leap up when stimulated. If excited too rapidly, or too strongly, it soon loses this power; but if allowed due intervals of rest, it continues susceptible a considerable time. This power of acting under the influence of appropriate stimuli is called irritability. There is an irritability peculiar to each organ of our bodies, and the balance of the whole system, the harmony between its parts, depends on the proper action of each, because although each has a sort of individuality of office and function, yet all sympathize together under the influence of one prevailing power.

Of this irritability we are not conscious-it exists irrespectively of feeling, because sensation arises from the presence of something superadded to organism, and implies a mind. Thus we obtain, even in the roughest sketch of our physical being, the knowledge of many important facts. First, that organization is induced in matter by a living principle; next, that irritability is added to organization, and then that sensibility is added to irritability.

As the animated machinery is constructed to be the medium of conveying impressions to the mind, and also to serve as the instrument of its action; and as every part of the body possesses, not only an organization, but also a mode of sensation peculiar to itself, it is evident that whatever tends to alter the condition of any organ will affect our well-being accordingly. The perceiving and controlling agent, the soul, will be interfered with just in proportion as the part disordered may be more or less immediately subservient to sensation and will. Here we should remember that the organization which during health exercises its functions without our consciousness, during disease frequently becomes the seat of much suffering, for as there is a mode of feeling peculiar to each structure, so whatever disturbs the fine arrangement of nerves in it will cause the feeling of that

part to be changed. Thus, a tendon or ligament may be cut or burned without exciting sensation, but the purpose of such parts being to bind the frame firmly together, they are endowed with a property of feeling which gives us warning of danger whenever they are subjected to a force which may tear them. The cruelty of tyrants has been ingenious in the discovery of torments, and hence it used to be their fashion to break on the wheel, or by thumb-screws, iron boots, or racks of some kind, to agonize those who, in the manfulness of their trust in a higher power, defied the despotism of malevolence. But, blessed be God, he has made the soul capable of victory over all adversity. Torment itself induces a reflex action which substitutes enjoyment. That which suffers is superior to the nerve through which it suffers, and it can alter impression by the force of desire, and under motives which derive their power from a might above evil.

When the mind is excited, the effects are felt in the body according to the local tendency or state of any part at the time of the emotion. Thus, some feel the evil consequences of undue excitement in the liver, by bilious disorder, others in the heart, by palpitations, others in the head, others in the spinal chord, etc.

In short, many of the anomalies of sensation in morbid persons arise from mental causes, disturbing the nervation by which we become conscious of our bodies.

As in an intricate machine every part is formed on a plan embracing the whole, that all may work together for one end, so all the organs and functions of the body answer one grand purpose, namely, to bring matter into subservience to mind. And as a derangement in any portion of a machine impairs the working of the whole, so any disorder in any department of the body disturbs the operation of the power that is acting through it— the state of the mind is affected, and that not merely as

regards sensation in any particular part thus disordered, but because that part had something to perform of importance to the healthy action of other parts also. Thus mutual sympathy results from mutual dependence.

In the foregoing chapter it was shown that the brain, or organ through which we perceive objects and exert the will, is connected with all the nerves of sense and action, in short, with every organ of the frame. Hence we see, at once, that whatever disturbs the function of any part must more or less disturb the source of energy and of thought. Health of body, then, is essential to the fullest manifestation of mental power. The term health, indeed, implies a comfortable state of consciousness and a felt capacity of employing the body in the fulfillment of natural desires. We all experience the power of mental emotion over the physical economy, and, of course, whatever disorders sensibility must so far involve the brain and proportionally unfit it to act as an instrument of the soul. Every interference with the will is a subject of complaint, as if the thinking being acted from an intuitive conviction that the body was only designed for enjoyment. And it is true that a perfectly healthy person can not be otherwise than happy. But, alas! this health belongs not to this blighted world— Reason is gone astray, and we all suffer the penalty of that act, which, infringing the divine order, broke the moral harmony of the universe. But mercy still dwells on earth. Love has extracted the venom from the wound inflicted by the serpent, and the voice of Omnipotence is inwardly heard, suggesting remedies, and inspiring the soul with power and inducement to withdraw itself from misery by hopefully working on in the acquirement of knowledge, by intimacy with the works and the words of the Author of our being. Here begins the triumph over evil. Man's nature retains a quality by which it may be improved and elevated above mere animal appe

tites. His intelligent spirit is associated with the body in a manner which inferior creatures never approach; for through an appropriate development of one part of the nervous system he is enabled, in a great measure, when rightly induced, to control and counteract the impulses which operate upon him through other parts, and by an effort of determination, under the persuasion of moral or religious motive, he can and does restrain the tendencies resulting from his bodily constitution, and so direct them as to render them subservient to the interests of sociality, to the advancement of his reason, and the increase of his joys. Even pain but augments the triumphs of his soul, for the Almighty, in making man, anticipated his struggles, and while he conferred on him the capacity of greater suffering, he also fortified him with a power of fixing his attention on higher objects, and thus, by ennobling his aims, enlarging his hopes, and filling him with the vastness of his destiny, God empowered man to rise above earth and time, so that even while in the turmoil of his troubles he might apprehend eternity and heaven. Jehovah having revealed himself as the friend of man, omnipotent in fulfilling and infinite in promise, we now behold, so to speak, an object worthy of our trust. We may safely commit all our being to Him, for we are His; He has made us for Himself, He loves us, and therefore we may indeed love Him with all our might, for He has given us all our faculties of confidence and affection that our faith and hope may rest entirely on Him. Thus, of course, we turn at once to the summit of existence when we would illustrate the distinctive characteristic of human intelligence as proving its superiority by the power of maintaining attention, because we feel that nothing will suffice-none out the Highest himself possesses attraction and might enough to raise man's spirit from degradation, or to satisfy its capacity for knowledge and happiness.

CHAPTER IV.

MENTAL CONTROL.

We are so constituted that every desire excites to action, and every action of the healthy body is itself a pleasure. The eagerness of the mind in a vigorous frame converts danger itself into enjoyment, and hence we see the fox-hunter, or, better still, the Nimrod of the Indian jungle, boisterous in his mirth, because both mind and body are intently engaged. If, however, the peril be imminent, the pleasure is gone, and under the lion's paw the bravado is weaker than a child. This great change arises, not only because the mind is impressed in a new manner, but because the mind reacts upon another system of nerves. The muscular exertion, the general excitement, the bounding heart, the full supply of oxygenized blood, kept the brain in most energetic action during the pursuit; but now the prostrate hunter feels that fear can effect a change that suddenly counteracts all these: his florid cheek is blanched, the high-toned muscles unstrung, the strong heart merely flutters and then stops-he is faint with fright. The extremes of bodily and mental excitement are here brought together; we see their effects, but we do not discern by what means the difference is effected. A little reflection on the nature of the nervous system, and its connection with the sanguineous circulation and muscular power, will enable us, in some measure, to understand the change.

The invalid, precluded by his feebleness from the free