HYDROPATHY. 385 



riousness, and like the " cold pig" which their schoolfellows once 

 emptied over them in their boyish beds, it makes them start to 

 their feet, and touch the ground of realities once more. We attri- 

 bute much of the water power to the frigid morality which it in- 

 culcates; to the shock which it gives to the dreaming man, and his 

 lazy organs. For it tells him very plainly that there is to be no 

 comfort in bed or board, but that warmth must be moral and come 

 out of work. 



But if this be so, then the capacity which the body possesses, to 

 be shocked into its functions, will depend upon the resource of morale 

 in the patient, or, in a word, upon the capabilities of his faith. All 

 that I have seen or read of the water cure, strengthens me in this 

 conviction. It appears to me, that humanly speaking, there is a 

 certain amount of life and reaction in the upper parts of every man, 

 which may be drawn upon as occasion requires. How much there 

 is, we have probably but little idea; for each means of calling it 

 down — each syphon that we put into the reservoir — only runs its 

 own kind of life. The quantity of this fluid spirit is therefore 

 practically limited enough, though perchance other means might 

 open a new vein when the old sources dry. But so it is with the 

 water cure ; it taps the life and morale in its own direction, and 

 obtains wonderful supplies. "We think it is not well to exhaust 

 these, or to allow them to flow until their lees mix with the current; 

 for when they are once gone, there is no more to be had from that 

 tube of arts. It must not, therefore, be supposed, that the second 

 and third resorts to the water cure will have the like success with 

 the first; the life which was obedient then, has been partially or 

 perhaps wholly spent. And if the penances are kept up, they become 

 severe macerations; the faculties are not roused but chilled, and the 

 lamp which might have lasted for a quiet while, is besieged by cold 

 to death. In one word, the limits of the water cure are the limits 

 of personal vigor, which, after a certain point, is wasted in the 

 struggle of this treatment for health. 



It is necessary to bear this in mind when we are dealing with an 

 agent whose effects are so powerful and immediate. However, our 

 reading on this subject convinces us that the prudences which be- 

 long to the water cure are well attended to by its best advocates in 

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