226 THE HUMAN HEART. 



have no objects in common. Success or failure, but not preliminary 

 arguirfg, will be the test between the two principles, both equally 

 assumed. 



The heart is one of many viscera connected in a living chain. 

 As the supreme organ of the body, it has a complete orbit of its 

 own ; the rest, as inferior orbits, gyrating around it, and forming an 

 ascending stair of entrails. The brains and nerves are the mental 

 organ ; and the lungs, an intermediate field, lie between the mental 

 and the bodily regions. But every part contains the rest; the brains 

 are omnipresent both by substance and influences ; the individuality 

 of no part excludes them, for the nerves of an organ are its peculiar 

 brains. So also the heart is everywhere ; the bloodvessels of an or- 

 gan are its private heart. The liver is everywhere; the bilious fluids 

 are a current liver wherever they run. No feeling then is more than 

 central in any organ; it has circumferences co-extensive with the 

 body ; for the principle on which its incarnation depends is univer- 

 sal. In attributing feelings to the heart, we imply that they are 

 cordially there, but secondarily, by dilution of correspondence, they 

 are everywhere else. The body is telegraphic with various stations; 

 the messages are different according to the organs, but one at the 

 fountain head. 



If the heart is the centre of the bodily feelings or visceral . sensi- 

 bility, then on the same evidence (p. 195) the stomach and intes- 

 tines have feelings of their own. The glow of content and satisfac- 

 tion is incomplete until its quietude is poured over these contorting 

 parts. The warmth of wine influences the mind by removing un- 

 easiness from this tube. The bowels yearn with audible tenderness 

 when the softer emotions fill them. What is the visceral inhabit- 

 ant that touches their strings and feels in their quivering expanses? 

 Common sensibility is its name, as inferior to the definite sentiments 

 or feelings of the heart, and as internal to those other feelings 

 that possess the five senses. This susceptibility is a well known 

 phenomenon ; some have it in a greater and some in a lesser degree ; 

 but it is always a magnetic or sympathetic contact with things, not 

 on their outsides, but in their tender inward parts. Those who are 

 most apprehensive, feel the tube in constant live motions : women 

 especially have such experiences, and must know more than men 



