298 THE HUMAN FORM. 



is our further province to show the manner in which the soul lays 

 hold of the body in different parts, by explaining the precise me- 

 chanism whereby the useful deeds are done. The whole is a matter 

 of facts, too full for speculation. 



This connection of soul with body is no chaining of the living to 

 the dead, like the horrid punishments of old times, but it is the live 

 man freely working with the finest tools of nature, the chief musician 

 in continual play upon the choicest instrument of music. Moreover 

 as the soul goes beyond the circumference, and returns into itself, 

 so it includes the body, and takes it back with it alive; the immortal 

 confers his own life upon his mortal bride : there is a reciprocal con- 

 nection of the body and the soul, and that wondrous house is the 

 model faery-land : the bells ring of their own accord at the time of 

 the master's volition; the chairs dance into their places for the 

 guests; the harp and the player understand each other, and sweet 

 touches of no violence are simultaneous with delicious sounds rising 

 upwards to the listening soul. There is not only connection but 

 consent. As to freedom, the relation is permanent, but liberal. 

 There is ample space between soul and body, as between friend and 

 friend, and yet the ever- varying bond is all the closer, being founded 

 upon the interests of each, which have room for play in the wide 

 interval between them. 



This same problem of connection occurs wherever a higher system 

 is united to a lower. The connection of nerve with muscle, or with 

 vessel, is as inscrutable to the physiologist, as that of the soul with 

 the body, to the philosopher. A sight immersed in the muscle would 

 as little find the nerve, as our incarnate eyes can see the spirit land. 

 Here, as in the larger case, it is the dependence of uses and forms 

 that makes the connection : the body is a whole, because its parts 

 are chains of correspondencies. There is no glue between the 

 organs, but they are always loving each other, and always using 

 each other. No wonder they cohere. Birds of a feather flock to- 

 gether, and likeness and liking are the gold wedding ring of the 

 universe. 



The cosmical relations of the body proceed upon the law, that 

 the body is the form of the soul, according to the order of the uni- 



