THE PATRIOTIC HEART. 211 



but the bed of the organ. Whatever difficulty there be in explor- 

 ing it may be assigned to its own crimson modesty, and will furnish 

 a fresh proof of its chaste or sexual signification. 



The grasp of the auricle, which consummates this life in the blood, 

 drives it onwards, as before, into the next chamber, or the left ven- 

 tricle. The signification of this fourth heart cannot be doubtful. 

 It is the accumulated power of the passions. The blood that it 

 throws forth is scarlet with force — it is the systemic circulation. 

 It is synchronous with the friendly heart, but fourfold stronger. It 

 forms the apex of the cordial pyramid, which beats against the ribs, 

 and aims at the world though its dearest flesh. It is public feeling 

 in all its forms, and we have already anticipated its name, and called 

 it the patriotic heart. Rule and empire throb for ever here, founded 

 in the purple of the blood. The body corporeal streams from the 

 height of the left ventricle, as the body politic from the heart of 

 dominion, which is the instinctive architect of the state. If vice- 

 gerency of functions establishes connection between life and organ- 

 ism, then the love of country or empire must sit upon the throne 

 of this ventricle, whose lordly stroke reaches the confines of the 

 body, and seizes the central blood itself with a conqueror's grasp. 



In the successive consideration of the blood or feelings in the 

 heart, the life of the blood is an ultimate fact, which we need not 

 endeavor to account for. It is a given truth, that the heart or blood 

 has the feelings, and it is no part of our business now to speculate 

 upon it. As it is with the child, so it is with the young blood — it 

 . has the capacity of going through human life, and of being and 

 doing whatever lies in, or issues from, the heart. Our inquiry 

 then is, mainly as to the incentives or circumstances that call forth 

 its faculties; in short, we have chiefly to chronicle the play of its 

 human games. These once depicted, will answer the question of 

 the reasons of life more deeply than that question can now be asked. 



But let us notice in this place that the life which the blood feels 

 in the heart is cumulative. Each cavity seizes it with a feeling 

 whose effects it does not lose. The family bond is assumed in the 

 right auricle, and though rendered latent in the right ventricle, 

 where it gives place to the friendly tie, yet throughout, the blood 

 is the -child of the heart, and remembers the household fire. 



