the other two--it _is_ the ultimate object of all the revelation,
which purposed nothing more or less than the perfection of man; to this
grand end the whole scheme of revelation was designed.

It is clear that, in regulating the precepts of sanctification, the
revealed word had not alone to deal with the human soul, but to take
into account the body also, without whose concurrence man cannot attain
perfection. Designed for a receptacle of an immortal spirit, and for an
instrument to carry out the actions of life, the body must be preserved
entire, pure, and inaccessible to all contamination that would be an
obstacle to the high spiritual functions to be accomplished by its
means. To ensure this inaccessibility, as far as possible, the Divine
law prescribed for all mankind a rule, which, though to the short
understanding of many its character may not appear very clear, was
deemed by the eternal wisdom as calculated to promote morality.
Previously to Abraham's vocation, God forbade Noah and his children to
feed upon blood; and the scriptural declaration, that the soul of
animals resides in their blood, seems to indicate that the motive of
that prohibition is to prevent the human body being brutalised by
absorbing within itself, and assimilating, a large amount of an inferior
vitality, and thus causing the material propensities to preponderate in
man. But even if the true reason of that prohibition remained unknown to
us, this would not be the only instance of man being obliged to
acknowledge his own ignorance, and to bow reverently before an explicit
and rigorous commandment of God.

XC. The principles inculcated by the Mosaic code, for the preservation
of the body, involve, primarily, the prohibition of attempting its
existence, and, secondarily, that of cutting _off_ or injuring any part
of it. Suicide is, therefore, explicitly declared a crime; and several
precepts are directed against mutilations, marks, and all sorts of
deformations. The law does not permit voluntary macerations of the body,
capricious abstinences from lawful things, multiplied or prolonged
fasts, or subtractions from what is necessary to life. It, on the
contrary, intends that bodily health should be cared for, that
cleanliness and decency, in every respect, be regarded, a proper
development of the physical faculties promoted, and an employment
procured for them consonant with the superior requirements of man. It
_is_ likewise due to the physio