ternal objects, might be compared to a stringed instrument. That comparison may help to illustrate the subject here. In the essence of its own nature the soul is unseen and unsearchable, although it not only has an existence, but possesses the capacity and elements of mental harmony. But God has erected around it, unseen and intangible as it is, an outward structure of visible chords and artificial frame-work, such as the wonderful system of the nerves, the eye, the ear, and the senses generally. In accordance with this arrangement, the soul, although it has in itself the original and abundant source of harmony, will always be found, (such is the law or principle on which it is constituted,) to be utterly without music and without voice, until it is wakened into life and the utterance of appropriate sounds by an impulse communicated through the outward structure. The internal susceptibility must be interrogated through the openings of the exterior edifice; the tangible and visible chords must be smitten, before the required response will be yielded by the mysterious and invisible agent beneath them.- -These are the facts; but as this topic has been particularly noticed upon a former occasion, we shall not further delay upon it here.

§. 328. Illustration of the subject from the effects of old age.

The existence of the connection between the mind and body and of their influence upon each other appears, in the second place, from the effects, which are witnessed in old age. The effects of old age, it is true, are first experienced in the bodily system. The outward senses become blunted and dim; the eye loses its keenness of sight; the ear its quickness of hearing; the palate its nice discriminations of taste; and in various other ways the whole bodily system shows the rapid diminution of its activity and power. But it is well known, since it is a matter of every day's observation, that these effects are not restricted to that part of the human system, where they first show themselves. The mind also is unfavorably affected, at the same time, and through the influence of the same causes.

These results, it is true, are not experienced, to a great extent, in the Internal Intellect, or that division of the intellect, which operates in the discovery of truth, independent

in a great measure of the outward senses; nor in the inward or higher Sensibilities or that portion of the sensibilities which concerns itself with the morality and rectitude of things; but they are seen and felt, perhaps we may say without a single exception, and in a high degree, in that department of the mind, which we have proposed to designate, in consequence of its depending in its action on the external senses, as the External Intellect. As the senses, one after another are prostrated, this portion of the intellective nature, which, as was noticed in the last section, was brought into action through their instrumentality, seems to fall and lie prostrate with them. It seems to be hardly less deaf and blind, hardly less sensible to the intimations of touch and taste, and to stand less in need of crutches to support it than the bowed and superanuated body, which it had formerly employed as the medium of its activity. The higher departments of the soul, as has been intimated, remain essentially firm and unshaken; but this, which has a particularly close connection with the bodily nature, and is based as it were upon a foundation of materiality, is neccessarily blunted and disordered in its action by the dislocation and breaking up of the earthly materials.

§ 329. The connection of the bodily system with the mental shown from the effects resulting from diseases.

In addition to what has been said it may be remarked further, in confirmation of the same general views, that violent corporeal diseases in youth and manhood, before any decays take place from age, often affect the powers of thought. Persons have been known, for instance, after a violent fever or violent attacks of some other form of disease, to lose entirely the power of recollection. Thucydides, in his account of the plague of Athens, makes mention of some persons, who had survived that disease; but their intense bodily sufferings had affected their mental constitution so much that they had forgotten their families and friends, and had lost all knowledge of their own former history.It is a singular fact also, that the result of violent disease is sometimes quite the reverse of what has now been stated. While in one case the memory is entirely prostrated, we find in others, that under the influence of such attacks the memory is suddenly aroused, and re

stores the history of the past with a minuteness and vividness unknown before. But both classes of cases confirm what we are now attempting to show, viz, the existence of a connection between the mind and body and a reciprocal influence between them.

§ 330. Shown also from the effects of stimulating drugs and gases.

If there be not a close connection between the body and mind, and if there be not various influences propagated from one to the other, how does it happen that many things of a stimulating nature, such as ardent spirits and opium, strongly affect the mind, when taken into the system in considerable quantities? But without delaying upon the effects of drugs of this description, which unhappily can hardly fail to be noticed every day, we would instance particularly the results, which are found to follow from the internal use of the nitrous oxide gas. This gas, when it is received into the system, operates in the first instance on the body. The effect is a physical one. In particular, it quickens the circulation of the blood; and also, as is commonly supposed increases the volume of that fluid. But its effects, which are first felt in the body, are afterwards experienced in the mind; and generally in a high degree. When it is inhaled in a considerable quantity, the sensations are more acute, the conceptions of absent objects are more vivid, associated trains of thought pass through the mind with increased rapidity, and emotions and passions, generally of a pleasant kind, are excited, corresponding in strength to the increased acuteness of sensations and the increased vividness of conceptions.

There is another gas, the FEBRILE MIASMA, which is found, on being inhaled, to affect the mind also, by first affecting the sanguineous fluid. But this gas diminishes, instead of increasing the volume of blood; as is indicated by a small contracted pulse, and an increasing constriction of the capillaries. As in the case of the nitrous oxide gas, the mental exercises are rendered intense and vivid by the febrile miasma; but the emotions, which are experienced, instead of being pleasant, are gloomy and painful. The trains of thought, which are at such times suggested, and the creations of the imagination are all of an analogous character,

strange, spectral, and terrifying.*We may add as a general remark here, that, whenever the physical condition of the brain, which is a prominent organ in the process of sensation and external perception, is affected, whether it be from a more than common fulness of the blood vessels or from some other cause, the mind itself will be found to be affected also, and oftentimes in a high degree.

§. 331. Influence on the body of excited imagination and passion.

The powers of the mind are not only liable to be powerfully affected by certain conditions of the corporeal system, but the body also, on the other hand, even to the functions of the vital principle itself, is liable to corresponding affections, superinduced by certain conditions of the mind. When the passions, for instance, are excited, particularly that of fear, the body at once feels the influence; and instances have occurred, where, under the influence of the last named passion, even death itself has followed. In the city of New York a few years since, a little child was left in the evening in the care of a maid servant, the mother having gone out As the child was disposed to be troublesome and to cry, after being placed at the usual time in bed in another room, the domestic resorted to the expedient of quieting it by making and placing before it the image of some frightful object. The fears of the little child were greatly excited, and when, in the latter part of the evening, the mother returned and went to the room, she found it dead; its eyes being open and fixed with a singularly wild and maniac kind of stare on the frightful image, which the girl had so cruelly placed before it. In the time of the American Revolution, as the transaction was related by an officer who was present, a soldier, who had committed some crime, was condemned to be shot. He was finally pardoned without a knowledge of the pardon being communicated to him, since it was thought advisable that he should be made to suffer as much as possible from the fear of death. In accordance with this plan, he was led at the appointed time to the place of execution; the bandage was placed over his eyes; and the soldiers were drawn out, but were privately ordered to fire over his head. At the dis* See Hibbert's Philosophy of Apparitions, Pt. II. CH. 1.

charge of their muskets, although nothing touched him, the man fell dead on the spot."A criminal was once sentenced in England to be executed, when a college of physicians requested liberty to make him the subject of an experiment connected with their profession. It was granted. The man was told that his sentence was commuted, and that he was to be bled to death. On the appointed day several physicians went to the prison, and made the requisite preparations in his presence; the lancet was displayed, bowls were in readiness to receive the blood, and the culprit was directed to place himself on his back, with his arm extended, ready to receive the fatal incision. When all this was done, his eyes were bandaged. In the mean time, a sufficient quantity of lukewarm water had been provided; his arm was merely touched with the lancet, and the water, poured slowly over it, was made to trickle down into the bowl below. One of the physicians felt his pulse, and the others frequently exchanged such remarks as, "He is nearly exhausted-cannot hold out much longer-grows very pale," &c. and in a short time the criminal actually died, from the force of imagination."*

§. 332. This doctrine of use in explaining mental phenomena.

These illustrations of the connection existing between the body and mind and of their influence on each other, are brought together here, in order to prevent the necessity of hereafter interrupting our examination of other subjects, by a particular recurrence to this. There might be a much more extended narration of facts, all tending to the same conclusion; but we take it for granted, that it is unnecessary. We shall accordingly hereafter regard it as a settled principle, whenever a particular effect in the mind is ascribed to an influence from the body, that such bodily influence is at least possible. We may perhaps mistake, in a given case, in assigning the true corporeal cause; but this will not imply, that there is no such thing as corporeal causes of mental action, or that such causes are inadequate to great effects. If we would understand the mind, we must also understand the body, not because they are identical, but because they are related. And for the same reason, if we would possess a sound mind, a mind capable of exertion corresponding to its *As the statement is given in the Work, entitled Popular Superstitions.