periences are
mutually benefited, and the consciousness rendered accountable. The
bodily and mental workings are in many senses one, and help to interpret
each other.
Every fact of mind has many aspects. A brain force, which results in
thought, is simultaneously a physiological force, if it influences the
bodily functions. Likewise, spiritual conceptions take their rise in the
same blood that feeds the grosser tissues. This vital fluid is
momentarily imparting and receiving elements from all the bodily organs,
and these, in turn, must influence the process of thought, and, in a
degree, determine its quality. The delicate outline, yea, even the
substance of an idea, may depend upon the condition of the animal
organs. Thought is subject to the laws of biology, and, therefore, is a
symbol of health. Morbid conditions of the system hang out their signs
in words and utterances. Words which express fear are as true symptoms
of functional difficulty as is excessive palpitation. The organ
representing fear sustains a special relation to the functions of the
heart both in health and disease. Bright hopes characterize pulmonary
complaints as certainly as cough. Exquisite susceptibility of mind
indicates equally extreme sensibility of body, and those persons capable
of fully expressing the highest emotions are especially susceptible to
bodily sensations. Tears are physical emblems of grief, and
fellow-feeling calls forth sympathetic tears. Excessive anxiety of mind
produces general excitability of body, which soon results in chronic
disease. Pleasurable emotions stimulate the processes of nutrition, and
are restorative. This concomitance of mental and bodily states is very
remarkable. Joy and Love, as well as jealousy and anger, flash in the
eye and mould the features to their expression. Grief excites the
lachrymal, and rage the salivary glands. Shame reddens the ears, drops
the eyelids, and flushes the face; but profligacy destroys these
expressions. The blush which suffuses the forehead of the bashful maiden
betrays her love, and _maternal_ love, stirred by the appeals of an
idolized infant, excites the mammary gland to the secretion of milk. The
sigh of melancholia indicates hepatic torpor, thus showing a special
relation between the liver and respiratory organs. These conditions of
mind and body react upon one another. Even the thought of a luscious
peach may cause the mouth to water. The thought of tasting a lemon fills
th
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