198 THE HUMAN HEART. 



the point we are maintaining; for violent feelings not only agitate, 

 but may kill the heart in a moment; in short, broken hearts are 

 medical facts, and the tearing of the organ is often coincident with 

 agonized feelings. 



But why insist upon a fact which nobody denies ? Our answer 

 is, that truths are not well treated when they are only not denied : 

 we desire that these greatest truths of the heart should not simply 

 be assented to, and then passed over, but used as keys to its organ- 

 ization. We desire that every feeling which warms the bosom, 

 should find a place in the scientific heart, and give it the same life 

 which it gives to its human prototype. We desire to conciliate 

 Shakspeare and Harvey, that the genius of the one may cohabit 

 with the genius of the other ; that man's real life may not be missing 

 from his blood ; and on the other hand, that the doctrine of the 

 circulation may make a prouder orbit, and gain its rightful swoop 

 through life and history. For ever the world is a chaos of truths, 

 but fluctuating and inapprehensible ; but when they are fixed, the 

 dry land appears, and habitable ground or proper creation begins, 

 a centre is struck whence order flows; and now we essay to fix this 

 floating allegation of the heart to the feelings, that it may become 

 moored to a solid bottom, and gathering up all its parts and parti- 

 cles, present a sward to the sun of knowledge, whose light and heat 

 dwell with man alone. 



What then is the voice of common experience as to the feelings 

 which are assigned to the heart ? Evidently the heart stands for the 

 affections, and the man devoid of natural affection is said to be 

 "without a heart." Our first business is, to dissect the verdict of 

 language; and the result may be stated as follows. The friend is 

 a man with a heart; friendship is one of the affections commonly 

 denominated by the organ. The good mother has a heart which 

 beats towards her offspring. The lover has a heart, and is a heart, 

 towards his love. The citizen's heart is for his birth-place and his 

 country: he has a public affection or love; a sense that he, and a 

 certain space with its contents, are warm and related to each other. 

 These are the chief natural feelings, to be short of which is to be 

 morally disgraced or diseased, and cut off from the bonds of healthy 

 mankind. We are also commanded to love God " with our whole 



