1 52 Human Physiology. 



smile, a tone of the voice, an encouraging word, with the com- 

 munication of the subtle aroma of life to a patient, than another 

 with any amount of medical science and skill. What is called 

 mesmerism, or animal magnetism, is merely the conscious and 

 definite voluntary direction of this life-force to a special end. 



And all mental and moral power appertains not to matter, 

 but to life. No matter, and no combination of matter, can 

 feel, or think, or love. Love is life a vital emotion. Take 

 from the highest organisation we know the human body its 

 life, and we have a mass of inert matter which quickly passes 

 into decay. The force that presided over its formation and 

 growth the force and intelligence which placed every atom, 

 shaped every organ, and presided over every function is there 

 no longer. The matter, left to itself, yields to the ordinary 

 material forces which life had held at bay, and the wonderful 

 human body speedily becomes air and ashes. Life in its full 

 power, presiding over the material organism, is health. En- 

 feebled life, struggling painfully against the tendencies of every 

 material organism to change and decay, is disease. The defeat 

 and banishment of life from the body is death. 



A vigorous life-force, acting upon or through a fine and pure 

 organisation, gives us the highest style of man. This force is 

 radiated and apparent in his looks, actions, words ; and still 

 more, perhaps, is that subtle effluence which we liken to mag- 

 netism that power by which the serpent fascinates the bird, 

 and man awes and commands brutes and men. There are 

 men "born to command" men who have a wonderful power 

 to control by their own wills the wills of others. They may 

 not have physical power, or even high intellectual qualities 

 but they have a life-force which not only controls their own 

 organism, but takes hold of the lives of others. They are the 

 natural leaders of men. Women have this power over men, 

 and men over women. A man so gifted with strong vitality, 

 passionate, and unscrupulous, is one of the most dangerous 



