1863.] 237 [Carleton. 



'ike the body, it has its periods of perfect repose. It is only when 

 awake that it has dominion over the body by its own immediate 

 energy, and never through the circuit of an imaginary Will. It is 

 not the body but the mind that makes the man. As he thinks, so 

 is he wise or foolish, good or bad, sinner or saint, Jew or Gentile, 

 Pagan, Mahoraedan, or Christian. The mind is the direct and sole 

 dynamic power in man, and does not admit of any other cause of action 

 than itself. It is single, not double ; does not consist of one faculty 

 to decree, and another, the Will, to execute its decrees ; " for na- 

 ture is simple, and does nothing in vain." It never employs two 

 causes for one effect ; on the contrary, it produces many eflfects from 

 one cause. 



Whatever comes to pass in the external world, or in the mind, must 

 be attested by consciousness, the source of all knowledge, or it can- 

 not be known. The existence of anger, hatred, love, remorse, motive, 

 and all other mental phenomena, are as truly facts, as the death of a 

 man or the birth of a child ; and every one knows from his own 

 consciousness, that they are the direct and immediate causes of action. 

 In our most quiet moods, they rise to the surface, and betray the 

 workings of the spirit within. We are by turns sad, soothed, 

 gay, inflamed; we blush, or grow pale, by the mere power of thought. 

 We are convulsed with laughter at a flash of wit; eyes, mouth, nose, 

 chin, and cheeks, all partake of the perturbation, but instantly react 

 at the sight of distress. Hope disappointed, mortification, remorse, 

 sorrow, grief, the forebodings of evil that never happens, di.sturb the 

 mind, and emaciate the frame. The first convulsive movement in a 

 camp meeting gives rise to a second. The idea exists, and the 

 effects follow. Boerhaave threatened to burn with a hot iron the 

 next man in his hospital taken with St. Vitus's dance ; and the 

 fear of punishment prevented the recurrence of the evil. Von Swei- 

 ten relates of himself, that he passed near where a dead dog had 

 burst from putrefaction ; the stench made him vomit. Three years 

 thereafter he passed the same spot, when the recollection of the 

 offensive object made him vomit again. A blacksmith at his anvil 

 was told he had drawn thirty thousand pounds in a lottery ; the 

 hammer fell from his hand, and he became a maniac for life ! The 

 news of a sudden calamity will often overthrow the reason as effectu- 

 ally as a fracture of the skull from a blow. A child will shed tears at 

 a tale of fictitious woe, and the rudest nature will surrender to emo- 

 tions of pity at the complicated miseries of a tragic scene. The 



