266 BAD HEALTH CAUSED BY 



and the purest devotion of which human nature ia 

 capable, are insufficient to secure health to the body, 

 without a simultaneous observance of the organic 

 laws, is too clearly proved by the instances already 

 adduced, and by the history of mankind, to require 

 any demonstration here. The biographies of the 

 pious and excellent furnish abundant examples to the 

 contrary ; while the annals of crime afford numerous 

 instances of men of the most depraved characters 

 enjoying unbroken health. If, indeed, the organic 

 conditions be fulfilled, the upright man will enjoy a 

 serenity of health which the criminal can never 

 know ; but the moral observance alone will not avail 

 him, if he at the same time neglect the organic laws. 



In regard to the second proposition, a little reflec- 

 tion will satisfy every intelligent mind that it is 

 equally untenable, and that disease is not always the 

 result of accident or circumstances which cannot be 

 modified. There are causes of bad health against 

 which even the most stupid and prejudiced take 

 some precautions, and with success ; and the whole 

 art of medicine would be a grosser delusion than ever 

 romancer believed it to be, if health were not in- 

 fluenced by circumstances within our control. All 

 our remedies, and all the effects of diet, clothing, 

 and regimen, are indications of the contrary per- 

 suasion. There are, indeed, agencies from which 

 we shall probably never be able entirely to protect 

 ourselves. Such are variations in the state of the 

 atmosphere, epidemic and contagious causes, and 

 necessary exposure, in pursuance of higher duties, 

 to known unhealthy influences ; but, allowing for all 

 these, ample scope remains, within which man may, 

 by an extension of his knowledge and industry, 

 provide himself with safe-guards far beyond what 

 he has ever yet done, or has ever dreamed of ac- 

 complishing. 



The third view, or that which ascribes bad health to 

 the infringement of some one or more of the organic 



