610 EEPORT— 1882. 



of the mind upon them, so that by the training of the latter the complete and 

 systematic regulation of the former may be accomplished. He observed that in 

 many of our mental operations, where a corporeal organ is resorted to, it occa- 

 sionally appears difficult to determine whether the mind, or the material organ, is 

 that which is mainly employed. 



By the cultivation of the senses it is that the acuteness and the susceptibility of 

 the organ to perceive, not the power of the mind to receive impressions from the 

 sense, are enlarged. It is in fact altogether an animal or material improvement 

 that takes place, and through which we obtain a considerable share of that power 

 with which animals are so extensively endowed, particularly in those sensations, 

 such as feeling and touching, and smelling and tasting, which peculiarly appertain 

 to the animal part of our nature. 



Thus also the hand, by cultivation, acquires dexterity, quite independent of the 

 improved skill of the mind to direct it ; which in its turn may be, in many cases, 

 also improved both in its actual power and in its ability to receive impulses from 

 the senses. The writer alluded to the various employments of the hand as the organ 

 of the mind, in playing on a musical instrument, in mechanical operations, and in 

 drawing. And he pointed out the necessity, in order to carry out to perfection the 

 maintenance of this communication between the mind and the material organs of 

 each kind, of both the intellectual faculties and the organs to be disciplined to 

 their rule obtaining a thorough and systematic cultivation. The mind itself, he 

 asserted, is never liable to fatigue, although the material organs on which the miud 

 acts suffer from constraint in their operation when impelled so as to incur this, 

 by the influence of the mind. The left hand is unable to act as efficiently as the 

 right as an organ of the mind, simply from the general neglect to discipline it. 

 The discipline and training of each of the organs is best and most efficiently 

 acquired during youth ; while the importance of the acquisition it is impossible to 

 over-estimate. 



