104 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



ill-treats his stomach, does so, not only at the 

 expense of his bodily health, but at the expense of 

 his understanding also ; that is, at the expense of 

 his mind's health. 



From this law of sympathy, then, it follows, that 

 you cannot injure any one organ of the body with- 

 out also injuring, to a certain extent, the wholf 

 of the body, and the mind also. And, indeed, 

 when we consider the intimate connexion which 

 exists between all the organs of the body, and the 

 reciprocal dependence of all upon each other 

 when we remember that all the nerves have one of 

 their extremities fixed in the brain or spinal mar- 

 row, and their other extremities distributed to 

 every point of the body when we recollect that 

 all the organs are made up, not of separate net- 

 works, but of different portions of one and the 

 same universal tissue when we consider this, there 

 seems nothing surprising in the existence of this 

 sympathy. The body, although composed of nu- 

 merous parts, forms, nevertheless, one harmonious 

 whole ; and you cannot remove one part without 

 injury to the whole. And again, although each 

 organ performs a distinct function or office, yet it 

 cannot do this without the co-operation of others. 

 Thus the stomach can exert no influence on the 



