CHAP. I.] ACTION OP THE SOUL. UPON THE BODY. 155 



The first of these we sometimes find touched in medicine ; 

 but it has strangely insinuated itself into religion. Phy 

 sicians prescribe remedies for the diseases of the mind, viz., 

 madness, melancholy, &c., as also to cheer the spirits, 

 strengthen the memory, (fee. ; but for diet, choice of meats 

 and drinks, washings, and other observances relating to the 

 body, they are found immoderately in the sect of the Pytha 

 goreans, the Manichean heresy, and the law of Mahomet 

 There are, also, numerous and strict ordinances in the cere 

 monial law, prohibiting the eating of blood and fat, and dis 

 tinguishing the unclean animals from the clean for food. 1 &quot; 

 Even the Christian religion, though it has thrown off the 

 veil of ceremonies, still retains the use of fasting, abstinence, 

 and other things that regard the subjection and humiliation 

 of the body ; as things not merely ritual, but advantageous. 

 The root of all these ordinances, besides the ceremony and 

 exercise of obedience, is, that the soul should sympathize and 

 suffer with the body. And if any man of weaker judgment 

 thinks that such macerations question the immortality, or 

 derogate from the sovereignty of the soul, let him find an 

 answer in the instances, either of an infant in its mother s 

 womb, which shares in the vicissitudes, and yet is distinct 

 from its mother s body, or of monarchs, who, though in 

 possession of absolute power, are frequently influenced and 

 swayed by their servants. 



The other part, which considers the operations of the soul 

 upon the body, has likewise been received into medicine : 

 for every prudent physician regards the accidents of th?. 

 mind as a principal thing in his cures, that greatly pro 

 mote or hinder the effects of all other remedies. But one 

 particular has been hitherto slightly touched, or not well 

 examined, as its usefulness and abstruse nature require ; 

 viz., how far a fixed and riveted imagination may alter the 

 body of the imaginant ; for though this has a manifest power 

 to hurt, it does not follow, it has the same to relieve : no 

 more than because an air may be so pestilent as suddenly to 

 destroy, another air should be so wholesome as suddenly to 

 recover. This would be an inquiry of noble use ; but, as 

 Socrates would say, it requires a Deiian diver, for it is deep 

 plunged. n 



m Deut. xii. Laertius s Lita. 



