102 THE HUMAN LUNGS. 



the brains and lungs. The lungs then inaugurate the grand circu- 

 lation into the life and habitudes of the rational body, animating 

 the blood itself with the moving spirit of the atmospheres. 



The belly, too, is in the human conspiracy; it would be dead to 

 the rest if it did not breathe. The abdominal breath is the most 

 physical of all, commanded by powerful muscles, and destined to 

 suck in that large food upon which the belly lives, and whose plea- 

 sures it respires. As we have observed already, we need only lay 

 the hand low down, and we shall feel our hunger moving and busy 

 in the workings of its native cave. 



The belly, however, not merely breathes its general atmosphere, 

 the food, from the world of food lying in the stomach and intestines, 

 but its organs and viscera breathe in each their peculiar blood, and 

 breathe out their excretions. For each organ has a precise form 

 and constitution, and like every other machine acts according to its 

 construction. The power of the great steam engine, the lungs, is 

 communicated to all, but each takes it in its own way. For exam- 

 ple, whpn the liver is drawn out or breathes, and is filled with liver- 

 thoughts and energies by its roused nerves, the expansion follows 

 its make and texture; it is a motion of the machinery of the liver; 

 and the purified blood on the one hand, and the bile on the other, 

 are woven accordingly. So when the kidney is drawn out to act, it 

 is a motion of the machinery of the kidney. The different machines 

 moving in different ways, perform their functions, draw in their 

 blood and manufacture it, exactly according to their build, each 

 with a difference from the rest. There is no tyrannous influence of 

 the lungs; their traction upon the gear of the organs is only the 

 power necessary to set them to work, to enable them to revolve in 

 their places, and to put forth their given genius for the common- 

 wealth of which they are independent members. 



Each organ of the body has, therefore, its own sphere, within 

 which it is individual. It is true that its force comes from without, 

 but then it is a force answering to that which it desires from within 

 by the very nature of its nerves. It is, therefore, a rule, that the 

 blood is merely carried by the heart and vessels to the doors of the 

 organs, but is not intruded; for on the threshold of the organs it 

 encounters another force, and is drawn inwards or sent outwards 



