However we may regard such testimony, it is no doubt true, that the constant use of animal food ill qualifies the mind for literary application, since it produces blood which is very readily converted into muscle, and which, therefore, stimulates the brain to the desire of bodily action. Hence those who live by the chase alone have vast delight in it, and are peculiarly indisposed for studious occupation; they become ill tempered unless reduced by violent exercise. We can scarcely imagine a philosopher living on horseflesh like a Tartar, or on buffalo meat, like a Red Indian; and it is a fact, that these tribes appear incapable of civilization until they acquire the habit of using a less stimulating diet, and begin to cultivate the fruits of the earth for their own use. The effect is not due merely to quieter objects thus suggested to their minds, as might be imagined, but really to the state of their blood. The difference in the success of Christian missionaries among such people, and among those whose chief sustenance is farinaceous, is very striking, and worthy of especial notice. In the East and in the Polynesia, literature and Christian doctrines are seized on with avidity; but in vain were the most earnest labors of the best men to introduce reading and writing among the American Indians, until they had first been taught to sow corn and to eat bread. Thus it appears that the excitement of destructiveness is not only prejudicial to peace but also to intellect, and the height of barbarity is the height of discomfort.

CHAPTER XVI.

FASTING.

Ir may be asked, if the effects of forced abstemiousness on the mind are so detrimental, as shown in the last chapter, how happens it that fasting has been enjoined as a religious duty? Occasional abstinence and starvation are, however, vastly different things; the former may relieve and invigorate nature, but the latter, without doubt, must sap the very sources of life and power. But the influence even of the most moderate abstinence will be modified by the mental state at the time, and the purpose and direction of the will in this, as in other duties, will determine the amount of benefit to be derived from it. If the soul be not calmed by fasting, it will be irritated and confused; but as we find some individuals soothed by debility, and exhibiting, even in great suffering, a moral serenity which in vigorous health they never exhibited, while others, under the same circumstances, become morose and unmanly, so under the influence of fasting, we should naturally expect to witness opposite consequences, because, in fact, the same causes are operating under opposite conditions. The mind of one is fretting, it may be, over what it has lost; and the mind of the other, inspired by a divine hope, struggling on to the attainment of some spiritual elevation, some intellectual and moral dignity, of which he is well assured if he but endure to that end.

If there be a demand for bodily exertion during pro

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longed fasting, the sense of weariness and languor, in short, the entire unfitness of the muscular frame and nervous system for physical effort, must produce bad temper; therefore the poet rightly says—

"And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet,

Spare Fast, that with the gods doth diet."

Sir John Franklin, in his "Journey to the Polar Sea," describes his party, after they had been reduced by want of food to extreme weakness, but yet obliged to exert themselves on their homeward way like true men, as forcing themselves to converse, with parched lips and tongues, to avoid, as far as possible, reverting to their dreadful situation. "I observed," he says, "that in proportion as our strength decayed, our minds exhibited symptoms of weakness, evinced by a kind of unreasonable pettishness with each other. Each of us thought the other weaker in intellect than himself, and more in need of advice and assistance. So trifling a circumstance as a change of place, recommended by one as being warmer or more comfortable, and refused by the other from a dread of motion, frequently called forth fretful expressions, which were no sooner uttered than atoned for, to be repeated perhaps in a few minutes. The same thing often occurred when we were endeavoring to assist each other in carrying wood to the fire; none of us were willing to receive assistance. On one of these occasions, Hepburn was so convinced of this waywardness, that he exclaimed, Dear me! I wonder if we shall ever recover our understanding!" What a beautiful lesson to teach us mutual forbearance in our mutual weakness! This pettishness, like that of children weary with their play, is natural to us all, when the mind can not employ the body agreeably; for to be excited to any exertion in this state is to be more feelingly aware of bodily incapacity. The soul wants rest, or, rather, the order of Providence indicates that the body should be left to re

pose when exhausted; and if it can not perfectly rest, the mind nevertheless gets into a dreamy state, and busies itself with fancies, or seeks its own satisfaction in reverie or partial delirium. There is a curious fact in connection with this withdrawal of the mind from the consciousness of bodily distress, which physiology quite fails to explain a state the very reverse of the real circumstances is enjoyed in thought. Captain Franklin states, that their dreams, when they fell asleep with the acute pains of hunger upon them, were usually of a pleasant character, being often about the enjoyments of feasting. This debilitated state of the body, however, is attended by a peculiar mental absence, even when most awake, so long as the will is not directed to the muscles. The individual bodily condition is lost sight of; hence, in this brave party, each thought the others more in need of assistance than himself-an extremely interesting proof of the Divine Benevolence anticipating the trials of our constitution, by providing in the constitution itself the means of escaping from them. Perhaps it may not be impertinent here to put a question to the advocates of mental duality. When the person had given hasty expression to his fretfulness, and then instantly discovered its impropriety, are we to conclude that one ego perceived and endeavored to atone for the other's injustice? Then, again, we learn that these fine fellows, in spite of their better judgment, ate too much after their starvation. Must we suppose that one cerebral ego produced the prudence, and the other the appetite? Let us consider the causes of their state: anxiety, fatigue, cold, starvation-in short, misery and diseased blood, such as we see too much of in this land. Now could these causes act on only one side of a man's brain at a time? Did the cerebra take it in turns to suffer, or did these causes operate on the whole nervous When these questions are answered

system at once?

in consistence with the dual theory of mind, then we have others to put.

A fact recorded in Captain Franklin's narrative will easily conduct us back to our observations on fasting. It appears that the captain and his party fortified their souls by reading the Bible, as their best resource in their greatest troubles. They found it answer admirably. The man, also, who habitually enjoyed the truths of that wonderful book, was he whose conduct was most exemplary. He best endured the famishing process, and was the last to yield to fretfulness and the first to help others. That man was Hepburn. Hence the importance of mental habit and intention. It is curious to observe how gradually the rough Canadians who accompanied the expedition dropped their profane swearing, and assumed a sort of meekness, as their spirits drooped under starvation and the fear of death; but the pious men only evinced more confidence every day. It seemed impossible for them to give up hope; though their strength decayed and every exertion was irksome, and the greatest effort was necessary in order to rise from their seats, and they were obliged to help each other to accomplish this, yet they conversed cheerfully, as if sure of the speedy arrival of help. The deduction from all these facts is manifestly in keeping with our former observations. Fasting, to be advantageous to the mind and promotive of its spiritual advancement, must be accompanied by such employment of its faculties as tends to soothe and elevate the spirit. The testimony of a savage to a fact is sometimes as good as that of a philosopher. When an Indian chief wishes to meditate on any great plan, he says, "I can not yet see the future; I must fast and pray that the great Master of life may give me wisdom." Can we trace any connection between this custom and the direction to Esdras? "Go into a field of flowers where no house is, and eat