25(5 INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 



keen. Narcotics, the direct action of which is on 

 the brain, have a similar effect on the stomach. 



The influence of the mind and brain over the 

 action of the heart and lungs is familiar to every 

 one. The sighing, palpitation, and fainting, so often 

 witnessed as consequences of emotions of the mind, 

 are evidences which nobody can resist. Death itself 

 is not a rare result of such excitement in delicately 

 organized persons. 



This law of our constitution, whereby the regu- 

 lated activity of both intellect and feeling is made 

 essential to sound bodily health, seems to me one 

 of the most beautiful arrangements of an all-wise 

 and beneficent Creator. If we shun the society of 

 our fellow-creatures, and shrink from taking a share 

 in the active duties of life, mental indolence and 

 physical debility beset our path. Whereas if, by 

 engaging in the business of life and taking an active 

 interest in the advancement of society, we duly 

 exercise our various powers of perception, thought, 

 and feeling ; we promote the health of the whole 

 corporeal system, invigorate the mind itself, and 3t 

 the same time experience the highest mental grati- 

 fication of which a human being is susceptible, viz. 

 that of having fulfilled the end and object of our 

 being, in the active discharge of our duties to God, 

 to our fellow-men, and to ourselves. If we neglect 

 our faculties or deprive them of their objects, we 

 weaken the organization, give rise to distressing 

 diseases, and at the same time experience the bit- 

 terest feelings that can afflict humanity ennui and 

 melancholy. The harmony thus shown to exist 

 between the moral and physical world is but another 

 example of the numerous inducements to that right 

 conduct and activity, in pursuing which the Creator 

 has evidently destined us to find terrestrial happi- 

 ness. 



The reader will now understand why the state of 

 the mind is so influential in the production and pro- 



