citing, and the voice of his beloved scarcely gentle enough for his brain, and yet with a holy pertinacity prefer the rack to recantation. There is no heroism in blood-vessels and nerves; but a spirit possessed by reliance on God, though animating the gentlest heart, yet laughs at the flames, and commits the body to their embrace with a song of triumph. "So be it, Lord-so be it," said Anne Askew. The spirit may be willing and the flesh weak, but there is the willing spirit still. Hence the Christian's paradoxical experience; and hence, too, inconsistency is so often mistaken for hypocrisy, by those who have not been new-born out of nature with the weight of a felt eternity upon them. The moral law of a heathen will serve for a skeptic, but the man who looks into the two everlastings, death and life, sees no safety in middle courses.

Every healthy giant ought to be a hero, according to the theory that represents the moral character as the result of physical structure; but we know that "many a good tall fellow" is only a coward, in spite of his large heart. A brutal impulse may sometimes get the better of his discretion; but if this be courage, then a gamecock is more of a hero than is Wellington. The panoplied Goliah trusted in his armor, and laughed at the stripling with his sling. But which was the hero? No! spirits are not firm in strength of muscle, but in mighty principle; and the soul must be taught to depend on some power above itself, or its might readily degenerates into desperation. Thus the veriest coward becomes daring when he has done with his calculations of escape; and the provost is often more persuasive than the general, or even the hope of prize-money. We oftener hesitate from the state of our affections than from the state of our fibers, and our defective attention to duty depends rather on our motives than on our muscles. But to make morality spring from the circulation in the capil

laries, as some men teach, is to reduce man to an accidental demon, whose prowess may emulate either the majesty of Milton's Satan, or the little mischievous pranks of Shakspeare's Puck, just according to the power of the stomach to digest.

Conscience does make cowards of us all, but yet many have met death face to face without fear, calmly, eye to eye, not blinded by the impetuosity of their blood. Was it because the relative proportions of their brain were altered, or some new organ developed? No such thing. Neither temperament, age, sex, nor condition determined it. Persons at all periods of life, and in all varieties of bodily form and habit, have coolly conquered the last enemy, not by dint of physical training, but by mental conviction, by change of motive, by change of thoughts, by the knowledge of new relationship between their Maker and themselves. They have seen life and immortality brought to light, and with united voice exulted over the last and mightiest enemy:

"O Grave, where is thy victory?

O Death, where is thy sting?"

CHAPTER XIV.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE BLOOD ON MENTAL ACTION.

PROBABLY temperament is really more dependent on the condition of the circulation and the chemical agencies involved in it than on any other vital peculiarity. But yet, of course, we can not overlook the fact that development of form greatly modifies the operation of the mind, for who can think of the difference between an athletic and a puny body without perceiving how unfit they are for similar purposes; this unfitness undoubtedly is felt to the full by the individual spirits by which they are respectively animated and employed. We shall not look among voluntary tailors for brawny, muscular, and sanguine men, nor expect to find among the grenadiers one who would prefer the gentle duties of a man-milliner. Then again, if we reflect on the peculiarities in body which distinguish the sexes, we can not but discover corresponding manifestations of taste and disposition; for such is the order of nature, that the mind takes its cast from its accommodations, and seeks to be exercised in the most appropriate manner, or, at least, in that way which seems to afford it most promise of enjoyment. For the purpose of obtaining a clearer insight into temperament and its consequences, we will look more closely into a few facts illustrative of the influence of the sanguineous circulation on the action of the mind.

According to the analyses of Lecanu, it appears that temperament has a marked influence on the character of the blood. That of lymphatic persons is poorer in solid

constituents and blood-corpuscles than that of sanguineous persons. The same authority also states that at successive periods of life the relative proportion of constituents varies, and that blood-corpuscles, with which vital energy seems mainly connected, are not so abundant in the earlier periods of life as at maturity, after which there is a progressive decrease in the solid part of this fluid, and that after the age of forty or fifty the increase of cholesterin in the blood is very decided. Sex also modifies the blood; that of the female being more watery than that of the male. Disease, of course, alters these conditions, but the blood best suited for one state of the nervous system would be unfit for another, and therefore the nervous power greatly modifies the action of the heart, and the condition of the circulating fluid. Mental state also operates powerfully in controlling the force of the circulation, so much so, indeed, that by appropriate employments of mind the prominent peculiarity of a man's temperament may be entirely altered. The blood affords the stimulus and nutriment of the brain; the working of this organ must, therefore, depend on the quality and quantity of this fluid distributed to it. Still, lest this observation should mislead the reader, it will be well at once to remark, that the manner in which the mind works with brain is not in the least understood, but it appears to be demonstrated that the direction of thought is determined rather by the habits of the individual in the use of his senses, than by the state of the blood and the condition of the brain, for the law of association is almost universal in its dominion over mental operations. Yet the rapidity or intensity of the mind, in whatever direction it may be exerted, seems chiefly to be regulated by the force of the circulation in the brain; and the probability of this we can not fail to perceive, if we consider what has been previously stated concerning the currents of action in the brain, together

with its connection with the organs of sense, and its sympathy with every function as established by nervous correspondence. The constancy of this sympathy and connection is maintained by the circulation of bloodpower and nervous influence. The study of the associated actions of the brain with other organs of the body, though too abstruse and elaborate a subject to be now enlarged on, would greatly assist us in endeavoring to comprehend the causes of mental enjoyment and disturbance, for it is evident that different portions of brain are directly associated in action with different parts of the body, and especially with the different organs of sense. In this respect the brain may be advantageously regarded as made up of a variety of parts, which, although constituting but one organ, yet subserve distinct purposes. Hence the supply of blood in the brain may be subject to partial irregularity, either from undue use of other parts of the body, or by the direct action of the mind on different portions of brain unequally. Certain phrenologists endeavor to account for all varieties of mental manifestation, whether asleep or awake, by supposing certain parts of the brain to remain dormant while others become active. To a certain extent they are justified in their conclusions by the testimony of facts, but undoubtedly not to the extent which some assert, when they would have us conclude that different sorts of thoughts are secreted, and separated from the blood by the brain, just as different substances are produced by the glands. This is physiology running wild, for it represents organization not as instrumental, but as creative, and that not of absolute existences, but of nonentities, since, as already observed, thoughts and thinkers must perish together if both are only brain-work destroyed by death. But the soul is the proper excitant of the brain: yet as warmth, light, moisture, nutriment, and oxygen are essential to vital development, so all these, in connection