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CHAPTER II.

EFFECT OF DIET ON THE NERVES.

A MAN living solely on beef, as the Indians generally do, and full of freedom and fresh air, has blood very nearly approaching in chemical character to that of a lion; the fibrine and red globules being more abundant, in proportion to the liquor sanguinis; and the temper of his mind approximates to the indomitable savage. Without exercise of a violent kind, this kind of blood is apt to become intolerable, because it rouses the animal instincts to such an excessive degree, that reason becomes perplexed and confused by innumerable sensations, which she finds no means of subduing by demand on thought, since the nerves of volition and emotion are unduly excited to reflex action; and thus the balance of brain power, by which the mind maintains dominion over the body, being disturbed, the animal is apt to prevail over the rational, and the man to behave like the brute.-Moore's Use of the Body.

Unhappy is that family, says Dr. Monk, over which a fool presides. The secret, says the Doctor, of all Whiston's lunacies, may be found in that sentence of his autobiography, where he betrays the fact of his liability

from youth upwards to flatulency. What he mistook for conscience, was flatulency and acidity; which others (it is well known) have mistaken for inspiration. This was his original misfortune. His second was, that he lived before the age of deep physiological research. Whiston's weak brain, inertia, and mental idiosyncracies, arising from too ardent a devotion to one subject, might have been easily rectified by attending to the primary and exciting causes of his morbid sensibilities. The secret of the peculiarities of most literary characters, have their origin from disordered circulation of the blood; forcing the red globules preternaturally into the minute vessels of the retina; and, of course, robbing the inferior and superior extremities of their due share of the pabulum vita. Abernethy's cases of optical delusions, and a host of others, are easily explained upon these principles. The importance to be attached to exercise, and its inseparable connection with good health, so much neglected by intemperate students, was better understood by the ancient Greeks and Romans, than by ourselves. They saw more clearly that the perfection of the whole man was to be effectually obtained only by a due development of his physical, as well as his intellectual nature; and that the healthy condition of the mind depended upon a healthy condition of the body. Therefore they made the two parts of education an almost equally serious business; and did not leave exercise to be a matter of accident: hence the importance they attached to the gymnasium, and its athletic exercises, to preserve the sound mind in a sound body.

Plutarch says, in one of his essays-"Should the body sue the mind before the court of judicature for damages, it would be found that the mind would prove to have been a ruinous tenant to its landlord. The truth of this, mankind will the more realise as they become more intellectual. Great care must be taken to develope and exercise the organs of the body equally and properly. 'He who violates no law, is himself strong: whereas, he who infringes the law, gives strength to his enemy, while he brings weakness only to himself.' To be weak is to be miserable, doing or suffering."

Austerities and mortifications, Dr. Johnson well observes, are means by which the mind is invigorated and roused; by which the attractions of pleasure are interrupted, and the chains of sensuality are broken. It is observed by one of the Fathers, that he who restrains himself in the use of the things lawful, will never encroach on things forbidden. Abstinence, if nothing more, is at least a cautious retreat from the utmost verge of permission; and confers that security which cannot be reasonably hoped for by him that dares always to hover over the precipice of destruction, or delights to approach the pleasures of which it is fatal to partake. Austerity is the proper antidote to indulgence. The diseases of mind as well as body are cured by contraries; and to contraries we should readily have recourse, if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain.

Education may be compared to the ox of Promotheus, -a sleek, well-shaped hide, stuffed with rubbish; goodly to look at, but containing nothing to eat. Much there is

in the show, without the reality of wisdom. We rate no accomplishment very high, however rare, which is of no practical use to mankind: others we may rank with the tumblers and rope-dancers. Knowledge is traced on paper, but little is engraved on the soul.

Cuvier closes an eloquent description of animal existence and change, with the just conclusion that "life is in a state of force." What he would urge in a physical view, we may more strongly urge in a moral. Civilisation has changed our character of mind, as well as body. We live in a state of unnatural excitement-unnatural, because it is partial, irregular, and excessive. Our muscles waste for want of action; our nervous system is worn out by excess of action.

In Sharp's letters, is one addressed to Sir James Mackintosh. He very elegantly observes, when adverting to the analysis of the human mind, "that to begin at the beginning in the sciences, as well as in matters of fact, is the nearest and safest way to the end. Even sensible men are too commonly satisfied with tracing their thoughts a little backwards; and they are, of course, soon perplexed by a profounder adversary. In this respect, most people's minds are too like a child's garden, where the flowers are planted without their roots. It may be said of morals and of literature truly, as of sculpture and painting, that to understand the outside of human nature, we should be well acquainted with the inside. You can handle the anatomist's knife, as well as the artist's pencil."

A cheerful heart paints the world as it sees it, like a sunny landscape; the morbid mind (almost the invariable

result of a morbid body) depicts it like a sterile wilderness; and thus life, like the chameleon, takes its hues of light and shade, from the soul upon which it rests. Some, perhaps, under atmospheric influences, are ready to cry out "all is barren, from Dan to Beersheba." Let all such strive, by earnest endeavour, to gladden the human circle in which we live ;-to open our hearts to the gospel of life and nature, seizing each moment and the good which it brings, be it a friendly glance, spring breeze or flower; extracting from every moment a drop of the honey of eternal life. The streams of small pleasures fill the lake of happiness; and the deepest wretchedness of life is continuance of petty pains. There is no malady so severe as habitual discontent. Teach self-denial, and make its practice pleasureable, and you create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer. Patience is very good, but perseverance is much better; while the former stands as a stoic under difficulties, the latter whips them out of the ring.

* A writer in Dickens' Household Words, alluding to the fluctuating influences of the atmosphere, and its effects on the psychological aspects presented, observes "The incarnations of the Greek, were more statuesque, definite, and fixed. Their religion, except in the interpretation of Plato, and a few others, was material rather than spiritual; and their clear and crystal climate, showing distant as well as close objects in all their sharpness of outline, may have encouraged a similarly keenly-defined and marmoreal character in their genius. Our climate, on the contrary, casts a sort of veil even over familiar things, and throws the mind in upon itself, forcing it to contemplate the riddle of its own existence."

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