CONNECTION OF SOUL WITH BODY. 297 



(we beg his pardon) knows nothing of the body as a correspondent 

 or furnished abode, but only as a strange looking exception to wild 

 nature, an affront to the wilderness, and how then should he see its 

 connection with an owner or a soul ? For the uses of things are 

 the reasons why they are used. And hence the perception of the 

 connection of nature with spirit, is the exact counterpart of the 

 perception of the spiritual uses of nature. To see the one is to see 

 the other, as to miss the one is to miss the other also. 



A word now respecting the second point, or the mode in which 

 the connection is effected. 



When we speak of the connection between the body and the soul, 

 we are apt at first to think, that it is a single link or act; but this 

 is an insufficient conception. There are as many different modes of 

 connection as there are wants in the soul, and organs, parts and par- 

 ticles in the body. There are as many different modes as there are 

 possible species of contact in the great and the little creation. The 

 soul is connected in one way with the brain, in another with the 

 lungs, in another with the heart, in another with the belly, again 

 in another with the skin. To make this clear, recur to the house 

 and its furniture. The inhabitant owns everything contained in it. 

 Upon one piece of furniture he reclines, upon another he sits, at 

 another he writes, upon others he treads ; some contain his viands, 

 some delight him with harmonious sounds, and some look down from 

 his walls, and gratify him by arts and proportions ; and with all 

 these, and many more, he is connected. Now in each case it is the 

 shape, make, form, or properties whereby the thing serves its pur- 

 pose, that is the means of his connection with it. If he sits at his 

 desk, it is because it is such or such a structure, and serves him for 

 reading and writing ; he never makes a mistake of sitting for these 

 purposes at his coal-skuttle. Apply this to the body, and we find 

 that its dweller uses every implement there also according to its 

 form. The reverent soul kneels in the knees, because they are 

 natural kneelers. The inquiring soul peers through the eyes, for 

 they are born windows. The make of the organ is the handle 

 whereby the inner man grasps and uses it. Our business therefore 

 is, to show the motives for which the soul affects the body, by de- 

 monstrating the deeds that the body performs for the soul; and it 



