The subject is, indeed, of immense extent, and in many respects abstruse; this, however, is no

IV PREFACE.

reason why we should be content to remain in ignorance of it, but, rather, the reverse, since truth is always worthy of our highest regard, and a mind duly impressed with a sense of its value can by no means shrink from effort, since without it no permanent moral advantage can possibly be obtained. Readers, as well as authors, are bound to think ; and, though they feel their deficiency, still to take courage from the fact, that, if they possess any mental power, they have always the means of getting more, since it will grow if it be but rightly employed, and thus, at length, convert difficulties into delights, and exertion itself into enjoyment. We can not lose our reward in considering the subject before us, because the discoveries we shall make will be worth far more than the trouble ; as Sir Thomas Brown says, " While I study to find out how I am a little world, I find myself something more than the great one." Warburton justly remarks, that, " of all literary exercitations, none are of so immediate concern to ourselves as those which let us into a knowledge of our own nature ; for these alone improve the heart, and form the mind to wisdom." Ignorance, indeed, is only a little less injurious than the abuse of knowledge ; and as the most pernicious ignorance is that which conceals the

PREFACE.

claims of God upon our spirits, so the most destructive perversion of intelligence is that which, like an angel of darkness disguised in light, invests moral falsehood with the appearance of moral truth. The only proper method of avoiding, or, rather, of meeting and subduing, both these imminent evils, is humbly to learn and hopefully to apply the momentous truths which our Maker places before us, both in science and in revelation. The attempt to separate the latter from the former is like attempting the removal of the sun from the planets : they belong to each other, and are bound together by the light that dwells among them. We are endowed with faculties both for divine and human associations, and hence we can acquire a knowledge of all that concerns our well-being with regard either to this world, or that toward which we are hastening.

But certain timid and bewildered, yet trim and trite persons, imagine that to treat a scientific subject religiously is to assume too much of the clerical and sacred character of appointed ministers. But can it, indeed, be deemed that to think, feel, act, and speak, according to the dictates of divine truth and the highest knowledge, are the prerogatives of any particular class of men ? Surely that intelligence must be

VI PREFACE

barren and bare — utterly without leaf, flower, and fruit, lifeless as a tree of charcoal — which is not rooted in faith, and derives not vigor from the stream of life and the breath of heaven. Science without Religion is insane, Reason without Revelation gropes about in the dark, and Philosophy loses her holy ordination as priestess of the Most High, unless she be faithful in her office, as the bearer both of incense and of light. In short, Ignorance offers only an offensive oblation to the Almighty, while Folly profanes every thing within her reach. But Wisdom, finding all the universe sacred to the glory of God, calls upon man, at all times and in all places, to walk in sanctity and worship.

The physical and spiritual worlds are in perpetual connection, and all our true interests are essentially religious because they are everlasting ; therefore, to separate true knowledge from devout feeling is to divorce what God has joined together, and thus produce a profane severance, like that of faith from love, which, as it begins in distrust, must end in malevolence.

He who is not desirous of looking forward with serene hope to a better state of being, while in the midst of the trials and mysteries of the present, will, it is hoped, find but little in this work to his taste ; and yet, if it be true that

PREFACE. Vll

nothing is really interesting to man but what appertains to his own nature, there is reason to believe that the facts and suggestions herein offered will possess sufficient claim upon his attention. If this work serve to direct the reader's mind rightly forward in his search for imperishable truth, in dependence on the Might which made him, its best purpose will be fulfilled, and the defects visible in its pages will provoke no severe judgment from the feeling that it is auxiliary to advancement in that inquiry which will ultimately receive a satisfactory response.

A more precisely practical part, concerning the discipline of the will, was prepared to be published with the following; but, as it was found that its publication would require the division of the work into two volumes, it was deemed more prudent at present to withhold it,

G.M.

July llth, 1846

CONTENTS,

PAGE

Preface . iii

Introduction 1

CHAPTER

I. The Blood 6

II. A View of the Nervous System, in relation to

Sensation and Will . . . . . 18

III. Life, Irritability, and Sensibility ... 36

IV. Mental Control 43

V. Individuality and Identity . . . .58

VI. Materialism and Development ... 68

VII. The Stages of Life 92

VIII. The Senses and their Objects . . .111 IX. Light in Relation to Life . . . .136

X. The Influence of Modulated Sound . . 148

XI. Mental Action in the Use of Sight . . .163

XII. The Compensating Power of the Mind . . 197

XIII. Temperaments 212

XIV. The Influence of the Blood on Mental Action 224

XV. Food 237

XVI. Fasting 253

X CONTENTS,

CHAPTER PAGE

XVII. The Influence of Intoxicating Agents on the

Mind .264

XVIII. The Influence of Physical Agents on Moral

XIX. Bodily Action 291

XX. The Influence of Exercise and Air on the

Nervous System . . . .301

XXI. Premature and Excessive Employment . . 322 XXII Sleep, Disease, Death. Conclusion . . 334

Introduction

The human body is a living machine, constructed for the use of a spiritual being. It is adapted to the elements amid which it dwells, but, while in its own substance partaking of their nature, it is nevertheless so constituted as to be actuated by powers, the mode of whose existence and operation can not be explained by reference to the known laws of matter.

As far as history informs us, mankind have continued, from parent to child, through all generations, from the first pair, with an entail of suffering and disorder, in a manner which science can not explain. The perfection of omnipotent design, in the original formation of a human being, appears to have been disturbed, but how, or why, philosophy can not discover. Undoubtedly, the idea of God was not defective, and He can never be disappointed ; therefore, while our doubting minds wonder how there can be a difference between the permission and the appointment of the Almighty, our reason, enlightened by Himself, rests assured that it shall hereafter be satisfied that evil itself is but the means of more completely demonstrating the omnipotence of Goodness.

Reference to our origin is not unnecessary in such an inquiry as the present. No investigation of God's works can be properly commenced, nor happily con- 1

A INTRODUCTION.

ducted, without regarding the religious bearing of the subject. Science is but meretricious, if not the handmaid of religion. We are never free from obligation to our Maker ; and without a distinct acknowledgment of the great First Cause, we can neither reason rightly concerning design, nor form any expectation concerning our individual destiny. The value of satisfying ourselves that the doctrines of the Bible, respecting our Maker, are really His own revelations of himself for our benefit, arises from the certainty that we can not receive them as true without confiding in the benevolence of his purpose and the providence of his power. From this revelation we learn that the human oody, stupendous because of its adaptation to the more marvelous soul, was not a gradual invention, but at once produced perfect, with all its organs, constituting an individual harmonious in itself and with the universe. No after-thought was needed for its improvement. The hand that modeled the dust into the abode of a sentient being, touched it with perfection ; and no better type of form or finish will be required by the spirit of man through the dispensations of earth, be they dark or be they glorious, than a body like that in which the first man bowed in worship, or walked erect in fellowship with his God.

Still we must revert to the fact that the inherited body is prone to disorder, and placed amid a multitude of causes which constantly tend to develop its predisposition to derangement, death, and decay. It therefore remains for us to discover, as best we may, the causes and the cure of all those manifold evils, to which we find both the spiritual and physical modes of our being are now exposed. By studying our nature, we shall the better understand our necessities, and be the better qualified to avoid our dangers or overcome our difficulties. We can not, however, in the least, apprehend the nature of our position, without, in some measure,

INTRODUCTION. 3

examining the relation in which we stand to other existences ; nor can we fully discern on what our well-being depends, without an insight into our formation and some knowledge of the place which we occupy in the universe of God.

Every organ of the body is developed according to a specific plan, and for a specific purpose, yet, though perfect in itself as an apparatus adapted to a particular end, it holds relation to other organs and their functions. All the body, united by one life, subserves one soul. Each part harmonizes with the rest, and the purpose of the whole is to furnish a fit medium through which the intelligent spirit may become acquainted, by actual experience and reasonable inference, with the properties of things, and thus supply its innate faculties with appropriate impressions. Ideas are but the images of objects which the mental principle perceives through the bodily senses. The body must, therefore, be fabricated in keeping with the world which it inhabits. Hence we find it subject to the common laws of matter, and only prevented from being resolved into its elements by the life that resides within it.

The body is formed with peculiar reference to two principles — namely, motion and perception : motion administering to .the desire of action ; perception, to the desire of knowledge. The simple idea of a being placed by Almighty Wisdom, w T ithin a body, in order to employ it for intelligence and enjoyment, would appear to require that the organization and functions of that bodj should be so exactly adjusted to the being using them and so perfectly coordinate with the conditions of ex ternal nature, that no disorder might by possibility occur and no pain be experienced, but rather that every per ception should be pleasure, and every action happiness Probably there are such beings, and such abodes among the many mansions of the Father's boundless dwelling-

4 INTRODUCTION.

place ; but such are either not human, or, if human, far away beyond the cloudy limits of earth.

Were the tendencies of our spiritual nature coincident with the holiness of the Divine Being, all external nature and providence would be coincident with us. Not a change would take place in the wide sphere of our existence, but in accordance with the disposition of our souls. We should love every intelligent being that approached us, and so perfectly correspond with our Maker as to worship him in all our knowledge, and find him alone the All-in-all of every sinless creature. But we are moral beings, derived from a corrupt stock, and born into this world without knowledge ; it is therefore necessaiy for us to endure inconvenience, and, it may be, even agony, that our intellectual development may advance in connection and in sympathy with others, under the influence both of evil and of good, that thus we may become acquainted by experience with opposite and contrary affections, and individually know that holy thoughts dwell with joy and light, while perverse desire seeks to hide its misery and hideousness in the darkness which it loves. Hence, then, we discern why the body should be constituted as the medium of both painful and pleasurable impressions. Our souls require the stimulus of necessity, that the will itself may be free. Good and evil must be unalterably fixed before us, and felt by us, so to instruct us that we may choose between them ; not, indeed, according to immediate sensation, but according to laws and principles founded on the will of Omniscience and Almightiness. The good pleasure of God, the benevolence of our Maker, revealed in our own understandings, is the only source of moral decision ; therefore, the heroism of reason is submissive ness. Were it not that our souls are to learn dependence on spiritual power, and that our wills are to be subdued and subjected in joyous obedience to the

INTRODUCTION. D

All-wise, our bodies might have vegetated like plants, rooted in the soil, nourished without care, and blooming in the sunshine or blighted in the storm, without the means of changing their place or improving their condition. But our volitions are excited by the states 01 the body. The Supreme appoints us a place in this dim world, that we may learn, that as the inconceivably diminutive atoms of which our bodies are composed are arranged by his hand for our convenience, so any one of them may, in obedience to his will, cause us to suffer and to die : therefore we are taught, alike by the minute and the magnificent, that He who brought us into existence for his own good pleasure, can alone sustain us and satisfy our spirits with the joys of life. In Him, therefore, let us trust without wavering ; for he can not have conferred consciousness and reason upon us but for the purpose of enabling us to understand that his will is our happiness, and that in adoration we may approach him, thus to fill our being for eternity at the Source of power, life, love, and truth.

All the intellectual faculties depend on attention and memory, and these on the state of the organization. Our ability to compare, and therefore to judge, concerning objects of sense, must, of course, be influenced by the fitness of the senses and their connections, to enable the soul to attend to impressions. This fitness is not only due to the mechanism of the organs of external sense, but also to the condition of the blood and the nervous power. We shall, therefore, now proceed to point out certain facts concerning these peculiarities of vital action, from which the reader may draw practical conclusions for himself.

Chapter I. The Blood

Our bodies are formed by the addition of materials received from without, which, being admitted into the blood, are distributed with it to every part of the system. In reflecting on this fact, the next thought presents itself in the form of a question. How are the blood, and the vessels through which it circulates, first produced ? We can only reply, that the vitalized fluid, in which dwelt the organizing principle, in a suitable nidus, and under favorable circumstances, attracted materials to itself, and thus evolved the physical framework of the human being. It was derived from the parent's blood, but the primal source of each individual must have been from God in the direct creation of a parent stock. Hence, " each sire begets his character and kind," and no creature produces one of another species. The process by which blood is formed from other fluid under the influence of life, may be watched in the beautiful mystery of incubation.

If we would trace up the formation of the body to its first perceptible rudiments, we shall discover that there is something invisible and immaterial, that is not acting within the known law T s of matter ; something at work in the living fluid, tending to form a new body, and of course existing before that which it forms.

This something centers in a point, and, as the earliest evidence of its power, produces a microscopic vesicle, or cell, which, under the formative influence, goes on to enlarge into a perfect egg, through every part of which the same principle exists at the same time, and causes the evolution of a specific order of organs, that ultimately harmonize and unite together, and administer to the consciousness and will of one sentient being. We see that the process of vital organization is not that of development, properly speaking, but of formation by an indwelling energy, which operates in every atom of the egg at once ; at the same time and to the same end, the completion of a single body consisting of many reciprocal parts. At any moment it may die ; a sudden or considerable change in its electrical state destroys the integrity it holds under the unbroken influence of life, and the power, which, under favorable conditions, would have matured it, now leaves the abortive materials to decay. The reader who is ignorant of this subject, should consult some modern work on physiology. But, by the closest study concerning it, what do we discover ? Not an actual creation, it may be, but, as when the might of God " sat brooding on the vast abyss, and made it pregnant," a spirit of power is here amid the elements of another magnificent, and yet minute cosmos, subduing them to its own purpose, through them, in the order and consistency of a beautiful series of organisms, to reveal itself to other spirits, and to rest in blessedness amid the excellent world it had made its own.

The first visible germ of the fcuman body is an opaque spot 3^ of an inch in diameter, within the germinal vesicle or egg, which is -^ of an inch in diameter. This germ is the commencement of the whole body. Several corpuscles of the mother's blood are acted on at the same time, and caused to arrange themselves, or their elements, so as to form a new being. There is something in this germ which attracts to itself the materials of which all parts of the mature animal is formed. The germ, then, must contain the power which causes growth,

O THE BLOOD.

the force which ultimately constitutes the power of the whole body. The development of form is but the manifestation of an inherent power, which, under favorable circumstances, produced by the same might, works out the idea of God in the plan of each creature. Thus the human germ can not be developed into any thing but a human body. It is the microscopic concentration of forces, which, under suitable conditions provided by the creative Mind, becomes the full-grown being. In its first beginning, it is but as an atom of dust moved by the breath of God ; in the end, the residence of a distinct spirit, capable of enjoying the attributes of the Infinite. These are facts, not opinions.

But we must not confound the blind law, by which atoms take their place to form organisms, a law which is probably chemical, with the operation of a power consciously at work. Yet chemical action is never accidental or fortuitous, it is always acting to an end ; but we must distinguish the forces employed in developing a body for the accommodation of a soul, from the soul itself. In the body, many forces are at work together, under a common law, but the conscious being is not manifested in it till the end of that law is in some measure fulfilled ; for the purpose is, to prepare a body for the use of a conscious being. But the soul resides in it without interfering with the creative and formative forces, and is not conscious of their^xistence until it finds that they have been ordered to their offices, and have built up an abode which it may enjoy, without knowing how it was formed, or by what means it continues subservient to its will and pleasure.

We see, then, that life is transmitted from the living blood of the parent to an ovum formed from it, and that, being thus endowed with a derived vitality, the ovum itself, under favorable conditions of warmth, moisture, and supply of oxygen, has the power of being gradually

THE BLOOD. V

converted into a new individualism, possessing a peculiar state and condition of those qualities by which it is distinguished from all other creatures. But yet the character of the new individual is so far modified by the personal character of the father and mother, as to partake, in a large measure, of their moral and physical peculiarity, with its consequences ; not that the soul itself is propagated, but that a peculiar bias is imparted to physical formation, which favors the operations of the mind in peculiar manners. Yet as the soul is certainly a substantial being, probably there is no more reason to question the impartation of its qualities in generation, than those of the body. In both cases, existence is but successive subsistence, the continuation of a life of the same kind, according to fixed principles. If there be not this actual propagation of the substantial being, still we must suppose that the very images of objects seen, or even imagined, are fixed like a condensation of light in the living and thinking principle, and their impressions concentrated in the germ, as in a focus, whence they may be again expanded in the growing progeny.

The blood is alive. This was plainly expressed in the Bible more than three thousand years before science could be assured of the fact, but now there is not any truth in physiology more certain. The blood is also the vehicle of life to every atom of our organization. By properties peculiar to itself, all the various fluids of our bodies are produced from it, and every particle of every bone, muscle, membrane, nerve, and vessel, must have existed as an ingredient of the blood, and have been conveyed to its appropriate place by this circulating spring of energy and nourishment.

No vital action is maintained without blood, and should it cease to flow through the brain, all the senses would be instantly shut up, and every function speedily suspended. And then, the mechanism subservient to the will being no longer obedient or fit for use, by a wise and benevolent provision of our Maker, all consciousness of the body would cease, and the soul commence its flight to other regions.

Persons who have heard of the circulation of the blood, but who have not duly reflected on its nature, are apt to suppose that it is maintained simply on hydraulic principles, the blood being driven out by the heart, as if from a force-pump, through one set of vessels, to be returned through another. As far as the mechanism is concerned, this is quite true, and the apparatus is perfect for the purpose, but something more is needed. It is found that a dead fluid like water will not pass through the dead vessels as the living blood passes through the living vessels.

Life prevents the coagulation of the blood, and perhaps suspends the attraction of cohesion between the arteries and their contents, and thus the circulation proceeds through the minute capillary or hair-like vessels with a force and precision which mechanism alone could never effect. There appears, indeed, to be a constant tendency in the blood to pass from the arteries into the veins irrespective of the action of the heart, so that this is to be regarded only as a beautiful auxiliary to the forces in operation for the purpose of supplying every part of the body with the vital fluid.

When we reflect on the known facts in connection with the constitution of the blood, we are astonished at its exquisite adaptation to the numerous purposes it subserves in the economy of life. I shall, however, only refer to a few points prominently important toward the end I have in view, which is, to present evidences, that if we would use this world without abusing it, we must inform ourselves concerning the influence of physical agencies on the operations of the mental faculties.

The blood, while alive, consists of a clear liquid, holding suspended in it a multitude of minute organized globules or cells, assuming different shapes under different circumstances. Some of these have a coloring matter adhering to them, which imparts the common color of the mass, although many of the cells are perfectly Without color. The substance of the body appears to be formed of these cells, in the interior of which exist molecules, which seem to be endowed with an active and independent life.

The largest of these disc-like cells in the blood of man, is not more than g^ of an inch in diameter. They are shaped like silk-worms' eggs, but they differ in size and figure in different animals. Notwithstanding their minuteness, some parts of the body do not contain the red globules of the blood, the vessels of those parts not being large enough to receive them, as we see in the eye, which requires to be well nourished, and still, for the most part, to be perfectly transparent. Here, then, we observe that provision is made to arrest the red blood at a certain point, while the nutrient fluid permeates everywhere. If, by any means, the vital relation between the blood-vessel and its contents be altered, then succeeds a change in the quantity and quality of blood contained in it. Thus, we see congestion and inflammation of the eye causing the white to become red, and that wiiich should be clear, obscure. Now, it is important to observe that whatever alters the condition of a part, also alters the sensation proper to that part.

Healthy blood is the medium of power, and its regular distribution, as before observed, is essential to the proper action of every organ of the body, therefore, every thing that interferes with the circulation, so far interferes with health, or, in other words, with the harmony and accordance of the instrumentality by which the mind is, in man, associated with matter.

Without entering into the very interesting peculiarities of design, by which the vital current is produced and maintained, we may, with advantage to our main purpose, recur to the circumstance, that the blood circulates in two sets of vessels — namely, arteries and veins, the former conducting it from the heart, the latter returning it to that organ. We should, of course, conclude, that, on returning, it had already fulfilled its chief office, and accordingly we find that venous blood is incapable, of itself, of maintaining any function, so that whatever disturbs the equipoise between the venous and arterial currents, and thus hinders the blood from undergoing its proper changes, so far impedes the processes of life, and introduces causes tending to death, that is, to the suspension of the reciprocal influences by which life, chemical action, and mind, are held in due relation to each other.

Breath and life are almost synonymous terms, from the fact that the cessation of the one arrests the other also ; we can not, therefore, separately consider the phenomena of respiration, as this function is indissolubly associated with the changes of the blood, and indeed with every vital process. The grand object, however, for which breathing is instituted, seems to be, that oxygen, and with it heat, light, and electricity, should be directly introduced to the circulating blood.

Oxygen is the supporter of combustion and of life, but it is so by entering into new combinations with the materials subservient to life and combustion, and therefore it is the cause of waste and destruction as well as of warmth and of vigor. It consumes the fuel by uniting with some part of it, causing the separation of other parts, and producing an evolution of heat and light, while entering into new forms. Its operation upon the body is not dissimilar ; it excites vital action, and thus exhausts while it stimulates, and therefore it demands a successive supply of aliment in order that the act of breathing may not itself destroy the body. Thus life is maintained by the cooperation of influences each in itself calculated and tending to produce death. We see then, at once, that He who commands contrarieties, alone could thus balance opposing causes to such just and exact effects. None but Omnipotence can preserve the equipoise of our existence. We hang on a breath, but it is His.